Jumpchain refers to a set subset of Gamebook style fanfictions that began to take shape in The New '10s on /tg/.
The concept is as follows: the story begins with the Jumper (usually a Self-Insert) being greeted by their benefactor (often known as Jump-Chan). From here, they are given a universe to visit, though they are first required to write up a sheet carrying a list of powers, items, and companions they get. These are allocated based upon a point budget, which can optionally be increased by taking certain drawbacks. Once the jump is completed, the Jumper can either go back to their home reality, stay in the new one, or jump to the next universe in the chain.
A quick terminology for Jumpchain:
- Jumper: The protagonist of the story, which is often you.
- Jump: The universe you are visiting for a given duration (usually ten years). Powers and items can be obtained for each jump using the attached jump doc (short for jump document).
- Perks: Powers and abilities provided by your benefactor. These can range from just looking attractive to actual superpowers.
- Benefactor: The entity that sent the Jumper on their jumpchain. Often given the nickname of Jump-Chan.
- Drawback: The opposite of perks, these are hindrances taken at the beginning of the Jump, primarily to gain extra CP.
- Choice Points: A budget used when purchasing items and perks, they can be increased using Drawbacks. Abbreviated as CP.
- Bag of Holding: The Jumpchain warehouse is a rather bizarre example, being a pocket dimension accessible via a special key.
- Challenge Run: Any jump with drawbacks is this, as you don't need to use them to do well within a jump, but they give you extra points for getting perks, items, and companions. In addition, there are various self-imposed challenges for those interested in something else.
- Create Your Own Villain: A completely acknowledged and intentional case - Jumpers can create an Antagonist to pursue them in their travels and act as their Arch-Enemy. The main reason you would want to do this is that they give extra CP for every future jump, acting as a chain-wide drawback.
- Creator Thumbprint: The Jumpchain community is centered mostly on 4chan, SpaceBattles.com, and to a lesser extent Reddit, which results in a disproportionate number of jupdocs based upon Warhammer 40,000, and Fantasy, the Fate series, and Worm and its fanfics.
- Fun with Acronyms: The main currency when creating the CYOA builds is CP (Choice Points), with many jump docs replacing "Choice" with another word befitting the jumpdoc, or even eschewing the CP acronym at all.
- Genre-Busting: Due to the sheer number of jumpdocs in existence (which cover settings ranging from Berserk to Little Witch Academia and Death Stranding, jumpchains can jump all over the genre spectrun, often several times in the same story.
- Fanwank: The term is commonly used both in case the jump doc isn't clear enough, both in the traditional sense and as a Shrug of God.
- Genre Throwback: Generic CYOA can be used to jump into the traditional CYOAs that Jumpchain originated from.
- Grand Finale: While it varies across stories, several jumps are marked as 'End Jumps', which allow the Jumper to finish off their chain by completing a specific scenario that awards them a Planeswalker Spark (making them on the level of early edition (read: Invincible Hero) planeswalker from Magic: The Gathering) as well as certain other rewards. Some examples include:
- Angel Notes: Defeat Aristoteles embodying all observable celestial objects in the universe (that's one octillion Ultimate Ones). Completion gives the jumper usage of and control over the Akashic Record.
- Generic Pokémon Mystery Dungeon AU: Go to Ashes of the Past and beat a boosted version of Team Galactic. It does not come with extra rewards.
- Marvel Comics: Symbiotes: This one is notable for 1) being the combined reward for taking two different scenarios: Jumper Ascendant (Ascend to a god via the consumption of specific Codices, somewhat inspired by Absolute Carnage) and Saga of Jumper the God-Butcher (gradually power up a fragment of the All-Black by defeating an escalating gauntlet of opponents twice over), and 2) explicitly allowing to postpone the sparking to a later date and continue jumping if the jumper wishes to.
- Re:CREATORS: Defeat or befriend Altair and acquire the power of the Holopsicon. Completion awards the jumper with the insane reality warping powers of the Holopsicon, as well as Altair as a companion if you spared her.
- Warhammer 40,000:
- The freelancer jump has the option of getting your spark by completely destroying one of the major factions in the setting. It does not come with extra rewards.
