Party of Four IF by Zo

Party of Four is an 18+ interactive fiction game in ChoiceScript, written and cried over by username zozopuff.

[partyof4game]

Party of Four is an adult (18+) interactive fiction game with RPG, romance, and dungeon break themes written in ChoiceScript.

The known world of Vert is at peril from the appearance of portals: vortexes of mana that open into a land of dungeons separate from yours; filled with traps, mazes, and monsters. The populace is in constant fear of monsters that escape the portals and roam across the landscape. Your world relies on two things: the Disciples who band together with heroes to enter these dungeons and close the portals, and the Gods who Mark them.

You are an orphan that grew up in a church dedicated to one of three patron gods: Nivari, Goddess of the Sun; Peysca, God of the Ocean; and Anila, God of Wilderness. One day a rumor comes to light — a prophetic dream has been plaguing the upper clergy, depicting that you will be the next chosen Disciple and given a Divine Task both great and terrible.

You will head into the dungeons, you will fight, or you will suffer the consequences.

In Party of Four, you can:

Play as male, female, nonbinary, or trans; be gay, straight, bi; be aromantic, or on the ace spectrum.

Choose the God you follow: Nivari, Peysca, or Anila.

Choose your class: Warrior, Mage, or Healer. Differentiate your talent further by picking a specialization! Are you a faithful Warrior Templar, a whimsical Wind Mage, or maybe a bumbling Herbalist Healer?

Choose your four person party from a cast of colorful characters.

Explore dungeons using your skills, wit, luck, or stand behind your friends. Play a power fantasy or be a wet noodle.

Befriend a giant pack beetle that comes with you on your adventures.

Romance, befriend, or discover a situationship with a shieldmaiden, a himbo mage, an awkward healer, your childhood friend, an aloof ranger, an electric guildmate, or a mysterious bard.

Explore the city of Sentari and the sights it offers. Shop, train, and chat!

Become a feared vigilante of justice.

Pet the giant rat (or bat; or spider).

Graphic violence against fantasy creatures and humans.

Religious themes.

Explicit sexual content. (skippable)

My humor. (not skippable)

Raena [she/her]: Your childhood friend and fellow orphan in the same church as you. She is the pride of the parish's Armsmaster and has been training on the bow since she could hold one. While she clings to you and your history together, she lets you go after receiving your Divine Task. Or so she says.

Vana Peacebearer [she/her]: A shieldmaiden from a clerical family. She is stoic and slow to warm to others, but will always reciprocate any kindness she is shown. Vana will follow the player character out of a sense of duty towards Disciples, but there is something that she desperately wants and cannot have... Can she be convinced to leave it all behind?

Maymie Fox [she/her]: A mage with an affinity for short and mid-range elemental attacks, her favorite being lightning. Maymie will do whatever it takes to come out as the top dog. As an ex-street rat, her morals are questionable at best, and vicious at worst. If you make a friend of her, she will drag you right to the top with her, whether you like it or not.

Jem Miye [he/him]: A little shy, and a lot awkward, Jem is the quintessential healer. Like you, he's a Disciple, but to the God Melekoth, who rules the Moon. He has a feminine appearance that makes him insecure, but you can build him up with your friendship (or love). However, behind those blue eyes lies something murky and desperate.

Linzel Syrat [he/they]: Linzel is just charming enough to mask how much he absolutely does not care about other people’s problems. He wants to join your party for the profit, although he'll be the last to admit he finds you interesting. He has a giant spider/bat/rat familiar named Fancy that follows him wherever he goes. (Familiar form based on player choice.)

Aslo Gergin [he/him]: Loud, brash, a man's man, Aslo is a mage who likes to fight on the front lines, no matter how ill-advised others think it is. He's a hot and cold person, always willing to reexamine his opinion of people on the fly. He loves fiercely and immediately, which can get him into trouble with ex-lovers and tavern patrons alike.

Sweets [they/them]: A follower and devotee to the Goddess Myrtle, patron of music and merrymaking, Sweets is a playfully mysterious bard who resides in Sentari, the capital of Vert. They enjoy getting other people to talk about themselves and making ballads for people they think will become famous. Your name is on a lot of tongues lately and Sweets is very interested to know more.

