Storybook Plan

For my project, I have decided to do a storybook utilizing the frame tale of Vikram and Betaal. I would like to convert the story into something interactive (using Twine) or perhaps place the story in a more modern context. Either way I choose to go, I plan to have a mixture of retellings from the original tales and stories of my own inspired by the original tales. One of my favorite aspects of Vikram and Betaal is the ending of the frame tale, in which King Vikram finds out from Betaal that the monk who had given him the initial task of retrieving Betaal was planning to kill him. Upon finding out, the King uses Betaal's advice to outwit the monk and emerge victorious. I feel like such a storyline would translate well into an interactive game. I want my storybook to be an entertaining experience where the readers get the feeling that they aren't so much reading as they are playing.

To this end, I think some useful resources lie in the multiple versions of the original tale. I have already read Ryder's "Twenty-Two Goblins" from the UnTextbook. From this translation, I enjoyed the story about the dilemma caused by trying to attribute a Brahmin's death to a single source. In addition, I also liked the tale about four brothers reanimating a lion's corpse, only to be killed by the lion in the end. Another common theme in the stories was the task of identifying which of several suitors was deserving of a maiden's hand in marriage. Since this plot line was present in multiple stories, I want to do a retelling of my own. Other versions of the tale include Kincaid's "Tales of King Vikrama" and Burton's "Vikram and the Vampire." In these, I hope to find more stories to draw inspiration from and images to use in my game.