[Rules and spoilers about how magic works, for authors]

Spoilers are no fun, and all this info should be revealed through stories.
So... unless you're looking to write your own characters and chapters, I strongly advise only reading this if you finished the story and want clarification on how some magical thing worked. My "Eddie" story has a lot of steady reveals about how magic works, and is a lot more fun to read.

I'd like the first two branches to first determine the story type and then the protagonist.

I'd like the magic to work the same way for each character, rather than just have 'poof' magical rules work out perfectly for each character. I don't like that as a reader and assume others don't either. With that in mind, here are the magical rules as I made up BEFORE I came up with my first character in the world who is abusing them like a min-maxing munchkin.

Each protagonist is described as *the first* pervert to figure out they have magic potential, so it's implied that each separate story is a different timeline and the characters don't interact. Please be polite and consider asking first if you're going to bend that rule and write someone else's protagonist in to your story.

While there is supposedly some instant that magic suddenly works in the world (again?) there isn't anyone who detects it instantly. Nothing changes right away other than potential. Magic needs mana. Most people who do something that creates mana just lose it again, and even someone who uses a bit of magic wouldn't likely notice/believe it.

Anyone with magical power has a gut intuition about how it works. It comes naturally once you have it. Otherwise the whole 'figuring it out' monologue and experiments are boring and long for readers, and it also lets you get antagonists really quickly. On the other hand, no one is handed a manual or knows that they have this inner knowledge. They have to wonder to themselves 'hey what's this' to know the answer.

You can create mana in any of the traditional ways: Sex, sacrifice, meditation, consuming magical plants and animals (of which there are none on Earth as of the story start), faith (in/through you), or anything you've found in common fantasy fiction. But it's not super easy or fast for most people. I'll try to add a comprehensive list in the future. As long as you have some mana and awareness of magic, you can perform magic you can't 'afford'. Mana debt is bad: Slight debt is just pain like hunger. Serious debt causes literally crippling pain then .

Each person has a natural talent for magic. They can do other things but they (relatively) suck at them. Some mages like Eddie are naturals at getting/moving mana rather than a particular form of magic, though that puts a specific twist on the method of collection. The intuition people get about how magic works applies to their own powers, so until they learn about other mana collectors and magic users they wouldn't notice the difference between 'this is how magic works' and 'this is how magic works for me'. Eddie has no idea (yet, as of this writing) that his formula for how much energy he gets from sex is just for him, for example.

Sex mana is acquired through arousing acts, and the particular formula for how much mana you get from which acts depends on your own internalized values. If you don't think that blowjobs are sex? They don't give you much energy. If you think taboos and kinks are important? They'll multiply the energy you get from sex if they're engaged. If you think causing your partner pleasure is one of the core parts of sex? That will be a multiplier as well. All the multipliers are negative as well as positive just like multiplying by 0.01 shrinks a number.

Sacrifice mana comes from true loss. , destruction, even donating something to someone you dislike. Just like sex, this gives you a varying amount depending on various factors that come from deep inside. If you think that only living things really matter? Then inanimate objects won't mean much. If you think a sacrifice should be done in a holy place on an altar? Then that will be a multiplier. et cetera. Keep in mind the CHYOA terms of service.

Meditation is the slowest way to gain mana. Common multipliers could be the level of peace and stillness, holy/sacred surroundings, or special foci.

If you want to have magical plants or animals appear in your story, consuming those would give you mana.

Faith is a major way to gain mana, though only when your followers are actively directing their thoughts and prayers to you. I imagine a TV preacher being how magic gets noticed by the world and suddenly everyone realizes they have the same potential. It's also my 'head-canon' explanation for something REALLY ANNOYING that throws off my writing (the main reason I stopped when I did 2 years ago) and ruins my immersion when I read.

CHYOA Age Restriction in this universe.

I encourage everyone who contributes to this story to use my explanation for the utterly ridiculous 18+ only rule imposed by American websites, despite the civilized world understanding that live actors on video and written work are very different things. Since any REALISTIC portrayal of sexuality should obviously include plenty of 16 and 17 year old men and women (if not far younger) engaging in consensual, normal, age-appropriate exploration... This world has a Deus Ex Machina explanation: Some asshole American-centric prude has cast the mother of all spells, and got millions of people praying to reinforce it. Suddenly, no one ON EARTH who is too young to appear in video pornography can even have a kiss; The magic spell diverts them, and if necessary physically prevents it. This naturally leads to a massive amount of sexual frustration, and 18th birthdays become incitement to orgy. Perhaps also the spell is too far reaching to take effect of its own power, so it appears as people start using magic. This version would avoid the difficulty where everyone notices magic via this effect.

I made up a list of 36 different types of magic users, but we could add more. There's also the 0th one, which is a mana user like Ed.

Superhero-type powers:

Strength
Speed
Phasing
Teleportation
Vision
Healing
Self-healing
Shapeshifting
Flight
Telepathy
Invisibility
Telekinesis

Elemental-ish powers:

Fire
Water
Air
Earth
Metal
Lightning
Ice
Time
Space
Spirit
Mind
Plasma

Mage-type powers:

Illusion
Conjuration
Transfiguration
Enchantment
Charms
Wards
Divination
Pacts and oaths
Fertility
Technomancy
Necromancy
Portals