[WIP] Mantle: Mask on (Character-driven superhero story) [375,000+ words]

[J.J.Dove]

Mantle: Mask On is a character-driven story set in the superhero genre.

Balance two identities as you embark on the journey of becoming an everyday adult: new job, new apartment, whilst spending the free time left plunging your fists into the murky waters of New Cronaca’s underworld—where the ripples always seem to come back to you.

• Latest Update: 08/Oct/26. Bugfix patch.

• Wordcount (Excl.cmds): 375,000+

• Overall Progress: 3/10 chapters completed. Act(s) 1/3 completed.

>Play Now!

Written by me, J.J. Dove (she/her).

Hero? This city doesn’t seem to know the meaning. New Cronaca is home to much: powerful criminal gangs at war, police who forget their dedication to duty, a private army who pick up the slack with loose triggers, and all the innocents caught in between, but heroes? They don’t seem to make up the list of tenants.

How could they? For a city to fall to the dogs like this so readily, surely there’s no one out there trying to make a change? Trying to help? Death and corruption, ugly hearts and fickle truths—news on a TV.

Who needs saving when all the sorrow out there is safely kept in the box in your living room? What’s so wrong with this city if shadows are left in blind eyes?

That’s what everyone thinks until they’re stuck in the darkness with no way out, dragged there and beaten for the contents of their pockets and the soul behind their eyes.

And what do they think then? They consider the question of a hero, how the idea had never crossed their mind—how they had rested easy in the arms of blissful ignorance and relegated the need for saviours to fantasy.

They cry out, cry out for a light in the festering dark.

They cry out to know the meaning of a hero.

And you’ll do them one better—you’ll give them a superhero.

…After you’ve finished work for the day.

Personal Story:

• Play as a male, female, or non-binary character, with options to be straight, gay or bi/pansexual.
• Choose your defining attribute and feel it influence your role as a vigilante and all the everydays in between. Are you brain or brawn? The thinker or the bruiser?
• Experience a cast of characters from all over the city, control how you interact with them and shape your personality in the process.
• No stat stress: your choices control the story, though never to its detriment. There’s no fails—just a different path.

Customization:

• Separate your identities. Do you smile behind the mask and frown without it? Do you crack jokes in your downtime and become deadly serious when it’s time to work? Every personality score is tracked twice—one for you, and one for your alter ego.
• Stand on fashion. What top will you wear to work? Must you wear glasses? And, when you fight crime, do you subscribe to the idea of a cape? Whatever you decide, the story will accommodate—and sometimes even react.
• Define the little details. Have you been in a relationship before? Do you like hugs? Are you barely five foot? These are the things that really make you you.

Romance:

Build the beginnings of deep, either romantic or platonic, relationships with four featured characters throughout the story:

• A socially anxious delivery driver, working for the local café.
• Your privileged and haughty co-worker.
• A police officer knee deep in their work.
• And obviously: your best friend.

Enjoy organic relationships: garnered attraction merely changes how other characters might interact with you; the opportunity for love won’t pass you by according to any score or threshold.

No more picking flirt options to win. Every interaction with a potentially romanced character can net attraction—it’s merely a matter of what you say and do.

Put the Mask On:

Wrestle with choice and consequence as you define not only only your story, but the world’s first meaning of the word superhero.

You’ve been burdened by this mask for so long; it’s about time you put it on.

Disclaimers:

• Mature depictions of physical and emotional trauma.
• Graphic depictions of violence.
• Instances of presumptuous/accidental non-binary misgendering, in aid of a more realistic story presentation.

Feedback:

Feedback is more than welcome, here or my Tumblr!

Some things I’d appreciate you reporting (beyond the game imploding—that goes without saying):

• Pronoun errors.
• Misspellings and bad grammar, obviously.
• Areas where you feel a page break would benefit formatting.
• Formatting errors—lines or paragraphs stuck together when they look like they shouldn’t be.
• Something you think could be a coding error—even if you’re not sure, send it in! It’s helpful for me to check

(Please do not use AI to provide feedback; let’s talk like humans)

Staying Up to Date:

Monthly progress updates are provided on my Tumblr!

Tumblr again

Major announcements will, of course, still be posted here—and I read and do my best to respond to every comment here, too!

Thank you so much, and I hope you enjoy!

[This project does not contain the output of Generative AI]

[Queen_Zelda]

Woaaaah, already 155,000 words I am at the start but you did such a great job, it has great humor and the description are wonderful I love it (and the Ro’s sound fantastic ) I bookmarked your thread, and favorited your game

[J.J.Dove]

Thank you so much! I’m so glad you liked it, it was a lot of work haha Your kind words are very, very appreciated

[Valixon]

Just barely got started lol but wanted to say got a interesting store so far and will continue when i can just a few minor issues thus far with words and the like nothing game breaking though at this moment.

