Intro To Jumpchains

Hi there! If you're reading this, thanks for stopping by and checking out this little self-insert story of mine. 

This is a "Jumpchain" story. A "Jumpchain" is a specific subtype of a "Choose Your Own Adventure" that was invented on 4Chan in 2017 and has since spread to other sites, most notably SpaceBattles, Reddit, and Questionable Questing. The purpose of this chapter is to explain some of the more basic terms that stem from Jumpchains, and to help friends who are new to these kinds of stories learn more about them. I'll also provide examples specific to the story to help anyone who wants to make use of this guide have the highest likelihood of success. It's worth noting that this is an alternative chain, meaning that the protagonist here does not adhere to normal jumpchain limitations and formats.

Jumper: The protagonist of a Jumpchain. In THIS story the protagonist, as in the jumper, is named Luciano.

Chain: The totality of a jumper's journey. When this is uttered, or thought of, by a jumper it usually refers to the places they've been since they began their universe-hopping adventure. For now (at the time this is being posted), if this term were used by Luciano it'd refer to exclusively to the world of Chronicle.

Jump: A setting a jumper visits, normally (but not always) for a decade. Chronicle is an example of this. As are Generic Cartoon World, and Generic Werewolf. Super Mario 64, and most Legend of Zelda games ALSO have jump documents. making it easy for a jumper to go there, get their perks, and have adventures.

A jump can be considered to have a three act structure. The first act is the "Planning/Build" act, where someone (or their benefactor) designs a build and finalizes it. The second act is the longest one and it is an "Active" phase where the jumper is IN the setting. This act normally lasts a decade. Assuming they survive for however long they are supposed to be in the setting, the final act is the "What Comes Next" act, and it consists of a jumper making a choice. They can stay in the setting forever, keeping what they've gotten but not being able to move on and get new, other-universal stuff. They can go to their native reality (usually Earth, but some jumpers come from different settings). Or they can move on and continue their journey, keeping their memories, skills they honed during their time in a jump, and anything they spent choice points on. This last choice is the one most will pick, most of the time. Some jumps, such as end-jumps, also have their own unique options here, but those are not the norm.

Jump Doc: A document created by somebody to make it easier for the jumpchain community to visit a setting. Each jump doc, for the most part, has sections for origins, items, perks, companions, and drawbacks, but can have more, or less, than these sections up to the discretion of the jump maker (the author of the jump doc). During the initial "Phase" of a jump, someone on a standard chain will be able to see this document, design a build for themselves, finalize it, and then go on adventures. These documents can be found online, most often by googling the name of some media, or book, or even activity you like and then adding "Jump" or "Jumpchain" to the end of the search. Examples include "Generic Bard Jump", or "Baldur's Gate 3 Jump", that kind of thing.

CP: Choice Points. The currency a jumper normally has to use to purchase perks, items, some origins, and other things. This is NOT super relevant to this story as we are doing an alt-chain, as in a chain following non-standard rules. Normally CP is given to a jumper at the start of a jump, they use it to select which perks, items, and sometimes even companions they will recruit from the setting, OR which of their already existing companions they will IMPORT into the setting. Imported companions get points of their own so they can purchase perks and items, and this is a standard way of getting access to more than one set of perks or items without jumping face first into drawbacks.

Drawbacks: A challenge, problem, or difficulty someone can take on for the sake of getting more points. Each drawback has a point value associated with it, and by taking the drawback you get more points to put into your build. Some common drawbacks will do things like lengthen the time you're in a setting, or reduce you to only what you purchase in the specific jump for the length of the jump, or prevent you from bringing friends. Other drawbacks are more specific to the setting. SOME drawbacks can be taken, dealt with, and then considered done for the length of the jump, but others represent persistent problems that will plague you the entire time you're in a setting.

Scenarios: Quests you undertake over the course of your time in a jump and upon completing the quests you get extra rewards, such as unique items or perks, or extra choice points for you to invest in various perks, items, and other fun, purchasable stuff. This often includes completing the plot of a movie or going on a quest similar to what the jump doc's normal protagonists should be handling, not you. Many jumps dont't have scenarops.

Perks: This refers to abilities, knowledge, and skills purchased in exchange for choice points. This knowledge, these skills, or the powers one attains from a perk are guaranteed to work across settings, barring something like a drawback that directly prevents those powers from working by the power of fiat-backing. Luciano's telekinesis stems from a perk, meaning even if he were to visit a completely normal world later on, so long as he doesn't take the wrong drawback, he'd be able to use telekinesis in the new world he goes too. Items, as well as anything also purchased with choice points, remains more or less present in future settings, unless a jump doc's text states otherwise.

Items: Items in the context of a jumpchain are unique, fiat-backed objects that retain their abilities even in other worlds. A lightsaber purchased with choice points would still work in another world, as would a wand so long as it were purchased with choice points. Items can also refer to special property types, such as houses or schools, and even living beings who are friendly followers and who will more or less defer to you (as well as not having access to local, native-perks, as that requires that they be companions).

Origins: Origins are in-jump identities. These are normally inspired by characters in the media the jump document was inspired by, such as the Chronicle character Steve Montgomery being the inspiration for the Social Butterfly origin in the jump document. Origins confer discounts to sets of perks and items, as well as an in-jump history that colors the sort of relationships a jumper will start off with in a jump. Some perks affect origins in a range of ways. Luciano is a "Drop-In" which is a basic type of origin that simply plops a jumper into a setting with no new memories, no in-jump background, and often minimal, if any, items designed to help them acclimate. Chronicle's drop-in origin lets jumpers start off with a house, some cash, and other basics, and it is fairly rare for that.