Patreon | RO Intros | CoG Forum Thread | Current Demo (153k)

Second IF Project (Sci-Fi High Stakes Slice of Life)

All asks are welcome, including NSFW! There are no stupid questions! Nothing is too cringe — unfortunately for everyone around me, I have little shame or fear.

[partyof4game]

Ngl so excited for more Maymie. in the meantime, perfectly crafting in a lab an mc for her to bother in more ways than one.

Awww yeah Maymie love!

I have so much fun writing her. She's just that character I can do thought experiments with — where I think of what I would like to do or say in a situation if I had the collective weight of my ancestor's audacity, a disregard for my standing in society as a whole, and a knife. 💛

I'm starting her one on one chat scenes and there are so many things I can't wait to get to that have been on my mind for her chat these last few weeks. 😌

[partyof4game]

That last ask made me think. Say there’s one MC for each romance route, would that mean Raena and Vana would have two MCs each, or is it just one for the whole poly? Similarly, the Maymie and Linzel v poly, would it turn into a zigzag?

Ohhhh... I had to think about this for a second. Uhmmm, for the RV poly I think there would be 3 MCs - one each on their solo routes and a third they share haha. As for Maymie and Linzel... I think they'd just play musical chairs with their personal MCs and 2 poly MCs (would likely have one for equal affection route and one for unequal affection route). 🧐

[partyof4game]

I like thinking about joint MCs becuase it’s a fun thought exercise and wow everyone including the extra MCs are going to age a billion years from the presence of Aslo MCs

Put them all in a room together and watch the aging process in real time.

[partyof4game]

I'm really excited to see how the differences between MCs on the slowburn and instalove routes play out. I can imagine instalove MCs wouldn't feel the same angst about Aslo's flippant use of the soulmate word as slowburn MCs would because they've experienced love at first sight themselves so they would be more inclined to believe that Aslo's genuine about his feelings because why would someone lie about that?! It's true love we're talking about 😡 Meanwhile Jem's just giving then side eye 😭

I do love that instalove route MCs can share in the delulu with him. Just deeply infatuated and forgives him easily because people can make mistakes! And he was probably drunk, which will be their biggest concern really haha. It might end up in a competition about who believes in soulmates harder.

The slow route will probably end up with MC angsting over everything more, while Aslo sits in the corner absolutely smitten, but totally oblivious to their concerns until he finally realizes he done fucked up and has to do Grand Romantic Gesture™️ to make up for it lmao.

In both routes Jem will suffer as he's forced to watch them together.

[bellamy-ifs]

Anyway, to distract from what I just reblogged...

Chapter 2 part 1 of Suevi is now available!

It's finally here, Chapter 2 part 1 is out! I'll start working on part 2 as soon as possible - where you'll finally meet the other ROs.

For now, this is what Chapter 2 contains:

More hobbies!

New acquaintances!

Old and new faces!

A possible fling!

[partyof4game]

I reset my cookies on a different cog game and didn’t realise it’d get my other saves so now we get to have a new set of one-liners 🫡

Omg, this happened to me recently while reading The Mark of the Devil (great read, very Nathaniel Hawthorne coded) and after crying for about 20 minutes I told myself, "FINE, I'LL JUST START OVER" only to see that the game will be getting an update soon and I read IFs way too slow (I'm a save scummer, sue me), so now I have to wait to read the updated version. How could you do this to me @mkbramble-if??? 😤😂

HOWEVER I am always invested in the one-liner save names, so I can't say I feel bad for you, since I am the one benefiting. 😂😂

[partyof4game]

HOW MANY MORE MONTHS UNTIL RAENA IS BACK GAHHH THE WAIT IS EXCRUCIATING

Any snippets, plans, crumbs, anything about her at all? The MC x Raena Corporation is about to go bankrupt here!!

(In-characterness aside, no pressure we can wait. It'd be nice to see her sooner than later though)

Heyyy there Raena Corp! To the lovely CEO, CMO, CFO....