[Haylis]

Excellent demo so far, the main character is fun to play and the supporting characters all feel real so well done with that. i did notice a few gender mistakes with a couple of the characters mostly the bestie using she/her instead of he/him. also Bodie is kind of a strange name to me

[J.J.Dove]

Hopefully Bodie will grow on you, lol!

Do you happen to remember whereabouts the rogue pronouns were?

[J.J.Dove]

Thank you, I hope you enjoy it later!

Do you mind if I have some examples for the minor issues?

[Kid_Fury]

Won’t lie what really bummed me out is not being able to be a killer-vigilante, it would give room to show how people react to how vicious the vigilante is and create more diverse scenes

[Dryinspection]

Hello, its a good read. In terms of feedback the only notable thing I have is this error in the italics.

Though I am not a fan of first person IFs generally. This was still a good enough read for me to read through. Everyone seemed decently written and your available options were broad enough to where I rarely felt like I was forced to choose something I didn’t want to.

[H_J]

The social stuff was great so far, all the characters we have were great so far. The brief snippets we got to see from Lee and Redfern were great, and I’m definitely looking forward to Foster’s inevitable POV segment. Definitely invested in Foster’s friendship with the Vigilante, regardless of eventual romance or not.

The only criticism I have are moreso around the vigilante sections. The bits we have are great so far, but they also do feel like the least interactive portions of the demo we have so far. Can’t say too much for how focusing on Brawn in the opening will change my opinion, but I didn’t really feel that my character used Brain all that much during my initial playthrough - there was some emphasis on it before a fight, but during it, I kinda felt like most of the scenes boiled down to “punch guy” or “punch guy with surprise”. I didn’t really feel like the Vigilante was doing anything special with their Brain once it actually came time to fight. Maybe the Vigilante will get better at being stealthy as the story goes on, but it was a little disappointing to try and be Batman, only for things to inevitably devolve into just more straight up brute violence both times I attempted it.

[J.J.Dove]

I’m so glad to hear about the social stuff Getting the characters right was definitely my priority

As for the action–I want to get across that the MC is still very much amateur, so a lot of the time things quickly devolve into kicking and punching. Less so in the future.

But I will see I can flavour the action more brain or brawn, though.

Thank you!

[J.J.Dove]

Thanks for the picture–I hopefully should’ve fixed the formatting. Also I’m happy you were able to enjoy the first person perspective I know some people aren’t a fan but you’ve got to write what feels right, don’t you? haha

[Sakura_Higanbana28]

I like it! Reminds me of the Swashbuckler IF. Batman but reverse where you don’t have billion of dollars to burn and no bat cave because your just your average working guy.

[H_J]

I don’t know the extent of the Vigilante’s powers beyond bulletproof skin and superstrength, but I wouldn’t be opposed to the Vigilante being less durable/strong in exchange for something like enhanced senses if you chose Brain in the prologue. I think that would allow for more emphasis on the Brawn being a physical powerhouse by them being able to charge headlong into bullets, while the Brain leverages their superior awareness of the surroundings to avoid being shot in the first place. Daredevil vs Luke Cage.

Oh, and I suppose one more minor thing I noticed. The Vigilante doesn’t seem too nervous about either Redfern or Detective Lee recognizing them, despite the only thing protecting their identity being a pair of goggles and a hoodie. Maybe write more emphasis on the Vigilante changing their voice or attempting to hide their face during those scenes?

EDIT: Forgot to mention how much I loved slowly dredging up the Vigilante’s past even over the course of these few chapters. The scene with the comic books was awesome in a heartbreaking way (if such a way exists XD).

[J.J.Dove]

Awesome to hear how much you liked the heartbreaking moment lol!

I see where you’re coming from with the powers, and I’ve though about similar adjustments myself, but, unfortunately, the Vigilante having quite a ‘humble’ or basic, I guess, set of powers is quite intrinsic to their character. A scrappy underdog.

My aim is for brain and brawn to be vessles for how the MC applies their powers, rather than them define the powers themselves. And I’ll definitely try to strike some more clear differences for that.

You’re right about the secret idenity–I do want to lean in to the comic book logic of the little mask, but a line or two wouldn’t go amiss, for sure. I think I mentioned them changing their voice during the opening heist.

[Mattricole]

I’m loving this so much, and I find the quips we get to use hilarious. I’m so excited to see more, and wonder if we’ll get to meet other powered people (or maybe we already have? Dun dun dun)

[Charlie_Haigh]

Very well written and the story is genuinely great. But in the second chapter when you are reading through the contacts stored on the hard drive there is no way to progress the story. The passages loop for ever.

Edit: nevermind I reloaded a save and tried again and then it worked. Probably missed a contact.

[J.J.Dove]

Glad it worked!

Yeah, pressing all the contacts should let you through fine. Thank you for the kind words.

[legitpro123]

Cinema
Very well written in terms of prose and story is engaging. Though owen is slightly annoying (im not trying to steal your girl man).

[chrisbat]

This is really well done. No notes, i enjoyed it thoroughly. I look forward to seeing more of this game.