Moonrise is a Gamebooks Interactive Fiction created by Natalie Cannon and published by Choice of Games' user submitted label Hosted Games.
The Moonrise player begins as a newly bitten werewolf with Identity Amnesia. The mysterious Alice drags them back to civilization, throwing them into a supernatural war between two political factions. The Masquerade and Rogues fight over the future of the Masquerade. The player must juggle the factions nipping at their heels, their human past, three burgeoning potential romances, investigating Alice, and surviving lethal encounters with much older vampires and werewolves. Or not! It's a Story Branching game, so player choice is a priority.
The player can be trans or cis, and use she/her or they/them pronouns. All romances are sapphic, and polyamory and asexual options are available. The player's stats are Empathy, Bloodthirst, Snark, Responsibility, Uncanny Valley, and Defense.
Moonrise can be found here
. The first few chapters are available for free.
Moonrise contains examples of the following tropes:
- Amnesiac Hero: The player character starts the game with no memory of their past, or even their name. The PC can choose to embark on a Quest for Identity and reclaim their past, or let fall to the wayside.
- Ancient Conspiracy: It is implied the Masquerade faction has, well, maintained Masquerade for centuries.
- Bad Powers, Good People: Any of the supernatural creatures in Moonrise can easily kill, maim, and perpetuate harm...but they choose not to, for the most part.
- Bittersweet Ending: If the player character chooses to wipe out their entire opposing faction, the call of the forest becomes too hard to ignore, and they must give up their human life to live as a wolf. If the player aligned with the Masquerade and killed all the Rogues, Chika will join them in the wilds.
- Cast Full of Gay: It's debatable if there are any cis straight characters.
- Family of Choice: The player can create a chosen family over the course of the game.
- Ghost Memory: Played with. Since the player is inhabiting the body of their character, the character's past is separate from the player, and the memories "haunt" them.
- Grey-and-Gray Morality: Both the Masquerade and Rogue factions have their good talking points and people. There is no singular villain.
- Masquerade: An entire faction named itself after this trope.
- Monsters Anonymous: Both the Masquerade and Rogue factions act as support systems for their members.
- Optional Sexual Encounter: The player can have sex with Rosario, Chika, and/or Ishara.
- Our Vampires Are Different: Though vampires are not as explored as the werewolves, there are hints that they have a variety of powers and weaknesses.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: Like with any other werewolf media, the lycanthropy of Moonrise has its own rules.
- Player and Protagonist Integration: The player is the "wolf" who has taken over the player character's body, and a continuing choice through the game is whether to resume the character's former life or abandon it.
- Queer Flowers: The three love interests have queer-coded scents. Rosario wears lavender and honey chapstick. Chika smells of violets, and Ishara, of roses.
- Reluctant Monster: The player can choose to show reluctance towards their transformation and new abilities.
- Romance Arc: The player can romance Rosario, Chika, and/or Ishara.
- Shout-Out: There are numerous allusions to other supernatural fiction, including The Wolfman, Dracula, and The Lais of Marie de France.
- Sliding Scale of Vampire Friendliness: Vampires and werewolves vary in how friendly they are to the player. Bisclavret, Lady Cassandra, and one of Dracula's Brides will kill the player character if the initial interaction goes poorly.
- Speculative Fiction LGBT: Moonrise fits this to a T.
- Stages of Monster Grief: The player character goes through this in the initial chapters.
- The Unmasqued World: the Rogue faction fights for this, and the player character can make it a reality.
- Vampire's Harem: Subverted. If the player sides with the Masquerade, Sati recruits them to retrieve xer wives from Dracula's castle. The four of them appear genuinely in love.
- Visionary Villain: The Masquerade views Chika as a dangerous idealist and villain.
- World of Action Girls: Many women inhabit the world of Moonrise and they can all kill the player, until the player becomes an Action Girl themself.
