The Book of Masks Homepage

May 7, 2025 at 10:46am
In response to "Photofinish"

I should clarify a bit on the "one more GP vote."

The way the math works in the GP voting, you can get some counter-intuitive results. For instance, one voter sent in some last-minute GPs to support "Great idea," but because he sent so few, it actually had the effect of decreasing lead that "Great idea" had. That's because "Great idea" had a strong Free Vote lead, and this lead was bolstered by the value accorded each Free Vote by the GPs voted for it. That small GP vote had the effect of knocking down the value of the Free Votes, which had the effect of diminishing the value of the lead that "Great idea" in the Free Vote, and this diminution was greater than the value of the GPs voted for it. Hence, dropping a small GP donation onto "Great idea" diminished rather than enhanced its overall lead.

There was something similar with the "one more vote" anomaly. I thought (at first) that adding one more GP to "Weird" would push it over the top because it was so close. In fact, adding one more GP would work because it would have knocked the value of "Great idea's" Free Vote below the 50% threshold. Moreover, to affect the value of the Free Vote, that one extra GP would have had to come from a new voter. If one of the other GP voters for "Weird" had voted one more GP vote, that wouldn't have affected the outcome significantly.

I know that this makes the GP vote sound weird, and it is. But (1) the weirdness is under the hood and invisible to the voters. The only thing they should be worried about is trying to support their favored choices. And (2) the only outcome that matters is the final outcome, not the changes that occur as votes come in. The weirdness that I note above is visible and makes a difference only if you watch the dynamic vote process unfold, and the actual process of percentages adjusting as votes are added is irrelevant to the final outcome. Had the votes been sent in a different chronological order, the observed weirdnesses might not have happened.

May 6, 2025 at 12:21pm
In response to "Photofinish"

Ok folks. you need to up your bidding.

Mar 13, 2025 at 8:22pm
In response to "Another Upset"

Understand. Would really like to see Blackwell torment/play with Will some more. Let me see if there's somewhere else it could happen or an option added.

Mar 13, 2025 at 5:57pm
In response to "Another Upset"

No, the quick ending stays. Every interactive needs an instant ending somewhere near the start, as a prank on the reader.

1 Like

Mar 13, 2025 at 3:54pm
In response to "Another Upset"

I would like to suggest that Slippery Sale Option Three be treated as a blank and get replaced with a new chapter that eventually finds Will being affected by the book. It was too early for a dead end in my opinion. Also it allows for anyone who is looking to start a new line early in the story.

And, no, it wasn't me this time that dropped the GPs.

Mar 11, 2025 at 12:54pm
In response to "Let's Have Some More Polls"

I keep forgetting to reply to the suggestion above.

I add new choices to old chapters on an ad hoc basis: usually when I am working in that branch, and I see a nearby chapter, or an earlier chapter, where I would have wanted more choices originally. I don't go looking for places to increase the number of choices.

But if someone knows of a chapter that could use more choices, and would like to see them added, just drop me a line.

Mar 9, 2025 at 9:55pm
In response to "Let's Have Some More Polls"

Wait! And in this poll I will be posting the entire chapter ... Doesn't everyone always go back and read the previous chapters to refresh their memories?

Question RE: "Invalid Item"

- What's your (Seuzz or anyone) opinion of adding more options to some chapters especially the very old ones that were limited before it was raised to five options? Not every chapter would work to get more, but there are some that another option may have been (still could be) possible.

I haven't gone to look for examples, but I may if I have some time.

Feb 12, 2025 at 3:43pm
In response to ""Looks Like I Picked the Wrong Week to Stop Sniffing Glue!""

This is starting to feel like something to put in the forum. So: "Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: The Official Off-Topic Thread"

Nostrum

Feb 12, 2025 at 1:19pm
In response to ""Looks Like I Picked the Wrong Week to Stop Sniffing Glue!""

