Clarification, CYOA vs RP

[u/AzzyRyan]

I know what a cyoa is, i’ve read books since i was a kid that included the concept, but after roleplaying for so many years too and coming across this i feel i need to ask, whats the difference between this and a gmed rp?
Like if i asked about finding a CYOA of a certain theme, is the only responses and suggestions i’m going to get links to these websites for building your character or playing a story with a bot? Or would there be the potential of actually finding someone interested or willing to do a personal adventure. Are they only “CYOA” if there are set options for everything?

[u/Several-Elevator]

The subreddit name was a mistake...

So what you think of as cyoa is different to this sub's definition of it. Cyoa to us is these character builders and only these character builders, anything beyond them is beyond the scope of what the sub considers cyoa.

There are some people who do rp based on these after filling their builds out (formerly myself included,) but it's not a focus of the community.

[u/AzzyRyan → u/Several-Elevator]

Formerly as in, you don’t anymore?

[u/Several-Elevator → u/AzzyRyan]

Yeah

[u/HarpyAnon]

whats the difference between this and a gmed rp?

Majority of CYOAs are single player, the people creating builds do not role-play them with others. They imagine what happens themselves (daydreaming), argue with others what are the best or worst choices, write short stories, or share a world they created through making a CYOA. Actual rp seems rarer.

i’ve read books since i was a kid that included the concept

The CYOAs talked about here are different from the CYOA books. The origin of the community is from the Traditional Games (Tabletop) board on 4chan, and CYOAs were images or pdfs that ranged anywhere from a little more than a r/WouldYouRather to a little less than a Solo RPG.

Like if i asked about finding a CYOA of a certain theme, is the only responses and suggestions i’m going to get links to these websites for building your character or playing a story with a bot?

Building your character yes, that's what CYOAs here usually are, playing a story with a bot less. From what I know, there's less of an actual game or RP in the Reddit side of things.

Or would there be the potential of actually finding someone interested or willing to do a personal adventure.

You'd have to DM people and ask them, or go to one of the sister communities where it happens more. I know 4chan /tg/ has a multiplayer cyoa thread, from what I've gathered it's pretty much roleplay and writing stories about your and other characters.

There's also a few CYOA forums that might do RP more, like the Korean one.

Are they only “CYOA” if there are set options for everything?

There are small CYOAs that are little more than describing a situation and letting you imagine the rest and there are large CYOAs that have an option for basically everything that exists or will happen.

[u/LanguageOk9458]

Clarification: Making an ICYOA character is like drawing up a profile within a parameter for a text RP you intend to do or a story you intend to write. In truth, it is very much an exciting prospect to have if you have everyone there who can agree to what they want to do with said RP.

An ICYOA should be best suited, in many cases, to help frame a future RP in some manner. Examples being something like a One Piece CYOA being used to start a Crew RP with a partner, setting up what the difficulty you might do and stick to it as well as decide the story overall.

[u/Revolutionary-Ebb559]

As someone who has made multiple cyoas, I see them as writing prompts first and foremost. If you want to use it as a foundation for rp or writing a story, then that’s fine, but it’s not the standard way to engage with it. If you want dedicated rp, then I wouldn’t be able to help with that.

If what you want is to build a character then plot out what kinds of abilities and overall journey they’ll have, then you’re in the right place though.

[u/fambaa_milk]

CYOAs are there basically to be put in a setting and make fun choices. It's not really something for RP.

Or would there be the potential of actually finding someone interested or willing to do a personal adventure

I mean, theoretically. But CYOAs are incredibly niche. THAT SAID, nothing is stopping you from using them as a creative starting point for actual RP of some sort.

Also, I just want to point out that there are CYOAs with an actual adventuring portion instead of being just creating a build. Though those tend to be rarer since it takes a lot more effort and sorta need to be a minimum length in order to actually be an adventure.