Innkeeper

This was a great read. This is my first of EndMaster's stories, and it didn't disappoint. As others have pointed out, I'll probably go back after I read some more of EndMaster's works.

Though the fantasy element is in play, the tone of the story never deviates much from a down-to-earth tone. I could have imagined a story like this written in a modern setting, but the fantastical elements, such as succubi and zombies, add to narrative by giving the player more dramatic and bizarre situations to deal with. The elements regarding sex are tastefully dealt with, and that is something I greatly appreciate. The characters have great and varied voices. I'll have no trouble remembering characters like Eliza, Rita Wendy and the other staff members. They all have their moments to shine in the narrative, and even the protagonist gets his own voice too. The dialogue between characters is great. It never gets too cerebral and the plot moves forward at a good, constant pace.

I enjoyed the the fact that the different routes, even the happy ending, all had their own drawbacks. I never found an ending where the inn wasn't sold, but there were different circumstances regarding the sale. Every route reflected a different way that the protagonist approached adulthood. The narrative, in my opinion, is less about the literal function of being an innkeeper and more about how a young adult seeks to find his place in the world. The sale of the inn represents the ending of young adulthood and the beginning of an adult stepping into his role in the world, or failing at it because of poor choices. A small mistake can have much larger consequences later on. A person of high moral fiber who stands up for what he believes in and not compromising on it can have difficulty in the immediate future, but reap better rewards later on. One can find himself drawn to certain vices to cope with the stress, and the narrative never implies that the protagonist will never experience stress no matter what stage of life he's at. Some mistakes can be corrected; other mistakes can't. Young people entering into college usually find that life comes at them hard and so many different choices present themselves. It can be difficult to know if they made the right decisions or not, even in hindsight. The route where you choose Cindy definitely reflects that. You could make all the right choices, and even the one that seems right at the time, and still wonder if things could have been different, or better.

There are a few grammatical errors, but for the most part it's more than solid. There was one instance in last part of the dialogue with the page, the one where you have to consider the plans proposed by the notable members of staff, that I got a little confused about who was talking at the time. I do think that the storygame could use some more pages, line breaks or more text font changes to indicate passage of time. Though I never got lost, the formatting for that can sometimes be a little awkward in some of the ending pages. It's never anything diminishing the work as a whole though.

I'm glad I made the time to read this, and I will certainly read more. Thank you, EndMaster, for making this storygame!

General Recommendation: I recommend this game, it’s a short, fun, and immersive take on running an inn in a fantasy world, with a lot of variety and different potential plotlines.
Preview: Can you make the family inn profitable enough to earn your medical degree?

=SPOILERS BELOW=

General notes:
This is a fun and short game that takes a fresh and entertaining look at running a tavern in a fantasy city, with all the problems that entails. It’s an engaging read, with a wide variety of different pathes that can be taken.
The characters in this story are handled well. There’s enough variety among the inn staff members that there can be a variety of plotlines, but there’s not so many characters that the reader loses track of any of them. Each character gets a chance to be in the spotlight at some point, and can develop in different directions depending on your policies surrounding the running of the inn.
This isn’t just a puzzle-like game about running an inn. There is focus on the narrator’s pursuit of a medical degree, his relationship with Eliza, and his future prospects beyond his role as an innkeeper. These elements add character and depth to the story, making the consequences of whether or not you succeed at running the in more meaningful. You have to decide what your priorities are and what’s important to you. This game has a good balance of choices that are optimization-based and narrative-based.
Also of note is the detail and care that’s obviously gone into the worldbuilding here. Some of this is because EndMaster has two other stories set in this world, but the way it’s weaved into the narrative is very well done. As the focus of the game is on the running of the inn, the worldbuilding never overwhelms the plot or supercedes the focus on the inn. However, the details that exist add a lot of depth to the setting. It’s clear that this is a a big world that doesn’t exist simply to give the story a location, there’s a lot going on beyond the scope of the story.
This sense of immersiveness helps keep the narrator’s struggles in perspective. Unlike many storygames, the narrator is not a powerful or influential figure; he’s a relatively normal guy trying to survive in his niche in the world. This balance between the narrator’s agency and restrictions, combined with the depth of the world, gives the game a very realistic and grounded feel. There’s all this fantasy stuff going on, all of which is interesting, but you’re here to run an inn, and that sense of reality is transfered to the player.