From what I've heard from a CC at YouTube, not very good. It's basically forcing you to restart again, except you get a few advantages from your earlier progression. A change for the sake of it, not because it was necessary.

You tell me if that's the case, though. I recall "1MT'ing" with Civ1 on a SNES emulator during college almost through 4 AM, so I know the allure.

Feb 12, 2025 at 12:49pm
In response to ""Looks Like I Picked the Wrong Week to Stop Sniffing Glue!""

I 1MT-ed yesterday for, like, 7 hours into the dead of night. I was so mad at myself.

In my defense, I was trying to get through the "Age of Antiquity" to the "Age of Exploration" because I wanted to see what this new "Age of" mechanic is like.

August 30, 2022 at 2:12pm

#1037111

String Theory

You guys voted last time for Will to take the magic supplies with him instead of giving them to Scott. I guess you don't trust Scott and Brendan with the book. Or you're hoping for romantic entanglements with a spacey red-head who goes to Eastman?

Anyway, your choice was visible 24 hours before the poll was set to close, so I got ahead on the writing, so it didn't take long to finish. Here it is:

* Interactive: "Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down!"

* Public: "Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down!"

Next poll is here: [Poll completed and deleted]. It closes on Thursday, September 1, at 12:00 ET.

* * *

And here is the next chapter in the Round Robin storyline:

* Interactive: "Lost and Loster"

* Public: "Lost and Loster"

Nostrum dared me to write the third choice ("Call the police"), and who am I to shrink from a challenge?

A Giant Leap, But a Short Chapter

August 28, 2022 at 12:10pm

#1037021

The last poll is now closed, and you guys are such sentimentalists, always trying to get Will a girlfriend: "Try to do something with Eileen" won out. The sequel is now posted, though it's a short one:

* Interactive: "One Giant Leap for Will Prescott"

* Public: "One Giant Leap for Will Prescott"

And there's a new poll: [Poll completed and deleted] to go with it.

"Doppelganger: The War Game"

is still going. I've expanded the question boundaries a little. If you are not sure what Will would do, because you're not sure who and what he knows, feel free to answer it on your own behalf. Imagine you're that kid in "The Last Action Hero," and you're shot into BoM and given the chance to make doppelgangers to help you run Westside, who would you choose to replace?

August 26, 2022 at 12:41pm

#1036960

More Ice Cream

Rugal, Nostrum and I are publishing a "round robin" storyline:

* Interactive: "Of Hearts That Suffer"

* Public: "Of Hearts That Suffer"

But I'm going to trod on its heels a little by slow-publishing a branch of my own simultaneously. It starts with "Show and Tell for Two"

and now continues with "Scream for Ice Cream"

. Quick and dirty summary:

Will took the book in to school to show to people, and he wound up showing it to Scott Frazier, one of the basketball players, who then showed it to another player, Brendan Tummler. They have now agreed to help Will experiment with it, but they don't seem that interested in it, and Will himself threatens to be distracted by a pretty face.

That chapter ends in a choice, but instead of writing my preferred choice (because I don't have strongly preferred choice), I'm going to run a poll—you guys tell me which choice you want to make, and I will write and post it. Then we'll take another poll, and so on.

The poll is here: [Poll completed and deleted]. It closes on Sunday, August 28, at noon ET.

And don't forget the "Doppelganger: The War Game"

thread.

War-Gaming the Next Phase

August 25, 2022 at 12:07pm

#1036913

The last poll is finished, and "Start by building your own gang of doppelgangers" trounced the alternative, not just in the Free Votes but also in the GP vote. After weighting for GPs, the margin was 5:2.

Now, I'm not going to do another poll for this branch, but I have put up a forum post asking, "Who should Will replace with duplicates?"

I'm not lost for ideas, and I actually have very strong intuitions about how Westside works, and who Will should be replacing. But sometimes I feel like my intuitions decay into tunnel vision. That's one reason I welcome commission requests or ideas. They help me break out of narrow preconceptions.

