You, 18-year-old Elliot Barnes, are an ordinary guy-until one day you're not a guy at all! |
The Gender Transformation Mega-Adventure Go ahead: Add a chapter! Information for Readers: Thank you for choosing The Gender Transformation Mega-Adventure! If this is your first experience with this interactive, please feel free to jump right in and begin reading using the large "Click Here To Enter This Story!" link at the bottom of this page. If you're a returning reader looking for a particular plotline, just use the INDEX/STORY RECORDKEEPING page. There you will find a list of all the major adventures within the Mega-Story, complete with teasers and links to take you right into the action! Information for Contributors: The Gender Transformation Mega-Adventure is an open project, and your contributions are both welcome and encouraged! Whether you submit a single chapter or return frequently to develop entire plotlines, your creativity is what keeps this project from stagnation. This is particularly true now, as the story has just been opened up for submissions; if you're thinking about adding a chapter, please, take the plunge! However, while the creativity and collaboration of so many authors are what make modern interactive stories such an exciting medium, such diversity can—if not properly managed—make maintaining a consistent level of quality difficult. In particular, contributions of different authors can be very different in style, creating a jarring experience for readers. Therefore, below you will find a list of guidelines intended to keep this story as stylistically consistent as possible. These guidelines are in no way intended to restrict the creativity of authors, and exceptions may always be made at your discretion if you feel that good storytelling demands it. That said, authors should do their best to respect the established style of the adventure when possible, as described below: 1.) Following the tradition of other game-books—including the famous Choose-Your-Own-Adventure series—The Gender Transformation Mega-Adventure is told from the second person perspective. Thus, all direct narration should refer to the protagonist, Elliot, as "You." Likewise, the options presented at the end of each chapter should represent a choice available to the protagonist. For example, "Go through the ominous-looking door" would be a valid option, while "Suddenly, your best friend arrives" would not. The former is a choice available to the protagonist, while the latter is not. 2.) The protagonist and viewpoint character is a native of the United States, and as the narration should generally use United States Customary Units (inches, pounds, degrees Fahrenheit, and so forth) when such measures are required. In general, the cultural backdrop is assumed to be American unless otherwise noted in your storyline. 3.) An overview of the currently established canon is available in the ">Codex" . While continuity between branches is not required, it is both fun and encouraged! 4.) This is the Gender Transformation Mega-Adventure. This means that, ultimately, every storyline deals with that subject at one point or another. Such transformations can—and usually do—occur in addition to other circumstances, (like time travel or reality manipulation or armies of robots or evil cults or what have you) but ultimately the theme of the story should be included. This is important because it allows readers to behave as they like without worrying about 'missing out' on the transformation even if they decide not to pull every lever that says 'WARNING: Do Not Pull.' 5.) In the narration, pronouns should refer to characters in the way the protagonist and veiwpoint character, Elliot, sees them. That is, whether a transformed character is called 'he' 'she' or 'it' in the narration is determined by how Elliot sees the individual, not necessarily their current, future or original sex. 6.) When possible, offer more than one option at the end of a chapter even if you don't intend to continue the second path. Other authors may be jumping at the bit for a chance to pursue that particular storyline! 7.) [NEW!] I hate to have to add this one, but long chains of extremely short chapters containing nothing but endless empty options will be pruned. By this, I mean those long chains of "How about [Franchise X]? Yes/no?" where the list of potential franchises goes on forever without any actual content for any of them. I really want to be as inclusive as possible, but these sequences can really hurt the quality of the story. 8.) Have fun! Really! |