The bean, it must be found. For MHD's Fairytales contest.

I have no idea why I wrote this. All I can say in my defense is that it seemed like a good idea at the ti--wait no that's a lie, I said, repeatedly that this was stupid and shameful every time I mentioned working on it.

The truth is I needed to publish something before the end of the year and there is CLEARLY a burning need for wolf stories in the psyche of children using the internet. But then they write them badly, or make their wolves behave like clans of cats. So here is a simple straightfoward story of a young wolf leaving his pack in search of a better life. Maybe no one will ever feel the need to write another one now, or if nothing else maybe this will give them ideas for how to do it in slightly more minimum-standards-meeting ways.

Final conclusion however is that writing about some dumb animal with no agency is not something I'd recommend.

A short, educational piece. Please remain sensitive and respectful in the comment section. (I'd hate to have to report you to an admin for bullying me.)

(DO NOT READ if you're at all easily offended or lacking in a sense of humor. There's nothing graphic at all in here, but seriously, I still cannot stress it enough, this story is not for you.)



Dedicated to the good people of COG.

I'm stealing the thread this week. There's a ton of writing advice out there, but most of it is with linear stories in mind. It's hard to discuss pacing for instance when referring to the branches of a storygame, and there are other things that don't quite mesh up. One of the interesting things specific to a branching game is how the nature of the choices can completely alter the structure or scale of a game. There can be a large setting to explore, or a lot of time advancement meaning each path ends up in very different places, or explorations of character dynamics. Or sweeping decisions to be made about armies and nations versus day to day affairs like what to have for breakfast. And of couse the more traditionally game like elements like item puzzles or RPG stats possible with the editor. Is there any specific angle to choice based story structure that particularly interests or appeals to you versus what you might find in regular linear fiction? Or on the other hand, anything that annoys you?