It’s still possible to maintain creative freedom even if it’s set in the US or real world. Even popular political thriller type movies etc. set in real-world America take creative liberties. It’s all about execution.
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It’s split up so the first chapter is the election, with random issues coming up that you can promise to solve one way or another. There are also random events that you don’t have a lot of control over but that will affect the election. There’s a lot of customization, you get to pick if the current President is in your party or the other party and how popular he is. If he’s in your party, and he’s popular, you get a big boost nationwide and vice versa. Then there’s your opponent, if you want a down-in-the-mud campaign, you can pick the raunchy social media driven candidate to run against. You can have a quiet election too tho, it’ll just be a lot of customizable story events.
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Hmmm, can you tell me about the contents of the chapters other than the first?
Welp, that’s pretty much what I expected. I’ll have to keep that in mind, moving forward.
You can make romance-optional work. It can work and it’s better than pushing something you don’t want to write out like a gunk of goo.
Literally no one said anything about “pushing something out like a gunk of goo” but thanks for your perspective.
Hello. I got a new story idea that I wanted y’all’s opinions on. This story is mainly inspired by the games Cyberpunk 2077 and Citizen Sleeper, the shows/movies Cyberpunk Edgerunners, John Wick, and The Man From Nowhere, and the WIP game Whiskey-Four.
The title I have right now is “Neon Shadow”. Here is the synposis:
“You are a retired mercenary in a dystopian, cyberpunk world of ruthless corporations and violent criminals. You live a normal, quiet life as a chef, but all of that is interrupted when your kid is kidnapped one day. With the clock ticking and your old cybernetic body falling apart, you must fight to take back your kid, expose the truth behind a corrupt corporation, and uncover hidden secrets from your past.”
Basically, you are a legendary retired “merc” who once made a promise to an important person to take care of their kid as your own in case they died… before they indeed mysteriously disappeared. You’ll be able to choose whether it is your lover’s kid or your relative’s (brother/sister/cousin) or your old mercenary associate’s.
You’ll also be able to choose your “age” and appear as a person in their mid 20’s/30’s/40’s and some other appearance customization. The reason why I quoted “age” is because you are actually an assassination robot with the uploaded consciousness of your former human mind.
When your kid gets inevitably kidnapped, you’ll be involved in a lot of fights and investigating events such as the disappearance of your ward’s parent and your own missing original human body (and the lack of memory concerning it in the first place).
There will also be a game mechanic where you’ll have to avoid overusing certain powerful cybernetics due to an “Overload Progression” risk.
I’d like to see y’all’s opinions on this!
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I’m definitely curious to see how it will unfold. Is PC aware that they aren’t a (organic) human? Edit: I see that they know they are a synthetic human, but are unaware of their original body.
Personally I would like more badass-and-child duos in CSGs (I the Forgotten One’s Marshal and Elya, while not quite Badass and Child, definitely have a similar protection/mentorship dynamic. The MC and Nephew of ZESH are probably a better example of this trope), so I’m not super enthused on the kidnapping bit. Just the “old buddies”, that the child needs protection from, from the life you left behind showing up uninvited are enough of a conflict driver IMO. But it’s your story and your plot hook, and you have the final word as the author.
It definitely reminds me of D6 Cyberpunk for sure, which is nice.
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I like cyberpunk settings but “rescue your child” thing doesn’t work for me. I think dishonored 1 did that good enough tho. Fallout 4 not so much.
So i guess it depends on how you tell the story it could be really good.
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I’m working on a web novel and wondering if I should also try making it an interactive novel, meaning the web novel would take priority. Anyway, first time doing for an interest check. 
Effigies of Gods
Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Dungeon, System.
From the very moment after creation, power began to decay. The Primordials gave way to the Titans. The Titans were defeated by the Olympians. The Olympians begat the Demigods, and each generation became less divine and more mundane. Power is like fire, raging in one moment, and flickering in the next like the embers of a dying flame.
With barely any power left to sustain their existence, the gods known as the Olympians retreated into exile beyond this world.
Monsters and wandering gods, heroes and wondrous deeds, all this first became the stuff of legend and then of myth, until it was almost entirely forgotten.
But one day, portals appeared all over the world, leading to the many levels of the Underworld where the monsters and creatures of nightmare had been locked away for millennia. Now they come pouring forth, flooding the busy streets, disturbing the commute from work, vandalizing the recently opened 7-Eleven.
