Damn Dog

I have this game idea about an American WWI vet returning from the war. I've talked about this one before, but it was in the regulars-only chat on the intfiction Forum, so it's really not out there, so to speak.

The veteran has "shell shock" and alot of unresolved trauma. He spends a few months with his mother, who is overjoyed to see him, but his discomfort grows and he feels the need to travel. He leaves a note for his mother and sets out on foot, with a bindle (stereotypical handkerchief package tied to a stick) over his shoulder.

His experiences leave him introverted and quick to distrust, especially of strangers. He lives the Hobo lifestyle for a few years, hopping trains and hitchhiking, keeping mostly to himself, until one day.

He encounters a stray dog on a train car. As he leaves the car, the dog follows. He tries to shoo the dog, “Now, git!” and basically ignores him otherwise, but the dog continues to follow him and eventually, as he makes camp at the end of the day, the dog lays down to sleep a few feet away.

The next morning, the dog is awake and waiting for him. Caving to the dog’s persistence, he grudgingly shares some of his breakfast and advises the dog that he can come along if he doesn’t make a nuisance of himself.

Over the next few weeks, the dog and the man grow closer and the man, while passing through a town, even buys another handkerchief of the same color and pattern as the one of his stick sack, and puts it on the dog.

One day, walking down a path, the dog starts barking and takes off through the grass. The man calls out for the dog to come back, but the dog ignores him, his excited barking growing further away. Grumbling about mangy mutts and whatnot, he leaves the path and pursues the dog.

Only to encounter the dog by a small boy laying at the edge of a cornfield with what appears to be a broken leg. The man is drawn into helping the boy get help and get home, and has to come out of his shell a little to do so.

Of course, things aren't as simple as they seem, and they learn that the boy doesn't want to go home, but won't say why. Plot unfolds as you would expect; you've been on this ride before.

This basic mechanic is repeated on their adventures with the dog getting the man, grudgingly, into increasingly absurd situations, typically resolving with the man having helped someone or even a whole community applying the skills he had learned in the trenches and riding the nation’s railways. The overall arc has this slowly rehabilitating an emotionally scarred man.

It's like Jack Reacher minus all the violence, sex, and gore.

Maybe Jack Reacher and Lassie with a fun over-the-top comedy element.

Plus a cute dog. 🐕

Was thinking it'd make a good illustrated parser or twine game.

[Note: Homeless people riding trains set anywhere between post-Civil War to Depression Era US is a whole thing. Being a hobo is not trainspotting. Ran into some European confusion when discussing this idea previously. If you need a primer: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobo ]

[Second Note: I was told after pitching this idea that it resembles an IF game named January. It can be found on ifdb.org. Just an FYI.]