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The Wrath of BitCromA Blockchain-Powered Online Gamebook (with Gambling)80’s children will have fond memories of gamebooks like the Choose Your Own Adventure, Fighting Fantasy or Lone Wolf series. These books captured the essence of role-playing by granting players agency over their character within a greater narrative. Inspired by such classic interactive fiction, I’ve adapted the format to take advantage of the internet and Bitcoin, the coin of the digital realm.
The goals are to allow real-time creative collaboration between storytellers, illustrators and readers and also to deepen the excitement of classic gamebooks by making player decisions a true gamble.
StorylineEver felt like lopping off a central banker's head with a broadsword? Here's your chance!
You are Coinan the libertarian, wielder of the mystic blade Nakoshi and worshipper of BitCrom, grim god of economic reality. As Coinan, you’re oathsworn to slay the evil Ben$halom, whose dark financial sorcery destroyed your village.
The path to Ben$halom’s lair is long and fraught with peril. His fanatical cultists hold sway over the Amrok Empire and all its vassals. The vile swampwitch, Janyella, works her devious glamours in league with Ben$halom, who also commands the loyalty of Lawben, the tyrant of N’ork.
To fulfil your oath of vengeance by taking the head of Ben$halom, you must choose wisely which path to tread through this blood-soaked tale of sword & sorcery (& debauchery).
MechanicsAs a modern twist on choose-your-own-adventure books, instead of turning to a particular page, players will decide Coinan’s fate by sending bitcoin to the relevant address. After a set time has elapsed, the highest value address wins and the tale continues accordingly. He who pays the piper calls the tune.
I may set minimum or maximum transaction values, maybe even restrict votes to registered forum / WoT / blog identities, depending on how this develops. I’d prefer to keep things freeform but shit happens.
Custom ChoicesIf you have a better idea of what Coinan should do next, then don’t be shy to shout it out! If it’s workable, I’ll create an option for it. If it wins the vote, your contribution to the story will be rewarded.
GamblingTo reward smart players, making the right choice (or sequence of choices) at critical points will be rewarded with bitcoins! Such decisions will be described in
red text. Wits will be rewarded in these cases.
Example, Coinan encounters a hostile, socialist vampire. These choices are presented:
A) Slash the vampire! (send to page 16osin...)B) Insult the vampire’s sire. (send to page 1Lx9Kn...)C) Spit on the vampire’s fancy cape. (send to page 17D1Hu...)D) Apply garlic oil to the wooden stake then stab the vampire through the heart! (send to page 14WQ7q...)Fairly obviously, the optimal choice here is
D) as vampires are mildly allergic to garlic and highly allergic to heart-stabs. In actual play, the clues to the right choice will be subtle and scattered throughout the story. I won’t present situations in which making the optimal choice is only a matter of luck.
Getting to the nitty-gritty, let’s say three non-red text decisions preceded this vampire encounter, each netting 0.3° BTC (after your humble author takes his 33% cut). So, the pot is worth 1 BTC plus however much is sent to the “wrong” addresses in this red text round. Players who choose
D) will receive a share of the pot proportional to their vote’s bitcoin value, which will also be refunded.
The formula for calculating the profit for a winning bet on
D) is:
value of player's bet * total pot (comprised of the value of losing bets plus the value of all previous non-gambling votes minus my one third cut) / total value of winning betsFairnessRed text installments will always include a password-protected file containing a description of the optimal choice. The password will be revealed in the next installment, ensuring a pre-determined answer unaffected by the value of bets placed or other factors.
[update: to handle this more smoothly, instead of a password-protected file, the optimal choice will be hashed and the salt revealed in the following update.]You’ll have to trust me not to play my own game or leak the right choice to my cronies before voting ends. Either that or suggest a way to make things trustless...
To be eligible for red text gambles, remember to post your vote’s transaction ID in the thread before the deadline. Include your desired receiving address, as I’ve been told “there’s no from address.”
PrizesThere’ll be occasional riddles and puzzles in this story. Hashing the correct answer will provide the password to unlock a wallet containing the pot. Answers will be all lowercase, with no special characters.
