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I'm not in a contest, but I am looking for ideas. I'll reply to this post to post updates. First one is coming up in a second.

I would prefer if you reply to this post rather than others.

I have scraped together this much to form an idea: a fantasy adventure titled World Tree. It follows some norse mythology, but also has certain aspects added. Any feedback/requests is appreciated, just reply to the Original Post (OP).

•A limited inventory. You can carry up to 6 items at any given time, but some require more than one item slot. They are going to be picked up through links, since as far as I know, you can't stop an item from being picked up.

•A combat system. I have all the variables ready, and at th beginning of each battle, you choose your stance: Offensive (x2 Attack, but Defense is 0 and you can't use a shield), Normal, or Defensive (Attack is lowered and you can't use a two-handed weapon, but your defense is doubled).

•How you interact with the nine worlds. Through scaling Yggdrasil, the fabled World Tree, you come across the nine worlds. In each one, you should do something unique. In Asgard, if you make it over Bifröst, you can go to the colosseum to test your battle skill. In Nidevaller, the dwarves can forge you metal items, if you have the right stuff. In Alfheim, your items can be enchanted, and you can get better archery supplies than you can get in Midgard, as well as collecting rune stones. They take Endurance (the main life force) to use, and can only be held in a Rune Bag, but have highly useful effects. Any ideas on other world ideas will be great, since Midgard will just be a miscellaneous world. Also, Asgard and Vaneheim will have a Codex of the Gods, as to explain all the beasts there.

I find mythology pretty interesting, and Norse is one of the more popular ones.

Items
I trust you understand the implications of what you are suggesting. I do not know how exactly you plan on using the items, but if you just have it as a vague idea, consider altering it so it is more streamlined. Six items max with differing carrying capacity costs has the potential to be a huge pain to implement, not to mention get working properly (and having it also be meaningful). Writing a good story will usually trump scripting, or even highly branching narratives, but it all does really depend on what sort of thing you are going for. Think about why you are using the items, being deliberate can help make sure you are making the best experience you can.

Game or Story
Mixing the two is possible, but usually focusing more on one aspect can make it easier to make the thing, while also giving it a more solid identity. So far it sounds like what you are going for is a more game focused storygame, what with the items and the combat system. However that might just be because you haven't mentioned plot/story based stuff yet.

Combat System
Honestly, be vary of combat systems, hard to pull of in this system, but do go for it. Can be a good learning experience, but know it isn't really something easy to do. Be careful with the stances, balancing is a pain, and in simple systems, it is hard to not just have one 'best' option, which sort of defeats the point of having options in the first place.

Norse Mythology
Are you just using this as cheap window dressing? I'm just curious, since there is many ways to go about using it, and it is possible to go very in depth. When directly using outside sources, I'd advise being very aware of it, since it can be easy to slip into a crappy implementation of it. Also keep in mind that not everyone will know about Norse mythology, but also that some people will know more than you (probably). Just don't expect Norse mythology to make it better all on it's own, the impact it has will still depend on your work.

Conclusion
Way too early to tell, but so far I am worried about the state of this project. It certainly can work, just when people mention items, a combat system, and nine worlds, I get worried. I definitely do encourage you to work on it, as that is really the ultimate determiner of if it'll work, and discouraging people is far from my goal. I will mention that the implication of your posts that there will be more updates is definitely a big plus, so I'll eagerly await future notification.

TL;DR Be careful, you thread on dangerous grounds. Do keep threading tho, I wish you success and hope to see more updates. Items and combat systems are also tricky things.

P.S. I hate what you done with Bifröst. Dark grey background, each letter a different colour. I can harbour complex guesses as to why you done it, along with simpler guesses, but I won't. Instead I'll just say that it is hard to read, and so ask you to look at it for a minute or two, then tell me if you'll do it again or not (but jokes aside, I'd be careful modifying text so drastically, the dot points and bolding of the post were nice tho, same for the paragraphs and brackets).

P.P.S. Using an image might have been better if you wanted an oomph, figured I'd mention it.

So, I'm here to clean up that mess:

Regarding Items: Yes, it will, but it's not like you find 6 items constantly. Most items can in fact be dropped, so you might be able to backtrack and regain it. Or, their's the Vault of the Gods, which you can access in Asgard, Nidaveller, and Vanaheim. There you can store any items, or even coins (since you will have a maximum of coins), and they would be all linked. And every item shall have a use. Most items are 1-handed, so it won't be that hard to maintain your inventory, especially early on in the story.

