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... and proceeds to make bad bar jokes. 

Hey, I'm Kotorchix, and I'm new. I've been roleplaying in a post-by-post form for over two years now, playing D&D online with some friends for about seven months, and had never tried looking for a choose-your-own-adventure-esque site until... two days ago? I joined up yesterday and started getting straight to work on my first story. I have... about 100 pages up already, but I'm not a spammer! I just... had a story ready in my head, is all! I used to love these when I was a kid... 

Had my first duel a few hours ago... got bested in Paper-Scissors-Rock by a gun. How does that work...?

I'm looking forward to meeting a bunch of you and playing a lot more of these stories! And hopefully not mucking up on my own... (First story here has gender options, so it's a wee bit mucky with all the different story routes.)

One thing I would like to know is... once you have published a story, can you still go back and edit it without un-publishing it or disrupting any saves that anyone might have made while reading?

Welcome aboard!

The answer to your question is: "No!"

When you publish something, it's meant to be a completely finished, edited and proofread product (in theory) so it shouldn't be needing unpublishing.

All right, neat! Finish the book cover before you start letting people ask you for book signings, got it!

Welcome to the site =)

Welcome!

welcome to CYS.

Thanks guys! 

So, how long do most of you spend working on a story here? I read somewhere that someone spent a year working on a story, which amazes me but also intrigues me. It could be quite fun to do a project of that size... it'd have to be one hell of a story, though. 

Most writers only write a little at a time.  Unless they are devoting several hours to the story, this is a true statement.

Hi there and welcome to the site! I guess that depends on a lot of things, like how long the game is, how much scripting your using, how many different choices you have, stuff like that. So far my longest game's only taken me about two or three weeks and my shortest one took me a couple of days. It really does depend mostly on length.

It's good to see that a fair amount of people put time into these stories and they're pretty closely moderated to flush out the made-in-ten-minutes stories. xD

I have a question about Tags. If I were to label my story-game a 'Demo', what would that be implying to users of this site that have been here for a while?

That your storygame is incomplete.

Well, not so much that it's incomplete, more that it's just the first part of a game, to give us an idea of what the full game's gonna be like. I guess releasing a demo can be useful if you're looking for some feedback and tips of how to make the game better and stuff, but I'd say if you have a clear idea of what the game's gonna be and where you're going with it, you might as well just make the full version of the game and not bother with a demo. It's up to you.

"just the first part of a... full game" is pretty much the definition of an incomplete storygame!

Briar's right in that the tag was put in place so you could publish parts of storygames and ask for feedback and tips. I (and some other members of this site) don't agree with this tag, but that's not up to us to decide.

Personally I think if you publish a storygame it should be complete and you should feel like you've done all you can to make it the best it can be. You can allow sneak previews if you want feedback before publishing your full storygame, or alternatively add certain members as co-authors to allow for proof-reading without enabling the sneak preview.

It's up to you really. As it stands there's nothing wrong with posting an incomplete storygame with the "demo" tag.

Also, welcome to the site!

I agree with Briar that you might as well just finish a game rather than demo it. Demos tend to get a lot of hate around here (people would rather see a finished story and just play it all at once than play half a game, rate it poorly for not letting them finish, and then never look at it again).

There are a few genuinely helpful folks around here though that don’t do that sort of thing, but it definitely happens.

If you want real feedback for your story, the best thing to do is just make it pre-viewable and ask folks to look it over (giving them the link to your game, so they can find it) rather than publishing an unfinished demo.

Thanks for all the feedback and the welcomes, guys!

I plan to finish this one in full before publishing it, but I'm just interested in what all my options are! Do you have to be a logged-in member to be able to view a preview page? The other day I tried linking it to a friend off-site who said they only saw a log-in screen. (Also, I've read up on the co-author help page, so I may use that at some point instead of a preview option.)

What do the other tags generally mean? I would put the tag RPG on my story because the player is essentially roleplaying their way through and making choices that affect future situations and prompt certain scenarios, but other games I've seen with the RPG tag tend to have been made in the advanced editor mod with items, journals, and that sort of thing. Can the tag RPG apply to what I'm doing without advanced options?

Yeah you need to be a member to see preview pages. I think the actual requirement is that you have to be an author (don't actually need a published story though).

To me RPG is generally linked with character progression. If your character gets stronger or gains powers during the story, then it'd be a RPG. If not, then choices that affect future decisions is kind of a given with the nature of our stories anyway, so the tag wouldn't be needed.

All right, I'll leave tags until last then, when I actually know what I'm doing. 

I wouldn't consider Necromancer an RPG despite the fact that it meets those criteria.

I'd say an RPG requires some sort of game element that involves character progression. "Levelling" or "Stats" or a combat mechanism or something.

So something like what I'm doing (without the advanced editor) would generally not be thought of as your typical RPG?

EDIT: I have another question. If I were to publish my story, could I still edit 'Game Options' in the basic editor without having to unpublish my story? Like, could I change the description or maturity rating without having to unpublish?

Once you publish your game the only option left is 'unpublish'. That's how it shows on 'My stuff' tab.

Wow, okay. Will comments/player ratings on the story remain if you unpublish and then publish it again?

Yes it will

All right, good to know! Thanks!