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So, what's this thing? Good question. Evertree Inn, its sequel Sordwin, and the forthcoming Lux are a series of CYOAs written by Thom Baylay and published under Choice of Games' Hosted Games section. In short, you play a customisable protagonist in a high fantasy world with magic, gods and criminal syndicates galore. They are also, in my view, the joint best series of CYOAs available on Choice of Games (an honour shared with Paul Wang's Infinity series, LP'd by Lord Cyrahzax here and here). The reason that this series shines is the attention to detail. Small, seemingly unimportant, choices may be referenced at any point, there are different degrees of success and failure for checks depending on both your stats and items, and who you choose to spend time with can lead to dramatic branching not just within individual books, but across them. This means that it's almost impossible to see everything across the series, and despite the fact that I've put an unhealthy amount of time into the series, there significant events that I am only aware even exist because I've looked at the underlying code. But hopefully, as the kind of obsessive who has dug into code, I'll be able to guide you through this series and make some informative comments on how things could have changed if we'd built our character differently. Our character? But, of course! This is a CYOA, so that means voting. Put your votes in bold or they won't be counted. Spoilers No spoilers for anything ahead of where we are in the series please, but spoilers for choices we didn't make are fair game for discussion, as long as the impacts would have already have been felt. Given the above, are you going to do the next games too? I've never LP'd anything before, but if this goes well, I will LP the next games too, but for now, we're just exploring the Evertree Inn. Anyway, in the spirit of , let's get on with this. We'll begin in the next post! Stats posted:Current Stats Evertree posted:Backstory Thanks to Thom Baylay, the author, for giving their blessing to this. If you enjoy this LP, I strongly recommend picking up the game at the link above. CottonWolf fucked around with this message at 21:39 on May 10, 2021 |
# ? Jan 11, 2021 19:21 |
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# ? May 30, 2024 12:06 |
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Welcome! Let's begin this story. Before we get into character creation proper, we're going to get some scene setting. Evertree posted:Prologue We'll start with the most important choice. Evertree posted:What colour are your eyes? 1. Blue 2. Brown 3. Green 4. Black 5. Grey 6. Something more unusual (Write in) ---- Mechanics Corner Because there's not much to this update, I'll also go into what we can get to in our stats screen right now. At the moment, we can't get to our main stats, because we don't exist as a fully formed stat-block yet, but we can get to a section entitled "Hints - A guide to the stats of Evertree Inn" which breaks down the main mechanics of the game. Et voila: Evertree posted:Main Stats There are a couple of things to note here. Firstly, this isn't the kind of game where your stats become fixed the moment chargen finishes. They'll be going up and down throughout the story depending on both our actions and our general competence, but I'll break that down in more detail when it starts to happen. The second thing is that the series doesn't keep this stat setup throughout. From the second book, each of these stats is split into two, with Combat being split into Atheletics and Prowess, Guile into Deception and Stealth, Perception into Intuition and Observation, and Magic into Spellcasting and Will. Normally, I'm a lumper rather than a splitter when it comes to statblocks, but this split turns out to work quite well and lets you create much more flexible characters which fill more specialised niches. Next we have: Evertree posted:Suspects This is a first hint of what we actually do in this game. Apparently we're performing investigations, and there are suspects. What are we investigating? I guess we'll find out. Consistent with this, we have: Evertree posted:Clues That's all we have in Hints, right now. The rest of the mechanics will reveal themselves as we go forward with character creation and into the game proper.
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# ? Jan 11, 2021 19:21 |
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Black eyes.
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# ? Jan 11, 2021 19:37 |
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Nobody ever picks brown eyes.
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# ? Jan 11, 2021 19:58 |
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Brown, like a nice cocoa.
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# ? Jan 11, 2021 20:01 |
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Seconding Black, 'tis a good color.
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# ? Jan 11, 2021 20:03 |
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For the record, I'm going to try put out updates quite quickly through chargen because there'll be quite a few short updates with questions I can't really ask all at once. So I'm aiming for one to two updates per day during chargen, then I'll slow down to an update every two to three days once we're in the game proper.
CottonWolf fucked around with this message at 20:12 on Jan 11, 2021 |
# ? Jan 11, 2021 20:09 |
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Let's go brown.
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# ? Jan 11, 2021 20:11 |
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Grey eyes
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# ? Jan 11, 2021 20:41 |
Our eyes were black as night.