So I want ideas from you, if for no other reason than so I can build them into the structure of the branch.

Forum post is here: "Doppelganger: The War Game"

Gratuities and Gratitudes [8/22]

August 24, 2022 at 4:15pm

#1036887

Jeez, this is embarrassing. It's been a long time since I've thanked anyone for sending me Gift Points, even though I've received a pile of them, particularly with the last branch. I'm sure I've received others than from Easy and AstralBot3D, but I will thank them directly for the kindness they showed in giving me points, and will make a general thinks to anyone else who gave me GPs before that long hiatus I took. I had to clear out my email box with dynamite when I came back, and I lost a lot of emails.

Meanwhile: The round robin (rugal, Nostrum, and me) starts today:

* Interactive: "The Mystery of the Girl from the East"

* Public: "The Mystery of the Girl from the East"

and the poll continues: [Poll completed and deleted.]

Bleg: Favorite MtF Storylines

August 23, 2022 at 12:05pm

#1036848

Corporate Strategy

Today's chapter—

* Interactive: "Corporate Strategies"

* Public: "Corporate Strategies"

—brings this branch to a temporary stop. I am definitely going to return to it, because it was huge fun to game out and write. It also has a slightly different atmosphere, because in this one the fakes not only know that they're fakes, they also subtly act like fakes, thanks to the accidental way that Will has been programming them.

I'm going to be running some polls during the month of September, and I'm going to start with a poll about this last chapter. Which choice do you want to see continued when I resume this branch? Should Will start by recruiting some partners? Or should he make some more doppelgangers first? Poll is here, along with the rules: [Poll completed and deleted.]. It closes on Thursday, August 25.

* * *

Meanwhile, tomorrow brings a change of pace. Rugal, Nostrum and I spent a lot of August doing a round-robin writing exercise, and we'll start posting it tomorrow. It will begin with a sequel to "Prospective Partnerships"

Will is looking for someone to help him do work with the book. He has been very hesitant about making a decision, though, to the point that he is now entertaining some pretty unusual possibilities: Catherine Muskov? Genesis Lee? A girl from Eastman High that he just met?

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August 20, 2022 at 12:36pm

#1036727

Persons on Parade

Today I put up a bunch of chapters in the interactive:

* "The Hands, Eyes, and Ears of Fate"

--> "If You Were Only Someone Else"

* "The Smart Set"

* "Lives of the Party"

* "A Leopard Who Can Change His Sports"

* "Prizes Behind the Curtain"

Five of them are short and similar to each other, since they just expand upon yesterday's chapter. But I didn't want to put up only one very short chapter, so I'm posting all the expansion sets plus the sequel heading into the branch to be developed.

In the Archives, though, I'm only posting the two chapters in the active branch, not the four pointing in directions not taken (yet):

Archive: "The Hands, Eyes, and Ears of Fate"

--> "If You Were Only Someone Else"

* * *

Separately, and not really related to anything: A few days ago the YouTube algorithm threw some videos at me: comedy sketches satirizing the 16 Myers-Briggs personality types. That's not really something I'm into, but they were funny, and I was struck by two in particular: ISTP Sketches

and ESFP Sketches

I know the Durrases are not super-popular around here. But whoa! Those are Frank and Joe. It was almost scary, they are so on point with the characters as they exist in my imagination (though Joe is more energetic than they guy in the skits).

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August 17, 2022 at 12:16pm

#1036599

I put up a post in the forums (in case you don't dip in there very often), asking for favorite MtF branches in BoM. That's to help out someone who is searching specially for those kinds of stories in BoM, but I also figure it's a topic that people might have some fun comparing notes on: "Favorite MtF Storylines in BoM"

Oh, and new chapters for today:

* Interactive: "In Search of the Perfect Hiding Face"

* Public: "In Search of the Perfect Hiding Face"

August 15, 2022 at 12:03pm

#1036523

Closets, Then Pawns

Today brings an end to one of the stories you guys chose in the last Plot Plinko.

