Guess what?
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/88501596/CoRTest/web/mygame/index.html
Before anyone gets too excited, this is just an update to the previously existing chapters… and I haven’t had time to test it as thoroughly as I’d like, so bits of it are probably buggier than Angela Merkel’s cellphone. Still, assuming it doesn’t break, there are plenty of changes that I’d value your feedback on. In particular:
Prologue:
* Tweaked the jongler prologue, making it rather more centered on the Shayardene national language.
* Some of your choices now move your stats very slightly.
Chapter 1:
* “Choice of the Drazen” – you can now be an aristocrat who finds Breden’s boldness to be inexcusably insolent (coughthreateningcough) and responds accordingly.
* Radmar will now come along to Whendward with you, even if your confrontation with Chirex ends badly.
* I’m popping in a placeholder for P_Tigras’ idea for an easy mode IAP. FairyGodfeather has already articulated his strong opposition. Let’s hear what others have to say. 
There’s now a save point at the end of Ch 1, so if you want to just replay Ch 2, trying different things with the same character, you don’t have to rebuild from scratch.
Chapter 2:
* Raid the tax collector! Close to 40,000 words of new plot to explore! You’ll all be happy to know that this will not be an IAP. That’s not just because of your near-uniform horror at the idea (though that obviously influenced me) but because as I wrote it, I realized it was turning into an integral part of a balanced game, rather than the big “bonus mission” I’d originally envisioned. And while I’d at least consider offering an unbalanced version for money – cf. the “easy mode” idea above – I’d never force people to pay extra to get a balanced game. So enjoy. There are four main branches, some longer (and tougher) than others.
* You can choose to bring Elery along on the caravan raid and make use of her tactical skills.
* Using Theurgy, and Breden’s charisma, are now options for the temple raid.
* Using Breden’s charisma is now an option for begging from the helots.
* You have more options to treat Radmar as Suspect #1 (e.g. on the noble raid).
While this won’t be clear from the storyline so far, using your followers’ skills to win at bandit raiding is not consequence-free. Each time you choose to make use of Breden’s or Elery’s skills, you’re increasing their leadership credibility with the band. That’s all peachy as long as you intend to remain on good terms with both of them, and as long as you don’t seriously disagree with them over a course of action…
There are a few tweaks I still mean to make to Ch 2. Notably, I want to do more to differentiate what happens when you visit Alaine Leybridge in the winter from what happens in early spring. And I still need to write in more severe consequences if you stop raiding before you have to and let people starve – at the moment, they still just keel over passively and die, which as FairyGodfeather pointed out is not how our outlaws would actually roll.
But that’s not priority – Ch 3 is now priority. I want to finally get the plot rolling forward again! (It’s been almost a year now since I wrote anything with Platon in it).
Enjoy, and please do feed back.