Regarding the storygame: It will be like Norse mythology and a few other things here and there, but mostly just Norse mythology.

Regarding combat (This is for you, too mizal): The story isn't going to be 80% combat rounds. Much of it will be exploration, finding ways around a link that will ultimately start Ragnarok, and development of who you know. There will also be non-traditional combat, where you practically OHKO (One Hit Knock Out) your opponents through smart moves, trigger the combat system with it being wounded, get damaged yourself, yet you must battle the creature, or, in extreme cases, even death. Think Lone Wolf but a bit less linear (and it won't have the gods that they worship).

Regarding Norse mythology: I expect to use my full knowledge, if not, then most of it, about this subject. I do expect to have people who don't know about Norse mythology, so I have included a summary about the nine worlds. More information will arive steadily as the reader progresses. For example, he shall learn about a Svartalf, who is, essentially, a dark elf, or about Utgard-Loki, who they should try to avoid, or about Surtr, who they should definitely avoid unless they want to trigger an extreme combat. Also, I fully expect people with more knowledge than I could acquire. So, it's not that bad.

Regarding other comments: I do realize it's hard to read. And I might have used an image if I could get this thing to save an image (don't send me information on how to save images. This thing is not a phone or computer, I know how to save images on it, but a message pops up every time: "unable to save image"). I'm not too sure why I put it in different colors, but I suppose I just didn't want to explain it, so I put Bifröst in rainbow letters. Definitely not doing it again.

Regarding progress: I have less time to write these days, but I still am going to. So we'll see about another update soon, hopefully!

This response (and the one you gave to Mizal) gives me a bit more hope. Will be interesting to see how you make use of Norse mythology, and what sort of story comes from it. Also don't worry too much about time, as long as you actually write it should still work out (unless you have next to no time, but it doesn't seem like that is the case).

Regarding items, I'm mainly worried about the latter parts of the story, since I worry it could spiral into a huge mess. You do seem to understand that it can get bad, so hopefully you will manage to avoid that nasty pitfall, since I am curious about how it'll turn out (because my experience with items has been pretty unpleasant).

Anyway, I'll keep a look out for the next update. It will be a pretty important one, so will be interesting to see what gets put in it.

Just quickly, one major point I missed (which is sort of the reason for the previous comment's section):

1. Norse Mythology - Imagine you are making up your own setting and world, you are the sole expert and have to explain everything to readers. Using Norse mythology still requires you to explain everything to readers (to avoid alienating audiences), and in a sense you are still left as the sole expert (unless you take no creative liberates, but then again your sources might conflict with that of others). A question to ask, if it wasn't Norse mythology, would you still have a setting summary to help readers unfamiliar with the setting understand it better?

(There was something else I wanted to quickly elaborate on but I forgot what. Oh well, I'm sure it's nothing important...)

TL;DR Best of luck with the story, I have a bit more confidence in a positive outcome now, I'll eagerly await the next update (which is important, as the follow up).

Depends on the situation, and because I got annoyed by EndMaster, I could get banned. So let's hope for the best!

It's really difficult to make a combat focused game interesting without equal focus on story, because combat by nature in a CYOA format is pretty dull. You click a thing and numbers happen. Then you do it again, and again, then you progress to the next encounter and do it again.

And if we're taking about including story, what you have here would be an enormous project and you've currently only managed one that was five hundred words long, took like a month to write (with assistance of a co author) and was immediately unpublished for not meeting minimum standards.

This might be one of those situations where you need to learn to crawl before you can walk or run. I'd really really recommend getting a smaller project under your belt before trying to tackle something of this scale.

Just so you know, @mizal, A Dead Man's Tale was written in a day. I just kept putting off publishing it cause I was scared of the very reason it was un-published (and essentially deleted by me). Also, I know fully well that this is a huge project. You don't realize what I can do when I'm motivated, and this update thing is one big, huge wall of motivation.

I’m going to stop you right there. Just take one look at the Writing workshop. There are these threads everywhere here AND most of them are for a contest in which we bet our reputation and the all-important points. Some of these threads are made by some good writers who have completed projects like this before. 

That being said, do you realize how many of these people won’t turn anything in for the contest? Motivation is a fickle thing, and just because you create a thread...well that by no means you’ll be able to suddenly create some massive project. 

I’m not trying to discourage by any means. Just know that people better than you have promised less with more motivation than you, but have failed to adhere to their promise. 

Good luck.