Valebound: a choose-your-path story game
Opening the book...
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Frequently Asked Questions about Valebound
What is Valebound?
Valebound is a free choose-your-path story game you play in the browser. You are a wanderer crossing the cursed Vale to relight the Lantern Tower. Every page is a short scene with two to four choices, and every journey is a fresh mix from over 100 scenes, so no two runs read the same. There is no download and no account.
How long is one journey?
Most journeys are 8 to 15 pages and take 4 to 8 minutes. You can reach the tower, end up somewhere unexpected (running a troll's tea stall, ruling a mushroom kingdom) or run out of Health and be carried home. Then you start a new journey with a new mix of scenes.
What do Health, Gold, Wits and Courage do?
Health is how much you can take; at zero the journey ends. Gold pays tolls, buys gear and opens choices. Wits and Courage power skill tests: you roll a die, add the stat, and need to reach the target. Each test shows your odds before you choose. Choices show which stats they touch, but not which way.
What are endings and boons?
There are 28 named endings, from three endings at the Lantern Tower to stranger ones along the way. The Endings page shows the ones you found and a hint for each one you have not. Finding endings unlocks starting boons, such as a coil of rope or an extra go back.
What is the Daily Path?
Every day there is one Daily Path: the same seed, the same scenes and the same dice for every player. Finish it to build a streak, then share how far you got.
Can I undo a choice?
Once per journey you can go back a page and choose again. The dice are seeded, so the same choice rolls the same number. Some boons and an optional advert give one more go back.
Is it safe for school?
Yes. Valebound is written for all ages: peril and silly danger, no gore, no romance, no real religion or politics, and nothing to buy. Nobody is hurt on screen; a bad fall means waking up sore at home. It saves in your browser with no login.
Is this like the classic gamebooks?
Yes, it is a gamebook: you read a page, pick what to do, and the story branches. Valebound adds dice, an inventory, a map of your path and an endings collection, and it reshuffles the pages every time you play.
About Valebound
Valebound is a free interactive story game in the spirit of the classic gamebooks: you read a short page, choose what to do, and the story branches. The Lantern Tower has gone dark and a sleepy mist has rolled over the Vale, so you set out to relight it. Your road runs through the Whispering Wood, then Murkmere Marsh or Grimspire Pass, then the Sunken Ruins, and finally up the tower's long stair.
Every journey is a new mix. Each region draws a few scenes from a pool of over 100, so one run you meet a troll who runs a tea stall and a fox caught in a snare, and the next a raccoon gang and a talking well. Choices matter later: free the fox and it may find you in the mountains; learn the ghost girl's name and she may open the tower door. You carry Health, Gold, Wits and Courage plus up to six items, skill tests show their odds and roll a seeded die, and you can go back one page per journey.
There are 28 endings to collect, three of them at the tower. A map draws the path you took, and a Daily Path gives every player the same journey each day. It is written for all ages, with no gore, no romance and nothing to buy, so it works well as a short reading game in class. Everything runs in your browser with no download.
How to Play
- Press New journey, or play the Daily Path
- Read the page and pick a choice, or press 1 to 4
- Icons show which stats a choice touches; locked choices say what they need
- Skill tests show your odds, then roll a die plus Wits or Courage
- Keep your Health above zero and reach the Lantern Tower
- Collect endings to unlock starting boons
Want a different kind of story? Live a whole life, year by year, in the Life Simulator, or rise from city council to the top job in the President Simulator. Prefer to explore room by room and solve puzzles with what you find? Try Lantern Deep, a free text adventure in a flooded mine.