Character Customisation

[Sune's Kiss]

If you were able to customize/customise a character in a CHYOA story, how would you like to be able to do so and would there be any difference between male/female characters?

From an author's perspective, the idea is to use IF statements to input the reader's choice (so "red hair" might be hair_color = 6).

Also, I'm from a Commonwealth country, so apologies for all of the extra l's and u's that I put into words (probably a few s's where you'd have z's too). I'm trying to be as internationally-friendly as humanly possible.

The customisation options I have so far are:
Eye Colour: Amber, Blue, Brown, Green, Grey/Gray, Hazel
Complexion: This one's a tricky one. I've been playing around with White, Cream, Light Tan, Tan, Brown, and Black as options but I'm struggling to apply them to descriptive text.
Freckles: None, Light, Heavy
Hair Colour: Auburn, Black, Blond(e), Light Brown, Dark Brown, Red
Hair Length: Short, Medium, Long
Hair Type: Straight, Wavy, Curly, Kinky

Do you guys have any additional ideas?

 

[insertnamehere]

Always nice to see some experimentation with Game Mode.

I've tested some 'character builder' functions in drafted stories before. With that experience, I'd say it's important to cut down on irrelevant options. I don't think eye colour and complexion will come up very often. Using if-statements will improve your ability to use descriptive synonyms, but still, you shouldn't ever need to say, "You reach out with your chocolate coffee blackwood coloured hand." I think it'll be significantly more immersive if you simply don't describe the reader's eye/skin colour, since they'll naturally assume whatever they want to assume. It's not something that should ever affect the story itself, unless you have a mechanic where, for example, a certain character prefers green eyes.

Short/medium/long is also a little vague for hair length, especially if this is for a female character, since male readers will have no idea what 'average' looks like. I would recommend ear-length/chin-length/shoulder-length/chest-length/waist-length etc.

As far as additions go, I think an option readers will universally appreciate is penis/breast size. Hips/ass is also important. People often have specific preferences for these traits, especially when you have readers playing as characters of the opposite gender. It'll inevitably impact the content of sex scenes, so you can't simply ignore it. Also, these traits are more likely to affect the character's actual capabilities. Does she have enough boobage to perform a titjob? Is his cock big enough to deliver on his earlier promise? Is she too curvy to squeeze between the bookshelves?

Height might also be a useful decision. It's difficult to say exactly what would work for your story without knowing anything about it.

 

[Sune's Kiss]

My initial idea was to have characters with default attributes, then have a Dramatis Personae page where the reader can change things if they choose to.

I know basic things like skin and eye colour might not come up very much, but I thought they might be helpful for immersion.

Immersion, or kink(s).

Beware of boys with eyes of blue, they'll kiss you once then ask for two.

 

[Sune's Kiss]

I've been trying to think of ways to flavour writing with conditional text. For instance, if you had a Body Type hidden variable that had a value of 1 if the reader if they wanted an athletic love interest or a value of 2 if a voluptuous one:

You caress her {if Body Type = 1}toned {elseif Body Type = 2}curvy {endif}thigh.

The tricky thing is it's hard to flavour the middle ground. In the above case you either get:

1. You caress her toned thigh (if "1" is chosen for Body Type).
2. You caress her curvy thigh (if "2" is chosen), or, if none of the criteria are met (have been selected):
3. You caress her thigh.

Short/medium/long is also a little vague for hair length, especially if this is for a female character, since male readers will have no idea what 'average' looks like. I would recommend ear-length/chin-length/shoulder-length/chest-length/waist-length etc.

See, I think I was being too vague because I don't want to paint myself into a corner, but looking at the way you've put it here that's not so many options to be daunting for the in-chapter IF statements. For the record, my line of thinking was short would be something like a pixie cut, medium would have been shoulder-length, and long would have been down the back.

I quite like the idea of there being game elements to the choices too, like certain characters having a "type". My thinking was just "Hey, I can use this bit of code to make the characters look how the reader wants them to look!" For the eye one you could even add in option to find (as per your example) some green-eyed contact lenses, perhaps even having to do a side quest for another character to get them.

