Shell Programming and Scripting

Okay so Zork sparked my interest in this. I have been learning to program for the last year and a half. I've dabbled in everything from Java to Ruby to PHP & XHTML & SQL, and now I'm on bash. I really like bash scripting. Its easy and fun. I just started two days ago. Pretty much I've been writing a story line requiring user input, but simply just using read, echo, if/then/else, etc. Pretty much what I need help is being able to branch off into different scenarios based on user input. For example,
echo -n "Retto is very excited that Miles has joined the ranks. However, he needs to present Miles with a test. Should we test him with a bootloader hack or a mainver downgrade? > "

Where the user chooses one of the options, and then based on which option is chosen, the story line is different than if the user chose the opposite test. I know that I need to have the result of each test written, but how do I go about skipping the one and continuing into the selected storyline? For example, if bootloader is chosen, Miles works day and night and requires the user to pick a device with the locked bootloader, and then the success of Miles determines what reward he is given for his success. If mainver is choosen, the user has to decide what type of computer Miles uses work on the mainver downgrade, and in turn, the reward that is given for his success in the venture.

bootloader > miles needs a device, pick from dev1/dev2/dev3/dev4 > dev4 has the hardest, as in real-time it takes miles 30 seconds to crack it, and he is given an amazing reward || all the other devices are easy and take (real-time 15 seconds, game time one day) to crack, and he is given a simple reward > then miles is presented with his new task

same thing with the mainver, but replace the devices with different computers and rewards.

I don't know how to branch into different scenarios

If someone understands what I am asking and trying to do here, please help me figure out some way to branch these scenarios. Thank you so much.

ps. Think of Zork and all of the different results that happened based on the user's inputs, and how each of those results would branch into a different result.

Not sure about what you are trying to do, but maybe reading this and this and this will help.
Ok it is ksh and not bash but still a good reading about file descriptor & exec stuff.