3 ms·

This is fun, and holds true in the creative writing group I run. We use a website I programmed that helps us collaborate on writing branching fiction. We have a

This is fun, and holds true in the creative writing group I run. We use a website I programmed that helps us collaborate on writing branching fiction. We have a mapping utility that creates graphs like in the article, except more animated (d3.js, elkjs). As different authors can start their own new stories, one thing I often have to deal with is that they want to design their story to have both long path lengths (multiple chapters before an ending), and also high choice count. Those of you who know something about geometric series know that this causes problems. I often have to tell them they can't have everything they want, which causes minor drama. :) As a result, one of our stories basically shot its "choice budget" in the first few chapters, leading to many linear paths in the latter parts of the narratives, which is fun in its own way. Another of our stories has just started playing with the "gauntlet pattern" as the article describes. For this one, we decided that all chapters must be in the "same universe", just following different characters' perspectives, and are planning for certain "anchor chapters" where all characters come together for a meeting. Probably the detective questioning them as a group (it's a murder mystery). All of our stories are supposed to be literary, so usually in third person, sometimes first, never the second-person. So we don't tend to use choices and chapters as directions and rooms; it's all about how the plot moves. We also don't track state; they're designed to be able to be printed as books people can page through. Overall a super-fun project for me and a handful of other writers, it's been a consistent way to spend a few hours of fun each week.

withinboredom 2y ago
You can still track small state via the reader. I vaguely remember a choose your own adventure as a kid: If you picked up the key earlier, turn to page XX Otherwise, turn to page YY It was entertaining to a) suddenly realize I had missed an important detail or b) allow me to “escape” if I can’t find the key or just don’t like that part of the book.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- dasfsi 2y ago
  One book I read did a similar thing, but managed to do it spoiler-free. There was a magical crystal, I think, that did some magical things. When you pick it up, the book says "To use the crystal, look at paragraph (current paragraph + 20)" and the author actually managed to do that for the most paragraphs from then onwards
  - iainmerrick 2y ago
    An old gamebook series that did lots of this is Steve Jackson's Sorcery! -- I wonder if that could be what you're thinking of? More recently, Jason Shiga has used clever mechanics like this a lot in comic book form, notably in Meanwhile. He's just finished a three-part series aimed at younger readers, Adventuregame Comics. All Shiga's stuff is great, highly recommended.
- HelloNurse 2y ago
  I usually read text IF following all paths at once, with heuristic combinations of breadth-first and depth-first search in order to maintain the unexplored front small. Not much different from drawing a map in a computer RPG.
- rzzzt 2y ago
  "Scorpion Swamp" has a map-style story layout, you are also encouraged to re-create the map on paper as you explore. This also means that you can get back to earlier locations where enemies will either respawn or rest on the second read-through.
- jandrese 2y ago
  I remember some books that were explicit about tracking the state. There was an old space adventure story I read as a kid where you wrote your stats out on a piece of paper: shields: 100 lasers: 100 troops: 100 hyperdrive: 50 days: 0 As you read the book it had you encounter hostile threats and even roll dice and do lookups on tables at the end of the book to decide what happens next. There would be places like "To hyperjump over the rift you need at least 40 hyperdrive points left, add 3 days and turn to page 88. To go around add 7 days and turn to page 41." There were even fights against enemy ships where you had to roll for both sides and do chart lookups to see how many troops you lost in the boarding actions and how badly the ships were damaged. You could even lose a fight and end the run right there. The plotline involved you racing to some planet to deliver news of an impending invasion or something and if you didn't get there within I think 30 or so days the news would be too late and you would lose. However, being the nerdy kid that I was I mapped out every single possible route in the book and then simulated all events going perfectly on each route and there didn't appear to be a single way to actually win. The author had not done the math right and the absolute fastest you could finish was like 40 days even if you got crazy lucky with the dice.

withinboredom 2y ago

You can still track small state via the reader. I vaguely remember a choose your own adventure as a kid: If you picked up the key earlier, turn to page XX Otherwise, turn to page YY It was entertaining to a) suddenly realize I had missed an important detail or b) allow me to “escape” if I can’t find the key or just don’t like that part of the book.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
dasfsi 2y ago
One book I read did a similar thing, but managed to do it spoiler-free. There was a magical crystal, I think, that did some magical things. When you pick it up, the book says "To use the crystal, look at paragraph (current paragraph + 20)" and the author actually managed to do that for the most paragraphs from then onwards
- iainmerrick 2y ago
  An old gamebook series that did lots of this is Steve Jackson's Sorcery! -- I wonder if that could be what you're thinking of? More recently, Jason Shiga has used clever mechanics like this a lot in comic book form, notably in Meanwhile. He's just finished a three-part series aimed at younger readers, Adventuregame Comics. All Shiga's stuff is great, highly recommended.
HelloNurse 2y ago
I usually read text IF following all paths at once, with heuristic combinations of breadth-first and depth-first search in order to maintain the unexplored front small. Not much different from drawing a map in a computer RPG.
rzzzt 2y ago
"Scorpion Swamp" has a map-style story layout, you are also encouraged to re-create the map on paper as you explore. This also means that you can get back to earlier locations where enemies will either respawn or rest on the second read-through.
jandrese 2y ago
I remember some books that were explicit about tracking the state. There was an old space adventure story I read as a kid where you wrote your stats out on a piece of paper: shields: 100 lasers: 100 troops: 100 hyperdrive: 50 days: 0 As you read the book it had you encounter hostile threats and even roll dice and do lookups on tables at the end of the book to decide what happens next. There would be places like "To hyperjump over the rift you need at least 40 hyperdrive points left, add 3 days and turn to page 88. To go around add 7 days and turn to page 41." There were even fights against enemy ships where you had to roll for both sides and do chart lookups to see how many troops you lost in the boarding actions and how badly the ships were damaged. You could even lose a fight and end the run right there. The plotline involved you racing to some planet to deliver news of an impending invasion or something and if you didn't get there within I think 30 or so days the news would be too late and you would lose. However, being the nerdy kid that I was I mapped out every single possible route in the book and then simulated all events going perfectly on each route and there didn't appear to be a single way to actually win. The author had not done the math right and the absolute fastest you could finish was like 40 days even if you got crazy lucky with the dice.