So this is my first time writing a quiz-style story/Choose-Your-Own-Adventure so this is as much a journey for me as I hope it will be for you. Please feel free to give me comments and feedback! I'd love to hear what you think and also receive some constructive criticism and suggestions for how to improve. I hope you enjoy "NINE."
For those of you who don't know what CYOA is or how it is going to work, I'll provide a quick explanation in this paragraph. If you're familiar with the CYOA format, feel free to skip to the next paragraph. CYOA means "Choose-Your-Own-Adventure." That is, the actions that you decide to take will have actual, present, manifested effects on the story that you experience. A simple different choice could lead to a profoundly different story for your character. The fun part about this is there's potentially a lot of replay value-- once you get to the end of your story one way, you can go back to the beginning, or back to a point where you feel you would have liked to have chosen differently, and follow the story along a new path from there. A fun thing about CYOA stories, aside from the huge role you, the reader, plays in crafting the story, is the fact that your character is in very real danger. In many stories, you know the character is probably going to live through any encounter because, if (s)he didn't, the story would be over. In a CYOA, the choices you make could, potentially, lead to the death of your character. Then it's game over and try again if you'd like. Hopefully that's a good enough explanation of the way that CYOA works. If you'd like more information, you may benefit from a quick google search. More detailed instructions will come as certain situations arise, but feel free to e-mail me with any questions (e-mail address to be provided later) and I'll answer them to the best of my ability. Now, you may wonder how the CYOA style of writing is going to work on this website, for this particular story. Once you create your character, you can click on the link in the Table of Contents to begin playing. You will be presented with a block of text (the story) and eventually a choice. You will make your choice by clicking the link with the text which you would like to be your choice. This will take you to a new page with new choices for you to consider. Sometimes, you will reach a dead end. This may happen if your character dies or has something else happen for which there is no further option, or maybe it'll happen when you've just reached the end of what I've written for that particular line of choices. Other times, you may just come to a stopping point, a part of the story which I believe is an ideal place for a break, like the end of a chapter. When you reach a dead end or a stopping point, you'll be provided with a link back to the Table of Contents. If you haven't reached the end of a storyline (by dying or otherwise ending the tale), you will also be provided with a code to use to continue playing at some other time. At a stopping point, you may either copy down this code somewhere and return later, or keep playing. If you've reached a dead end because I haven't gotten to that part of the story yet, you can use the code whenever you check back to see if more has been added. I'll try to keep things updated, but I tend to get busy during the school year so don't expect too much of me. If you have any questions or comments (or would just like to bug me for an update), feel free to e-mail me at any time!
Now that we're all basically on the same page, let me discuss a few things about what this particular CYOA will be like. Nine is a fantasy story in which you (and any friends you may acquire along the way) will use your strength, smarts, and magic to solve mysteries, defeat enemies, explore forgotten caverns, and save the world. Along the way, you'll pick up certain items to help you with multiple trials. These items might be potions, spells, weapons, books, or really just about anything. Also, you'll have battles which may cause you to lose items and/or health. Players (like you) might be taking the same quiz with different items and different levels of health. Thus, it is up to you to keep track of your information (health level, inventory, information learned, etc.) and make your choices appropriately. If you don't have a pink potion in your inventory, for example, you can't select the option to "use pink potion." To keep track of your information, I suggest keeping a pad of paper or, to save paper and ink, maintaining a word document with all of your information. You can also use this notepad or word document to keep track of save codes used to return you to where you were in the story via the Table of Contents' "Continue" link.
I know it sounds a bit complicated, but I hope I'll be able to keep things pretty clear. As always, if you have any questions, comments, suggestions, praise, criticism, etc. feel free to e-mail me, and I'll get back to you ASAP.
Before you get on with the story, I have a few warnings. This adventure will have some blood and gore. It will have some mind-boggling puzzles. It will occasionally be frustrating. That being said, I will refrain from using foul language and there will be no sexual content in any of these quizzes, so it should be safe for ages 13 and over. Sometimes it may take ages before the next part of your adventure is up, because I'm too busy with school or work to write or because I'm working on other portions of the story. Please bear with me and be patient. I'll get to things... as I get to them. I know it’s annoying; sorry.
I think I've said everything that needs to be said. If anything else comes up, I'll let you know. Any general updates will be posted on the table of contents page for you ALL to see. Without further ado, if you're ready to begin, go ahead and return to the Table of Contents and develop your character.
If this website has just gone up, that page obviously isn't there yet, but I should have it done soon-ish! After that, I make no promises as to an update schedule as my life is prone to getting pretty hectic and busy without any warning.
P.S. PLEASE feel free to e-mail me letting me know what you think! I'd love to hear from you.