@Shoelip It’s all good. I forgot who I told before, but Fatehaven was always designed for length, not width. The great thing about this interactive novel format is that authors can fine-tune the amount of choices, gameplay, and branch depth they want.
Taking Fatehaven for example: it has a healthy amount of choices, very low gameplay (no health points or inventory items etc), and no huge branches/forks. With this setup I was able to create a very in-depth, personalized story that clocks in at over four hours. There are many benefits and disadvantages to this set up, and I think every player has their own preferred balance.
Idricsa’s death does play a role later on, but let’s assume the player had the choice to keep her alive. I would either have to relegate her to a very passive role or reference (which would feel like a downer for the player) or write up entirely unique content for her, thousands of more words that wouldn’t have high story-depth value and couldn’t play a role in the main plot.
@mreed You’re right, creating impactful decisions is very difficult! The key is to try and make choices that mean and change things, that reflect the wishes of the player without forcing you to create totally unique content and large branches. Traditional novel writers have it so easy!
@Razgriz Now now, who’s to say you can’t two-time both? :-bd
@MultipleChoice you sly dog 
also when I first stumbled upon this I was just thinking “hey I want to kill some time before my show comes this might do it.” Afterwards I sat there thinking “screw the show! I need more of this!”
Choice of Rebels is poly and proud. (and I look forward to reading Fatehaven one of these days!)
Was scrolling through the upcoming releases and can’t help but notice that Fatehaven has been added. Will keep an eye out for it.
I was wondering about total length, the demo is a good size and I just wondered how that faired against the entirety of it.
@MultipleChoice Well, I see several alternative ways of handling it. You’ve got another character there with very little self control and at least as much motivation to kill her as you have. You could make the choice to spare her, but then have your buddy go and impale her or something. This way you could show your heroic compassion/control/mercy without completely altering the plot or implausibly NOT altering it. Then you could maybe get a few last words from her that might help you on your way or give you something to think about… or something. Another option would be to have her end up comatose somehow. That way she’d be acceptably inconsequential to the overall plot until some later date of your choosing. Sure the most awesome possibility for the end user would be for you to spend tons of time and effort coming up with a way to plausibly integrate her survival into the rest of the story. But yeah, that’s way above and beyond anything one could reasonably expect. My point is that there are lots of different options that could work.
I really enjoy the story and tune so far. Why would anyone want to spare Idricsa…she killed your master/friend, his all family, and was in the process of killing your friend. Lets not forget that the MC was pretty sheltered afterall that bandit was the very first life the MC took. Since this is just the start and its a very strong starting point.
@JanusVonDul I don’t think your teacher is dead. Pretty sure they would have left her body behind if they just wanted to kill her.
If you’re asking me, I’d turn it around and ask why do you want to kill her? From your comments I’d assume that the first reason is revenge. But what purpose does that serve? The damage is done. Killing her won’t bring anyone back to life. In the grand scheme of things hers will be just another death to add to the massacre. It might make you feel a little better for a while I suppose, but it’s not going to fill the hole left by all those she and her allies killed. The only thing with any chance of that is new loved ones. If it’s about punishing her for her evil deeds, well, death isn’t much of a punishment. It’s not like she’s feeling punished. She’s dead. And besides, she still thinks she was in the right. She dies thinking that some whelp got lucky and temporarily escaped the justice of her organization’s purge of the evil evil mages.
You could kill her for practical reasons. So that she isn’t a threat again later. But then you open up the can of all the potential uses she could have to you alive. Sure she might not cooperate, but then again, she might. For all you know she’s deeply confused and misguided, and someone who really cared could lead her down another path. Even if she’s hardened to the point that nothing could ever change her mind, you’d still a mage, so you could probably get some use out of her. She does after all know all sorts of things about her organization, which is your main enemies.
In my opinions there are way more reasons not to kill her than to kill her. Especially if you take out the context of it being a choice game where someone has to write all this stuff for it to happen.
Silvanus was taking by the leader…I can’t remember his name. The master I was talking about is the dwarf smith and his family. She is a very dangrous foe its more then mere revenge, its more about self defense. The age of the MC is still young and everything the MC knew is gone. Idricsa thinks what she is doing is for the greater good. She will not help nor change her ways because its her beliefs that she is doing this actions for good. Maybe farther in the story the MC regrets what was done and seeks to make amends for it. Afterall there was a check for emotional or logic when your learned your friend told the Mage slayers about Silvanus and you. Imho the ending sets up the rest of the choice game. Will the MC have regrets, tries to ensure that does not happen, or embrace that feeling of empowerment. How I see the MC is a young adult who was sheltered by their family. The MC only knows what was taught or told to them. The whole world the MC knew changes into a dark, unknown and horrifying place in a short time.