Very interesting food for thought...

 

[gene.sis]

From an author's perspective, the idea is to use IF statements to input the reader's choice (so "red hair" might be hair_color = 6).

I recommend ordering the traits in a useful way, if possible. Then, I would also use steps (10 or 100) between the defining numbers.
e.g. Short=100, Medium=200, Long=300
That way, you can insert more options (e.g. medium-short=150) later while keeping changes small. (E.g. if you used "if hair length > 1" and "if hair length >2", you can't use 4 for medium-short)

(Using "longer than specific length" could for example be used if there is a blowjob where the hair would curtain the view. If the woman is on top, a certain length might curtain their tits, and if they are long enough, they might even tickle the guy's chest. (or face :/ I guess that's not that pleasant though.))

Is his cock big enough to deliver on his earlier promise?

Or is it too long and unpleasantly hurts her with every thrust? (depending on position)

My initial idea was to have characters with default attributes, then have a Dramatis Personae page where the reader can change things if they choose to.

Sounds good.
I could also imagine offering a few "archetypes" and then let the readers change something if they want to.
You could also start the story without custom characters (though already using the variables) and then add the customizations later step by step as soon as they might matter. (that makes also for some additional updates.)

I know basic things like skin and eye colour might not come up very much,

I could imagine that eye color might be interesting if it's a love story with a lot of "eye staring."
As for skin color... maybe ethnic background might work. This might also have an impact on the story and might tickle some kinks.

You caress her {if Body Type = 1}toned {elseif Body Type = 2}curvy {endif}thigh.

The tricky thing is it's hard to flavour the middle ground. In the above case you either get:

1. You caress her toned thigh (if "1" is chosen for Body Type).
2. You caress her curvy thigh (if "2" is chosen), or, if none of the criteria are met (have been selected):
3. You caress her thigh.

You caress her {if Body Type = 1}toned {elseif Body Type = 2}curvy {else}[lovely/tender/rather unspecific adjective] {endif}thigh.

 

[SeriousBrainDamage]

I also dabbled in the matter, despite not being actually able to pull off a full fledged game story.

Do you guys have any additional ideas?

The possibilities are just to much if you are really willing to consider them all.
I gave it a try myself in a draft and ended up adding more and more colours and lenghts and whatnot till it dawned on me it was probably a bad idea to go through with it.

I'd suggest to pick a restricted selection of choices wich may fit the situation/setting or your story ( 3 max per category) and stick with it. It will still make the player feel in control, but it shouldn't overburden you with essentially 'futile' workload.

 

[Sune's Kiss]

then I would really go for character traits like Shy\Flirty, Nice\Bitchy and sexual kinks.

I like it. I think that personality and character traits are an area worth exploring.

In physical appearance you seems to deprioritize most important stuff like figure and breast size.

It's not so much that I deprioritize them, but it's quite difficult to define them in a way that is universally relevant. For instance, breast size is a very subjective attribute – what you might consider a "large" breast might barely be considered average to another reader (or vice-versa). And trying to use bra/cup sizes creates its own issues.

As far as additions go, I think an option readers will universally appreciate is penis/breast size.

One issue I've identified with penis size is how to implement it. There's issues of the subjectiveness of size, and if you go with measurable length this also has implementation challenges. In order to be able to assign a value to, say, a penis_length variable you'd need to create a chapter to assign that value to the variable. So, if you wanted to give the reader ¼" options from 2¾" to 13½" you'd need to create 44 chapters.

A more elegant way to do it would be to start at a default around five or six inches and have increase by a quarter-inch and decrease by a quarter-inch chapters that are disabled if the reader wants to decrease or increase beyond a feasible length, so perhaps it is possible...

You might be able to also add it as an immersion variable (like customisable names) but I'm fairly sure you cannot use those to influence chapters.

