☽ CONTRIBUTE A TALE

back to the Library

GrueLight publishes short, curated text adventures in the old style. You write the story and puzzles in plain prose — the template below shows how — and the keepers port accepted tales into the engine, test every puzzle by machine, and publish them in the Library under your byline, free to every player.

We look for: 6–20 rooms, fair puzzles clued in the text, a voice that would feel at home beside "A Lamp Against the Dark," and original work only. One good chapter, not an epic — epics are earned.

The template (copy into the tale box and fill it in)
TITLE:
BYLINE: (the name we credit — need not be legal)
PREMISE: 2–5 sentences. Where are we, who are we, what do we want?

SETTING & TONE: a short paragraph. Period, mood, what the dark smells like.

ROOMS: for each room —
  [room name]
  Description (2–5 sentences, in your narrative voice).
  Exits: which rooms it connects to.
  Notable objects/scenery worth examining.

ITEMS: for each item the player can carry —
  [item] — where found, what it's for, description.

PUZZLES: for each puzzle —
  [name] — what blocks the player, what solves it, HOW THE TEXT CLUES IT,
  and what happens on success. Note any ordering dependencies.

ENDING: how the tale concludes; win conditions; optional endings.

FLAVOR (optional but beloved): funny responses to odd actions, an
AMUSING list, easter eggs.
This work is mine. I grant GrueLight the right to edit, adapt, and publish it on gruelight.com, free to all players, with my byline kept on it. I keep my copyright and may publish my text elsewhere. There is no payment — GrueLight runs on donations. If declined, the tale remains entirely mine.