I think that can work very well (I'm thinking something in the vein of "Princess Bride" would suit it well), but it's going to depend a lot on the quality of the writing.
Oh i wont be the one writing it (english is POOR!) as my friend wants to have a go at the MA before he subscribes to it, so he said he'ld do the dialog and everything as long as i get ideas/ambushes etc all sorted out 
(though i'll get the rewards but hey thats the price to pay for being a friend of mine!)
@Damz Find me on the global channel Union Chat. One of the best "chat channels" ingame!
Reminds me of a storyline in Neverwinter Nights. The hero reads a book, and is absorbed into the story. Inside the story he finds another book, and is absorbed into another story. There are three stories you can visit like this, and the last one has a line starting "Deep in the dust-covered arcane libraries of the Undercity...", reading which puts you back in the library in the real world.
The stories all have tragic endings, and if your hero is Good, you have the option to use a magic quill and inkwell to rewrite the endings to be good. Doing so gives you allies (the characters from the books, who are now much better) in the 4th story, where you must fight a boss (the boss is the reason you're there in the first place).
The characters include a lame disfigured man whose one true love is kidnapped and sacrificed to demons - rewritten into a knight in shining armor who rescues his love, and a wizard tortured in hell for eternity - rewritten to be redeemed by heaven.
Of course, an evil character can leave them to their fates.
To fight the boss, you need to use the quill and inkwell to write a new story into the magical book, about how you set a trap for the boss, which absorbs you into the story and lets you fight it. A high Wisdom score lets you write the setting to be on a wrecked ship full of treasure, giving you some nice loot. 
[ QUOTE ]
A high Wisdom score lets you write the setting to be on a wrecked ship full of treasure, giving you some nice loot.
[/ QUOTE ]
And a really high Wisdom score lets you write yourself in as a time-traveller from the future, with all sorts of high tech weapons?
Yeah Col. That is what i first thought when i read Damz first post.
For arc, it all depends how well it is written. It doesn't matter if you get it from a contact or by reading a book. Actually that will be more interesting than getting it from a contact.
Only thing can get into your way is file size. If you can get your story around this limitation (which seems everyone can do but not me ) it will be a nice touch.
This sounds a little like an arc I enjoyed soon after MA launch - 12651 Secret History: Rise of Rapture.
It's a nice way to make an arc stand out from the crowd.
"If there's anything worse than being sacrificed, it's being sacrificed incompetantly."
an idea of mine that was scrapped due to bloating was set around a book kind of like that, except all the pages were blank. The idea went that history had been changed and this book is from the real history. As you went through the story and fixed history the book rewrote itself a page per mission (in the form of clues)
It was 99% done before the bloating from live as well *sigh*
If you want to do a proper tale, I'd start with a three act structure, but don't worry if you find your story going off the rails. Run with it.
Here is how the structure works:
Act 1: Setup
This is where you establish the scene.
It also contains the "inciting incident" which takes the protagonist out of their normal environment.
Plot Point One: This is where the story takes a change in direction, and has been identified as where the protagonist takes on the problem.
Act Two, Complication: This begins at Plot Point One. Act two sees the protagonist tackling obstacles which are preventing him/her reaching his/her goal.
First Culmination: This is where the protagonist seems near to completing his goal, but then everything falls apart. This occurs slightly before the mid point.
Mid point (Low point): This is around the middle of act two and is where the protagonist is furthest from his goal.
Plot Point Two: This is where the plot takes a new direction.
Act 3, Resolution: This begins at Plot Point Two, and sees the tension and action rise to a climax.
Climax: The climax sees the action reach a pinacle and the loose ends of the story are resolved during the Denouement.
I hope this helps you write an interesting tale that is more than a boring task list (which the devs appear to love, for some wierd reason).
You can read more here:
http://www.musik-therapie.at/PederHi...e&Plot.htm
Please fight My Brute: http://2hero.mybrute.com
Mission Architect 54161 - Michael Mundano, Megan Malloney and the Secret Senate.
Mission Architect 91838 - Constantinople Jones' Family Secret. A One Mission Story arc.
Been getting together a few ideas for my first real serious arc and so far this is the one that has struck out to me the most.
Your contact is a book (THINK you can use it? If not easily replaced) and basically your reading the story with you the hero as the main star. So basically it'ld all have to be third person wording with "media style controlled" sequences/events taking place.
Do you think that'ld be interesting enough or back to the drawing board? HONEST answers please because want my first real arc to be half decent
@Damz Find me on the global channel Union Chat. One of the best "chat channels" ingame!