WC: CYOA Discussion Thread

[Comettail76]

Oh, what will happen to character stats, by the way?

[detective who.]

My word, Arcaii. I saw "Your name is Scat" and my heart nearly stopped. I must say I didn't cry, but I'm just shocked.
I had a feeling we'd be killed in this battle, but as you said, it was a good time for Asterpaw to go. I'm looking forward to continuing with Scat.

[Arcaii]

Wait

I've been stalking the thread and decided to sneak in and post now. Back to the topic

You're telling me Asterpaw died? D:

WHAT IS THE GODDESS OF DARKNESS DOING READING THIS CYOA

Yep! Blame the people who made the bad choices.

Well, I'm glad I discovered the death last night. I was too tired to really cry, so I just cuddled Silver and rambled on about the CYOA.

Oh, what will happen to character stats, by the way?

I was considering it last night, and I decided to keep them as they are, for a couple reasons:

1) The change to Scat's perspective will be more effective. No one will be expecting that our main character actually died if his stats are still there, right?
2) It'd be an incredible spoiler to suddenly have Scat's stats on there when we don't change to his perspective until the near end.
3) Asterpaw was with us for three and a half arcs, and was decidedly our main character. It feels a little disrespectful to just abandon his stats simply because he's no longer the playable character. He still very much is the hero, after all.

Wow. Poor Asterpaw. D: though if he had to die, I suppose it was a fitting end. It would've been the one he wanted, at least. I'm just incredibly sad he never got the chance to return home.

Now we're playing as Scat... I do hope we find Thimble soon, at least.

Well, depending on how y'all play, maybe we can still go to ForestClan. There's a variety of options available.

My word, Arcaii. I saw "Your name is Scat" and my heart nearly stopped. I must say I didn't cry, but I'm just shocked.
I had a feeling we'd be killed in this battle, but as you said, it was a good time for Asterpaw to go. I'm looking forward to continuing with Scat.

So am I, my friend. So am I.

[Comettail76]

Will we ever get to see Scat's stats?

Also, I detect a lot of Scimble coming now that Asterpaw's not around.

[Arcaii]

Maybe from you cruel creatures, but not from me.

Never from me.


Anyway, Scat does not have any stats to speak of. There's no real need to count his stats when he's little more than an NPC becoming a main character to finish up the story.

[~*Amber*~]

I feel a bit crestfallen but... I just feel like (in my state of denial) Asterpaw is not dead. It feels like a big cliffhanger for me. Aka like a reason to continue the story without having to rp Asterpaw and change perspective (you said it yourself you were getting tired of the military setup and Asterpaws wide and forever wavering personality.)

Then again I'm not sure at all, I know how twisted you can be to leave us on that note. Then again...

IM PROBABLY IN DENIAL

[lavenderlondonfog]

If they had run away, Asterpaw would have taken a slight hit to his reputation with the others, but he would have survived. They would have understood his fear, though, and eventually let him off the hook for it.

The trouble with Asterpaw is the same trouble with Rookpaw, or any main character in stories like these - the writer is walking an incredibly fine line between an utterly bland, insert-personality-here POV and a genuine character with personality that stands away from player commands. (My next story dodges that bullet, thank god, but that's a whole other kettle of fish.)

Asterpaw has had an inconsistent personality from the start, which is entirely my fault, because he went from an awkward, meek cat to a bold leader, and then to a snarky prisoner, all out of my own writing (not that player choices didn't help). His entire quest was interesting enough - if it wasn't, then I wouldn't have been writing it - but he himself wasn't. He was still just a bland protagonist subject to the whims of the participants. Separated from Thimble and Scat, he had no one familiar to bounce his dialog off of and who could give him tread ground to work with.

That, and the Corps in general is just tedious to write. I'm not the biggest fan of military states in the first place, but I thought the idea of absolute order vs unbridled chaos would be a great final conflict. Of course, I ended up with the things I hate most in life - that is, a large amount of rules and constant middle-manning.

Oh DX I thought it would be a major reputation hit, but oh well. Poor guy

Ah, I see what you mean. Ooh! I wonder what the next story'll be about. (It'll be a lot different, right?)

And that combined with the personality thing. I mean, I suppose it would have been possible to decide some of his personality traits at the beginning and then make his action/dialogue choices reflect that, but it's certainly be tricky. To me, it often seems the protagonist ends up a little like that way, with the side characters being especially unique. (Though I honestly thought you did a great job here:) It just happens in stories I've noticed.)

True, there was less change in venue and stuff, but it was a creative conflict However sad *cries* Too many rules, but at least Aster had a few companions, even in the order of things.

Well, good luck!

(I'd like to do a CYOA, if I come up with a good story, it seems tedious, but fun nonetheless.)

[.kestral]

So.....am I the only one who doesn't mind Asterpaw being dead?

[detective who.]

The upsetting thing isn't that Asterpaw's dead, really, it's Scat's reaction to Asterpaw being dead.
I am curious to know who all survived the battle, and whether we'll see Dandelion again?

[Arcaii]

I feel a bit crestfallen but... I just feel like (in my state of denial) Asterpaw is not dead. It feels like a big cliffhanger for me. Aka like a reason to continue the story without having to rp Asterpaw and change perspective (you said it yourself you were getting tired of the military setup and Asterpaws wide and forever wavering personality.)

Then again I'm not sure at all, I know how twisted you can be to leave us on that note. Then again...

IM PROBABLY IN DENIAL

Didn't give an inch where I gave a mile...

Well, the dog would say he's pretty real, and he tastes delicious!

Oh DX I thought it would be a major reputation hit, but oh well. Poor guy

Ah, I see what you mean. Ooh! I wonder what the next story'll be about. (It'll be a lot different, right?)

And that combined with the personality thing. I mean, I suppose it would have been possible to decide some of his personality traits at the beginning and then make his action/dialogue choices reflect that, but it's certainly be tricky. To me, it often seems the protagonist ends up a little like that way, with the side characters being especially unique. (Though I honestly thought you did a great job here:) It just happens in stories I've noticed.)

True, there was less change in venue and stuff, but it was a creative conflict However sad *cries* Too many rules, but at least Aster had a few companions, even in the order of things.

Well, good luck!

(I'd like to do a CYOA, if I come up with a good story, it seems tedious, but fun nonetheless.)

The next story is vastly different, yes. There'll be a thread here, but for convenience's sake, I'll post it on a different site (probably tumblr). You won't have to make an account to see it, don't worry.

Rookpaw was definitely better defined than Asterpaw. Even as a main character, she was justice-driven, intensely curious, bold to the point of audacity, and quite snarky when the time was right. Heck, even Dawnleaf had steadier characterization than Asterpaw.

Thank you, also, for the compliment and the well-wishes.

So.....am I the only one who doesn't mind Asterpaw being dead?

Nah, Comic and a couple others are pretty fine with it. I think the distress is more due to not knowing what's going to happen next.

The upsetting thing isn't that Asterpaw's dead, really, it's Scat's reaction to Asterpaw being dead.
I am curious to know who all survived the battle, and whether we'll see Dandelion again?

Scat's had plenty of dealings with death. This time, he actually cared.

Hopefully we'll get to see! Although something tells me everyone will just head straight for Thimble.