Three gold a night, and absolutely no hanky-panky: CYOA at the Evertree Inn

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > Three gold a night, and absolutely no hanky-panky: CYOA at the Evertree Inn

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CottonWolf: Jul 20, 2012; Good ideas generator

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 :justpost:

, let's get on with this. We'll begin in the next post!

Stats posted:

Current Stats

Character
Name: Glangwen Ogg
Race: Elf
Weapon: Staff
Stats:
Combat: 35/100
Guile: 18/100
Perception: 67/100
Magic: 67/100
Gold: 7
Mana: 53
Status: Full Health
Warnings: None

Suspects
(Suspects with a higher % will be more co-operative)
Owner: Laisa: 33/100
Gardener: Lamuel: 93/100
Maid: Wen: 53/100
???: 18/100
Checked Out - Tobin Brushgather: 28/100
Gunther Ga'arl: 5/100
Daisy Thorne: 17/100
Isaria Evenveil: 23/100

Romance: You definitely have a connection with Mrs. Dupree's son, Lamuel. You hope it could turn into something more.

Clues
1 - Luxican official Gregori Risenfaal was murdered in room 3 a week ago with a wooden hair comb.
2 - Mr. Dupree died at the inn, 5 years ago, falling into the wood cellar.
3 - The mystery of your stolen 3 gold pieces has been resolved.
4 - Wen was adopted by Mrs. Dupree after she was abandoned by her parents in her room eight years ago.
5 - The elf in room 6, Isaria Evenveil, is a VIP.
6 - ?
7 - Mr. Risenfaal was leering after Lamuel during his stay.
8 - Wen is scared of the wood cellar.
9 - ?
10 - ?
11 - Two thief brothers, one with a child, went missing from their room a couple of months ago while trying to rob the place.
12 - ?
13 - Tobin the halfling claims that the inn is cursed.
14 - ?
15 - ?

Evertree posted:

Backstory
You grew up in Flom, the oldest of three in a family of elves. Comfortable living alongside nature, your true goal in life was always to become a dedicated shaman.

When a fire destroyed your family home, you and your father were the only survivors. You were forced to start all over again, living on the streets. It all seemed so hopeless until you learned of an opportunity in a far off city, a chance to get your life back on track.

And so with nothing to your name but your pony, your trusty staff, and your keen instincts, you set off on the road to Lux, and that is how you came to arrive at Evertree Inn. It seemed as good a place as any to stop for the night�.

Ending:
Check back here at The End.

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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# ? Apr 28, 2024 22:00

CottonWolf: Jul 20, 2012; Good ideas generator

Welcome! Let's begin this story.

Before we get into character creation proper, we're going to get some scene setting.

Evertree posted:

Prologue

How do I always end up in these situations?

The thought runs through your mind over and over again as you stare down at the body in front of you.

It certainly wasn't how you planned on spending your evening. In fact, you didn't even really need to stay in this place at all. You could have kept walking, pushed on through the night. Hells, at any point you could have stopped asking questions and gone to bed.

But you didn't, not after seeing the letter. You couldn't ignore it. Your curiosity was piqued.

And now you're standing in front of a body.

You hear a knock on the door and as you turn, you catch your reflection in a mirror.

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
In Evertree Inn there are four personal stats that can help you to succeed.
These stats are: Combat, Guile, Perception and Magic

Combat is your physical strength and skill when using a melee weapon. It is also your ability to threaten and intimidate. It will increase when you take aggressive actions or when you successfully defeat an enemy. It will decrease if your weapon is damaged or when you sustain an injury.

Guile is your stealth and your ability to lie. This will increase whenever you do something dishonest or illegal. It will decrease if you take unsubtle or generous actions.

Perception is the awareness you have of your surroundings and your ability to read people. It is also your skill with a bow. It will increase when you put your senses to the test or when you make a clever deduction. It will decrease if you make a foolish decision or if you receive a severe injury.

Magic is the spells you are able to cast and also the potency of those spells. It increases whenever you try to cast a spell. It rarely decreases; however, Magic relies on Mana. Your Mana decreases every time you use a spell and can be increased by resting. If your Mana gets too low, you will not be able to cast any more spells.

It is also possible to increase these skills with bonuses at the end of each Chapter where you will be rewarded for overall progress in the story.

