Forums » Writing Workshop » Read Message

Prompt: 16) For your services to the crown, the king has granted you valuable lands near an important crossroads in a recently conquered territory. Now, it's time to retire and fulfill your dream of operating a renowned brewery and tavern ... but it may be wise to keep your sword-arm ready.

I think this is mostly going to be about the beer...

Random thoughts:

Debating style for this one. Could be a wide spread with a bureaucracy option, fighting option, political options... internal struggles for control vs the two different factions... could there be freedom fighters? Maybe the tavern could be a secret meeting place for the resistance? Would the protagonist have to choose? Could they be forced to choose?

Trying to decide on the starting point... lots of backstory for the start setting up the scene? That sounds crappy... Does it start with the protag arriving at the new location and slowly have reveals for the past? That could work...

Maybe one major branch actually turns into a total game like the old lemonade game where you have to try and operate the brewery and make money? Could that be integrated into the political story? Whoa, that could be neat, but tough to pull off...

Excited for Innkeeper 2.

Well, I don't have a title yet... :)

We don’t have nearly enough stories about beer.

I'm pretty sure this is really going to be a story more about beer than anything else...

Also, based on @Mayana 's suggestion, I'm going to try out Manuskript with this one and see how that goes.

Oh, writing software stuff? @Mayana please elaborate.

Well uh ... it's just software I found recommended in some huge list of open source programs. I've never used it. But someone was asking for writing programs, so I figured I'd recommend it and use them as a test subject.

It seems like it might be useful, though. It has an outliner, distraction-free mode, simple and fiction modes, a frequency analyzer for seeing what words you use too often ... all sorts of features. I've no clue how well it compares to Scrivener, but at least it's free. You can check it out here

Neat. Thanks for sharing.

Yeah, already spiraling out of control. If I put a very early (like in the first few pages) choice of adding a secret room to the layout of the tavern, that could open up a whole pile of options and things that could happen in said secret room... which means if you don't make that choice, I've got a very early split making the story very, very wide and shallow... darn CYOA choices and branching...

I don't have anything to say. I'm just posting here to see where this goes.

Honestly, I don't know where this is going. That's kind of how I write. Sometimes I just start writing and see where the story leads me... but I have to plan some!

Hey man. Not only does the LT not know where he's going, he doesn't know where he is. I'll still get to see some wild stuff if I follow him.

Okay, I think I'm going to do that and see what happens:

The first major decision point is going to be selecting the layout of the tavern. The reader will be able to add the meeting room (or maybe more than one) or not. If they choose not to, they're going off in one direction, and if they choose to add meeting rooms, that's going to be an entire fork on its own. Now I just have to figure out what happens if the reader doesn't add the meeting room... maybe just a boring, normal life?

They invest in thick walls, comfy beds, and prostitutes?

I really wasn't going to go the "house of ill repute" direction, but maybe now...

I was thinking spend more money on higher quality furniture, food, and perhaps brewing equipment. Then again,if someone's mom isn't getting it, would it still be a CYS tavern?

No

See now I was thinking of a nice, clean, quality house of ill repute, but no, that's not what the fans as CYS desire at all, is it?

Coin's Mom, you're in.

I imagine clean sheets are universally appreciated no matter what. Good employment for the local washerwomen.

Whatever you decide, bonus points if you make/use a real beer recipe[s].

Wait, I'm supposed to actually write something? Damn.

Barry the beer guy.

Orville the Ogre-Slayer

I like Zorek. It seems the most like a name a tavern owner would have. Probably a big, tough, grumpy sort of dude. But a jerk with a heart of gold, of course.

On an unrelated note, how's Manuskript working out for you?