Many people, who until then had been utterly ordinary, developed powers, it so happens they were descended from the Olympians and the Demigods of old. Now they must stand up for humanity in the face of this new threat.
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Sounds like you have build a deep lore for your universe. Feels interesting. Something i would want to read.
If it’s going to be a game, maybe consider a codex of sorts? I like to read more of the lore if it’s complicated like yours.
I wasn’t expecting that part 
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I have started writing my first chapter and want to gauge interest as well as find someone to help keep me accountable. Here’s the general plot - note that xx stands for a future year that I have not decided on yet.
Becoming More
Summary
It is the year xx and the science of transferring one’s consciousness to a more ideal humanoid body has been adopted by the government through a program called Becoming More XX, or BMxx. You live in a small town dominated by broken, unmaintained machines, and have no inkling of the current state of the world and how many people are currently Consciousness Emulated Persons (CEP) - or as your community calls them, BM-bots. You are thrust into an adventure full of existential questions about the nature of humankind when BMxx summons your mom - a missing woman with dementia - to become a BM-bot. Along your journey to find her, fall for an artist, a mathematician, a revolutionary leader, or an agent of BMxx. Learn about your lineage, discover the secrets of BMxx and the revolution against it, explore the roots of existence, and decide your own fate: human, CEP, or…?
If there is enough interest (and someone willing to check in with me periodically to make sure I am making progress), I will post the first chapter!
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I sort of wrote up a rough-looking demo description of a WIP I’m working on (VERY VERY early stages of planning dhfnsdfksd.)
Opening your eyes feels like the hardest thing you’ve ever done in your life. They’re heavy, but perfectly clean, almost uncomfortably so. Your entire body feels dry and chapped, chalky. You can’t move. You can’t feel your body. You try to open your jaw, and a foreign object spasms in your mouth with the effort. Panic seeps into your brain slowly, functions dripping into motion like a viscous fluid. You are thinking faster than you can feel, you realize, as the panic fizzles away once you figure out that the object is simply your tongue. You can feel the rest of your body now, soft straps holding you down to whatever surface you’re resting on. The room is dark, or maybe you are blind. There are no noises.
Thinking is difficult. You cannot recognize where you are. Everything feels like it’s taking hours to render, thoughts getting lost before they find their way to the forefront of your brain. There are synapses trying to fire, but never finishing their course. Holes in your psyche. A drop-off zone in an ocean, sinking ever into abyss.
……You have forgotten something very, very important.
SUMMARY
You died. You were brought back. Your memories are still fragmented-- though coming back slowly-- but your intuition is serving you well here, and you feel like there’s something wrong. Reconnecting with old friends is nice, but the feeling that people are hiding something from you perpetuates almost every conversation, especially since you’re unable to leave the place you’re in until you “recover.”
Navigate the many issues that arise with being a Not Exactly Alive person, the complicatedness of your relationships now that you’re back, and the greater mystery shadowing this entire operation… just make sure you aren’t found out. There is something distinctly unsafe about how safe they want you to feel here.
CHARACTERS
The Resurrectionist – Victoria Rhait (F)
She tells you that you were very close. She says she missed you. She’s so glad you’re here again, with her. You don’t recognize her. She says she was someone else, back then.
A scientist with a heart of gold, she’d been working years to bring you back to life. She means the best, but you have the feeling she’s hiding something in the conversations she has with you about how things used to be. She seems scared of something looming up ahead; a sacrifice she may have to make to add to the pile she gave just to sit with you.
The Memory – [Name tbd] (NB…?)
They are exactly as they were when you left. A flower dried and framed, you get deja vu every moment you’re together. They seem unnerved by you, avoidant. Victoria tells you it’s because they grieved and got over your death, but you don’t know how true that is. When they look at you, there’s something sad and desolate in their gaze. Bridges broken down over years and years of no one walking them.
The Financier – [Reagan Briar(?)] (F/M)
The CEO of Briar Industries isn’t someone you’ve met before. They were the benefactor in Victoria’s research, and they seem weirdly obsessed with the idea of creating and recreating life. Perfect smiles and perfect edges, knives polished to perfection. They look at you like a specimen, fascinated and probing, and there’s something uncomfortable about their eyes. Weathered over by years of using and using and using, a gleam like glossy plastic.