[still working on the implementation of this]CombatCombat will feature prominently, given that violence is go-to solution in grim fantasy worlds. While wielding your sword, you have 4 basics attacks:
- Stabbing is the fastest attack but requires great precision to land a telling blow, particularly against an armoured opponent.
- Slashing your sword through a wide arc gives the highest chance of hitting a foe - or anything else.
- Smiting brings your sword down in a vicious overhead strike which deals tremendous damage but leaves you dangerously over-extended if you miss.
- Kicks are used to unbalance an enemy for a lethal follow-up strike, but can just as easily unbalance you.
RomanceCoinan is not the most sensitive, considerate lover so, when indulging in the delights of wenching, his available options will resemble those in the section above.
CharacterCoinan has explosive physical strength and great endurance. His senses are keen, his reflexes sharp and his balance good. He is fearless and aggressive in combat. If enraged or intoxicated, he is prone to going berserk. Coinan’s mind is cunning and quick, albeit largely uneducated and often clouded by his passions. He cares not for the laws and affectations of “civilized” folk.
SkillsSkill checks on certain choices will be handled by using block times as dice. Given the average block time is 10.36 minutes, a block time below this duration will result in you passing checks in which you have average skill. This is provably fair, as they say.
Half the average block time (or less) will count as a critical failure, twice (or more) will result in great success.
As Coinan, you are average in these skills:
- Axe: a weapon well-suited to inflicting smiting damage on objects or enemies.
- Climbing: so far, you’ve proven adept at scaling trees, cliffs and structures without breaking your neck.
- Cryptomancy: to be revealed in prologue.
- Smithing: you can identify metals or ores and know the basics of working a forge.
You are versed (+60 seconds to blocktime) in these skills:
- Brawling: the fine art of face-punching, groin-kicking, ear-biting and wrestling.
- Spear: a weapon which excels at stabbing enemies at range.
- Tumbling: tribal games and dances have afforded you practice in leaping, rolling and falling.
You are proficient (+120 seconds to blocktime) in these skills:
- Hunting: you have knowledge of animals, tracking, trapping and stealthy movement.
- Survival: from an early age, you have been taught various survival skills; wound-treatment, finding water, identifying edible or medicinal plants and constructing a shelter.
- Sword: a versatile weapon equally suited to slashing, stabbing or smiting.
- Throwing: when it comes to chucking stuff, you have a sharp eye and a strong arm.
AboutThis original form of interactive fiction was devised by Sir Lagsalot (aka
HeySteve aka Gordon Hall).
Certain art assets used under open source licence from forthcoming strategy game,
Ancient Beast. And of course, this project owes more than a nod to Robert E. Howard, author of the immortal Conan stories.
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Get InvolvedIf this project appeals to you, get in touch in this thread or via PM! All significant contributions will be rewarded from game profits. Here's a list of what's most needed to bring this project to life:
Fantasy art! If you have a talent for making maps or drawing figures and monsters, original artwork would greatly benefit this project.
Creative writing! Ideas, feedback and contributions are most welcome. If you're familiar with cryptocurrency and Conan lore, all the better.
Game design! The whole decision tree gets pretty complex and potentially chaotic by allowing custom choices. If you're an experienced dungeon master or RPG designer, let me know.
Maths homework! A concrete formula for sharing the pot is needed to finalize the gambling rules. The goal is to share the pot among winners in proportion to how much they've put at risk, as compared to each other...
Puzzles and riddles! If you enjoy crafting fiendish riddles and puzzles, share them! Cryptanalytic challenges could work well here.
Expert Bitcoin advice! I'd appreciate guidance on handling the Bitcoin aspects of this game. I'll want to create a separate wallet for this project, probably deterministic as I expect the game will use up a standard wallet's keypool pretty quickly and I don't want to be making backups constantly - need wallet recommendations there. There's also the issue of using riddle or puzzle answers to "unlock wallets" - I'm sure this is doable in a way that can't be brute-forced but haven't found the exact method yet. I also need help with fine-tuning block times as dice; I'm not sure what degree of variability to plan around.
Coder! There are probably many ways to improve the game which won't even occur to me as I'm code-illiterate. Let me know if you spot an element which could be automated or handled better.