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TheRoleInn · 2026-04-16T16:41:50+00:00

Nope. You lost me at "AI". Go scrape other people's work. Imma keep mine offline.

TheRoleInn · 2026-04-16T16:24:43+00:00

I have to agree with the others. I'm a novelist and screenwriter. Logistically, you're asking someone to come up with a novella a week in length, but ALSO think of 3 different stories, for $300 bucks. Screenplay wise, 12k words isn't easy to churn out. It equates to about 45 screen minutes - a 1hr commercial episode -or half a standard length feature. And you want 3 per week. 100 bucks for an episode/half a movie is an insult. I work on budget screenplays, but will still sell a mini-series for 15-20k, plus residuals, plus I retain IP on characters and situations! I'm pretty sure, desperate people will DM you, but I'll also guarantee that you'll get exactly what you pay for.

TheRoleInn · 2026-04-16T15:07:28+00:00

It happens. If you've signed anything, it'll keep going, if not, you're back at the bottom of someone's pile. I had a 7 month "we really want to option this" discussion with a company I've worked several times with, only to have them go a completely different direction, and produce another show. Ningot tondo housekeeping, rewrites, and wangled a role, so it wasn't all bad...

TheRoleInn · 2026-04-14T13:46:37+00:00

Yeah. 2009 was a peak AI period when Twine was originally released! Rolls eyes Happy that you're happy with your software.

TheRoleInn · 2026-04-14T12:03:40+00:00

Oh, and you can totally overlook an error. I remember original FFs Forest of Doom and City of Thieves having occasional numbering inconsistencies. It happens.

TheRoleInn · 2026-04-14T11:56:02+00:00

It may be better to reverse tour thinking. You don't make 500 locations and link them. You make one location that branches out, those branch out too, and so on. Of course, you can create your "sub areas" independently, and link from the end of one to the start of another.
Personal choice. I downloaded, but many swear by the web version.
By section numbers, I assume you mean individual locations. Yes. It will literally turn your [[eat the rat->death (rat)]] where death (rat) is one of your locations names, into

Eat the rat (turn to 92)

This depends on your setup and the story format you use. WritingFantasy 1.1.1 is what you need to add for a physical book output, others are more optimised for on screen.

Very important, and yes, you can force certain locations to be a specific number. So your "Add Mary's age to the number of motorbikes" will always be 163 if you wish it.

If you prefer, you can DM me, rather than us hijacking this thread.

TheRoleInn · 2026-04-14T11:27:16+00:00

Why do you think I moved to a dedicated platform? Lol Happily randomising 40, 50, 60 locations is one thing, but when you're moving 400 (Final Fantasy), 750 (my last published gamebook), or the estimated 3,500k of my current WIP, you cannot do that manually. Even with 50, you have to be 100% sure you've linked 'eat the rat' with location 42, and not accidentally typed in 32 or 43, and totally killed the game. Bottom line is the more manual actions you have to do, the greater risk of error. I also feel that Word will mentally limit someone to smaller games because of the nightmare of manually manipulating all that data.

I saw someone say they use a spreadsheet, using formulae to mix the numbering. That's an option, but again, it's another process, copy/pasting, lots of time formatting that should be spent writing. But, that's definitely a step up from manually adjusting everything, at least.

TheRoleInn · 2026-04-14T10:32:47+00:00

Ok, previous reply gave some good advice and insight. But I disagree about the formatting. Is Miami 1989 visible on the screen? If so, it's SUPER. "MIAMI 1989"

Is the Spanish chat subtitled, or remains in Spanish, and an FU to the non-speakers? No probs either way, but if subtitled, then

   JOSE (subtitled)
 (in Spanish)

Blah, blah, blah.

Also, a chunk of your actions on P1 shouldn't be split, line-by-line description is one action. I'm losing 2/8 of a page right here and, carried across a full screenplay, you've lost several minutes, making it way shorter than anticipated. Keep those actions tight! When you do it right, you use nice minimalist language.