I am currently working on a side story for Raena that features her adventure from the parish to Sentari where she meets up with MC. It's skipped in the game (since it's getting kinda long and the game doesn't have RO POVs in the prose) but I'm having fun with it. Will post it on my patreon sometime in the next couple weeks. 🧐 Oh! And I'm working on her NSFW alphabet since I promised to do those 30 years ago (slight exaggeration). I'll post those to Tumblr as I finish them. 😌

Game-wise, I am literally begging myself to stop making things more difficult so I can get through to day 3 and get Raena back in here, but I never seem to listen to myself (full chest: this will happen again). A realistic goal to have her back in the game would be end of fall (Oct/Nov ish), maybe published for the public by the end of the year. Sooner would be amazing, but I don't trust myself to be optimistic until the children are in school and not up my ass all day fighting about who's smiling when they shouldn't be or who stinks or who ate all the bananas I bought that morning. [visibly shaking in stressed parent on the brink]

Anyway, Raena is amazing! 💛😚

[partyof4game]

RO question... For each RO, what's a fantasy they would admit to deep in a relationship (doesn't have to be sexual but also....... Doesn't NOT have to be sexual......... The people are horny but reasonable)? What's one they would never admit to?

Ooooo this is a fun ask! I might have interpreted 'fantasy' in different ways, such as future dreams, hopes, childish fantasies, or sex fantasies lol. Had to do some critical thinking for this one, and now my braincell count of two has been reduced to one for the time being. 😂

Jem: What he would admit to: That he wants the people who looked down on him during his apprenticeship to apologize to him while recognizing his potential and power.What he will never admit to: That he wants, at least once, to sexually please MC to such an extent that they'd think about it for years to come — and so that they'd never consider leaving him for someone who is more attractive in the sexual appetite/ability department.

Raena: What she would admit to: That she wants MC to run away with her — to just drop all the Disciple shit and become adventures and live off the land and bounties and just run wild while they still can; consequences be damned. What she will never admit to: That she desperately wants to be famous as a hero, to the point that Armsmaster Yoren hears of her exploits and becomes proud of her for carrying on her legacy.

Vana: What she would admit to: That she'd become a Disciple of Wuldren due to sheer fervency and taking a proactive role to protect Disciples until she's noticed. What she would never admit to: Patricide.

Linzel: What he would admit to: Returning to his homeland of Baahn and joining a new tribe. There's something alluring about starting over and living simply after years in Sentari, where culture both blends and becomes erased. What he would never admit to: Their tendency for suicide ideation.

Maymie: What she would admit to: That she wants to step on someone and not only would they get turned on, but they'd thank her for it. What she would never admit to: Finding all the people that ever paid to have her mother as a partner at the brothel and ruining their lives in any way she can think of: financially, emotionally, socially, murder.

Aslo: What he would admit to: Having sex outside under the full moon lol. What he would never admit to: That sometimes, he doesn't have to be the strong one, that he can break down and cry and be held and pet and told that everything is going to be okay.

Sweets: What they would admit to: That one day they're famous enough that some really rich big-shot commissions them to write and perform a song for them, and that afterwards the patron finds them so sexy and irresistible that they then solicit them for a sexy night — and if they're hot enough Sweets agrees. What they would never admit to: Quitting the bardic life and finding their Father just to see how he's doing and possibly begging for forgiveness or lording their superiority over him, depending on how he's fairing.

[partyof4game]

Losaslo is the truest chad of them all 🤟😔

Losaro out here being both the problem and the problem solver, just to piss Aslo off even more. 😂

[partyof4game]

Hi Zozo. Why is Aslo the black sheep of his family? Why did this spoiled baby boi do?

Hello anon!!

Aslo is mostly considered his family's black sheep because he wanted so badly to leave his home and seek out adventure and danger while everyone else is very much content with their lives as is, so he's seen as the oddball out. They don't hate him for it, though they do talk hold a kind of pity for him and talk about him when he's not around, but mostly gossip.

Losaro is the only sibling who doesn't take Aslo's thirst for adventure as a slight against their upbringing or culture. He's the type who thinks that once Aslo sees the bigger world, he'll appreciate his roots more. And he's right.

[partyof4game]

Would Aslo spontaneously combust if MC commented on how tall Aslo's perfect brother is? "Wow! You're so tall!" 🤩🤩🤩

The way he'd claim that his brother stuffs his shoes for those two extra finger widths of height! Then he'd never forget about MC being enamored with his brother's height and would threaten his family to never visit again unless Losaro slouched whenever they were there. Then his mom would smack him.