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# ? Jan 11, 2021 20:46 |
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Our eyes should be black. Also, wtf at the fact we "always end up in situations" involving dead bodies.
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# ? Jan 11, 2021 21:09 |
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Grey
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# ? Jan 11, 2021 21:29 |
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Violet
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# ? Jan 11, 2021 22:58 |
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MagusofStars posted:Also, wtf at the fact we "always end up in situations" involving dead bodies. I kind of hope chargen gets us to look super plain for the irony.
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# ? Jan 11, 2021 23:58 |
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We have a winner.Evertree posted:Your eyes are a dark and brooding black, widening in the mirror as a voice calls out. As a stray thought, I really don't know why the game makes you set your eye colour here. The ${eye} variable isn't called again for a significant amount of time, and you don't even know what species you are at this point. Evertree posted:Chapter 1 - Welcome to Evertree This is another core mechanic. Gold is tracked and you can use it for various things throughout the game. Whether you care about it is somewhat of a character choice, as we will see. But, as far as I know, everything that can be aquired with gold can also be acquired through other (often much more difficult) means, with one exception. Evertree posted:The inside of the tavern is built with a smooth oak wood that glows brown under the gentle warmth of the many candles that line the walls in brackets. The lobby contains no furniture but for a counter behind which is standing a large woman wearing a grubby apron and scribbling into a ledger with a brilliant, blue quill. Standing on a stool so that he can see over the top of the counter is a halfling. He appears to be checking in. Okay, how polite are we? limeicebreakers posted:I kind of hope chargen gets us to look super plain for the irony. We already have black eyes, I fear that ship has sailed.
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# ? Jan 12, 2021 00:42 |
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Say nothing. It's a traditional power move, and will do wonders to endear us to the other guests of this place.
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# ? Jan 12, 2021 00:53 |
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Apologize. We can be antagonistic later if need be.
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# ? Jan 12, 2021 01:03 |
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Whoa, careful there. No need to be a total doormat or a jerk.
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# ? Jan 12, 2021 01:17 |
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Hey. watch it! what a jerk
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# ? Jan 12, 2021 01:34 |
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Whoa, careful there, buddy! No need to be a giant rear end in a top hat this early. Let’s at least wait till we know something about this world.
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# ? Jan 12, 2021 02:14 |
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OOrochi posted:Whoa, careful there. No need to be a total doormat or a jerk.
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# ? Jan 12, 2021 06:33 |
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Watch it, dude! There's no need to be rude to the hotel staff. CottonWolf posted:We already have black eyes, I fear that ship has sailed. Oh huh, here I was thinking black was the most common eye color. Guess that's just me.
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# ? Jan 12, 2021 09:16 |
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limeicebreakers posted:Oh huh, here I was thinking black was the most common eye color. Guess that's just me. Looking at the OP's Electrochemistry avatar, I'm currently imagining they could be "party eyes" I'll vote for Whoah, careful there.
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# ? Jan 12, 2021 09:34 |
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Whoa, careful there has it.Evertree posted:The halfling glares but says nothing. He pushes past you, grabbing a single, large traveller's pack, and heads up the stairs. The woman behind the counter watches the halfling leave, tutting and shaking her head, before going back to the ledger. Without so much as looking at you she asks, This is really just so you can set your perferred pronouns and term of address and has no mechanical effects beyond that, as far as I can tell. There's no extreme sexual dimorphism in any of the species options. I do appreciate the trans and non-binary representation here though. When you answer, give your preferred term of address too. Here are the options: For men: 1. Sir 2. My lord 3. My good man 4. Write in For women: 1. Miss 2. Ma'am 3. My lady 4. Write in For non-binary: 1. Mix 2. Misser 3. Ser 4. Write in CottonWolf fucked around with this message at 11:42 on Jan 12, 2021 |
# ? Jan 12, 2021 11:35 |
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# ? Jan 12, 2021 11:44 |
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Now I imagine a trilogy (?) of books where everyone addresses the MC with the condescending "My good man". 3. 2 Fantasy and a murder mistery setting? I want to be Nanny Ogg and be a very nosy person.
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# ? Jan 12, 2021 12:02 |
We are non binary and you can address us as Friend.