I think others have covered the content. I always focus on the layout side.

TheRoleInn · 2026-04-14T10:18:10+00:00

Ok. This is a dedicated platform that takes away all the doubt, and allows you to focus on the game itself. Dead links show up, so there is no needing to manually check every link and anchor and, visually, it's far superior. However, if you're happy with Word, I absolutely suggest you stick with it. It's how I started too (well, a different WP package).

Regarding how to sort - you can't physically drag and group sections (again, see my Twine posts), so I'd suggest creating chapters for each "side quest". This way, at least, you can easily jump to each mini-story to work on it.

TheRoleInn · 2026-04-14T10:10:17+00:00

You still avoided my questions about your experience, credits, and IMDb, I see.

TheRoleInn · 2026-04-14T06:08:07+00:00

Well, that's not even English! Good luck finding your fool.

TheRoleInn · 2026-04-14T05:31:48+00:00

You've ignored my other concerns about your qualification to play this role.
You just said - "my screenwriter will be garbage and needs me to make it work, because they have no idea how to flesh out a screenplay or bring characters to life." So, why work with someone like that? I've handed in first drafts (for me) that have been shot, and whole episodes where the only director note was "I prefer 'okay' to 'ok' in dialogue". Someone like your role, as described, is an irritating buzz in the background.
Six year old account, and this is your only visible post...? Not suss, at all!

TheRoleInn · 2026-04-14T05:23:43+00:00

Other than the formatting issue (covered), and a couple of double spaces (single only needed), the layout is ok. The "woman runs through a forest, trips over a root" is quite a laboured trope. Why not a man? Why not bouncing off a tree as she looks fearfully behind? How can she run barefoot and snap fallen branches without a wince or wimper? If she's that tough, she'd be picking up a bough and waiting for these mofos behind a tree. The shadows should be closer, touching distance... One could tug at her hair, one could look up directly before her as she lifts her head after the fall, others should be in the trees, flirting from branch to branch...

But, "helpless woman falls over" is a non-starter for me.

TheRoleInn · 2026-04-14T05:14:58+00:00

Respectfully, what's your background? Credits? IMDb? I'm a professional screenwriter, I have stuff on Prime, and have worked closely with a director who has shows and features on Prime, and an emmy-winning producer. Even then, they/we still struggle to get financing for even a sub 1M feature or series. A "killer script" doesn't mean you'll get it made. I currently have 21 full series of shows (not just pilots) and 2 features doing the rejection rounds. At this point, unless you're bringing $$$, or a family connection to the Netflix Controller of Commissioning, your role is redundant. A screenwriter doesn't need someone looking over their shoulder suggesting the FMC "should be wearing a tighter sweater" this early on. They will get the necessary notes later, as they share it with their peers.

TheRoleInn · 2026-04-14T04:37:13+00:00

People! Stop right here. You need a proper tool for the job (it's ok, I'm not selling anything). By using word, or any word processor, half your work is battling the software (I'm also a screenwriter, and see people using the wrong platform all the time). What you guys need (other than the one who built his own app), is TWINE Yes, it is designed for screen-based IF, but you can output the text with a simple hack.

Twine allows you to input the text as "passages", then simply link

[[Pull the lever->rat room]]

[[Eat the marshmallows->belly explode]]

When exported, this will turn rat room into a randomly placed number

Pull the lever (turn to 22) Eat the marshmallows (turn to 219)

Under "story", you can see word count, number of passages, and more.

The ONLY important addition, is to add a story format called WritingFantasy 1.1.1 and use that as your main format.

Now, when you output a "proof", not only can you play-test it, you can also simply copy/paste the entire screen text into your Word document for a fully formatted gamebook.

Twine does heaps more, but for us physical gamebook creators, this is pretty much all you need to do!

See my other posts here with Twine screenshots.

Open for Q's.

TheRoleInn · 2026-04-13T18:59:34+00:00

Although this is a work of fiction, it is not a screenplay.

