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Wed, Jul 9, 2025

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The Book of Masks Homepage

by Seuzz

Rated: 18+ · Book · Other · #2156493

A hub for the "Book of Masks" universe.

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.
"Student Bodies: Transfer Students"

: Reboot of "Student Bodies."

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/Contests
None

The Latest
6/30: Interactive: "Golems Three-ish"

6/30: Public: "Golems Three-ish"

Show Recent Comments

10 Most Recent Blog Comments:

Seuzz

Jun 24, 2025 at 1:42pm
In response to "That Extra in Today's Chapter"

That's the way I'm leaning. Though it pains me just a bit to think that being a WdC member gives you a choice of what to read -- with pics or without -- but non-members are saddled with illustrations.

1 Like

Wordsmitty ✍️

Jun 24, 2025 at 1:24pm
In response to "That Extra in Today's Chapter"

If only one gets pics, I'd vote for the public. It is more like a book than the interactive, and who doesn't like picture books? !

ThePrussian

Jun 24, 2025 at 9:02am
In response to "That Extra in Today's Chapter"

Normally I wouldn't comment, but you said you were gauging the response, so I said something.

Seuzz

Jun 24, 2025 at 8:42am
In response to "That Extra in Today's Chapter"

I'm not wedded to the use of illustrations, because yes, they will have to be taken down at some point. I've been doing it -- and will continue to do it for this branch -- just to gauge the response.

My thought at the moment is that if I do include illustrations in the future they will not be in every chapter, and that I will only post them in the either the public or interactive chapters, not both.

1 Like

ThePrussian

Jun 24, 2025 at 12:38am
In response to "That Extra in Today's Chapter"

I'm not really a fan of including images in the interactive itself personally. I think it's cool to see some images on the forum from time to time, like the reference photos, but I really dislike the sudden incorporation into the interactive, especially given the likelyhood of them needing to be taken down at some point.

Wordsmitty ✍️

Jun 22, 2025 at 4:09pm
In response to "That Extra in Today's Chapter"

Wow! Looks great to me. If you wanted to publish an arc, these would be good to have for each chapter. But as you said, it would take up a lot of space in your port, max 250 images now unless we chip in and bump you up to premium for 1000 images.

Oh, yeah. The chapter was good, too.

Nostrum

Jun 18, 2025 at 3:27am
In response to "New Month Brings New Chapters"

It's alright. That is just an estimate - if one chapter was posted daily, it's achievable in 2 years even accounting for some days off - and one that benefits from multiple chapters and contributors adding to it. It's not an impossible goal and it's not a solitary goal either - yet it's an achievement nonetheless. (Which is what I wanted to remark. Very few interactives develop in such a way that they can boast over 4,000 chapters. That means you could read 10 chapters daily and you'd still be spoiled for choices after one year.)

Specifically - mentioning this isn't meant to put any pressure on you, but as a way to reflect, look back and say "who would've imagined this little story about a boy finding a magic book that allows transforming into others through physical means would grow into something huge?"

Seuzz

Jun 17, 2025 at 10:50pm
In response to "New Month Brings New Chapters"

Two years would be an attainable target, assuming I don't vanish for six months again. But I'm not going to set it as a goal. I got this far by not paying close attention to how many chapters there are.

Nostrum

Jun 17, 2025 at 10:34pm
In response to "New Month Brings New Chapters"

That's basically 556 (at the time of the milestone) chapters.

Two years, tops? Especially if collabs happen or multiple chapters are posted at once?

Seuzz

Jun 17, 2025 at 9:09pm
In response to "New Month Brings New Chapters"

So don't push me!

November 10, 2020 at 8:41pm

#998099

Revision and Restoration

Earlier today I lopped off a chunk of chapters in the branch that starts with "Tackling a Teacher"

. While keeping the earlier half, where Will copies a P.E. coach, Cathy Schell, I took out the chapters where he got caught up first with Katy Conlee and then with Stephanie Wyatt.

I never much liked those chapters. They felt like they wandered off, and I didn't much like the way things developed with Stephanie. It felt like a wrong turn.

I got a little pushback in the comments to the last entry in this blog, so I went back and read forward a little more, and found the spot where I felt that the branch had first started to weaken. I rewrote that bit, and then found that after polishing another chapter there were half-a-dozen further chapters that with no changes to only minimal changes could be (IMO at least) salvaged.

So the run of chapters that I just published -- "Picking a Brain the Old-Fashioned Way"

through "It Could Be Magic"

aren't new chapters, they are just old chapters that have been edited and relaunched.

Most of the changes reduce the amount of "magic" involved -- it was the pointless use of a mind-band on Yumi that I thought marked the first place where the branch weakened -- and I have set up different choices in some chapters. The main change comes at the end of "It Could Be Magic"

. That was, for me, the second and decisive place where the story weakened, because it took the focus off Katy (where it has been building) and shifted it onto Stephanie, for no better reason (that I could see) than to pull her into hijinks.

So these six chapters now serve a different function. They are a transitional sequence where the focus changes from Will as he probes the early spells in the book, to Will as he begins to formulate motives and goals that don't have anything to do with the Libra but which might be served by it. The particular through-line that I've followed is one that aims Will pretty decisively at Katy. So, to me at least, it feels like it has more focus.

(That being said, there are off-ramps in the middle of sequence that would make it a transitional phase that reorients Will toward Stephanie. Just in a different way.)

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