 

[gene.sis]

what you might consider a "large" breast might barely be considered average to another reader (or vice-versa).

That doesn't really matter.

Example Character B has "Size 3" breasts.
Example Character C has "Size 6" breasts.
Example Character D has "Size 9" breasts.

Author sees Example Character C and considers the breasts "large"
Reader sees Example Character C and considers the breasts "medium"
Author sees Example Character D and considers the breasts "humongous"
Reader sees Example Character D and considers the breasts "large"

Now, the author writes that the actual character A has "large" breasts.

The author will imagine them looking like example character C's breasts. -> The author thinks they are large
The reader will imagine them looking like example character D's breasts. -> The reader thinks they are large

Using a subjective identifier allows the reader to imagine what they think it would look like.

One issue I've identified with penis size is how to implement it. There's issues of the subjectiveness of size, and if you go with measurable length this also has implementation challenges.

I wouldn't use numbers for it. Some descriptive values like "long" should do. Basically the same as above.

So, if you wanted to give the reader ¼" options from 2¾" to 13½" you'd need to create 44 chapters.

A more elegant way to do it would be to start at a default around five or six inches and have increase by a quarter-inch and decrease by a quarter-inch chapters that are disabled if the reader wants to decrease or increase beyond a feasible length, so perhaps it is possible...

I wouldn't use numbers really.

So rather an example with age from 18 to 49
First choices: 1, 2, 3, 4 (+10, +20, +30, +40 to the respective age variable. Maybe use another variable to do something like "in her thirties")
Second choice: 0 to 9 (+0, +1, ... (block options 0 to 7 when first choice was 1))
-> about 16 Chapters

Or start with a certain age and offer the choices
+10
+5
+1
Finished
and link the first three back to the choice chapter.

You might be able to also add it as an immersion variable (like customisable names) but I'm fairly sure you cannot use those to influence chapters.

You can't use immersion variables in if statements.
But you could show the text 7½" in the chapter. (Or whatever the reader chose to insert there.)

 

[Sune's Kiss]

Figure - slim, toned, womanly.
Brest size - small, medium, large.
Reader's personal interpretation differences doesn't really matter, let them picture what they want, isn't that the point?

Somewhere in here is one of the pitfalls that I want to try and avoid in my stories.

 

[SeriousBrainDamage]

Some of this traits would require you to completely rewrite a chapter.

hen I would really go for character traits like Shy\Flirty, Nice\Bitchy and sexual kinks.

This for example.

Also, if you mess too much with your character, you may end up losing sense and consistency.
If you write a (sexual?) situation picturing a young, petite, naive, asian woman in it, I find it doubtful to belive you could get away with just replacing a tall, curvaceous, snarky, finnic one in her place without having to change the whole situation itself.

Stick to a few estetic traits and never mess with behaviours.

 

[insertnamehere]

Stick to a few estetic traits and never mess with behaviours.

Strongly agreed.

Changing a character's behaviour is the entire point of allowing different choices in a CHYOA story. Whether the reader rejects or accepts another character's advances should not be predetermined; it should be a decision in the moment. If the protagonist's personality is preset and inflexible, then you might as well write the whole story in a single chapter.

A reader might wish to role-play and make a concerted effort to align all of their decisions with a particular personality, but that's not something they should have to decide and be bound to for the rest of the story.

 

[insertnamehere]

It's probably because of lack of experience. Check how games which have character customization do it, then try it yourself.

I don't recall any videogames that allow you to preset personality traits. Usually, personality is expressed in dialogue choices - Fallout comes to mind.

 

[SeriousBrainDamage]

Check how games which have character customization do it, then try it yourself.

I'd like some examples.
Also I'd love to discuss modern mainstream Rpgs and their ever-lacking character customization.

Anyways, here on chyoa, the reader can still somewhat 'decide' the MC personality in many stories. The way this is done though, it's through chapter choices, not by imputting a preset personality headstart.

