ChoiceScript....language for writing choose-your-own-adventure games

I do think about writing a choose-your-own adventure thing now and then. I'm hampered by the knowledge that most of them are terrible. Sure, you could open an infinity of choices for the player, but in practice, the writer doesn't want to spend infinity writing choices, so the writer collapses many options down so they either result in a quick end to the story (often a death), or joins them.

It would be interesting to try this in an online format, though, since pagecount wouldn't be a limit. I imagine pagecount was a big limit on the old Choose Your Own Adventure books.

Wait, they're not old. They have a website for a company called Choose Your Own Adventure.

HTML, of course, makes a choose-your-own-adventure thing pretty easy to make at home; you could simply have each 'page' be an HTML file, and provide the choices as links.

But you can get more interesting than that. Up to now, when I muse about this possibility, of writing electronic choicebooks, I think of TiddlyWiki as format...because it has a lot of features that would help, like being a single-file format, and a built-in editor.

Then I bumped into ChoiceScript: it's designed for doing these things. It's got a simple wiki-like script. And it looks like it makes HTML aided by JavaScript. I liked the company's page about why they make such multiple-choice text games.

Oh, and this might well be a good way to get a kid into programming, with a nicely concrete application. That might get me to actually try it out.

The makers of this script have a fairly interesting game, Choice of the Dragon. It clearly uses variables to make the game text more tailored than a paper game could.

They fixed D&D!

This chart reduces most of the required die rolls in D&D to quick calculations, so that you don't have to consult a table. I like this a lot. I don't actually play D&D at the moment. If this was a product I would want to buy it, despite the fact that I don't need it. Is there a name for this phenomenon?

It's analogous to when I bump into a unicycle at a garage sale. I already have three unicycles. I certainly don't need another unicycle. But if I bumped into one, I'd be sorely tempted to buy it.

But it's okay. I'm thinking about playing this crazy retro rewrite of the very first version of D&D, called Swords and Wizardry. The neat thing about this is people have revised the rules. I remember finding my first copy of D&D largely incomprehensible. And of course this version is a free PDF, that's a big selling point. ;)

There are retro clones of other versions of D&D, including the 1981 Basic D&D by Tom Moldvay. Which means it is possible to play that version of D&D without having to dig up an out-of-print version of the game. And it is apparently possible to play and enjoy the old rules unironically; this post from the creator of Dogs in the Vineyard and Kill Puppies for Satan is inspirational in that regard, although that guy always sounds like he has great games. ;)

Chloe's writing, to a prompt

Prompt, 4rth grade:

The flowers were everywhere. They were pretty. Ducks swam in the pond. The grass was green. We had our lunch in the park. Then we went home.

Chloe's writing in response:

Soft orange petals adorned the proud green stems while the black and yellow bees spread the sweet smell that wafted into my nose. In the green tinted water, fluffy yellow ducks pushed their webbed feet through the water. Light green frogs sproinged (? or sprayed?) their own notes. The grass was green and light-hearted, waving to the friendly cattails. We sat on a rotting bench and table. Mom pulled out salami sandwiches and bottles of iced tea from our nylon cooler. I sighed. All was tranquil in the park. When all chewers had run out of food, we headed home down rock-carpeted road. I decided that I was satisfied with the day.

(Much of the punctuation added by me)

How to Host a Dungeon

Here's a game about creating a dungeon...over time. I have long wanted to generate a fantasy world using the process this game uses: by setting up different groups of 'people' (monsters in the case of the game) and playing out how they interact. This game found a workable procedure for it. And when you're done, you have a dungeon you could base an adventure on. Very interesting.

Living the dream

Chris Yates makes art objects that are semi-mass produced....for example, figure castings that are each painted differently. I like the style and I love the idea of doing this sort of thing to make your bread.

I guess it's no surprise I'd like the Slugs shown here, because their design has some things in common with my Poids.

More Expendable

I recently posted about the short film Expendable. I forgot to mention that it reminded me of the (unrelated) science fiction novel Expendable, which I enjoyed. I just found a review of the novel, though, that brought up some interesting issues.

The novel's premise is that future Earth has gone to the stars and developed the technology to give most folks lives of ease and near-perfect bodies. But some few folks can't benefit from the body fixing, for whatever reason, and they are looked down upon...and become the only folks given the dangerous job of Explorer, because they are considered expendable. Our hero is a woman Explorer.

The book is fun and funny and has some good ideas. The review here talks about some of the issues, and some flaws with the book, as well as making a flattering comparison to Joan Slonczewski's Shora books. I still recommend the book.

Comic Strip Doctor

Why haven't I read this before? The Comic Strip Doctor is where David Malki of Wondermark fixes the boring comics of the newspaper. Snarky comments about things like Beetle Bailey would be fine, but this is a critique that comes with real medicine. I feel like I learned a thing or two about comedy from reading these dissections. Also, they are hilarious.

Author Kage Baker has died

I only got interested in Kage Baker books this year, and now she's dead.

They Fight Crime!

This is one of those widgets that makes you a story plot from random elements. It is awesome.

Here's one: "He's a genetically engineered white trash sorceror on the wrong side of the law. She's a time-travelling hip-hop mechanic on the trail of a serial killer. They fight crime!"