Hey guys, this will be the tumblr for my Choice of Games WiP, Runaway. Thanks a lot to my friend Kaycie, who helped me set this up and showed me some of the basic functions!
Here’s a link to the forum page: https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/runaway-wip-small-update-18-february-2021/95121
Game Summary:
You are the only offspring of a prominent noble family in Luce Prima, when you are tested for high latent magical ability. In this world, magic is unlocked in individuals through highly traumatic or stressful events, dubbed an awakening. Due to potential conflicts in the future, high ranking officials decide to force awaken you through inflicting mental trauma. You overhear this plan ahead of time and run away, hoping to find a lead to awaken through untraditional methods. This leads you to a chase after the myth of the first mage and to the undiscovered secrets of magic itself.
3 are currently planned, 1 to 2 more will probably come as the story evolves.
- Nikolas/Nicole Caelum
Pale skin, toffee-colored hair (cut short or in a braid depending on gender), blue eyes.
A close friend of yours from childhood who is now a Mage Commissioner in Lesrien. Friendly, sunny, and a constant jokester, they are the first person you contact after running away. Currently heading the Mage Council’s investigation into following Zorah’s whereabouts.
Eighth of the Major Arcana, Mage General of Noctem. Proud, ambitious, and a little flirtatious, they are the ones that provide the lead on the Zorah investigation. Notorious for being incredibly powerful as a mage and a highly intelligent field commander.
- Arlen/Arlene Nett
Naturally tanned skin, curly black hair, black eyes.
Librarian of the Mage Council. Gentle, caring, and soft-spoken, they are enlisted for help in the investigation by N. Has a small addiction to sweets.
Hey guys, feeling a lot better now! I’m dipping in for the last “quick update” before I get back to updating normally soon hopefully. I’m out of the hospital tomorrow, and I’ve got a lot of school work to catch up on, but I think that I’ll be back on track around mid to late June! I’m going to push the demo update back to a little later than that as I feel uncomfortable releasing subpar work, but rest assured it’s coming :)
Hey guys, sorry for the radio silence again, it’s been a really crazy week-ish for me. I was involved in a traffic accident and suffered a spine injury. I will remain hospitalized for a while longer, and I might not be able to write very well (I’m currently having my brother type this out for me.) I’m about as fine as I can be health-wise, but I’ll probably have to delay the update I had been planning to push out for a good section of time. Sorry for the small update, but I’ll get some more details out when I’m feeling better. Sorry again.
Hi all! Sorry for the late update, but I’ll make it short and sweet. I’ve been busy with finals week, which is absolutely killing me, but my last final is on the 17th, and I can hopefully start writing more immediately after that! I’m going to push back the date of tumblr activity restarting to the 18th as well.
Progress on Chapter 3 is going okay-ish, but the last week I’ve spent some more time finishing the broad outline for the entire story. I’m getting along well enough, however, that I feel pretty confident in setting a tentative deadline for the next update as April 2nd, which should contain some small content updates for chapter 1 and chapter 2, as well as hopefully all of chapter 3 and 4.
That’s all, so stay safe and see you guys in a few days!
Hey guys, reporting in for my update this week 😀. Sorry for the radio silence past week, been really busy with work and school, but still writing! I’ll probably resume more regular posting on tumblr next week.
Chapter 3 is outlined and about 20% written, and I have a rough idea of how Chapter 4 is going to be laid out, so that’s nice. I’m going to be trying out different points where you can lock in the RO options so I can branch each route “better”. The first trial point will likely be coming up in early chapter 4, so that’s something to look forward to!
That’s all I have for now, sorry for the short update! I promise I’ll catch up a bit after next week. but until then, as always, stay safe and happy!
I'm not sure if this is a spoiler question but why does E insist that mc won even though E won (through the use of magic)?
Hey there, thanks for the ask!
Not really spoilers, but E is a pretty prideful person, so they don’t think they won under fair conditions - not when MC can’t use magic, and they think they would have lost otherwise!
Hi guys, weekly update coming up a little early this week! I’m going to be inactive the next few days on tumblr because of school exams, so I thought I’d update you guys earlier rather than later.
I got chapter 2 out on time! Really happy about that, but I think some parts of it were still rough around the edges, so there’s likely going to be some editing and polishing done on that chapter. Chapter 3 has a rough outline going, but it hasn’t been officially started yet - I’ll look at that after my exams. 😥
As a side note, after talking to some more experienced authors, I’ve decided that for the next “update cycle”, I’m going to release it later and spend a bit more time marinating it. That means good news and bad news: the update will come later (I’m thinking a month - 6 weeks?), but contain more content. Let me know if you enjoy it better that way, and I’ll also reevaluate how that effects my writing process after testing it out, then make a final decision based on both factors.
That’s all I have, so thanks for following, and stay safe and happy :) Until next week!
Hi guys! As promised, the demo has been updated with chapter 2.
Some quick things to note: Somethings to note
I’ve received feedback from a few people I’ve shown it to early that they would prefer if they could run through all the routes instead of just picking one. I’m going to take a look at more feedback from everybody and see if I can change it up a little so all three can be chosen, but for now you can only interact with one character option in detail per playthrough. Sorry!
