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 |  A hub for the "Book of Masks" universe. |
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The Interactives "The Book of Masks"  : A high school student discovers a grimoire that can make magical disguises."The Wandering Stars" : Sequel to "The Book of Masks.""Student Bodies" : A high school student is turned into a blue goo that can possess people.For non-WdC Members "The Book of Masks: Archives" : Dodges the "Servers Busy" barrier!"The Book of Masks (Abridged)" : Introductory storylines for new readers.Community "BoM/TWS Message Forum" : Community for readers of the interactives."BoM/TWS/SB Wiki" : Notes and documentation for authors. Spoilers!Current Polls None The Latest 5/14: Interactive: "The Family of Heather Dow" 5/14: Public: "The Family of Heather Dow"
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| I've got a new chapter up in BoM! Interactive: "The Paranoid Roommate" Public: "The Paranoid Roommate" It's a sequel to Masktrix's chapter "Making Your Mark," and if you are a reader of the public pages, you can now catch up with Masktrix's work here: "Dragons Vs. Wildcats" -->> "Making Your Mark" The story? After being captured by some of the students at the St. Francis Xavier School, Will was rescued by the two golems he left back in Saratoga Falls. In his desperation to retrieve the Libra and stop the "Mutants" from using its magic, he has released Abigail Steiner from her golem prison and partnered with her. Abi has re-infiltrated the school, secretly resuming her old identity, and has brought Will back in by disguising him as a senior named Mark Pederson, who is Abi's boyfriend's roommate. Now, right under the noses of their adversaries, Abi and Will have to find the Libra, seems to have been stolen from the Xavier students by parties unknown. * This branch is the result of some intensely cooperative work between me and Masktrix. In a forum post—"Re: Re: Re: Back to the drama" —Masktrix described how we war-gamed out earlier chapters that were posted through last week, but the writing still proved extremely difficult, what with all the competing characters, each one capable of double-crossing the others. It was too much for one person (for either of us) to write, and too difficult even for both of us to plot out cooperatively.We finally cracked it by gaming out a simple set of constraints—which character wanted what, and how they were planning to get it—and then made the interactive, er, "interactive" behind the scenes. Masktrix would write a chapter, aiming toward a cliffhanger or a plot twist, then hand it off to me. I would improvise a sequel, also aiming for a cliffhanger or plot twist, and hand it back to him. Instead of outlining the development, we maneuvered in this way and let the characters improvise just as we were improvising. We alternated in this way until we reached a point where something like a satisfying conclusion hoved into view. At least, I hope it will be a satisfying conclusion. That's for you to judge. Now, it may seem like this procedure would quickly bog down in confusion and cross-purposes, and I admit that maybe we got lucky. But by dividing the task this way, and by tackling it in bite-sized chunks, we were finally able to fight our way through what had been a very recalcitrant situation. I don't know that there's a moral to this. But it was a tremendous amount of fun. I hope you guys have half the fun that I for one had while helping to write it. |
| It might not have looked like it, but I have been really busy with stuff behind the scenes around here, including writing new BoM chapters. So busy that I've been forgetting to update the Homepage, even though Nostrum has been publishing daily. FWIW, here's the next Spider-Man episode in the alternate series: "S01E21 "Kraven's Amazing Hunt"" . It's very close to an episode that aired on the IRL series. The main change is removing Miles's spider powers and making him tech-based. So whatever the merits of the story, they accrue to the writers of the original. |
| No, the title doesn't refer to me. It refers to the newly published treatment in the Spider-Man project: "S01E20 "I, Robot Master"" , which I forgot to upload yesterday. Turns out, it's Part Seven of the six-part arc that recently concluded! It probably doesn't work. It's inspired by dim memories I have of a bad 70s cartoon whose title sequence shows mechanical ants attacking a city. I thought it was an episode of the 1966 Spider-Man animated series, but I can't find any evidence that such an episode was ever made in that series. So I have no idea what I'm remembering or misremembering. It's like my own personal, idiosyncratic Mandela Effect, and it happens quite often. For instance, I clearly remember reading a DC graphic novel—an Elseworlds books—where the Joker was the crime fighter and Batman was the supervillain. (Everything else was the same, so it wasn't a "Crime Syndicate" story or some other, alternate comic book continuity.) Joker was a shadowy detective working with the police to take down a bat-dressing psycho who was murdering gangsters. I can see it in my head. But I am assured by all knowledgable readers of DC Comics that no such book was ever published ... |
| The link: "S01E19 "The Sinister Six"" I don't have anything to say, except to explicitly acknowledge the Michelinie/Larsen miniseries "Sinister Six" as the basic inspiration for the previous six-part arc in this continuity. |
| ... by Masktrix and Nostrum, anyway, where they left off last. I'm still working on other stuff while also doing consulting work with them and with Achillesredux. FWIW, today's installment in the Spider-Man project: "S01E18 "The Fatal Five" " |
| BoM readers have gotten a lot of content in the past few weeks, from Masktrix, Nostrum, and rugal. But you might have noticed that it calmed down over the past few days. Masktrix, in the forum, has self-reported on the challenges of continuing his story. Nostrum too has been struggling to figure out a way forward. I've been talking with both of them, acting as editor, sounding board, advisor, frenemy, etc., to give them what aid I can getting them through some pretty thorny thickets. All credit to them, though, for making a couple of breakthroughs in the past day or two. They're the authors, so there's no way I'm giving an ETA on when they might resume publishing, but I do know they are writing drafts that continue their branches. Related to that: Three of Nostrum's recent chapters have evaporated, so that his branch currently ends with Chapter 9, "To Con a Marc" , instead of Chapter 12, "A Date with Two-Face." That's because he had to revise Chapters 10 thru 12 in order to accommodate his revised plans for Chapters 13 onward. He will be published revised versions of the disappearing chapters.Meantime, I guess I'll link to the Spider-Man chapter I posted yesterday but forgot to flog: "S01E17 "The Fearsome Four"" . |
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