He'd be forever butthurt about it.

Can I please get a snippet, a reaction, anything to MC walking in to the choas of Aslo getting hit by his mommy. The whole family there either laughing or feeling sorry for out big himbo partner. Everyone turning to MC who is asking what the hell is happening only for someone to tell them. MC just frowning and bringing Aslo face close to their as kissing where the smack was and everywhere else while saying their is no reason to be jealous and listening all the reason why they love them even throwing a "shhh your brother isnt that tall anyway". Just wanting to calm him down.

I NEED to know how the family and Aslo would react to this!!!!!!!

Awww haha I love the idea of Aslo being coddled by MC. I'm working on some of his content right now, so he's on the brain. ✨🧠✨

His siblings would find the display to be cringe as hell. Like, he's already babied by their mom just for being the dreamer and black sheep among all the kids, so they can't believe he managed to find someone to baby him even more, no matter how much he denies being spoilt. (This probably the source of his ego.) They'd probably catch Aslo alone and tease him by making kissy faces at him and petting his arms and hair, telling him it's okay, poor baby, you're not that short!

His mom would find it cute that he has someone who will ease away all his hurts and soothe his insecurities, of which she knows he has plenty. Hopefully one day he'll feel secure enough with himself to let it all go.

His dad wouldn't comment, but he'd wish that Aslo would finally stop feeling sorry for himself so others wouldn't have to treat him like he's fragile all the time. (This is the source of Aslo's toxic views on masculinity.)

Losaro would start walking super straight and on the balls of his feet just be that much taller so he can piss Aslo off — out of love, of course.

[partyof4game]

As someone who is constantly warm, I prefer the cold. Anyways, which ROs clings to a MC who runs hot (temperature wise) or in a perpetual state of cold?

I'm the opposite, anon! Always seeking warmth (and to harass people with my cold ass hands). 😌

ROs that seek a human heater MC: Linzel, Jem, Vana

ROs that share their warmth with cold MC: Raena, Aslo

Secret third option of perfect homeostasis: Sweets, Maymie

[partyof4game]

Linzel scratches AND bites?... that mother fucker better put a fuckin ring on me cuz HELL YEAH

He's ready to bite

[partyof4game]

This is my very first NSFW ask if I can remember correctly and I trust you with it sweet gumdrop button (˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶) Who is a scratcher/biter when it gets too rough during the tango? (Mato is into it, trust) ദ്ദി◝ ⩊ ◜.ᐟ If this is cringe, I'll give you my address to order a snipper ٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و ♡

*Cups your first NSFW ask in my hands* I will protect you, little precious. There is no cringe here!

But oooo fun question!! 💛

Those that scratch: Raena, Vana, Linzel, Maymie

Those that bite: Linzel, Maymie, Sweets

Those that pull hair: Vana, Maymie, Aslo

*special note: Jem will pinch if he's really desperate to get MC to pay attention haha. He has a mean pinch, too. Beware!

[partyof4game]

RV poly marriage and Raena and MC are ugly sobbing while Vana stands there completely stone faced. Incredible

lmaoooo friends of Vana that know her well in the audience trying to reassure others like 'no, no, she's happy i swear! you can tell by the way she's clenching her fists! to hold it in!'

[partyof4game]

Zozopuff… who of the ROs are the type to cry during their commitment ceremony to MC… who is the type to tease MC for crying… many things to consider

Ohh fun question, Anonymous...!

Jem: definitely the type to get all teary and sniffly. doubly so if MC is also weepy.

Raena: oh yeah she'd cry big ole tears and wouldn't really care either way if MC cried too lol

Vana: wouldn't cry but would be extra quiet and deep in her feels. would tease a weepy MC far down the line

Linzel: definitely frog in throat and eyes feeling hot, but he wouldn't let those tears fall. appreciates MC who can cry on both their behalf.

Maymie: cries but denies it. laughs at a weepy MC while her own tears make a mess of her face

Aslo: tries to hold it in but ends up shedding a few tears by the end of the ceremony. less likely to cry if MC is crying because he feels he's gotta be the "strong" one

Sweets: cries in that soft way where the tears just well up and are easily wiped away; not too emotional! definitely teases a crying MC during the afterparty once they're both dried up and having fun