I’m told earlier saves will not work and you have to start from the beginning. I’m not sure what determines this, but I’ll try to avoid this in future updates once I figure it out.
A good friend of mine made me chapter pages! They said they would prefer to not be named, but you know who you are! Thanks a lot for the help!
And as always, please leave feedback on anything you think didn’t feel right!
Hey, really loved the demo so far! I wanted to know if we are going to get a chance to talk to the bard in the tavern? He seems like a really cool character!
Thanks for popping in! A lot of people seem to like the Bard! Maybe I should make him the MC instead 😂. I’m going to look and see if I can adjust some things and add in an extra scene where you can talk to the Bard a little before N comes in to crash the party.
hi, two questions. will there be a nb RO? and will there be any bad endings? seems like theres a lot of potential to mess up lol
Hey! I would like there to be a NB RO, but I’m not sure if it will make it into this game or not. I have very little experience writing with that, and I don’t want to inadvertently offend someone with my writing.
Are you talking about bad ending in game or with the ROs?
If its in game, then kind of. There will be some choices you can make that won’t pan out too well for your goal, but they won’t immediately end your game - just change the final outcome.
If its with the ROs, then also kind of? Some of the characters more than others, but its meant to be a more realistic portrayal of things, so there will be rough patches. No forced breakup though, unless it comes with a lot of foresight and is very clear to readers. Thanks for the ask!
Hey, the demo seems really interesting so far! I was wondering a little about the magic system in your game.
Thanks a lot for following the game! The explanation is a little long, so I’m going to toss it under the cut, but before then, I want to clarify something. I’ll probably be posting 1-2 responses to asks a day - I will generally choose asks that have a longer response, and if both are available, alternate between lore and character asks. I’m also very sorry to say that I most likely won’t be directly replying to asks that are solely comments about their enjoyment of the game. I’m very grateful when you guys send me those asks, and I want you to know that I read all of them, but it can get hard to respond to all of them!
But that’s enough sidetracking - answer is under the keep reading portion, and potential trigger warnings, so take care when deciding to look.
Ok, so first things first - there’s two obstacles to being a mage.
The first is the amount of magic your body can store. Everybody can store a little bit, but less than one in a hundred have enough to actually accomplish anything with it.
The second is the so-called awakening process. For reasons not yet known, the magic stored in your body can only be “channeled” into something productive with very strong negative emotions. The threshold for this level of negative emotion differs from person to person, but the first time of using magic for everybody has a significantly higher bar.
This is part two of why functioning mages are so rare. In addition to having had an event that caused very strong negative emotions in their past, they need to be able to bring up strong negative emotions whenever magic is necessary, and the constant negativity can easily cause mental deterioration.
The forced awakening covered is essentially using various means of torture to attempt to inflict mental trauma. This is also why the success rate is so low - most people go insane from the methods used.
Now that we covered the why, we can move on to the what! (sorry that it got so dark)
When each mage uses magic for their first time, their magical capabilities become set. Everybody is able to use basic magic to some extent, but everybody also has what is known as a Talent, or a specific area of magic where it is easier for them. Nobody knows what determines it, but it is hypothesized that it is related to your awakening incident.
There are a few “branches” of magic that have been generalized into over the years.
Charms
This is a really broad branch that technically covers all of the other branches. Charming basically involves casting and then saving a magic for later. For example, in chapter 1, N uses an Isolation Charm at the tavern. This would be a hypothetical process for that:
1. A mage somewhere capable of isolation magic makes an Isolation Charm.
2. N gets a hold of the Charm.
3. N wants to use it. Even though N might not be proficient or capable of using isolation magic, N can still channel their magic through the charm, and it will cast as if the original user cast it.
A common medium for this is paper, upon which the spell is saved, but there are other ways to create charms.
Enhancement
This branch involves strengthening/weakening objects or people. This includes stuff like how E is able to make themselves move faster (strengthening their muscles) or how “enchanted weaponry” is made (materials used are enhanced).
Reality Manipulation
This branch involves making things happen that shouldn’t. It encompasses a lot of types of magic, such as all elemental magic. E’s ability to store things in a spatial bubble is an example of a very rare manifestation of this.
Tracing
This branch is a little hard to explain. It basically boils down to analytical magic. Mages that Trace can, for example, break down the chemical makeup of a drink, “visualize” the history of an object, or extract memories from a person. In essence, everything has a little “record” of what that object or person has experienced, and mages that can Trace are able to tap into that.
I hope this was an interesting read, and answers some of your questions!
Hey everybody, thanks for following my WiP! I’m going to submit a weekly update, starting from today, to try to keep you peeps updated on my progress.
So far, chapter two is coming along really well. I already have the chapter outlined and all the structure is finished, so all that’s left is for me to just run through and flesh out all the scenes in detail! I’m going to try my best to write my butt off during the weekend, but I expect to be able to push out chapter two by next Friday at the latest.
Unrelated news, I’ve been reading a lot of Sanderson recently and holy shit, this guy churns out books like nobody’s business! I can’t believe how fast he writes, and how high quality it is! Definitely one of my role models now.
So yeah, that’s probably all I have for now in terms of updates. There’s a couple of folks who asked some questions - I’m going to take a look and respond sometime tonight or tomorrow morning. Stay tuned and keep safe folks - until next week! :P
