The Golden Unicorn - A Complete Chyoa

porneia

porneia

Really Experienced
My greatest Chyoa fantasy is to write a complete Chyoa story.

I don't know of any complete stories on Chyoa. My personal favor is: "Back to Secret Agent School".

By a "complete" story I mean it must have the following . . .
* Every chapter has at least two options.
* All threads have an ending chapter.

To write such a story I would think the following things are necessary:
* A very concise and short story plot. (ex: Red Sonja has to steal the idol from a temple of prostitution.)
* Several "choke points" where different threads merge together.
* Map out the main story before hand.
* Keep the chapters short.

Though I am not fully sure why, I think it would be important to publish it after it is complete, or at least a section at a time.

What do you think?
 
Ugh, I hate it when I make a typo in the title!

It should read" The Golden Unicorn - A Complete Chyoa Story!"

Sorry about that.
 
Well, since I technically have a complete story... it really depends on how long you want to write for.
Absolutely if you want a LOT of branches, you're going to have to keep the overall story simple.
I think a good model to use is the old "Lone Wolf" books, if you really want to keep the feel of choice, but keep it kinda short.

Take a look at "Flight From the Dark" the first Lone Wolf book.
Starts In Media Res, with an escape from evil attack First Hub, Numerous directions...
All eventually lead to the Second Hub, which is a midpoint, and based off the players earlier decisions, certain paths will be easier.
All paths from the second hub lead to the final point, ending the story.

So, each of the paths will have a definite start point and end goal.
Just a few thoughts/ideas. Don't know if it helps or insults, but if the latter, know it wasn't intended.
 
porneia said:
By a "complete" story I mean it must have the following . . .
* Every chapter has at least two options.
* All threads have an ending chapter.
Click to expand...
That's ambitious, although of course it's fewer overall chapters if you have "bad ends," redirects, and choke points. I myself have a very broadly similar story outlined (although mine would use game mode and is way more fetish-driven, so I won't be stepping on your toes!) for when/if I ever finish LLNO to my satisfaction.

It's also worth pointing out though that even most CHYOA books don't offer 2+ choices on every chapter, often having runs of chapters after decision points: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/cyoa-choose-your-own-adventure-maps
 
The story I'm (gradually) working on is fully planned out and will be complete with multiple options at every step and all endings. I'm making this feasible with a system of 'objectives'. Each objective has a few internal decision points that determine whether the player loses or gains certain items, triggers certain future consequences, etc., but ultimately each objective leads to just a couple of outcomes that determine the next objective. In this way, I don't have to come up with a new thread for each option, but the majority of decisions still have a meaningful impact on the story. Variables are crucial to this.
Check it out here: https://chyoa.com/story/Darkest-Challenges.21150
I think a complete story just needs a simple, flexible premise, so that both the writer and reader aren't bored by monotony. For instance, I can put pretty much anything in the dungeon of the above story. You would also want fairly generic characters, as managing the thoughts and feelings of very deep characters is difficult when you're using choke points so frequently.
Another way of doing it is having each decision loop immediately back into the main story, letting them have a 'butterfly' effect on the story's content. Think Life is Strange - you only travel down one path, but the things that happen later on that path depend on how you behaved earlier. It might not be as immersive for the reader, given their lack of agency, but it'd make for a much better story.
 
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