The Book of Masks Homepage

Something Extra

So, here's a little dividend: "Invalid Item"  (public) / "Opinions Sought, and Opinions Unwelcome"  (interactive). It's not much, but it's there for a purpose.

Chapter 2, "The Fake Book," sets up the three branches that all the various storylines have spiraled out of: Will exploring the grimoire with friends; Will becoming a pupil or adversary of the warlock Aubrey Blackwell; Will getting rid of the book but getting roped back into it as others start using it.

This new chapter is there to do something similar, but with a slight twist. The choice presented is "Show the book to your dad", and Chapter 3 is about that. But the choices at the end basically recapitulate the choices at the end of Chapter 2: Investigate the book; return it to the bookstore; get rid of it. Why is that?

BoM has been a ten-year project, with new characters, backgrounds, and situations developed over that period of time. There are many early chapters and storylines that do not reflect or account for things that were developed later. I think that's okay. I have tried to turn that to an advantage by keeping all the storylines somewhat limited. Story-telling requires selection—the author selects what is important to the story—and a storyline that included everything would be too fat and clumsy to be enjoyed.

In looking BoM over, though, I decided it wouldn't be a bad idea if there was a way of re-approaching older storylines from scratch with material since added. I don't mean by re-running and re-posting those storylines exactly. I mean by almost starting the interactive over again, with the chance to go down certain familiar avenues again but this time while knowing a lot more about the universe. My first thought was to start a new interactive—literally, start BoM over again. But then I thought that maybe there was a way of doing the same thing inside BoM itself.

Hence, the chapter "Opinions Sought, and Opinions Unwelcome." It doesn't develop much off of "The Fake Book," and more or less ends with the same choices as ended "The Fake Book." But just in this way it's like an alternate to "The Fake Book," and so provides a place for slightly alternate, and maybe richer and more informed, storylines similar to those that come after "The Fake Book."

I've no plans currently to add any sequels to this new chapter. It's only there to open up a possibility. Right now I'm intent on developing some new characters inside of well-developed storylines.