* Interactive: "The Closet Case"

* Public: "The Closet Case"

As I warned you, it was going to be more about setting up characters and situations than actual shenanigans. It's also supposed to set up lots of ways that things could ricochet and rebound in different combinations.

But starting tomorrow I will bringing shenanigans, by returning to the same area as when I came back online, with a sequel to "Queens and Pawns"

(That's a new addition to the Archives, btw.) The story so far:

Will sold the book to Caleb, but it has somehow made its way to Chelsea Cooper and Gordon Black. Gordon has used it to turn himself into a statue, and Chelsea (who thinks that Will knows all about the book; it's complicated) has been asking for Will's help. Will, in studying the book, has found a spell that would allow someone to replace people with obedient duplicates, and even to impersonate them. Will is concerned that if he shares this spell on Chelsea, she might be tempted to use it on him, and is thinking of using it on her

(Not) The Final Shot of the Story

August 12, 2022 at 1:20pm

#1036424

Today brings two chapters from me:

Interactive: "Exit, Stage Left"

--> "The Final Shot of the Story"

Public: "Exit, Stage Left"

--> "The Final Shot of the Story"

The second is a little stub that ties off one branch, but don't worry that all this has been dribbling toward an anticlimax. Tomorrow I'll back up to "The News from Roberta"

and take the other choice to keep the story going. I just wanted to nail down my preferred version of this choice, and to establish that Roberta and her attitude toward the book are completely sincere. She did not steal the book so she could get up to hijinks with it.

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August 7, 2022 at 12:07pm

#1036205

The Charity Drive Chapter

So, as promised, today brings the start of one of two branches that won a Plinko Poll:

Interactive: "A Charity Drive to Drive You Mad"

Public: "A Charity Drive to Drive You Mad"

Maybe I should add a little caution, given the way it's evolved as I've written it (and am still writing it). First of all, don't expect hijinks. This is early in the story, and things have only just been introduced. But second, this was a choice to involve Will with people in the junior class, few of whom have been really introduced in the interactive. It takes time for me to figure out who they are, and to set up a social environment. Besides, as BoM is heavily weighted toward "identity theft" as a motif, it takes time to set up identities to steal.

EDIT: Also, I do want to set up a variety of off-ramps along the way, so that the branch doesn't get locked into one development at the very roots, but has a chance for multiple options to develop.

August 6, 2022 at 12:03pm

#1036180

A Shock to the System

Today brings the last chapter in the branch I've been publishing:

Interactive: "Shocks to the System"

Public: "Shocks to the System"

I warned you it was a short one. Yeah, not much happened in it except some set-up. But it's been sitting on my hard drive for months and months, so I decided to push it out.

I was planning to start publishing a different branch tomorrow, but I changed my mind at the last minute and will instead start publishing a sequel to one of the winners in the last Plinko Poll: the "Continue helping these girls" option at the end of "Cheerleaders and Charity"

. (I'm not done writing it yet, but I decided I didn't want to make the voters wait so long.) The story so far:

Will has made a mask, but he needs to find someone to use it on, because he doesn't want to experiment on himself. He has been scouring Westside during its after-class hours, and has wound up helping some girls who are working on a charity drive ...

The Winner of the Last Poll

August 3, 2022 at 12:06pm

#1036058

Oh, it was a very tight race in that last poll. For several hours, almost up until the end, it was tied between "Will shows the book to Yumi" and "Will invites Yumi to Justin's party" with "Will holds on doing anything for now" far back in third.

At the last moment "Show the book to Yumi" got an extra vote ...

... but behind the scenes, "Invite Yumi to the party" got more GPs. Adjusted for GPs, the score was 8100 - 6950 - 1400 with "Invite Yumi" taking the prize.

My thanks to all who voted!

