An idea for a new type of Collaborative Story

Hi everyone.

I'm new to the forum, but I'm sure some of you remember me from Fifthwind and various other writer's forums in the past. I'm here to suggest an idea for a new kind of Collaborative Story.

I'm sure you all remember those 'Create your own adventure' books from when you were kids. I know I was a big fan of them, particularly ones put out by Knight Books which had just the right level of fantasy and realism to them (they tended to be pretty dark and quite graphically horrific in places). For those who aren't familiar with the concept each story is divided into numbered paragraphs which are scattered randomly throughout the book. Each entry ends with a decision that needs to be made by the player and a choice of several numbered entries for the player to follow upon making the decision. So the story can have many branching paths that can range from small, almost inconsequential decisions to completely different paths that alter the course of the story and maybe even the ending. Sometimes these decisions didn't even come into effect until the very end of the book! Most CYOA books also littered a number of seemingly random, arbitrary insta-deaths at the player for making the wrong choice (some of which were exceedingly unfair, which was all part of the fun).

Well I've been considering starting up a Collaborative Story in the form of just such a CYOA. The format would be so:

I post a segment of story (usually ending in a decision of some sort, though occasionally I may be forced to end mid flow due to time/space constraints).

The players (that's you) vote on what to do next, from the list of choices (I may also experiment with accepting players to suggest choices that haven't been offered.) These votes will be tallied and the most popular option will be chosen.

I then write the next segment of story that follows on from the decision chosen and so on.

Should our character die we will rewind to an appropriate point in time and continue on, hopefully wiser for the experience.

So what do people think? Does this seem like something people would be interested in? Or does it sound like a damnably foolish concept and I should never post again?

I still support the idea.

Oh, and I'm the guy who told him to put it up over here, so y'all can thank me later.

OH! That sounds like FUN!! I'm totally in! And I will Thank Lox later.

WELCOME MR D! I do remember you Welcome to my insane, and very quiet town Please join in anywhere, find yourself a house and settle in, though I'll warn you, Silv and I are on a very random vandilizing spree, you maybe have seen some .. er.. pretty houses

Wow. That's already a more immediately welcoming response than I received over on SV. Hopefully a couple more people will see fit to throw in their votes and we can be away.

I'm liking the forum Stone, but seriously, pink? It's like my eyes are being violated.

In the meantime I'll put up a character sheet for people to decide on.

So we have to come up with:

Name:

Race: (From those listed in the Altaea background. Those that I will allow as playable races are; Human, Al Mayin, High Elf, Dark Elf, Forest Elf, Dwarf, Halfling, Orc, Demi, Shapeshifter.)

Occupation/class: (A rough archetype for our character to follow. E.g. knight, barbarian, assassin, ninja, magus or even something mundane like merchant, fisherman etc)

Nationality: (From those listed in the Altaea background.)

Personality: (Simple suggestions on how our protagonist may react to certain situations. E.g. Sarcastic, good natured, ruthless, self centered, psychotic etc)

Feel free to leave a section blank if you have no opinion on it or can't be bothered to read up the wall of text that makes up the background info. I'll fill in the rest and come up with a character sheet.

oh and I just remembered I haven't linked to the Altaea background info yet. I'm currently in the process of uploading it to a wiki (since I can't edit the old threads in RPG anymore.) but for the time being we'll have to make do with the old thread on RPG. The majority of it is here.

Hey! My Forum, my color! I think it's nice.. I can change it though. Is that why it isn't very active here? Sad.

As for waiting for more people.. there are roughly 4 others outside of us here that are relatively active. Really I made this place because I knew it couldn't be taken away from me and would always be here to hear my stupid comments It's really just my play ground. (which is why it's pink!)

Race: Al Mayin!!
Occupation/class: Assassin
Nationality: eh..? I don't really care
Personality: I like sarcastic but good natured. Also maybe a bit of a dick sometimes?

Those be my picks

Look, I'm just saying it hurts to look at. (I'm kidding. I'm kidding.)

You really like the Al Mayin don't you? I remember your character on fifthwind was one too.

Hey Mr.D!

I;d be glad to play too.

Great! Well throw in a vote.

Just need a couple more people and we'll be rolling.

I'm going to agree with Amber. Only exception is Al-Mayin, where I'd rather see a human, but, eeh, either works, really. I do, however, say, he should be from the Sarife Empire.

Edit: Oh, and the name, it's prolly best to leave to you.

I'm in, and since I have a deeply-seated love for assassins I see no major problems.

I can give up my Al-mayin.. he can be human..

Well 4 people is close enough for me so I'll start it up in due course. Since we've received one character suggestion and no one has any problems with it I'll go with the Al Mayin assassin. I'm sure more people will pop in to take a look soon enough.

no objections from this corner

\o/ I win!! *snuggles Al Mayin *

File me under "can't be bothered to read up on background info." But this'll be fun to watch and toss in my two cents occasionally.

What about half-human? Angsty cultural heritage issues?

The first post is up in the Presentation Room.

:adies and Gentlemen, I present to you: Altaea Saga: The Thousand Halls.

Please post your vote and discussions in the story thread itself.

Just wanted to say, Mr D, this one intrigued me from the first line of text like no other roleplay has in a loooong while. I think there's something special about Choose Your Own Adventure stories. Either way, I'm looking forward to this!

Thanks. And yeah, you guys are posting in the right place. I'll try to update in 24 hour intervals when possible, assuming there are votes, so make sure to vote before then if you haven't.

I loved reading those books. This sounds like fun, can I join?

Cindy, everyone can play! So come and join us!

Of course you can. Vote as often or as little as you want or even just join the debate.