Take to the skies! You fell to Earth as the last remnant of a dying world – can you rise as the planet’s greatest hero and triumph as a beacon of justice? Shrug off bullets, smash buildings with your bare hands, and soar through the air as you battle against vicious villains! 

The Last Scion is an interactive superhero novel by D. G. P. Rector. It’s entirely text-based, 200,000 words and hundreds of choices, without graphics or sound effects, and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination. I sat down with the author to talk about his background as a writing and his experiences writing for Choice of Games. The Last Scion releases this Thursday, June 19th. You can play the first three chapters today, for free.

Tell me about your background in writing.

I’ve always enjoyed telling stories, something I think I got from my father. He’s an incredible story teller, always sharing ghost stories, anecdotes from his life, and sometimes creations entirely of his own with me when I was a child. Both my parents encouraged my creative pursuits when I was growing up, which is something I’m extremely grateful for.

As far as professional writing goes, I had always wanted to make my way in the world as an author. A dear friend and coworker of mine on the late shift made me swear a pact with her to pursue writing more seriously; to actually buckle down and finish projects. Then, in January of 2020, I quit my day job to pursue writing professionally. My intention had been to take six months off, finish my first novel, and submit some short stories. As fate would have it, there was a massive global pandemic, and I wound up out of work for significantly longer than six months. Still, it gave me time to refine my craft. I wound up getting some short stories published, including some science fiction work in Analog and Mysterion, as well as other places. I was searching for places to submit my fiction to when I stumbled across COG, and here we are!

What inspired you to write this game?

I’ve always wanted to write a super hero story! Like many people, I’ve enjoyed the genre since I was a kid, and I thought the ability to engage with the fantasy more directly as a work of interactive fiction would be thrilling. I went for a “flying brick” type of character as the protagonist (think Superman, Captain Marvel, Shazam, the Mighty Thor, etc) in part because they’re so archetypal, but also because the IF medium fits that kind of character particularly well. After all, in a more traditional computer game it would be quite tricky to make encounters fun and challenging for a character who’s bullet proof and can lift a truck over their head, but in an interactive novel, the challenges the character faces are often as much personal decisions as they are questions of skill. Sure, there’s no doubt you’ll win a fight with some bank robbers, but do you prioritize bringing them to justice or protecting the people they’ve taken hostage? That tension seemed very exciting to me.

What did you find most challenging about writing interactive fiction in the COG style?

Well, I have exactly ZERO skill in coding, so I was pretty much a baby when it came to that. Fortunately my editor Jason and everyone at COG was extremely helpful, and I discovered a lot of great guides online. It’s very challenging to think of a work of fiction not just as a series of events in a story, but also as balanced game encounters. After all, when I’m writing prose I usually have one or two ways a particular moment can play out, and I try to select the one that works best for the story. In an IF, every decision point has to have multiple outcomes, so any given scene might play out many different ways. Sometimes these choices are more about flavor, moments where the player gets to frame an encounter in a particular way. Other times these decisions lead to radically different outcomes: falling in love, letting someone die, destroying half the city, and so on!

What are your favorite comics?

Too many to name! Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons’ “Watchmen” of course redefined and elevated the genre. I’m a big fan of Moon Knight, and Charlie Huston’s grim-n-gritty arc called “The Bottom” really made me fall in love with that character. Cable & Deadpool by Fabian Nicieza was a funny, genuinely sweet story about two very troubled people coming to accept each other and learn how to trust. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the late, great Steve Ditko. Spider-Man is of course a giant, but I really enjoyed his work on “The Question”, and his bizarre, intense “MR. A” stories. Ditko was a man of ferocious personal beliefs that he put on display in his work, and while I can’t say I entirely agree with his world view or didactic-ism, I really admire what a direct and unvarnished insight he gave into his mind through the medium of these fantasy-action characters.

(This is of course leaving aside the non-super hero stuff and the whole amazing world of non-
anglophone comics.)

Was there an NPC you enjoyed writing most?

There’s of course a little of myself in all of my characters, but I think Hawkshaw and the Poppet were the most fun to write. I got a lot of really great editorial feedback that really helped me refine and refocus those two. They’re kind of opposites, with Hawkshaw being stoic, direct, and grim, while the Poppet is whimsical and sarcastic, but the two of them also come from this very deep place of pain and alienation. I’m also very fond of Six-Gun Slim, who adds a lot of levity to the scenes she’s in. She doesn’t take any of the heroing stuff too seriously, which provides a fun contrast to the other characters. And I really enjoyed writing her relationship with Sky Pilot, who’s kind of a flustered surrogate-uncle to her.

Finally, I of course enjoyed writing the Conqueror. We’ve all got a few good “Villain Monologues” in us, and having the excuse to write such a grandiose character was a lot of fun. I also tried to include as many opportunities for the player character to mock him as I could, without undermining the genuine danger he represents.

What else are you working on/what’s next for you?

Oof! Who knows? The life of an artist is an uncertain one. I’ve got my debut science fiction novel “The Exile” coming out very soon with Blue Forge Press. It’s a Space Opera Epic about a wanderer with a dark past, caught on the frontier between two interstellar empires on the eve of war. I actually first wrote it about five years back, so it’s exciting to me that it’s finally going to see print. I’ve also done a lot of work in the Battletech fictional universe with Shrapnel Magazine, and I’m hoping to work more in that world.

And of course, I have one two ideas for a sequel/spinoff to the Last Scion!