Editing How to play guide for Where the Water Tastes Like Wine (section)

=== Gathering Stories ===
The player will start off on the world map. While walking around, there will be small buildings that may have a white bubble floating above it. When approaching a bubble, the player will be given the prompt to search. By searching, they will be taken out of the world map into the story, where there will be a piece of art and a text box where the story will roll out, told by the narrator. At the end of each paragraph, the player will be prompted to continue the story by selecting actions presented at the bottom of the text box. In most cases there will only be one option, but there may also be two, posing the player with a choice of how the story will play out. When the story is finished, it will be added to the story inventory and the player will be put back into the world map.

Other bubbles that may hover over buildings are a slightly darker grey bubble and a small white bubble with no picture. The grey bubble will have the “search” prompt just like the story bubbles, but rather than create a story, they act to replenish the player’s health / hunger, tiredness, or money. If already full, the player will not get the reward. The small white bubbles will have the prompt “listen to a story,” which is how stories you have already told will come back to you, slightly evolved. After listening to the story, the version in the player’s inventory will change and the eye next to the title will widen slightly. When the story is fully evolved, the eye will be fully open, as the story has reached its full potential, and will not evolve any further. Another way to gather stories to go into a major city by approaching it and entering it when prompted. Only the first option, “explore,” adds a story. All other options are related to other mechanics.

Each story is associated with a tarot card. When camping with a character, the player will only have the option to tell four of the stories associated with each card. Stories can be switched out while on the world map in the “Story” tab of the inventory. When in the story tab of the inventory, click on a card on the left side of the menu, and the 4 “equipped” storied will be shown on the right. To switch them out, click on one of the stories and a new menu will come up on the left. Click on one of the new stories and it will replace the selected old story. To scroll and see more of the new stories, click while in the left menu and drag up, as the mouse wheel does nothing.

Some stories may also pose a threat to the player’s stats, which can be checked in the inventory menu. There are three stats: health / hunger, tiredness, and money. Each stat has 2 points, and when 1 point is taken health or tiredness, a thought bubble will appear over the player avatar until the stat is full again, either by interacting with minor stops on the world map, or by entering cities and purchasing something. Money is also replenished at minor stops, and at cities by finding work or panhandling, though in a city neither of these options are guaranteed to work.