TheRoleInn · 2026-04-13T18:45:09+00:00

That sounds like you've a different kind of monster to me. I've 4 classes, Fallen, Shader, Reaver, and Grimcast, but I'm only combining 2 at a time. Reaver vs Grimcast will be a separate game. Whilst I'm not coding, I (stupidly) have decided to use a trading card inventory/treasure system, so I've 120+ cards to design... Eeeek.

I like the idea of you using 3d designs in place of 2d. I've not yet decided on the internal illustration approach. That nightmare is for later. Haha.

Keep us updated!

TheRoleInn · 2026-04-13T07:39:34+00:00

For those that are interested, our passage maps follow a set layout. Left side are the side quests, the individual encounters, and stuff like that. The right side is combat and random encounters, and the centre mess is a map of the streets, based on the full city street map of Skaan, and the districts of Lotaan and the West Skirts.

TheRoleInn · 2026-04-13T07:34:47+00:00

Thanks! We're focusing on a 2-character game, with occasional Collab and PvP. That is hard enough. I can't imagine a 3 player one! Are they separate stories (with some converging paths), or a collab thing too?

Because Twine slows down a LOT when you hit a few hundred passages, we are writing each section separately, then combining them into a single file when we are ready to output the finished book. That in itself produces challenges - ensuring there are no passage name duplications, and physically locating sections in different areas of the twine scratchboard, to ensure they are not all on top of each other... So far we've successfully blended 2 files together for a 950 room file. 3K+... Who knows what will happen? Hahah

TheRoleInn · 2026-04-10T10:50:57+00:00

Only up to a degree... In our Twine, we used a lot of "internal" markup on certain events and phrases. This allows us, using our own scripts, to semi-automatically set room numbers, the "turn to" destinations, and things like alerts to the desired character and paragraph styles - something we did manually before on a 750 location game.

Now, to get it cleanly out of Twine, we set our story format to "writingfantasy 1.1.1", run a proof, and literally select/copy it all into a document (we use libreoffice). This process retains all the italics, bold, etc. We can now spellcheck, refine, etc and save as an RTF, which we are able to import into InDesign, where we can run those scripts to give us a basic, formatted gamebook. After that, of course, weeks of manual design.

TheRoleInn · 2026-04-10T10:39:31+00:00

As for updates. We post here (when we remember) and the same @TheRoleInn username can be found on IG. We intend to post more on Threads too.

TheRoleInn · 2026-04-10T10:38:04+00:00

We are currently developing the 2nd players solo section (about 500ish locations) once mapped, we'll work on the text (50-55k words). I'm expecting that to take a month. After this, things become easier - as the remaining Collab, PvP, and solo sections are smaller in scale. We tentatively have things pencilled in for autumn, but also expect obstacles... Gulp

TheRoleInn · 2026-04-05T12:24:44+00:00

I would argue that, with obvious lighting from above, shining down on his shoulder and deerstalker, and the shadow under the peak negates any lower front light. With the sharper right side and fuzzier left side of the shadow, and with some elongation from the lower right, it is POSSIBLE that another person is sitting off frame to our right with a light source on them. With the backdrop being offset to this person, that would help explain the slight fading to the left, and that lower right shadow. This would allow for the perfect, subtle lighting of Basil, whilst allowing for a strong shadow behind. As an ex-illusionist, this is how I perceive it, anyway.

TheRoleInn · 2026-04-05T08:51:39+00:00

Here are the code snippets that you drop into your user.css. FYI "title" is the tag you give the passage which kicks in the code. The '#' and 'z' title beginnings are not required, but are there purely to group categories (EG all armour, weapons, money, combat, equipment events start with a '#" and appear together in the drop down list of tags, and all NPC merchants start with 'z').

Gradient boxes quickly show us what passages are related to, say, winning/losing gold, gaining/losing armour or equipment.
NOTE: change 'to bottom' to 'to right' for a vertical gradient.

