voice & text | week two

[hauhra]

Since we’re all feeling a little under the weather this month, I thought of a way we could still have fun while we’re rotting away in our beds from boredom: a choose-your-own-adventure game.

I understand that this might be a new concept for some of you, so I’ll explain how the game works before we get started. I’ll give you a single prompt to start with. Your job is to reply to my prompt and wait for more information from me. I’ll then give you another prompt based on what actions you took in your response… in other words, it’s a bit like collaborative storytelling. However, only one writer can establish the setting, and that’s me.

Got it?

Now… let’s begin.

Weary traveler! The spooky, demon castle that you had set out for when you started your journey to slay its lord months ago is upon you. It rests atop high cliffs, its darkened towers and turrets looming over the forest surrounding it. It appears to be guarded only by a drawbridge. But be careful! It hovers above treacherous waters. Try not to fall in.

How do you wish to proceed?

>_

Comments

[hauhra]

Once again: a game set in a spooky, demon castle isn't exactly going to be a ray of sunshine. But for those of us who aren't nearly as faint of heart, spooky, demon castles and other things that scare us are our idea of a good distraction from the very real and very inescapable horrors that surround us.

[gandora]

.. i guess i understand your point, but you're not giving anyone a fair chance. maybe you could let people explore a bit more?

otherwise it's rather one-sided.

[ Did Yugi just call him out for godmoding? Probably... ]

[hauhra]

[ i mean yugi's not wrong ]

It isn't one-sided, just slightly more difficult than your average game.

[gandora]

you and i have different definitions of difficult.

instead of just forcing your hand, maybe allow the players to explore more of the setting? or you could just continue your one-sided game.

[hauhra]

I'd say it's more like an advanced level of difficulty than a different definition of it. Or haven't you played games like Shadowgate before?

[gandora]

i've had my fill of tabletop games for a little bit, thank you.

advanced level of difficulty? i'm not sure if that's it. more like someone using the advantage of being the dungeon master and killing player characters for fun.

[hauhra]

Come now, Yugi.

That was only once.

[gandora]

with your track record, once is plenty.

[hauhra]

You can't exactly call it a track record when it's only happened one time, Yugi.

You seem to be fishing for any reason to smear my name when I've done absolutely nothing wrong this time, and that sort of snap judgment can have some pretty dire consequences.

[ like you know, the mass murder of his village, but he's not about to talk to the vessel about that, and certainly not over a stupid text-based roleplaying game. ]

[gandora]

the fact that you don't think that one death is problematic is alarming.

i'm not saying this because i am attempting to smear your name. i'm trying to make it clear that it won't be... tolerated.

[hauhra]

I'm quaking in my boots.

Never mind the fact that no one actually died in Monster World either. They just fell into comas and became a permanent fixture of the ultimate roleplaying game. In fact, I was originally going to give the same treatment to you and your little friends, since all I really wanted was your Millennium Puzzle, but then you just had to go and make things more difficult for yourselves.

[gandora]

we didn't make it difficult for anyone but you.

[hauhra]

Except by extension you could have all saved yourselves the trouble of having to go through all of that if only you'd have accepted your roles in the game and played them out quietly like the rest of my host's gaming friends. Too bad.

[gandora]

so according to you, we should have just bent and accepted the roles. according to you, we should have just given up our souls to be in that game? honestly, we didn't make it hard for ourselves by helping each other and bakura-kun.

you're just a sore loser.

[hauhra]

Why not? You all love games, right? Then wouldn't being in one forever be like a dream come true? Besides, it was my host's wish to be able to play his favorite game with his friends for all time. It isn't a crime to thank him for the use of his body by granting him his deepest desires. If stopping it all is really what he wanted, then he would have gotten rid of the Ring long ago, but instead, he picked it right back up again, and entirely on his own volition.

[gandora]

[ it's awhile before he answers. ]

there's so many things wrong with that statement... loving games and forcing people against their own will are two totally different things! what part of bakura-kun's wish said, "trap all my friends inside a game forever."

the reason why he kept picking the millennium ring up was because of your control of him! but I guess a being as old as you are you would be forgetful...

[hauhra]

If he had wanted something more specific out of "I wish I could play games with my friends forever", then he should have said so. Otherwise he's leaving it open to interpretation.

And how can you be so sure of that? Because for all you know it's just as likely that my host kept going back to the Ring for sentimental reasons. Oh, but wait! You don't know because simply being my host's friend wasn't enough for you to be privy to some of the more intimate details of his personal life, like the unfortunate familial situation that would have led him to become so attached to the Ring in the first place, because he was afraid of what his so-called "friends" would think of him after the fact.

[gandora]

so you're saying you didn't listen... i'm certain of it! bakura-kun went through so much because of you! don't act like you're winning something, because you aren't.

[hauhra]

It's not about winning or losing, vessel. It's about shattering those rose-colored glasses of yours that you've been trying to force onto me from day one and showing the realities of this world to you... but it's clear that I'm not going to make even the smallest crack in them, in which case, there's no point in me continuing this conversation. It's just going to keep coming back around to your starry-eyed fantasy that's somehow supposed to change my mind... well, you're 3,000 years too late for that, Yugi.

So long.