At King Arthur's Christmas Feast is a choice-based adaptation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, entered into IFcomp 2021 by Travis Moy.
This is a niche piece — almost a Medieval Boy Scout
Simulator — and I love it. To quote one of the story’s options: “I’m all in on
this. Let’s do it.”
The first thing that an audience should know about the
original story of Sir Gawain is that it
makes no goddamn sense. A movie adaptation, Sword of the Valiant, came out when I was five years old. Scenes
like this did not make it any easier to understand:
At King Arthur's Christmas Feast is written with choicescript, and it offers decisions that put Gawain’s thinking in a more relatable context. The reader is expected to uphold the virtues of a knight, remaining pious, courteous, magnanimous, and chaste throughout the entire journey while also embodying the spirit of fellowship.
The expectations make Gawain’s predicament more understandable: How can good manners keep you safe from an immortal giant?
I appreciated how much extra writing was necessary to humanize Gawain’s adventure. And the story notes many of the reader’s choices, referencing them in future passages.
However, King Arthur's Christmas Feast doesn’t have a lot of branches, which means that people who stray from the correct path might find it less entertaining. I had fun pretending to be a rule-abiding poindexter, but I can see how that might not appeal to everyone.
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