[LP CYOA] Test-Run

[Tigranes]

Wait wait wait wait

Zhang Prequel.

 

[treave]

What kind of quests, though, are we talking about?

Uh, maybe stuff like volunteering to clear a gold mine of goblins, only you secretly come out of it with new goblin soldiers and blackmail material on the mine's owners which you can leverage to weaken the kingdom's fiscal health, that sort of thing?

 

[Rex Feral]

Superhero> Overlord> Multiplayer, for me

 

[a bear named spigot]

i can get off on w/e

 

[m4davis]

Overlord>Superhero>Multiplayer here

 

[Esquilax]

I don't care which one we go with, to be honest. I'm up for whatever.

 

[archaen]

 

[ScubaV]

Theme song for the multiplayer survival CYOA.

 

[Baltika9]

I'll draw up new previews for both the superhero and the overlord concepts during the weekend.

Here's something:

Spoiler

I think that's a smart move, immortal cannibal children and abandonment issues notwithstanding.

It was the largest chair the boy had ever seen, and as he was twelve, he thought that he had seen a lot of chairs.


Upon it sat a man. His face was ageless and handsome, his brown locks cut in a short, severe style. A simple, platinum crown lay upon his brow, set with glittering diamonds. A white cloak lined with gilded trimmings adorned his bare, muscular chest. There was an air of serenity and utter control about the man, though a more astute and suspicious observer might feel uneasy, akin to a placid lake hiding danger within its deeps. Resting on an arm of the throne was a great sword, the blade's metal dark and darker still where blood still lay on it.


The man made a gesture. There was the sound of a struggle, and then the echoes of boots marching on the marble floor in perfect sync. Two of his faceless guards, the Eyeless White, dragged out a ragged, bloody man. The bleeding wounds left a fresh trail of red on the marble. The guards hurled the man to the floor in front of the boy.


The boy stared at the man in front of him. He was dirty, unkempt, and had many cuts all over his body. A few fingers were missing. The man tried to get up, reaching for the boy...


"This man is accused of theft. Banditry. Rape. Murder. His crimes have taken away a dozen lives, and touched the lives of a thousand more."


The convict froze when the man on the throne spoke. Although his mellifluent voice was heard clearly by everyone in the great hall, it was as soft as a whisper in their ears.


"By the laws of this Empire that I have created, I pronounce his guilt."


The man locks his eyes on the boy. Those piercing eyes were slate-grey, just like his own.


"You may eat."


The boy tears his eyes away. He had seen what happened to the children that ate. They were embraced by the man, bloody mouths and all, and led away by an escort of kindly old ladies. He had also seen what happened to the other children that had refused to eat. That had cried. That had tried to run. They were laid out at a corner of the hall, unmoving, their heads removed by that massive sword on the throne.


"Please... don't kill me." croaks the convict, looking pitifully into the boy's eyes.


The boy looks up, at the man he was supposed to eat. Theft. Banditry. Rape. Murder. Since he was born he had always sensed the darkness in others' hearts, and this man's heart was stained like no other. The boy wonders if his victims pleaded before he murdered them. Did he give them any quarter? How dare he plead for his life after all that he has done to others? The boy begins to get angry. Anger is justice. He learned that on the streets. To be just is to punish the wicked. Those that defied him were unjust. To eat and purify their flesh. That is the only salvation they can hope for.


He growls, his small body shaking.


***


As the convict screams in agony, little teeth ripping into his flesh, the man on the throne permits himself a smile. He whispers, this time to himself, "Thus, I claim you as my son."

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

I'm gonna go ahead and formalize my vote to Overlord>Semi-Continuation>superhero since it isn't a direct continuation, no one is voting for it and since my character would probably just get murdered again...

 

[kazgar]

Is someone counting the votes for the meta cyo-cyoa?

Are a couple people going to flop?

Are we entering endless discuss?

Is the beginning of the next cyoa in fact going to be an ending and thus causing butthurt and requests for treave to reload?

 

[Tigranes]

I would like a multiplayer CYOA where each of us represent an early American top-hat congressman trying to make it to Philadelphia for the vote on which CYOA to play, but we have to deal with the roving buffalo bandits, undead flesh-eating tea-sacks and Injuns on the way.

 

[Nevill]

Is someone counting the votes for the meta cyo-cyoa?

*sigh*

Spoiler

ScubaV Overlord > Multiplayer > Superpowers
Baltika9 Overlord > Multiplayer > Superpowers
Tigranes W/e
Azira Superpowers > Overlord > Multiplayer
Kipeci Overlord > Superpowers > Multiplayer
Nevill Overlord > Multiplayer > Superpowers
asxetos Superpowers > Overlord > Multiplayer
wjw Overlord
Kz3r0 Superpowers
Rex Feral Superpowers > Overlord > Multiplayer
a bear named spigot W/e
m4davis Overlord > Superpowers > Multiplayer
Esquilax W/e
Lambchop19 Overlord > Multiplayer > Superpowers
TOME Overlord

Overlord - 8
Superpowers - 4

Is the beginning of the next cyoa in fact going to be an ending and thus causing butthurt and requests for treave to reload?

You got it all wrong. The butthurt is what causes new CYOAs, not the other way around. It's simple thermodynamics.

 

[wjw]

Overlord, sure.

