Welcome to Wayward Children, an investigative horror game set in early-1800s England. You are a member of a fractious religious order now known as the Brothers. Founded centuries ago, your order is tasked with protecting the populace from the depredations of supernatural beings. Few now know of your order’s existence, and fewer still believe that you accomplish anything beyond wasting time on fanciful myths and legends. Nevertheless, you still receive calls for aid whenever fear overwhelms reason.
It’s an easy life most of the time; food and board are provided, with most days spent checking false alarms generated by paranoia, superstition or outright lies. Yet nobody who believes in their cause envies Brothers, for when a call to action is justified, it often ends in death, or worse…
This is my first attempt at a Choicescript game, as well as my first post here, so to be honest I’m kind of sweating bullets. I suppose I should start with a warning, just in case.
Disclaimer: This game is set in a low-fantasy rendition of England in the early 1800s, where strange terrors stalk the night. Expect violence (though not overly gratuitous,) and death (including children). As well as violence, I’ve tried to keep the game grounded in reality while not in the presence of the supernatural, so expect to deal with some archaic views regarding women, parentage, etc.
Tone: With that unpleasantness out of the way, onto the game itself. The primary tone here is horror; though the player will be a trained member of an order dedicated to combating the supernatural, this doesn’t put him on anywhere near equal footing with Intruders. It just means he might survive long enough to fight back the darkness in one small corner of the world. On a similar note, there won’t be much in the way of romance. The player’s lot in life is a lonely one, with little time for personal comfort.
Gameplay: Lastly, I’d like to point out that the game might be text-heavy or light on stats for some. I wanted to put emphasis on investigation that will hinge more on how the player chooses to spend his limited time and approach certain situations than on stats. Since this is also just the introduction, a lot of it is spent establishing setting/characters, and I wanted to avoid injecting pointless choices. That said, I’m conscious of the fact that people expect plenty of interactivity, so that brings me to the last point…
I’m still green both in terms of writing and Choicescript, so advice is always appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to try it out.
EDIT 1: Truly shocking amount of bugs in this on upload, but I think I’ve got most of it ironed out now with your help. Thanks for your patience!