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
In Evertree Inn you will find many suspects who will either trust you or not. Suspects who trust you will be more likely to help you in your investigations. Each Suspect is different in what they like and don't like, so you might find it hard to please everyone. Try not to upset too many people or you will find yourself without allies when you need them most.

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
In Evertree Inn there are many clues to uncover. Some will be helpful, while others could be red herrings. Whenever you uncover a new clue, the phrase <Clue updated!> will appear in the story. Having clues will unlock new conversations with Suspects and help you to investigate deeper into the mysteries of the inn. However, remember that if something you discover doesn't prompt a <Clue updated!>, that doesn't mean that it isn't important.

Clues can come from anywhere - Exploring, Talking, Fighting, Sneaking, Spellcasting, even 'Hanky-Panky!'

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.

# ? Jan 11, 2021 19:21

ultrafilter: Aug 23, 2007; It's okay if you have any questions.

Black eyes.

# ? Jan 11, 2021 19:37

Black Robe: Sep 12, 2017; Generic Magic User

Nobody ever picks brown eyes.

# ? Jan 11, 2021 19:58

BraveLittleToaster: May 5, 2019

Brown, like a nice cocoa.

# ? Jan 11, 2021 20:01

limeicebreakers: May 1, 2017

Seconding Black, 'tis a good color.

# ? Jan 11, 2021 20:03

CottonWolf: Jul 20, 2012; Good ideas generator

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

OOrochi: Jan 19, 2017; On my honor as the Dawnspear.

Let's go brown.

# ? Jan 11, 2021 20:11

Slaan: Mar 16, 2009; ASHERAH DEMANDS I FEAST, I VOTE FOR A FEAST OF FLESH

Grey eyes

# ? Jan 11, 2021 20:41

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

Our eyes were black as night.

# ? Jan 11, 2021 20:46

MagusofStars: Mar 31, 2012

Our eyes should be black.

Also, wtf at the fact we "always end up in situations" involving dead bodies.

# ? Jan 11, 2021 21:09

idhrendur: Aug 20, 2016

Grey

# ? Jan 11, 2021 21:29

wjs5: Aug 22, 2009

Violet

# ? Jan 11, 2021 22:58

limeicebreakers: May 1, 2017

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.

# ? Jan 11, 2021 23:58

CottonWolf: Jul 20, 2012; Good ideas generator

We have a winner.

Evertree posted:

Your eyes are a dark and brooding black, widening in the mirror as a voice calls out.

"Hello? Are you in there?"

Your heart starts to race as you return your attention to the body.

How do I always end up in these situations?

Three Hours Earlier...

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
Well, it will have to do. It's certainly not much compared to what you've seen in the big cities but this looks like as good a place as any to stop for the night. The sun is still just about visible over the mountains and casts its orange glow on an endless expanse of green. You have been following the edge of the ancient Firstwood for two days now and this is the first establishment you've seen. Not that you don't have a perfectly good tent with you, but a comfy bed and a warm meal would sure be a welcome change.

You hitch your pony securely at the gate and make your way along the narrow path to the front door. Above your head swings a sign bearing a beautifully painted tree surrounded by the words, "Evertree Inn" in large black letters.

You check your coin purse. You have 10 gold pieces. You only hope it's enough for dinner.

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.

"Thank you, Mr. Brushgather, and this is your room key. You'll be staying in room 2. It's right up�"

"I'm sure I'll find it!" the halfling interrupts irritably. He grabs his key and hops down off the stool so quickly that he crashes right into you.

What would you like to say in response?

1. My apologies, Mr. Brushgather.
2. Whoa, careful there.
3. Hey, watch it!
4. Say nothing.

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.

# ? Jan 12, 2021 00:42

BraveLittleToaster: May 5, 2019

Say nothing. It's a traditional power move, and will do wonders to endear us to the other guests of this place.

# ? Jan 12, 2021 00:53

ultrafilter: Aug 23, 2007; It's okay if you have any questions.

Apologize. We can be antagonistic later if need be.

# ? Jan 12, 2021 01:03

OOrochi: Jan 19, 2017; On my honor as the Dawnspear.

Whoa, careful there. No need to be a total doormat or a jerk.

# ? Jan 12, 2021 01:17

Slaan: Mar 16, 2009; ASHERAH DEMANDS I FEAST, I VOTE FOR A FEAST OF FLESH

Hey. watch it! what a jerk

# ? Jan 12, 2021 01:34

MagusofStars: Mar 31, 2012

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.