- The Ork jump requires to uplift the entire species from within and convince the Imperium and Eldar that they have changed. Completion comes with a purified and amplified psychic energy powered by every Ork.
- SW vs WH40K: Manage to beat both universes at their respective peaks. Completion awards with both universes as personal domains and every notable being as a personal servant.
- X-Men: The Claremont Years: There are two way to get the spark here:
- Take Over the World and maintain control until the end. Completion grants a Pocket Dimension containing the conquered earth, which can expand to have more worlds conquered by the jumper, and grants a Home Field Advantage.
- Stop every apocalyptic event the X-Men would've stopped themselves during that era. Completion comes with becoming the Ultimate Mutant in and the ability to induce the X-gene in others.
- Hate Fic: Making a jump doesn't require one to have a positive opinion of the source material. As shown by jumpdocs such as Johnny Test, Victoria, Chunin Exam Day.
- Hard Mode Perks: Gauntlet jumps remove your ability to use any powers or items you gained outside of the current jump, and by default have a budget of zero. To get anything in these jumps, you must take a drawback of some sort. The tradeoff is that, unlike normal jumps, you are guranteed an end-of-jump reward. Moreover, while dying in a Jump normally ends your adventure and sends you back home, dying in a Gauntlet simply sends you to another Jump, although you lose anything you bought in the Gauntlet.
- House Rules: That's the community term for every rules modification that isn't a Self-Imposed Challenge.
- Lemony Narrator: Mixed with The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You, but several jumps have one or more characters native to the jump's universe comment on the perks and items you can get from a jump, often represented with changes in the text style.
- Destiny's The Darkness jump has Savathun comment on several perks and items belonging to The Hive. These progress into What the Hell, Hero? remarks for the best of these (namely the Ascendent Realm item and Demiurge of the Worm perk) due to the Jumper instantly getting things that normal hive (including herself) had to spend eons working toward.
- Fittingly, that's the case for the entire Generic Analog Horror jump to the point where The Anomaly can follow the jumper into the jumps after that one.
- AM from I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream hijacks the jump-do for their universe and tries to break the jumper's will before the narrator kicks them out.
- Marvel: Age Of Krakoa:
- The Drop-In origin and perks and the Manic-Depressive drawback are present by The Unbelievable Gwenpool.
- The text in the Judgment Day: Judgment Canceled scenario is interrupted by the Progenitor who explicitly warns the jumper that even with the benefactor's protection from True Death, being found unworthy and getting killed by it will still cause chain-fail.
- Magikarp Power: Jumpchains are this by their nature - while an initial jump can leave a jumper with several nice abilities, they won't compare to an experienced jumper, who will have compounded skillsets and items from multiple universes to their benefit.
- Non-Standard Game Over: Normally, a Jumper "loses" if they die without having a way to resurrect themselves. Some Jumps and scenarios, however, cause a fail state if certain conditions are met.
- Reincarnate in Another World: The general method for jumping is that the benefactor reincarnates the jumper into their chosen destination. Averted with the "Drop-In" background, where the jumper is just popped into existence without the extra baggage.
- Self-Insert Fic: It is extremely common for the protagonist to be a self-insertion of the author.
- Showy Invincible Hero: Abilities from completed chains will stack upon each other in future jumps, so eventually a jumper can end up easily overpowering their opponents in a ridiculously absurd manner (such as freezing them in time and shooting them with a rainbow-colored beam of pure love).
- This was averted in the original "official" rules, where stacking multiple boosts of the same type on top of each other provides diminishing returns, to the point that only the 4-5 strongest versions of that boost will count.
- Video Game Cruelty Punishment:
- The My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Jump allows you to play in a scenario inspired by The Conversion Bureau, giving you extra points as compensation for the increased danger you'll be in. If you side with the genocidal ponies, the Benefactor will be so disgusted that she will outright attack you, leading to your soul being erased if she kills you.
- The Ori has the drawbacks: One of These Drawbacks and Double The Trouble, which bring the Darkest Hour for the events of Ori and the Blind Forest and Ori and the Will of the Wisps respectively. The drawbacks demands the jumper to fix what went wrong and intentional failure to do so results in the jumper getting hit by a brick on a daily basis for a month and a YEAR respectively.