Like I said, self defense is one excuse, but there are lots of ways she could be useful to you if you kept her alive. She doesn’t necessarily have to help willingly. You’re a mage after all.
People can change what they believe. There are lots of examples of that in both real life and fiction. Not as many as examples of people just being killed for being bad, but that’s just because death is the simple solution. Actually changing requires all sorts of hard soul searching and learning and inspiration and support. Dying just requires your body to stop functioning. Hell, the oldest known story in human history starts out with the hero being an evil bastard, having a prophecy told that a rival will rise to challenge him, then fighting that rival to a standstill, and in the process of doing so, changing his evil ways.
Also, the MC is variable, depending on your choices, and already clearly not normal even by the standards of this fantasy world.
The MC is not a fully trained mage, afterall this happened just after Silvanus taught the MC alittle bit and the only things the MC knows about magic is what Silvanus taught in that time, also what the church has taught. A person will only change if they want to. I can not see Idricase wanting to change afterall she worked herself up to join the order. I know stories and legends dealing with people changing themselves. How many countless people can not change nor wish too are in stories and legends. I will say this it is up to the writier of this choice game of how the story develops or changes and imho it is great how it is.
@MultipleChoice-you have done a great job so far and I hope your writting goes great and block free.
Of course it’s up the writer. That’s neither here nor there. 
You asked for reasons why I and possibly anyone else would want to spare Idricsa. I gave you some. The fact that anyone changes proves that Idricsa could change. Gilgamesh didn’t want to change before he met Enkidu. If you already want to change, you’re already changing.
@shoelip Loki changed for the worst instead of being mischief, he became evil with his heart harding against Odin and Thor. You made your points and I respect that. Lets try not to thread jack from @MuitipleChoice wonderful demo.
@shoelip I enjoyed this exchange very much.
@JanusVonDul I don’t know if that was meant as a counter argument, but if so it’s actually a point in favor of my argument that people change. I didn’t say they had to change one way or another.
Glad you enjoyed the discussion though.
@shoelip because in stories and legends does not really go on about how a person does not contain any that adds to my side. It will be a soldier doing his duty no matter what is involved because it is the soldier’s duty. Followers and leaders, in stories there is more depth to the leaders then followers because the leaders are the main points of the story. I never said people can’t change, I said they only change if the want or choose too. Also if a person believes in what they’re doing with every fiber in their than more likely that person will not change or have any doubts about their actions. The only way that type of person can change is if they see what they stand/believe for/in is wrong but more times then not that only drives they person deeper into what they think is good or for the betterment of the world.
@JanusVonDul Well ok, but realistically you wouldn’t know until you tried. Since @MultipleChoice isn’t planning to add anything like that anyway arguing that this particular character would never change is just silly. We don’t know enough about her because she gets killed before we get the chance to see.
You’re kind of arguing in circles with the wanting to change thing though. If people already wanted to change then they were already changing. But not everyone who changes always wanted to change. Something made them want to change. Heck, some people change without even realizing it.
Okay I was not trying to add rl into it, just from stories point of view @shoelip except for my last comment. I did not mean it to be a circle. But your are right not much information is given on her. I did really enjoy this afterall…I hope we can discuss things even more one day. @shoelip take care of yourself.
@MultipleChoice
I’m laughing so hard at the vulgar jokes, this is an absolutely amazing story, love the choices and variation, also love the romance! (You can never have enough romance in a game ;D ). Overall, brilliant so far! Can’t wait! :)) XDD
This is truly extraordinary. You have created a game so elegantly vulgar, that even while staggering under the sheer number of references to “healthy adult activities” and ridiculously eclectic characters, I cannot help but take it seriously. I find myself emotionally invested in a cliche plot so skilfully written, that I’m not sure if I eagerly await it’s release, or dread it: that I may be so engrossed that I might forget to feed myself.
@Atramedesx
Thanks! I always appreciate a compliment on the choices—I tried to make it so each playthrough could have a distinct flavor, even if the main storyline remains the same. I agree with you 100% on the romance! With half a dozen threads about Prodigal and one on erotic content, romance is the type of fantasy this demographic finds the most thrilling. Anyone writing a story ought to consider this!
@Polyhymnia
Your review is absolutely beautiful, and it’ll stick with me for a very long time to come. Thank you. Amidst heated debates on mage power levels and hypothetical moralities, I knew folks enjoyed what I created to grow so passionate around it. But I didn’t know how well they understood what it was. I’m not talking about some sort of hidden, deeper meaning (spoiler: there is none!) but a recognition at such a complete level.
It is very paradoxical and very cliche, though my writing skill still has a ways to go. I think Fatehaven offers something people don’t expect in a story-game-book-thing, and I think you’ve put it into words perfectly.