# ? Jan 12, 2021 02:14

Black Robe: Sep 12, 2017; Generic Magic User

OOrochi posted:

Whoa, careful there. No need to be a total doormat or a jerk.

# ? Jan 12, 2021 06:33

limeicebreakers: May 1, 2017

Watch it, dude! There's no need to be rude to the hotel staff. :colbert:

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.

# ? Jan 12, 2021 09:16

Bifauxnen: Aug 12, 2010; Curses! Foiled again!

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" :v:

I'll vote for Whoah, careful there.

# ? Jan 12, 2021 09:34

CottonWolf: Jul 20, 2012; Good ideas generator

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,

"Welcome to Evertree Inn. My name is Laisa Dupree, the owner and manager, and what can I do for you today, sir?"

Will you correct her for addressing you as 'sir'?

1. Not at all! I am a man.
2. No. I am a man, though when I was born my family thought I was female.
3. Yes! I am a woman.
4. Yes! When I was born, my family thought I was male but I am a woman.
5. Yes, I would prefer something non-binary.

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

Bifauxnen: Aug 12, 2010; Curses! Foiled again!

1. 5. Not at all! I am a ~~man~~ woman who likes 'Sir' as a non-binary option

# ? Jan 12, 2021 11:44

Fat Samurai: Feb 16, 2011; To go quickly is foolish. To go slowly is prudent. Not to go; that is wisdom.

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.

# ? Jan 12, 2021 12:02

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

We are non binary and you can address us as Friend.

# ? Jan 12, 2021 12:12

CountryMatters: Apr 8, 2009; IT KEEPS HAPPENING

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

# ? Jan 12, 2021 13:37

Black Robe: Sep 12, 2017; Generic Magic User

Fat Samurai posted:

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.

Not what I was going to pick but that's too good to pass up.

# ? Jan 12, 2021 15:03

peachsynapse: Dec 22, 2007; The sea monsters appreciate your good taste.

Fat Samurai posted:

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.

Seconding this. Let's suck noisily on our one remaining tooth and make horrible dirty jokes at every opportunity.

# ? Jan 12, 2021 15:32

CottonWolf: Jul 20, 2012; Good ideas generator

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".

# ? Jan 12, 2021 16:44

cardinale: Jul 11, 2016

That Italian Guy posted:

We are non binary and you can address us as Friend.

Seconded

# ? Jan 12, 2021 20:45

CottonWolf: Jul 20, 2012; Good ideas generator

Next vote decides it. We're either Nanny Ogg-ing it up with 3, 2, or channeling our inner Fallen London with 5, Friend.

# ? Jan 12, 2021 21:37

BraveLittleToaster: May 5, 2019

I'll vote 3,2. Only because I'm not sure what Nanny Ogg-ing entails and I want to find out.

# ? Jan 12, 2021 21:40

CottonWolf: Jul 20, 2012; Good ideas generator

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."

She continues with, "Room for one, is it?"

You walk up to the counter and confirm that yes, you would like a room.

"Okay, well in that case I'll just need to take a few check-in details if you don't mind?"

She picks up her fabulous, blue quill and checks the next line of the enormous, leather-bound ledger that sits on the counter.

"Race?" she asks.

You pause. You're standing right in front of her, but she shows no sign of looking to see for herself and so you are forced to answer,

1. "Human" - The most prolific race in the land and renowned for being neither excellent nor terrible at anything. Jacks-of-all-trades, humans come in all shapes and sizes.
2. "Elf" - Mysterious and beautiful, elves are revered by many for their natural attunement to magic and their heightened senses. They are more honest and trusting than other races.
3. "Dwarf" - Sturdy and strong, dwarves are natural born fighters with a keen interest in all things material. They make shrewd entrepreneurs but are stubborn and narrow-minded.
4. "Halfling" - Small and agile, halflings resemble miniature humans. Standing around three feet tall, they are one of the least magical races but this they make up for with cunning and quick wit.
5. "Brownie" - Elusive and timid, brownies are by far the rarest of the races. The same size as a halfling, they tend to shy away from fighting and rely on their spells and keen senses to stay out of trouble.

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.

"And your name, ma'am?"

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