Wanted to ask. How strong are things in this universe? As in what kind of things do people have to deal with in a daily basis? Idk how spoiler ish this question is but I ask bc it seems like mages can get pretty damn OP at some point. Does this mean other beings can get to that point also?
Got curious since this is inspired by Wod and oh my god does it get crazy in the upper levels lol. Mechanically speaking, we already can reach master level in physical stats.
Can’t wait to see the upper echelons of magic
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Generally I’d say pretty strong but it really depends. Regular people almost never deal with supernatural entities.
It has to do partly with the Veil, partly because these entities are usually smart enough to not mess with humans in an open way and also because, there are certain organizations and people who protect normal humans from the worst of them. The first reason is actually related to the last.
But strength wise I’ll put it like this:
At the upper levels of power things get conceptual and power becomes immeasurable. If power is your measure of how much you can affect the world and change it, then how do you measure it if you are the world?
Things from before God started the clock or the ones who did it along with Him, things that are the embodiment of certain aspects of reality or beings that were dreamed up into being for the sole reason of needing something greater to believe in.
But they have their limits not in the amount of juice they possess but in their freedom to use it.
Otherwise, more on the Monsters side of Gods and Monsters, vampires, ghosts, werewolves and other critters all have their stronger and weaker members.
Because I try to make my lore original, it’s not like WoD where they have a linear structure of how they get stronger, it depends on the individual, and for wizards that goes double. The overall ceiling though is very high.
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Hello @Artklik
Plod looks very interesting. I definetly check it soon.
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Seems interesting. I’m waiting for things beyond the character creator before making any real judgement though-
Does seem like there’s quite a few magic types/stats (even before counting physical attributes) so that’s a lot of possible scenes/variations you might end up writing, hope you don’t get overwhelmed.
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Yep, I limited the magic to level 3 for this book for exactly this reason.
Besides the story reasons, high level magic in the first book will undercut the future growth possibilities and make it really hard to write all of the paths.
For now the idea is that the physical and inherent magical stats are not really growable in the book itself, as that would not make logical sense. Between the books you’ll get a chance to increase them though, as it takes a long time to train body and mind and make sure the changes stick.
As someone said before, with Scion mode you can already have almost all maxed basic stats, but magic will always remain a stat that will grow with the narrative or if you decide to forgo certain questlines specifically to grow more powerful. But from my experience that’s a standard trade off.
Since my game focuses more heavily on narrative rather than video-gamey mechanics, I won’t have to code much besides the paths though.
I like choice games that give you the ability to be competent as well, because while struggle and acceptance of loss are important, the core message of my universe will always remain that if you Will something to go some way, it will. To the best of your ability. Possibly.
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Hello everyone! I am back with a little update on the progress of Chapter 1.
It is progressing very well all in all and although I am taking my time writing in all the variations based on stats and decisions, I think that the speed of writing is very good.
Here I am sharing a little snippet of the possible evil path you can take early on in Chapter 1, where another student dares hide from your chattering in an expertly designed sound bubble.
What disrespect!
So to teach him a lesson, you decide to unleash your own elemental power in a staggering display of dominance.
This particular variation becomes available if your character was already cynical, which will prompt a voluntary choice. If your main Unveiling is Force and your Soul Strength is high enough, you can choose to expertly dismantle his bubble in a show of both power and skill.
But if your skill is not high enough for that you can simply go gorilla mode and destroy everything around you to show him who’s boss. But beware, this might have the unintended consequence of making your peers hate you. Completely undeserved of course.
Let me know what you think, I’ll be happy to hear any reccomendations you might have!
P.S - In this version, the MC was built with high strength and as tall as possible, so the guy who is shorter and smaller is actually 6’6" and 250lbs lol.
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Is there any lore behind the name “Scion”?
Does it mean anything?
Also how’s the progress going?
Just realised that if you want to write different variations with all the stats, just this one snippet can have a combo of up to 15 variations depending on our Soul + Force.
Pls be carefull if that’s what you want to do since it can get pretty overwhelming and repetitive after a while 
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Hey! Yeah there’s definitely lore behind it but it will only be clearly understandable at the end of the book.
Or depending on how well you investigate it and whether you choose to at all.