 

[Nevill]

Hmm. We've seen a 'haunted hospital' and an 'island facility' as examples of isolated CYOA worlds. What other examples are there that would suit this definition? A quarantined city, perhaps? An underground vault?

Can something like a transcontinental train (a la 'Baccano!' and 'The Last Express') work for CYOA purposes? Or would that be too stiffling?

 

[ScubaV]

 

[treave]

I don't think there'll be a problem with a CYOA set entirely on a train/cruise ship/airship. But I must admit I'm having trouble thinking of a story arc for such a setting that doesn't involve investigation and/or a transportation disaster.

 

[Kz3r0]

I don't think there'll be a problem with a CYOA set entirely on a train/cruise ship/airship. But I must admit I'm having trouble thinking of a story arc for such a setting that doesn't involve investigation and/or a transportation disaster.

During a trip on ship/train/plane a dimensional vortex is encountered, many adventures will happen then on strange worlds, the ship/train/plane being the only safe haven, among various dangers for the passengers not being on board as the ship/train/plane moves to another dimension.

 

[treave]

Then it's not taking place solely on the transport anymore. You can do the same without dimensional shenanigans and just having wacky adventures at every port of call.

 

[Kz3r0]

A train enters a tunnell, the tunnell seems to have no end, additional wagons appears and disappears, strange creatures appears and disappears.

 

[Nevill]

I kinda want to experience a critical situation that needs to be resolved before time X, with the clock constantly ticking. You know how much you have left, but you have no idea how close you actually are to your goal. Time X could be anything - until the train arrives to the destination, until the nuclear device in the vault goes off, or until a deadly virus takes over your body. A sense of urgency that is constantly driving you forward leaving you little time to think where you are actually going, because chances are, anywhere else would be better.

I dig this sense of impending catastrophe and drama on a border between life and death where you can feel your life trickling away from you with each passing second.

Spiral had an element of this where we knew we would be dead by 24:00, but it used it in a different way and by midpoint it abandoned the idea altogether.

A transportation disaster might be interesting as a premise, too, with different factions emerging from what was once whole, all with different ideas of what to do about the situation. This one is probably best played as a tension-packed survival adventure.

A train enters a tunnell, the tunnell seems to have no end, additional wagons appears and disappears, strange creatures appears and disappears.

That is, basically, Spiral 2.0

 

[treave]

A train enters a tunnell, the tunnell seems to have no end, additional wagons appears and disappears, strange creatures appears and disappears.

Survival horror train? It'd just be a retread of Spiral, albeit more focused, though.

I kinda want to experience a critical situation that needs to be resolved before time X, with the clock constantly ticking. You know how much you have left, but you have no idea how close you actually are to your goal.

It'd work better as a chapter in a longer story, or a standalone short, I think. Something like this can be worked into any of the LPs. Overlord/Superheroes on a train, etc.

A transportation disaster might be interesting as a premise, too, with different factions emerging from what was once whole, all with different ideas of what to do about the situation. This one is probably best played as a tension-packet survival adventure.

I think crashing the vehicle would tend to be the climax of said LP, regardless of whether it was intentional or a careless consequence. It's no longer a transportation LP afterwards.

 

[Nevill]

I dig this sense of impending catastrophe and drama on a border between life and death where you can feel your life trickling away from you with each passing second.

Come to think of it, this could be achieved with some kind of time-traveling mechanics that would also provide a rationalization for restarts. A character would know that some Bad Shit (TM) is coming, but can they actually prevent it or avoid the worst of the damage?

Spiral had the elements of the Groundhog Day in it, though the 'Dex didn't seem to like them (or so was my impression). But, again, it was used differently there. Once the character remembered everything and could consciously take advantage of that fact, the repetitions stopped. So it's not like we've 'been there, done that'.

It probably would need some careful limitations imposed on the device so as not to turn it into a go-to solution.

I think crashing the vehicle would tend to be the climax of said LP, regardless of whether it was intentional or a careless consequence.

Aye, the 'Dex loves dem trainwrecks. But can they do that IN SPACE?!

There could probably be some safeguards built in together with a big warning sign. Alternatively, you can't crash that which already has crashed.

 

[Nevill]

It'd work better as a chapter in a longer story, or a standalone short, I think. Something like this can be worked into any of the LPs. Overlord/Superheroes on a train, etc.

You don't think this could warrant a separate story? I am thinking some of KID's novels here, like Ever17 or Remember11.

I suppose another LP could dedicate an arc to this, but then I doubt it could be properly explored as it wouldn't be the main theme of the story.

I think crashing the vehicle would tend to be the climax of said LP, regardless of whether it was intentional or a careless consequence.

Oh. I just remembered a TV series I watched about two years ago, Stargate Universe. (IMDB link)

Not the best there is, I admit, but all the themes I want out of the transportation LP are there. Also, the vehicle is uncrashable by design. I think.

Hell, one could do an Alpha Centauri prequel by another name where all the factions woke up from the anabiosis one year too early.

 

[treave]

You don't think this could warrant a separate story? I am thinking some of KID's novels here, like Ever17 or Remember11.

Well, we don't usually explore all alternate routes, unlike in VNs. A straight playthrough of a single route isn't very long. I'd estimate this (assuming a train) to last around 50 updates max, even exploring most possibilities, which is relatively short compared to Spiral's 110+, Legend's 170+, and Epic's 200 or so updates.