Specific notes:
-The introductory sequence does a good job establishing the characters of Dave and Tom, and the narrator’s father. It also does a good job showing where the narrator is at this point in his life, providing a snapshot of his childhood. The scene serves as a good reference point for the later chapters in his adulthood, and really emphasizes the secure nature of the narrator’s life up until this point.
-The background info in the informational links is interesting, but it barely has any effect on the story. It might be neater if the information were delivered on a more as-needed basis. As it is, the worldbuilding details (like the adventurer’s uncovering a dwaarven tomb) add a lot of atmosphere to the game. Conveying the bacakground information in a similar way would prevent it from seeming like an info dump, and further contribute to the game’s atmosphere. The same is true of the staff updates interspersed throughout the story.
-Pity that the Flying Griffon is an antagonist.
-I like the way the different staff members are used to present decisions. Having different characters supply different options for the player is a great way to both further characterization, and provide the player with a more balanced view of the options.
-Eliza’s interest in the narrator is shown well with her comment about potential workplace relationships.
-I find it amusing that a retaurant owner has been working with demons. Not only does it drive the plot forward, it’s a good worldbuilding detail. The characters react to this information the way they might react to some kind of mafia ties reveal, the way demons and magic are treated in this game shows the extent to which magic is a relatively common tool in this setting.
-Cindy never feels quite as fleshed out as the other characters. This is understandable since she doesn’t get as much screen time and isn’t as important, but since choosing whether or not to stay with her is the basis of the final decision, it would be nice to get to speak to her a bit more before making a call.
-I like that you can’t both keep the inn and end up with Eliza. Real life rarely has an optimal solution to it, there are always tradeoffs. I also like that the game’s optimal ending is somewhat mundane when compared to many of the endings in EndMaster’s other games. It’s a good contrast.
-Troll adrenaline is another excellent worldbuilding detail.
-I like the way the narrator’s workplace relationship with Eliza is handled. Workplace relationships really do cause problems in real life (far more than they do in fiction) and it’s nice to see the consequences of attachments like this shown.
-Took me half the game to realize it was “Flameflower” and not “Flamethrower”.
-David and Tom’s inclusion in the story is used well, the reader is already familiar with them, and aware that they put the narrator at risk. The fact that David and Tom are uneasy with the morality of this action is a good indicator of just how messed up it is.
-I like that the path where you hire the Crimson Talons continues just beyond the scope of the inn’s prospects and shows how the narrator’s dealings follow him into his later life.
-Incitahol appearing across multiple branches is a good bit of continuity.
-I like that the failure endings still give a quick summary of how your life went.
-Even for choices that deviate from the main path, there are a number of smaller adventures the player can engage in, such as the daquala path, and the incitahol path. Both are unusual pathes that intersect with the running of the inn and add detail to the world.
-The pacing of this story is quite good. It correctly identifies the important elements and focuses on them, not wasting time with irrelevent details.

Grammar
A couple issues.
Mastery of Language
There are a couple sentence structure issues, the language can be a bit choppy at times.

Branching
Though this story does have a main branch, you can deviate from it pretty significantly and still have a fleshed out and full read. Some of the secondary branches are short mini adventures, while others go into more detail. There’s a great amount of variety.

Player Options/fair choice
Excellent. The player often gets three or more options when making decisions, and the outcome of each option is very well foreshadowed, with potential consequences being discussed by the various inn members before a decision is made.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE:
My first time playing this game, the first ending I reached was probably the second best one, where you save the inn and marry Cindy instead of getting back together with Eliza.

CONCLUSION: The best way to describe this game is fun. It’s a well-imagined concept that sticks to its strengths, offering a lot of variety in gameplay without exceeding its scope.

If I remember correctly, Innkeeper was the first story by EndMaster I ever read, but I have not read it since until now. I remember enjoying it and now see that it has certainly lived up to, and perhaps exceeded my memory of it.
It is especially amusing to reread this after having read Rogues not too long ago, especially the parts with Flameflower. There are so many parts of Innkeeper I had forgotten that were referenced in Rogues, and I already want to read Rogues again because of that.

The characters in Innkeeper might be one of my favorite things about it. They turn a decent game about running an inn into the great story that it is. I felt as if I could picture them all in my head well, especially Wendy, and the attitude everyone had towards Cindy was hilarious. The story itself is good to and certainly well-written, but it’s the characters that really make it.

There were a lot of moments that made me laugh. Taking Rita’s advice to have the employees of the other inn disfigured being an option among the choices was certainly not among the least of these.
“(Your liver is useless though)” This aside was another great moment, as was the main character admiring how Olaf is able to restrain himself from breaking bones in order to distract himself from the beating he was receiving was another one.

Because the story has very little rejoining of branches, it is definitely worth going back and making every choice. A lot of the ends are similar, but because the events leading up to those ends are always different, that does not make the story dull after a few endings. My favorite end would probably be the one in which he becomes a mad scientist and dies a peaceful death.

This is a story that probably deserves a good bit more recognition than it actually gets. While it is in the fantasy section, the fantasy elements are generally quite light, and it is definitely more like a regular story of a guy trying to run a business that happens to be set in a fantasy universe than some fantasy sword and sorcery adventure. If you aren’t that into the latter type of story, that will not prevent you from enjoying Innkeeper.
Thanks for a great story!

Also, "bodylegger" is a great term that should definitely get used more often!

Cool story

Irking that you couldn't get it on with Rita the gold digger. She's hot, mean, selfish and hot. Did I mention hot? Anyway, almost the perfect woman, as far as I'm concerned. Other than that, one of the less impressive of EndMaster's works, don't nobody go form an opinion on him just based on this!

It’s a short wholesome story with some variations but nothing too crazy.

Goooood

Goo Game

Good game