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Alright, so my story is based around multiple things going off at once, however I've balanced them so nothing is too overwhelming or hard to follow. Anyways, here's the basic plot:

There is a continent home to multiple countries and cultures. While each group is independent, each with their own government and kingdom, the high place of power is in Aragon. This kingdom is the strongest and a main place for trade. At the point of the story, the king has just died, and his heir is too young to take place. A regent is set in place, but he is corrupt and cares for nothing but greed. The other countries set alliances with each other and three treaties are assumed: The countries protecting the kingdom, and two others who want to take over. As all of this is going on, portals randomly appear around the world and creatures from the underworld start appearing. There's already one major war going on, and this just adds to the chaos. Originally, I was going to have one point of view, but I wanted to illustrate what war was like for all types of classes. While it is fantasy, I want it to be realistically based as much as possible. If I were to remove all the fantasy, it would still be a good story (That wasn't based on the medieval-fantasy cliche). The government is based on Anglo-Saxon/Viking ideologies to an extent, and the land is based on multiple groups. Tried making it diverse as possible. Anyways, without giving away to much, heres the POV's:

The prince: The son of the dead ruler, he tries to retake the thrown from the regent with the help of those loyal to him. This POV is to show how war impacts the upperclass.

The Soldier: He started out a prisoner when the war began, but was drafted into the war. This POV is to show how war impacts the lower class.

I want another POV to show how war impacts the middle class. I want this POV to a girl, since the other two are guys. Maybe she's a spy for another country or an agent for whoever summoned the portals. Just tossing around some ideas. (Also all of these people will be tied in somehow and important to the story. It's not just a bunch of random view for no reason).

I was wondering if anyone had helpful ideas for a middle class POV, or maybe lesser known, interesting people groups to base the people after (As an example, the ruler is the king. I'd like another word for king since that seems to be to widely used, but it's all I got for now. Each village has an ealdormen, who is in charge of reporting back to the king). Simple Ideas like that. Thanks!

Well something like someone from a family of well to do merchants would be the obvious for the middle class; how you get them involved in the action or in some kind of spy role is another matter. If a female character a lot would depend on the sorts of roles women have in the setting too.

Realistically though, I think you'd be better off picking one character from one of the factions in the setting, whichever one interests you the most, and working on a smaller, more focused story as your first project. Because I can tell you right now you're getting in way, way over your head. You're talking about a story that would probably have a word count of 150k at minimum...basically three full sized novels.

Finishing a practice story first would give you an idea of what realistic goals for yourself would be when you do start your epic, and give you a better sense of how to organize and streamline the whole process; everybody has different methods that work best for them, but it takes a little trial and error. At this point you haven't even touched the editor and I have a feeling you may not realize quite what you're getting into, everything about how a CYOA is structured is like a regular story on steroids and newbies getting in over their heads and eventually quitting in frustration has been a pretty common thing here.

Different countries would have different values on how their society works. Some might not allow many freedoms to women or minorities, however the one I'm writing about does allow more freedoms for them. I agree I might be thinking too much for a CYOA, but I've already been thinking about it and made it so nothings too overwhelming or hard to write about, although I am thinking about narrowing it down to one character now, maybe I'll just have the others as supporting ones. However, I have worked on this site before and published a few stories but I lost that account by accident so I'm starting from scratch. I've also already started writing the story, just not on on this site yet. I'll get to that eventually, but for now I'm just looking for some ideas, as I've mostly got the story complete. Thanks for you're input.

This sounds like a story that's setting you up to bite off more than you can chew. I suggest streamlining the plot and whittling it down to one central theme with one POV.

Honestly, I feel like swapping around POVs throughout a CYOA defeats the purpose of the medium. CYOA's are all about immersion. Whenever you start jumping around between the heads of different characters, you kill the immersion and create a sense of distance between the reader and all of the characters in the story. At that point, you may as well just draft a novel manuscript.

On another note, I find it very unlikely that a soldier can be portrayed to reflect the hardships of war on the lower class. The soldiers may not have it great, but they have it a hell of a lot better than the family that just watched an army march through the region, stripping the land of resources and stealing and butchering all their pigs to feed the war machine. Anyway, during war especially, soldiers are pretty much their own class.

I was assuming it was going to be one of those thingies where you choose a specific POV at the beginning, which is probably the best way to do that, even though the issue is still the sheer scale a project like this would be. It's still going to be an attempt to tackle three full stories at once by someone who hasn't ever even created a test game.

Well this character was going to start from a poor back round, and while he is a soldier I was going to focus more on him getting to know the lower class citizens better, rather than just battles. Whether that be through his posts in villages and helping rebuild a destroyed settlement, I have a few ideas in mind. Since he'd be off in these settlements, he'd have to live the way the poor do. If they had little food, then he'd get little too. If they didn't have shelter neither would he, and so on. I do see your points though, thanks. I'll take it into consideration.