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August 2, 2022 at 11:58am

#1036012

Favors Granted

My new branch starts off today with a three-fer:

Interactive: "Favors Denied"

+ "A Conjunction Outside of Pisces"

+ "Firecrackers at the Tennis Court"

Public: "Favors Denied"

+ "A Conjunction Outside of Pisces"

+ "Firecrackers at the Tennis Court"

That's because each of the chapters is relatively short and none of them have much plot. This part of the story is a switching yard (see what I did there?) where things can shunt off in different directions, so I thought it best to get the mechanicals stuff done and out quickly.

Meanwhile, the poll is still running: [Poll completed and deleted.] Remember, I changed the weighting of the Free Votes so that it's easier for a choice that's lagging in the public poll to win out over one that's leading.

Some Ginger and Mary Jane

August 1, 2022 at 12:21pm

#1035970

First of all, see the entry "Plot Plinko: Everybody Wins!"

for an update on the poll I posted yesterday.

In other news, today brings the final chapter in the branch I've been publishing:

Interactive: "The Tracker, Trapped"

Public: "The Tracker, Trapped"

I think I mentioned at the start that it evolved out of a commission, but then I decided to make it a freebie. The idea I was pitched (in case you can't tell) was to switch Gordon Black and Jack Li. Gordon is moody and anti-social, while Jack is a confident extrovert with lots of friends, and the idea was to find out how Gordon deals with Jack's life. It's a tricky situation, because given the branch it has to be observed from without by someone who supposedly doesn't know about the switch. That means that Gordon can't express himself openly. His reactions have to be written and read, as it were, between the lines. But I really liked the idea and the challenge, and I spent a LOT of time imagining how Gordon would react, and how he'd try to act as Jack. I don't know how it came across on the page. I do know Gordon's reactions go a lot deeper than what I wrote, and I have already written more chapters in this branch and will be returning to it again. But this is enough for now.

Anyway, tomorrow I start publishing a short branch, something that's been sitting in the pile for a very long time but which I've decided to put out there.

It starts with "Some Ginger and Mary Jane"

. Will took the book in to school and wound up selling it to Spencer Osborne in exchange for some marijuana, which Will is going to put into the time capsule. And that seems to be that. As chapter ends, Will's friend Keith is asking him to go buy some weed, in order to help Keith win a bet. There's already a branch where Will does help Keith. Tomorrow we'll find out what happens when Will turns him down.

Plot Plinko: Everybody Wins!

August 1, 2022 at 10:28am

#1035956

Change of plans. I've closed the latest Plot Plinko Poll early, and the result is ...

Everyone's a winner!

I was looking at the post I made yesterday, and it occurred to me that it was ambiguous. What I meant to write was that the next time I started a Plot Plinko Poll, I would be reweighting the Free Votes. But I think some people must have thought the reweighting would start with yesterday's poll. If so, that wouldn't be fair to those who sent in GPs.

So I've decided to go with both choices. I will be composing a sequel for the unwritten choice "Continue helping these girls", and will also be writing a sequel to the alternate branch, "Assertiveness". It will be awhile, though, before either one gets published. I have a very fat and happy backlog now.

"Assertiveness", though, still needs a poll, so here it is: [Poll completed and deleted.]

Also, to make it absolutely clear, I am going to reweight the Free Votes starting with the above poll After playing with some values to get a better sense of the weight that I want, I'm setting so that in this poll the Free Votes will be worth 1/5 of the average of the GPs sent to me. This will make it easier for GPs to change a result.

Rule of thumb (this isn't absolute, only a rough guide): If Choice A has 150% of the votes of Choice B, but Choice B has twice as many GPs as Choice A, then Choice B can narrowly nose out Choice A for a victory. But there will be other factors (such as the number and size of the GP gifts) that will complicate this calculation.

This should make the voting more unpredictable and hence more fun for everyone. In the poll leading up to this point, a small lead in the Free Votes tended to outweigh even large GP bequests.