This is not someone you can trust. It may be hard to resist that.
The Shadow – [Name tbd] (???)
Following the CEO like loyal dog, there is something fundamentally wrong about the way this person moves. The eyes are just a little too perfect, too sunken, too dead. They remind you of you, right now, no matter how much people say that you couldn’t be more different. They look at the world with a refreshing light, like every moment is new and wonderful, but they also seem used to not understanding what’s going on, at peace with being restricted from asking questions. They’re the only one that doesn’t seem to be hiding anything from you.
Maybe you will find solace in each other. Maybe you will not.
Everything with question marks are things I’m unsure about, and would appreciate suggestions for! (especially Reagan’s first name, I don’t like it shbdfjhdsnfj)
I’m planning for all of the above characters to be ROs, but the way that’s going to play out is a little more complicated than just RO paths…? Considering they all have some personal stake in the greater story. The lines of what kind of relationship you have will be kind of vague, and it depends on the personality of your MC whether or not you ever actually enter a relationship, and what kind it will be.
(Ie; Reagan isn’t going to be at all interested in an MC that’s a doting pushover outside of the scientific interest, but would enter a relationship with them for manipulation purposes, so some ROs will be unsatisfying to pursue based on what kind of MC you have because you may not… really get anywhere with them.)
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Stalker alert!
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HAHASDJNHWJDS NOOOO SHE’S NOT THAT BAD I PROMISE SHDBFEDNSKJ I kept rewriting her description bc it felt so YANDERE-LIKE… and she’s not supposed to be that ahwndfs she’s just really sad all the time and threw herself into her work to cope sdhbfsdjfhniskjdfnhdjksk
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I know we’ll get hunter’s “System” based IFs sooner or later lol, I’ve read too many Webnovel/Manhwa about them.( my favorite are pretty much The Hero Returns, The Novel’s Extra and F-Class destiny Hunter) so this fascinate my ass.
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Yeah, there is a system, but it’s pretty tame compared to your usual flavour. I’m not a fan of systems for systems’ sake, and it bothers me when they show up out of the blue for no reason and can do ridiculous things. I tried to integrate mine organically to the world.
I agree. With how popular these tropes are you’d think we’d have an IF about it already. And it even makes sense since you’re literally a player.
I have another plot bunny! Yeah, I get them a lot. Wonder what people think of it?
The Devil’s Bakery
Summary
You are a cambion who runs a bakery in the underworld. Your bakery is known throughout Hell for its delicious and addictive baked goods, which are infused with magical powers that give the demons who consume them a brief respite from their eternal torment. You have a problem though—your powers are fading and you need to find a way to recharge them before your bakery goes out of business.
Features
- Choose your name, looks, gender, pronouns, and more
- Determine your two sins: are you prideful, greedy, envious, wrathful, lustful, slothful, or gluttonous?
- Five different races, each unlocking their own family and backstory. Are you descended from Spider Demons, Crimson Butterfly Demons, Snake Demons, Wolf Demons, or are you the progeny of a fallen angel?
- Navigate the treacherous underworld, gathering rare and exotic ingredients to use in your recipes, and deal with hostile supernatural beings.
- As the story progresses, you can experiment with new recipes and concoct new potions that will recharge your powers.
- Compete against other rival bakeries and restaurants run by demons.
- Ultimately, your choices will determine your fate and the future of your bakery in the fiery depths of hell.
The inspiration for this was because I wanted a feel-good bakery IF… ultimately you’ll be able to design your own bakery and choose which dishes to prepare. Wondering if I should make it a restaurant IF instead and just make bakery one of the options you can choose from…
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Always love a unique idea. I don’t thinking cooking’s been done in a prominent way, so I’d love to see where this goes. Also I like the deadly sins idea, although I’m not sure about the powers fading part.
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I have an idea for an IF which takes place in the near future in a collapsed America in the midst of a civil war, you and your squad has been tasked with transporting t̶h̶e̶ ̶m̶c̶g̶u̶f̶f̶i̶n̶ something that can supposedly end the war across the ruins by the central government, itd be very character focused and basically be like a depressing roadtrip story, im thinking of starting to make this over the summer, would anyone be interested at all?
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