StoryVerse〔∞〕
Quest for the Omega Node – Start Here
StoryVerse, Sat, Mar 4, 2023, 12:00 PM.
You are sitting at a small corner desk in a tiny room, next to the keyboard, a mug of coffee, as black as the screen before you, the blinking cursor a silent invitation to write something. Anything.
An email arrives in your inbox.
You stare at the screen, gazing at the orange button. The traffic is drowned out by rain hammering against the window. You bend forward, fingers hovering over the keyboard.
Ideas emerge, words form, words fade, and your eyes wander from the mug to the photograph on the wall.
Welcome to the StoryVerse, Player One!
This is your story. This is everyone’s story. It begins here. Where will it lead? Where will it end? You decide, each of you. Feel adventurous? Want to join? Here’s how.
Write a Scenario
Did you find a StoryVerse node with an open (unlinked) choice you want to continue? Someone has challenged you? Excellent. Think of a choice. What will it be? What will the next player do?
Write a scenario for your first choice (max 100 words). Think about Player Agency. Does the choice matter? In what way? What are the stakes? How does it fit the narrative? Not every choice has to be about life and death. They can be small, personal, or far-reaching, choices that matter in some way.
Player Agency: The player's ability to impact the story through the game design or gameplay.
Two choices, two paths, none of them alike, one leads down a road less travelled maybe. The other leads to pain and suffering or perchance happiness in the end, who can say? Maybe one leads to a premature end and the other means the end for someone else. Dramatic situations, thirty-six1 of them, the choice is yours.
Choose wisely. If you don’t like the prewritten choices on your node, change them. When you are done, send the two scenarios to me along with two pictures via direct message or join our TFTD Discord. You could add video or music, too. If you don’t find any suitable images, I can help you find one. We will try not to use AI-generated images. Once we have a final draft, your two scenarios will be added to the StoryVerse section with you as the guest author.
What will you send?
Text for Choice A + Scenario A (100 words max) + image.
Text for Choice B + Scenario B (100 words max) + image.
The name of the next node author.
If both scenarios are open nodes (continuations) you may want to assign a second author.
Who will the next player be? Send them a link to your StoryVerse post. If they choose to accept the challenge, add their name in a mention on your node!
And so it continues, from writer to writer, from player to player, from choice to choice, throughout the StoryVerse.
Starter Nodes
To kick things off, I wrote some nodes and handed off the next node creation to the illustrious
and , both avid gamers and magnificent writers. I wonder where they will take us next in the StoryVerse!Thanks to
for creating an interactive map of the StoryVerse!
The StoryVerse FAQ
What is the StoryVerse?
The StoryVerse is an ever-growing interactive story, an adventure where the writers and readers of Substack decide where it goes next. A collaborative effort across all of Substack to grow the StoryVerse 100 words at a time.
StoryVerse is a bit like those Choose Your Own Adventure2 gamebooks you may have heard of, or played, or like these text adventures, some of which are hidden inside the StoryVerse as easter eggs, fully playable, all you have to do is find them.
What is it about? What’s the theme?
It’s about a character, getting sucked into the never-ending thrills of starting a newsletter (node.00), writing their very first post or maybe never getting around to it because… strange things happen, or maybe they dozed off and it’s all a dream? And suddenly there’s a whole bus of characters, all wanting to play. Anything can happen. A tragedy, a comedy, both, in space with magic or simply at a restaurant, ordering a burrito… After all, it’s your story. Your choice.
A Writer’s Journey, if you will.
What’s the goal?
As part of this collective Writer’s Journey, the goal is ephemeral. A quest to find the Final Word, The Omega Node, which may be Node.42, or not. It’s an odyssey we embark on together, facing many Sirens’ calls, dangers, temptations, and joys, navigating the maze of the StoryVerse. It is you, who will make it happen, make it interesting, come to live: The Quest For The Omega Node.
Who can play?
Anyone can play. Anyone who has a publication on Substack and is interested in creating a scenario (100 words max) for the StoryVerse can add to it. That’s you? Excellent! Ready to write your first node?
What’s a node?
A node is a free, public-facing post in the TFTD StoryVerse section containing a scenario (text, image, video, audio, a mix) providing the reader two choices to continue the story from a previous node. Each node is a brief story (max 100 words) written for the StoryVerse at that precise junction between nodes, and players go from node to node making choices, some good, some bad, some ugly.
What if I found a node I want to add to?
That’s the beauty. You can! Send a message to the node author and have a chat, collaborate, and grow the adventure. You found a dead-end node but would love to continue in a different direction? Send that DM. The StoryVerse needs you!
I wrote a Node! Can I write another one?
Of course. There is no limit. Keep in mind, the idea is to hand off the StoryVerse baton to the next writer. You can, of course, snatch the baton back up and create more nodes later on.
How to play?
If you see your name mentioned next to the navigation bar, it means the writer of that node has chosen you to continue from here. You write one scenario (100 words max) that will lead forward and a second one that will lead to another dead-end. The next player will create two new choices on the node that leads forward.
Example: Come up with two choices for Scenario at node.xx
You find yourself at a restaurant where you are the only guest, sitting at the counter, kitchen sounds can be heard, someone is whistling.
You see a plate before you. On it, a juicy burrito.
For〔 choice A 〕you may write 〔 eat burrito 〕→ Link to scenario A. You could write, e.g.:
The burrito was an alien life form and you are now host to a tribe of cannibalistic alien beans slowly eating away at you from inside. The End.
For〔 choice B 〕you write〔 call the waiter 〕→ Link to scenario B, which goes like this:
After shouting and banging on the counter for a good minute, finally, the Chef, a giant, comes out of the kitchen, a big smile on his Cyclops face. When he sees you his grin grows broader as he raises his butcher’s knife in greeting.
The person you want to continue would do so from this scene onwards, creating new scenarios (100 words max each) with two choices from here.
Someone might feel there is something to be told after you made the “wrong” choice and ate those bean people…
Why join?
Because it’s mad fun and you never know where the story will take you! Thrilling. Also, it’s a great way to network, collaborate and discover new writers across Substack.
Everything is connected.
The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations is a descriptive list which was first proposed by Georges Polti in 1895 to categorize every dramatic situation that might occur in a story or performance. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thirty-Six_Dramatic_Situations
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choose_Your_Own_Adventure
Such a cool idea! Brilliantly thought out too. Well done Alexander. 🤩
I’m definitely in….