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Hello CYS world!

Im in the middle of class creation for my story.

I want each of my classes to have a few abilities that make them different from each other.

For example, a mage should be able to cast some sort of spell right? Or a warrior have some type of finesse or special move?

Im thinking of using a class ability like an item, with a certain amount of uses, regulated by level or XP gained. Having the ability to throw fire is fun, but that ability should be limited, otherwise they wouldn't appreciate that ability as much and abuse it. (I know I would)

I wondering what other ideas you could help me with. Those that would be better than mine. Im open to all ideas!

This game is going to be EPIC!

A tip -- don't make it unnecessarily complicated. If you are tracking a class and the class has abilities, no need to track two things (unless you have different levels of abilities, but if you do that, what is the point of tracking the class?).

Hopefully you have some good plans for after creation, too. That's what makes the storygames here great is the story. If you simply have 20 pages to create a character and then the game ends, well, that's not nearly as fun!

Well I want each class to have at least 1 ability to start. What im asking is how should I go about making the ability (and tracking) for each class? If having abilities for each class does over complicate it, I could always have class creation just determine stats instead. Ideas?

As for story, I have about 6 years of content to play through. My group and I have been using this world (that we created) for Dungeons and Dragons. Everything from NPC's to towns to even random encounters have all been saved. Heck, we even did a forum game here about 2 years ago (which I've also saved lol)

 

I also plan to release the story in chapters. That way I can get the content out to you guys faster

Yeah...I really wouldn't recommend this right here. Unless each chapter works as a standalone story, no one is going to want to see unfinished work being posted. 

As for the original question, I think Ogre's point is that if the character is a mage and only the mages start with a certain ability, there's no reason to have separate variables tracking both, plus an item. It's redundant. Remember you'll be stuck managing these throughout the entire story. For instance if they choose mage, have %MAGE govern the ability.  The fact that they can shoot a fireball at all already means they're a mage, unless there are other things you want to do with the class.   

Ahh thank you for the wisdom. I understand what I should do now.

And yes, each chapter will be a stand alone story. I would never post something that is not finished.

I tried to post this yesterday, but my computer was being annoying:

Danger Will Robinson, Danger!!!

Be very careful with chapters. Most readers here simply do not like stories released in chapters -- mainly because most stories that are released in chapters are not complete stories, but simply a bunch of stuff put together and published before it is complete. The only real good reason for putting something in chapters here is because the story is simply massively too long to comprehend in a single book.

Each chapter should also stand alone -- which isn't really going to make sense if you have character creation. After all, how are you going to continue the character from one chapter to another without creating it again (barring integration and storage of information to an external site through the CYS interface, which I have considered, but it could be crazy complicated)? I would strongly suggest you consider NOT releasing the storygame until you are completely done.

Wanna know how many times someone said their first story game would be epic and they later published it and it was epic?

Zero. It doesn't happen. It usually doesn't even get published.

Make a smaller, simpler story game for you first time so you get a good handle on the editor and process before doing something more complex.

Yeah, usually they say "it might be crap" and it turns out to be a surprise epic. Some people really do shoot for the moon right out of the gate and succeed. It's rare, but it has happened.

I appreciate your wisdom. I will take this into consideration, but I'm too far into the story now to start over with the simple editor. I am however finding the advanced editor easier to use everyday.

As for the story, I know it's going to be good.

How far in do you consider "far"?

And no one recommended using the basic one. Advanced editor can be used without all the bells and whistles just fine, so no worries there.

Ive already implemented class,race and abilities into the game.

I guess you could say I am not "far" into creation, but too much energy has been put into learning how to do these things for me to look back. Besides, im enjoying myself while im on here creating things.

As for story I already have everything I need.

NEXT STOP! RANDOM VARIABLES! 

I think Killa meant 'smaller, simpler' in terms of the plot. Unless the story is very linear, a giant 'EPIC' game with sprawling branches and thousands of pages is difficult to pull off. Not to say it's not possible, and I wish you the best of luck there, it's just that authors often don't quite realize the scope of the thing they're committing to. 

And feel free to write a different story while you're writing this one! Many authors work on more than one story at a time. I'm not saying to write a crap story, but if you write another story that is not so complex, it might get you a feeling for the site, publishing, and how everything goes.

Good luck with all of it!

Thanks I'll take all your opinions into account.