Mind you, I'm not saying it can't be done, though I express my reservations on the outcome, I'm just saying that Chyoa isn't the best place to engage the matter from that particular angle.

 

[gene.sis]

Stick to a few estetic traits and never mess with behaviours.

Strongly agreed.

Changing a character's behaviour is the entire point of allowing different choices in a CHYOA story. Whether the reader rejects or accepts another character's advances should not be predetermined; it should be a decision in the moment. If the protagonist's personality is preset and inflexible, then you might as well write the whole story in a single chapter.

I agree if it is about the POV main character.

But if the custom character is the main love interest in the story, such customization might be useful. Though it is definitely more work.

On the other hand, using certain decisions to determine if the reader can choose certain options later can work as well. (E.g. if the reader chose all the "asshole" decisions, he can only choose between neutral and asshole decisions later on.)

If the appearance of the POV main character is customized, it is unlikely that you will describe them in the story.
So it would be more about the reaction of their love interests. So a certain option might make a certain outcome very easy, hard, or impossible.

Also I'd love to discuss modern mainstream Rpgs and their ever-lacking character customization.

I guess it's more about telling "epic" stories so the character part doesn't matter that much anymore.

And the "need" for translations makes it quite expensive to create dialog-heavy games.

 

[MidbossMan]

Yeah, I've been thinking a lot on that last point. If it weren't for the difference of effort needed, it wouldn't necessarily be a tradeoff, but since there is time and input needed, it becomes an exchange. The time you spend making customization aspects up front necessarily takes away the amount of content featuring the character following that customization.

An easy example: in a game story, I have a choice up front whether you want the character to be futanari or not. This choice creates the need to write separate scenes (whether as divergent chapters or hidden text) for each chapter following that; the work-load is appreciably more. The more customization options you make and the bigger they are, the more time you'll put in at the back end.

My advice would be to keep it simple and handle everything you can by customization tags. If all you care about is letting the player choose things like hair color or skin color, hometown, names and nicknames, or etc. put them there and only reference them, instead of putting in branches for things like hair color. The story doesn't need to change based on that, just a few words. If you want them to pick an in-story faction or to have a dick or not, then it becomes a question of branches and game factors and also how many you can juggle writing for. Such decisions are neat and I think players appreciate the extra effort, but you need to be realistic with how much extra you can actually write.

Personally, I don't see it as being worth it to make a choice of hair color a branch instead of a custom tag, because your red hair barring or opening choices or warranting specific commentary can only happen in a few situations, right? It's not the type of thing you'll get much mileage out of compared to just having it be a custom variable.

 

[Sune's Kiss]

(wow so many posts since my last visit)

I kind of like the idea of having some personality traits as a feat or flaw. If your game mode has a horny-meter mechanic and you assign a character trait as "Feisty", maybe getting into arguments gets them hot more than just under the collar. It's fairly simple to clone a chapter, bump up the "horny" percentage if the character has that trait, then merge it to the rest of the story.

A lot of them I see more as just flavour text. So, maybe your female protagonist overhears her love interest describing her as "That sexy redhead/blonde/brunette/etcetera" and that's how she finds out they're into her. Things like that shouldn't create too many branches while providing immersion.

It is very possible that having too many attributes might dissuade other authors from contributing. That might be a down side to setting this sort of thing up, having to set up an encyclopaedia of variables so other authors can wrap their head around what's going on.

I'm starting to feel slightly guilty about this thread, perhaps it belongs in Authors Hangout rather than Story Ideas now. It is pretty cool to find a community that into story writing though. Rock on!

 

[gene.sis]

It's fairly simple to clone a chapter, bump up the "horny" percentage if the character has that trait, then merge it to the rest of the story.

Usually, you wouldn't need a side branch for that but could just use a linking chapter and a variable to show the difference in the chapter. (That way, you don't have to edit two or more chapters if you want to change a line. You'd also need fewer linking chapters if that chapter has more possible options.

But there's no general right or wrong way to go. It depends on the specific situation and to some degree on the author's preference.