Village tales

What it is

Village Tales is a story told a little at a time, one episode a day, about a fishing village by the sea and six people who live there. There are three tales, and each one has ten episodes. The first is called The Lamp Goes Dark, the second The Long Winter, and the third The Grey Heron.

Open the game menu, choose Village life, then More to do, then Village Tales. The command /tales, or /story, opens the same menu.

A new episode every day

Your first episode opens the moment you begin. After that, one new episode opens every real day, at the start of the day, server time. If you miss some days, the episodes wait for you, and you can catch up by reading up to three new ones a day.

If you want to read a fourth one on the same day, you can buy lamp oil from the menu for three hundred points. The points leave the game. You can buy lamp oil once a day.

Each episode is read out as a menu. Move down through it with the arrow keys, one paragraph at a time.

Decisions

At key moments the story stops and asks you to decide. Your choice changes what happens in later episodes and how each tale ends. You can close the episode and decide later; the story waits for you, and the first item in the Village Tales menu takes you back to the decision. Once you have decided, you cannot change it.

Your choices journal lists every decision you have made and what it did.

The six villagers

Old Tobin the fisherman, Marta the widowed baker, Ash the mysterious traveller, Pell the mayor's clerk, Kit the young hunter, and Ione the lighthouse keeper. Every decision makes some of them warm to you and some of them cool towards you. Some parts of the story are only told if you are close enough to a villager.

Choose The six villagers to hear how each one feels about you. The closer you are, the more you learn about them.

Previously on

Choose Previously on Village Tales to hear a short summary of the last few episodes and the decisions you made in them. It is good to listen to it after a few days away.

Choose All episodes to read any episode you have already read again.

Endings and titles

Every tale has three endings, and earlier choices change how each one is told. When you finish a tale you receive one hundred and fifty points, once, and a title that depends on your ending. Choose Tale endings and titles to see your titles and to wear one of them. Your title is shown on the readers' porch.

Reading streak

Reading at least one new episode a day builds your reading streak. At three, seven, fourteen and thirty days in a row you receive a small reward, once each. Thirty days in a row also earns the title Evening Reader. Once you have read all thirty episodes, reading any episode again keeps your streak going.

The community vote

Every week the whole village votes on how a coming tale should begin. The choice with the most votes decides it for everybody who starts that tale after the vote closes. The vote closes at the end of Sunday, server time, and the result is announced to everyone. You can change your vote until then. You need to have read at least the first episode to vote.

You can switch the announcement off in Privacy options, under Announcements.

The readers' porch

The readers' porch lists the villagers who follow the tales, how far they have read, their best reading streak and the title they wear.

Login reminder

When you log in, you are told if a new episode or a decision is waiting for you, with a line about what happened last time. You can switch this off in the Village Tales menu.