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Background: I'm writing a story that's romance & comedy. It focuses on LGBT+ relationships in (somewhat unrealistically) a Medieval time period. The main/player character is a guy, but I plan on making more of these with other options for main characters. The endgame couple can also be guy/girl or guy/guy, depending on who you want to date in the game. 

I really want this to suit the players, however, so I have a few questions for you (anyone can answer, but please be respectful).

• What's a good Medieval era name you like? I've got a list of a bunch of Renaissance names on a Google Doc for future use, but I'm ALWAYS down for name suggestions :-)
• Cliche or not, what's something you never get sick of in a story? (Plot details, tropes, et cetera.)
• What's a TV show or movie you like that's set in anywhere from the 1100s to the 1500s? Like BBC Merlin, or Reign, for example (which are both very good, in my opinion. I'm a huge sucker for BBC Merlin.)
• Would you read a story like the one described above? 

Thanks for any input :-) I hope to have the story done by the end of the summer!

1) Cecily and Gavin are probably my favorite medieval names. They're still sparingly used today which makes them recognizable but they both have that old timey feel.

2) When it comes to romance, I love it when two characters start as friends and slowly start the feelings train. A lot of romances are rushed (I'm guilty of this as well) and it often seems unrealistic or like the story goes on hold for the romance. The romance should be woven into the story carefully so the plot and the romantic subplot don't compete, but rather work together. 

3) It's not all medieval, but Black Adder is a good one.

4) I love medieval stories so absolutely! Good luck!

tysm for your responses!! I also ADORE the name Gavin :-) 

For me names are pretty important. Just reading a name always sets up expectations in my head. I think as long as you avoid modern names (Tim comes to mind), you'll be fine there. Unless, of course, you're intentionally having fun with it, then different names can really help. Since you did mention comedy, that could certainly play into it IMO.

Personally, I'm not sure there's much I get sick up, especially tropes. They exist for a reason: because they're popular. As long as the story has solid characters and character development, the tropes work well, no matter what they are or how old they are. I mean how many millions of re-telling versions of Romeo and Juliet are there?

For setting, what comes to mind when you asked that question was Lord of the Rings. The books were outstanding and the movies did a great job with settings and locations. Then again, I've been a fan of those books since I was little, so I've just always enjoyed everything around that setting and ideas, no matter how much they get repeated.

The story you described will actually take quite a bit of work, I would think. When you want to set up that many different kind of options, you're going to have a lot of paths or you're going to have a lot of conditionals in scripts and/or options. Sure, it can be done, but just realize you really are getting into something potentially very large to create and develop, it's not just going to be a quickie -- well, unless you leave out the whole bit with character development, of course!

Good luck with the story, I hope it works out for you, and I hope it ends up being something that you like, even more than others do.

Thank you so much for such a thorough response! :-) I really appreciate it!

For names, biblical is always a safe bet in this time. The church was a massive part of everyday life. Interesting fact a pope once outlawed cats, and people started killing them off. A little event known as the bubonic plague sorta changed some minds. As for tropes yeah they are a standby for a reason. If done decently they provide a good base to build upon. As long as a story isn't just a tvtropes list with some names it should be fine.

Thanks for your response! To go off of what you said about tropes, I was kind of wondering what tropes people are really interested in or tend to read more of, rather than saying "what's a trope you can actually stand." I know that any trope can be good or bad depending on how well-written it is, I'm just sort of searching for ones that draw people in more to see what I could potentially add to this story.

My bad, misinterpreted that, but the friends growing closer is a good one. I am more of a fans of people that hate each being forced together and growing closer. There is a lot you can do with it. Do they genuinely hate each other or are they just on different sides of a conflict and hate the idea of a person more than the actual person. Example is a character hating someone who killed a loved one, An example of the later would be soldiers on different sides of a war. Yes they are trying to kill each other but it's often not personal between them. Hope this helped  

Creating a plot from the standpoint of is/isn't it a trope and will people like/hate it might be the wrong way to go about this. It's a lot more important to write something that interests YOU, because CYOAs can be a lot of work and it needs to be something you're excited to write about and aren't going to get burned out on. If you put serious effort into a story and cover all your bases with making it a complete and polished one with a meaningful conflict and relateable characters chances are people will like it.

Ain't that the truth. Sometimes I just can't get the ideas rolling, though, so I tend to resort to posts like this, where I ask for others' opinions on things. I think your response has probably helped the most thus far. 

Yeah, that was a hell of a good point, kinda sad I let the fact people were actually replying blind me to that.  I wish you luck and remember to enjoy the ride as well.  

tysm :-)

I'm a big King Arthur nerd (or at least I was in my first year of college when I studied the subject) so whatever you write I would be totally interested in. 

AND it's gonna be a comedy! And at least a little bit gay!? ;))))) I'm there!