Progress is admittedly slower than I wanted mostly because I’m an engineering major and have exams right now (wish me luck).
I still am progressing though. The actual writing is done and right now I am just implementing it into a ChoiceScript format.
The variations are indeed pretty hard to implement well, but I am taking the approach where good writing and maneuvering can help avoid unnecessary variations.
I expect Chapter 1 alone to be 40-50k words with code, mainly because I want to add different paths so everyone’s last day at the House is different.
Thanks for the concern though, I am not delusional and won’t try to do anything too over the top. Maybe. To the best of my ability.
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Alright little update time. I have finished my exams and gone back to writing full speed again. With any luck Chapter 1 will be fully out within a week, and depending on how many mistakes are still present after editing I will get to work on Chapter 2 as quickly as possible.
For now it’s looking very good, with as much as 8-10 possible diversions through the day with unique bonuses and narrative instruments. Even though it is taking much longer than I wanted (mainly due to exams), I’m proud to say that the level of variety is up to par.
The next update will be Chapter 1 in its full form, stay tuned!
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Pretty interesting.
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This WIP looked so good i spent 30 minutes trying to find it again
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Thanks! I really appreciate the interest. Since to me IFs are more literature than games, I try to put more stock into writing than an average IF.
This does indeed make it harder to write and adds more time, but I believe the most beloved IFs are always the ones you like for the story and characters rather than game aspects. So I try to base my own style on these.
Not to say I skimp on stats though, since what your character is capable of should influence how the world around him percieves them. So even beyond options, I always try to add flavor based on appearance and stats.
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Looking forward to chapter 1.
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It’s definitely coming, no question. The reasons for the delay are as mundane as they are frustrating. The main one is work. While I finished my exams, I realized that during my work hours I can’t get as much done at the quality I wish, so what happened is this.
I wrote one of the possible paths throughout the day with one of the other students when I had a good day inspiration wise and saw that this particular path had much more content and writing quality than the other alternate paths so I decided to rewrite and add content to the other ones retroactively. Right now I am finishing the last alternate path and heading into the rewrite of the culmination part of the chapter, which I decided to also rewrite due to the added content and options stemming from those.
I also decided to add a bit more weight to the decisions so they feel more unique and thought out, with the consequences of these choices echoing slightly throughout at least the first half of the book.
In addition I decided to create a system where in battles or important events, Unveiling acts as a kind of menu based on current abilities. Unveiling ratings decide whether or not these can be attempted and then the stats decide how well the action was performed. Each Unveiling if applicable will have 3-4 options of how to use them with skills offering advice on the best course of action.
For example:
Small spoiler for one path in Chapter 1
There is a fight with a malfunctioning golem in one of the paths and it is made of bronze. Now a character with Lore>=3 would instantly understand that using Force to magnetically crush it might be harder than using lightning, because bronze is decently conductive while being non-magnetic. The options are not locked out in any case, but a character with low soul or will might find themselves unable to produce enough of a magnetic field to affect the bronze golem effectively, so the difficulty rises. Different foci also provide bonuses for different methods of using magic and have varying descriptions of casting, sometimes changing the whole scene.
I also decided to add special options where applicable for different foci and specialty Unveilings, because a rating of 3 in any of them unlocks feats that lower ones would just not be able to do excluding any critical moments where pushing yourself to the limit could be an option.
Now I know that constant rewrites are the plague of many WIPs and is one of the main reasons for authors quitting, but I believe here I am just gaining experience since it’s my first full format IF and book in general.
The current wordcount of chapter 1 with code is about 45k words and I expect it to reach about 55k with all the rewrites and last part of the chapter complete.
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Whats the rough estimate on when i’ll be out. (It’s fine if u said idk)
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If I were to be realistic and consider previous hurdles, I’d say I’ll get it done by this Friday. If I were optimistic might be tomorrow or Wednesday.
But with my crippling ADHD it could happen at any point within the week to be honest.
I also would like to point out that asking me is completely fine. I know that the general policy is not to do that with other authors because of the pressure, but for me it gives motivation to know that at least a handful of people are interested.
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just from what is seen so far i am intrested in the story.
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THATS AMAZING! I thought late August for sure!
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