Update 1: A Chilly Arrival
EJ: When you load up Winterstrike without an ongoing playthrough, the first thing you see is this:
EJ: As is the case for all StoryNexus games, gameplay takes place through a hand of cards you draw and play. Right now we have only one card, which is this: (game text follows)
A chilly arrival (unlocked with a stranger 1 – you have 1)
The city of Iria shivered apart in a single silver-black moment. You regain your senses amid snow, and corpses shocked white, and glass-colored shrapnel.
The last soldier standing
Your company, the Winterhawks, arrived too late to defend Iria from the attack. You don’t know where the threat came from. And there’s no one left to ask.
A former…envoy
You were here for the Irians’ secrets. Small, delicious mysteries now superseded by a greater one: what caused the destruction?
One of the city’s denizens
Iria is your home. You could tell stories of the whirling festivals, the winsome dancers, the mock wars. Bleak flowers and robots with occluded eyes. All of it winterstruck.
- The last soldier standing
- A former envoy
- One of the city’s denizens
EJ: This takes us back to our hand, which now has a different single card to play: (game text follows)
Iria (unlocked with a stranger 2 – you have 2)
It’s a beautiful city, Iria. Whether it was more beautiful before the winterstrike that shattered its streets, struck down its buildings, and rendered starships unable to reach it or leave it—well, that’s open to debate. Some things haven’t changed: trysts arranged by birdplane messengers, libraries incised into the heady hearts of crystals, duelists whose games of gunfire and precise shadows cannot be stopped even by death. The Ocular Guard attempts to keep order, but other factions have taken advantage of the tumult to pursue their own ideals.
Your choice opens a small affinity to one of Iria’s factions, but doesn’t lock you in. There will be other opportunities to demonstrate faction affiliation later.
EJ: That last paragraph is “out-of-world” game text; in the game it’s blue. I’m not sure how best to indicate it here. Now back to the in-game text:
Many people despise the Ocular Guard’s desire to oversee everything in the city, from the roving markets to the conversations people hold in makeshift galleries, but you can’t help but laud their mission.
The Scarf and Feather Society is known for its extravagant gatherings and its flexible attitudes toward niceties like the law. You feel a good deal of sympathy for this point of view; it is well-suited to the times.
The Architects of Ink have become very busy in the winterstrike’s aftermath. As students of history, they have a great interest in making sure that Iria’s tribulations are properly recorded. Their work to preserve Iria’s treasures appeals to you.
People rarely feel equivocal about the Circle of Bullets, which is devoted to dueling, and whose members are frequently heedless of their own safety, let alone anyone else’s. For your part, you admire the purity of their dedication.
- The Ocular Guard
- The Scarf and Feather Society
- The Architects of Ink
- The Circle of Bullets
Sera
You prefer to be known as a woman.
Ser
You prefer to be known as a man.
A little ambiguity never hurt anyone
It’s complicated, and you’d rather not explain.
EJ: These options do have images but it’s the same image for all three, identical to the card itself.
- Male
- Female
- It’s complicated
EJ: There’s one more fixed storylet before things open up, but that’s where stats come into it, and the stats are set by our answer to the first question above, so I’m going to split it here. Polls will be open for about a day.
In order to show you all this, I had to create a placeholder character whom I will retire as soon as the votes come in so as to make the character the thread requests. RIP, PlaceholderName!