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# ? Jan 12, 2021 12:12 |
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2.1, we're Miss Marple and we're gonna solve this mystery because no one will suspect the kindly old lady is a super genius Also a halfling just dramatically bumped into us? If I know my fantasy tropes that is suspicious
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# ? Jan 12, 2021 13:37 |
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Fat Samurai posted:Now I imagine a trilogy (?) of books where everyone addresses the MC with the condescending "My good man". Not what I was going to pick but that's too good to pass up.
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# ? Jan 12, 2021 15:03 |
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Fat Samurai posted:Now I imagine a trilogy (?) of books where everyone addresses the MC with the condescending "My good man". Seconding this. Let's suck noisily on our one remaining tooth and make horrible dirty jokes at every opportunity.
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# ? Jan 12, 2021 15:32 |
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Fat Samurai posted:Now I imagine a trilogy (?) of books where everyone addresses the MC with the condescending "My good man". Quadrilogy, at least. Lux will be two books, City of Secrets and City of Lies. But yeah, I am very glad the goonmind has not gone with "My good man".
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# ? Jan 12, 2021 16:44 |
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That Italian Guy posted:We are non binary and you can address us as Friend. Seconded
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# ? Jan 12, 2021 20:45 |
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Next vote decides it. We're either Nanny Ogg-ing it up with 3, 2, or channeling our inner Fallen London with 5, Friend.
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# ? Jan 12, 2021 21:37 |
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I'll vote 3,2. Only because I'm not sure what Nanny Ogg-ing entails and I want to find out.
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# ? Jan 12, 2021 21:40 |
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Nanny Ogg-ing it up it is then. Time for the first choice with large mechanical impacts.Evertree posted:You politely correct Mrs. Dupree with your preferred form of address. The smile on her face falters but she collects herself and says, "Apologies, ma'am. I didn't mean any offense." Your race/species determines your base statblock, as well as changing how people react to you more generally (people will often be shocked to see a brownie, for instance). As the descriptions imply, each race is definitely designed for a certain type of play, but it's not completely determining, and you can built against type. My character is an elf that I built to be guile-based as a challenge, for example. However, going that route is much more tricky, and requires a degree of optimising in order to not end up with a quite weak generalist character. Something else which I don't think is documented anywhere is that your race also determines your age. Your age almost never comes up, but human MCs are 20, elf MCs are 37, dwarf MCs are 27, halfing MCs are 18 and brownie MCs are 22. Evertree posted:Mrs. Dupree makes no indication that she has heard you other than by scratching the word '???' into a column of the ledger before moving on to the next question. We're then asked for our name. There are specific naming conventions for each gender within each race, So, like with our salutation, I'll list the female names for each out below and we can do them together with the species choice. Human first names 1. Amaquis 2. Natalya 3. Ricara 4. Write in Human last names 1. Buckley 2. Espenoth 3. Valerus 4. No last name 5. Write in Elven first names 1. Glangwen 2. Naeva 3. Vanyalanthiriel 4. Write in Elven last names 1. Faerondalan 2. Galadiir 3. Meliamne 4. No last name 5. Write in Dwarven first names 1. Fundra 2. Olafi 3. Suli 4. Write in Dwarven last names 1. Archeim 2. Olhelm 3. Reibor 4. No last name 5. Write in Halfling first names 1. Keeva 2. Laelia 3. Melody 4. Write in Halfling last names 1. Leagallow 2. Farthinghill 3. Winterborn 4. No last name 5. Write in Brownie first names 1. Aelfwine 2. Odiane 3. Tenanye 4. Write in Brownie last names 1. of the Deepwood 2. of the Lake 3. of the Misty Meadows 4. No last name 5. Write in CottonWolf fucked around with this message at 21:54 on Jan 12, 2021 |
# ? Jan 12, 2021 21:42 |
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We are a human named Gytha Ogg, of course.
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# ? Jan 12, 2021 21:52 |
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We're an elf named Vanyalanthiriel Faerondalan.
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# ? Jan 12, 2021 21:59 |
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Black Robe posted:We are a human named Gytha Ogg, of course. Of course!
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# ? Jan 12, 2021 22:09 |
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We are a Brownie named Tim Buckley
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# ? Jan 12, 2021 22:59 |
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# ? May 30, 2024 12:06 |
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Black Robe posted:We are a human named Gytha Ogg, of course. Or an elf named Glangwen Ogg, why copy the character exactly when we can go for higher magic stats and demolish elvish stereotypes!
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# ? Jan 12, 2021 23:09 |