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I had a similar "variables" problem when designing a choose-your-own-adventure book with my kids. I wanted your character to be able to reach the same pages but

by SamBam 6y ago

I had a similar "variables" problem when designing a choose-your-own-adventure book with my kids. I wanted your character to be able to reach the same pages but have state -- e.g. have a key or not have a key. I didn't want to have to duplicate pages with different state (which I kind of remember from old CYOA books -- there's be pages with almost the same thing, but now slightly different because you entered the room with a sword or whatever). In the end, because it's a book and not a computer game, we could just ask the user: "If you have a key, turn to page 43..." and it just depends on the user being honest (or as honest as any reader of a CYOA book is, with nine fingers stuck between pages). I assume there were similar books in the past that used the same mechanic -- maybe the Fighting Fantasy books? I forget.

jfengel 6y ago
Could you have used the key as a simple crypto-key? As in, give them the two digit number, and tell them "Turn to page 17+the number of the key". Or if you wanted to make them work a little harder and maybe teach a little math, "17 times the number mod 47". Of course they can still be dishonest, but it gives them an opportunity to have solved a simple puzzle. They get to the correct page because they "won".
- Hextinium 6y ago
  This is exactly how the game Seventh Continent works, its just a collection of 1000 cards and if you have a symbol then you sometimes draw a different card for if you have key items.
- SamBam 6y ago
  Yup, could do that, that's a good idea. The other thing we did, slightly simpler, was introduce a plethora of choices where only prior knowledge would get you (easily) to the page. E.g. You can land on page A a number of different ways, but only from one path do you find out the suspect is in a certain city. Then from page A you're asked if you want to go to B, C, D, E or F. Without the prior knowledge there are too many choices.

by SamBam 6y ago

jfengel 6y ago

Could you have used the key as a simple crypto-key? As in, give them the two digit number, and tell them "Turn to page 17+the number of the key". Or if you wanted to make them work a little harder and maybe teach a little math, "17 times the number mod 47". Of course they can still be dishonest, but it gives them an opportunity to have solved a simple puzzle. They get to the correct page because they "won".

Hextinium 6y ago
This is exactly how the game Seventh Continent works, its just a collection of 1000 cards and if you have a symbol then you sometimes draw a different card for if you have key items.
SamBam 6y ago
Yup, could do that, that's a good idea. The other thing we did, slightly simpler, was introduce a plethora of choices where only prior knowledge would get you (easily) to the page. E.g. You can land on page A a number of different ways, but only from one path do you find out the suspect is in a certain city. Then from page A you're asked if you want to go to B, C, D, E or F. Without the prior knowledge there are too many choices.