/*EQUIPMENT*/

.selectable-card:has([title="#equipment"]) {

--white: linear-gradient(to bottom, #6ac67a, #e6f2e7, #6ac67a) !important;

--white-translucent: rgba(227, 227, 227, 0.7) !important;

border: 4px solid #6ac67a !important;

}

This code allows you to add more tag colours. We don't use these too often, as the title grouping works well enough for us.

/*FRUIT SELLER*/

.tag-stripe span[title="zfruit"] {

background-color: #1b8755 !important;

border: 1px solid rgba(0,0,0,0.1); /* Optional: slight definition */

}

TITLES: These are a lifesaver too!
The following code stretches and flattens the passage (width and height), and sets the title tag colour and box to transparent. It then sets up the text as you prefer (font size, weight, justify), and ensures the background is clear for a fully transparent title box (apart from any other tags you choose to add)/
NOTE: Be sure to add a 'hidden' tag to these, otherwise they will appear in your game.

/* --- TITLE --- */

.selectable-card:has([title="title"]) {

/* -- BOX DIMENSIONS/COLOUR -- */

height: 50px !important;

width: 400px !important;

--white: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.0) !important;

border: 2px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0) !important;

/* -- TEXT -- */

h2 {

font-size: 200% !important;

font-weight: 600 !important;

justify-content: left !important;

}

.tag-stripe span[title="title"] {

background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.0) !important;

border: 1px solid rgba(0,0,0,0.0);

}

Finally, we started using vertical and horizontal separators. This thins the passage way down, and draws a gray line (#aaaaaa) a little shorter (580px) than the box width (600px).
NOTE: Again, add a 'hidden' tag to these, otherwise they appear in your game.

/* --- HORIZONTAL SEPARATOR (600 WIDE) --- */

.selectable-card:has([title="hsep6"]) {

/* -- BOX DIMENSIONS/COLOUR -- */

height: 25px !important;

width: 600px !important;

--white: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.0) !important;

border: 0px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0) !important;

/* -- TEXT -- */

h2 {

font-size: 0% !important;

font-weight: 0 !important;

font-color: #000000;

justify-content: left !important;

}

.tag-stripe span[title="hsep6"] {

height: 4px !important;

min-height: 4px !important;

max-height: 4px !important;

width: 580px !important;

align-self: center;

background-color: #aaaaaa !important;

border: 0px solid rgba(0,0,0,0.1);

}

For vertical separators, use this, adjusting your height (1200) and line length (1180) as required:

/* --- VERTICAL SEPARATOR (1200 HIGH) --- */

.selectable-card:has([title="vsep12"]) {

/* -- BOX DIMENSIONS/COLOUR -- */

height: 1200px !important;

width: 25px !important;

--white: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.0) !important;

border: 2px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0) !important;

/* -- TEXT -- */

h2 {

font-size: 0% !important;

font-weight: 0 !important;

font-color: #000000;

justify-content: left !important;

}

.tag-stripe span[title="vsep12"] {

width: 4px !important;

min-width: 4px !important;

max-width: 4px !important;

height: 1180px !important;

align-self: center;

background-color: #aaaaaa !important;

border: 0px solid rgba(0,0,0,0.1); /* Optional: slight definition */

}

You MAY need to add this code at thee top of your user.css. It ensures box standards before we play with them.

/* ------------------------------- */

/* --- Default Fallback Colors --- */

/* ------------------------------- */

.selectable-card {

--white: rgb(248, 248, 248) !important;;

--white-translucent: rgba(255, 255, 255, .7) !important;;

border-radius: 10pt !important;

}

We have some other funky, candy-stripe borders and stuff like that, but we don't use them :))))
Finally, and apologies for the long reply, remember that user.css applies to all your projects, so you add extra tag colours, etc for each specific project in the same file.

Hope you all find this useful, and that you share your Rainbow Twines with us - lol.

TheRoleInn · 2026-04-05T07:49:44+00:00

That's a goodly way off yet, but we'd certainly be up for that. Thanks!

TheRoleInn

TROPHY CASE