Have you considered a small time craftsman or something in that role instead of a soldier? Because a soldier is going to be with other soldiers and they're going to be getting the best of everything at the expense of the people living there. Eating their food, lodging in the best houses, etc. while probably not doing much of the manual labor themselves.

If there's no village because it's been destroyed they'll presumably be sent with their own supply train and wagons and such, which again puts them in a better situation than the commoners, as Bucky was saying.

This is all assuming you're going more for realism, I mean it's still a fantasy setting so I suppose there are infinite ways to work around that and make soldiers humble and altruistic or whatever.

Maybe, but the originally idea would still be there's a corrupt regent, suggesting supplies wouldn't be sent. While there would be a few revolts for sure, they'd be shut down and there'd be a public display of execution to make a point. This was actually part of the original plot. This was also why the future prince left, to leave with those loyal to him in hope of getting rid of the regent. He'd come to one of the villages where the prince and soldier would meet, so he could give help to those not being supplied by the regent. I'll probably make it from only one of their POV's though. Multiple perspectives might be too complicated like you said, but I can still have the basic plot without changing much. However, you did just give me a good idea. I was stuck on a certain plot area and you just gave me an idea to add in. Thanks. The 'fantasy part' would be the underworld invasion, and maybe I'll add in a few creatures to make it interesting. There's different races, like elves and some I made up, but not a real emphasis on using magic such as spells. I'll definitely make sure to add in some arrogant/douchey soldiers though. Thanks.

It depends. That Telltale GoT game was basically a CYOA, given it didn't really have gameplay, but it switched around between like five main characters in a way that worked, despite all the flaws of a game. When I play CYOA's, I'm not really playing as me, but I'm more playing as a character in a semi-roleplaying kind of thing, and in regard to that, I think you can definitely have more than one POV.

I liked the Telltale GoT game too, and I agree that it basically plays as a sort of CYOA. But I think part of that is that multiple POVs work better in the medium when there's that visual component. For most stories, I would still probably prefer playing as one character, but with GoT I think the scope of the story allows for more freedom. That combined with the theme of - anyone can die - kind of pushes the developers to utilize more than one character.

You sort of have the connection of playing as House Forrester personified.

The visual component is definitely a massive help, but the advantages that component gives you could be overcome if you're a good enough writer who can properly personify the different characters and give them their own voice. It'd be hard, certainly, and I wouldn't like it to become the way CYOA's are going, but it's so rare to see, I think the novelty of it and the fact that its exploring a relatively unused way of storytelling in CYOA's could make a very interesting and memorable, if flawed, game.

One way you could link the soldier and the lower class is having him start out as some poor farm lad that's never really left his village. You could have him see some of the soldiers using the village as a stopping point on their way to the front lines, and then the lad sees the soldiers essentially taking the best of everything and making decent enough money.  Then the farm boy enlists with them with the thought of "Hey, I'm sick of being stuck on this farm, I'm sick of being broke, I want to do what I want."  

Then maybe he gets some of the benefits of having soldier buddies and sort of partakes in their ruffian activities.  But then naturally he barely survives when his unit is ripped to shreds when the first portal is opened.  Except that the lad is saved by some paladin knights, who then use him as a spy to get the support of the other countries who are willing to help.

Or even the two countries send their armies to try to take the kingdom over, and then they get some powerful magic user to open the portals to cripple the kingdom from the inside.  

It would also be interesting to see the view of the prince trying to take his rightful place as king back, and then having to deal with keeping a crumbling empire together.  

The middle class daughter of a merchant could have a secret penchant for magic, and the regents men persecute her and her family.  So naturally to get revenge she develops her powers to strike against the empire, until one of the nations approach her with an offer to open some portals.  

Then by the end it's the readers choice whether the soldier and the prince keep the empire off the brink of destruction, or if the merchant girl, portal creatures, and other nations establish a new and bloody order.  

 

These are just some thoughts on how the ideas you presented could go.  I think you have a very interesting story with a lot of potential, I look forward to seeing how it develops and is published.

I like the idea of him seeing the soldiers and then enlisting. Originally he was going to be a prisoner forced into it, but I like the 'he wants to join cause he saw others in it' idea better. If you wouldn't mind I might use it. Same with the girl using magic for revenge. Thanks for the ideas, this helps a lot.

Ya go ahead, that's what it's there for.

Are you making plans for how you're going to structure these plots? Are they actually going to intertwine with choices made with one character affecting others (brutally complicated) or will you choose a character in the beginning and follow just them for their storyline? (Still a lot of work, but not nearly as complex.)

Either way, you're going to need to get a handle on the editor, the basics of scripting and variables and jumping between chapters for a project this size.

I'm assuming you've still got a lot of outlining to do but it wouldn't hurt to create a test game in the meantime while you work all this out, and be sure to read the articles on scripting.

Most likely choose one character in the beginning, and go from their point of view. Different overall story, but same things happening. Maybe two of the characters can have a brief interaction and the POV's will show their side of how it went. I've gotten the main idea and have began outlining the story but ya, it will take a while.