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I'm hoping I put this is the right section . . .

I've run into a problem with my most recent idea I've been planning.
The plot had two focuses:
1) Girls and guys being roomed together
2) The heroine has these weird visions of the (main) boys she meets that aren't from our world (she's actually from a fantasy-based world and there's a whole backstory and everything I created and it makes sense and everything)

However, the second part of the plot isn't presented to the players until they actually start playing the game.
I want the focus of the story to be on the idea of co-ed dorms but the fantasy part of the story always takes over the story and becomes the main plot, instead of a secondary plot.

I considered just getting rid of the second idea all together but I still wanted to incorporate fantasy/magic into this idea. (Without it actually being a part of the world. I want it to be something strange.)

However, no matter what idea I get, they all end up becoming the primary idea of the plot.

So, my question is how do incorporate fantasy into a story without it being a main idea behind the plot and without it being over-powering in the story?
Is there a way to do this really or should I just scrap the idea of fantasy all together?

I see no reason why you can't write a story about roommates who happen to be magic users in a mostly non-magic world. You don't need to tell an epic story to make use of fantastical elements.

inkbrush wrote:However, the second part of the plot isn't presented to the players until they actually start playing the game.
I want the focus of the story to be on the idea of co-ed dorms but the fantasy part of the story always takes over the story and becomes the main plot, instead of a secondary plot.

... So, my question is how do incorporate fantasy into a story without it being a main idea behind the plot and without it being over-powering in the story?

I think the problem you are struggling with is that the fantasy aspect especially the one you describe is probably going to be the more interesting portion of the story, and people are going to want to know more about that (and you are probably going to want to tell that part of the story more yourself). I like the idea of her having visions of this past life or alternate universe, and you could just touch on it sparingly in your story, but that might just be teasing your audience.

An example would be sometimes in a movie they'll go on describing some really cool, interesting things that maybe have little or nothing to do with the actual story, and you'll just be wondering 'why am I not watching THAT movie?'. :-P So, I'd say don't resist it, expand on it. Or, if it's not working out, split it up into two different stories and focus on the co-ed story now and save the fantasy story for when you want to focus on the fantasy.

inkbrush wrote:So, my question is how do incorporate fantasy into a story without it being a main idea behind the plot and without it being over-powering in the story?
Is there a way to do this really or should I just scrap the idea of fantasy all together?

Actually, there's a whole genre of people doing what you want to do that predates VNs by several decades -- Magical Realism

Your idea might not fall exactly into that genre, but if you read that Wikipedia article I linked to, I think you'll see that a lot of people have had a similar idea, and it can totally work. Actually, it worked well enough for Gabriel García Márquez to win him a Nobel Prize!

There are lots of movies that are magical realist, or at least inspired by the genre, too. Birdman won the Oscar this year and definitely draws on magical realism as an influence. You could say the same to a lesser extent about Grand Budapest Hotel, another big recent film.

Lots of people (including me!) kind of misuse the phrase magical realism to describe their work. But in its broadest, non-technical definition, it's just means a story where you combine fantasy and the real world (without going into full-on fantasy mode).

TL; DR -- You're not alone in trying to mix fantasy and reality in a story. Go for it!

There is a genre for what you are describing, it's called "Magical Realism". Basically, realism with fantastical elements mingled seamlessly into it. You may want to check it out.

Going further on the magical scale would lead to "Modern Fantasy". Overt fantastical elements in an otherwise modern setting.

Going even further would be "the Masquerade". A large amount of fantasy stuff behind the scenes of a modern world.

A particular example I can think of for magic realism in a video game - one of many, I'm sure - would be Phoenix Wright, with the spirit channelling sub-plot gradually introduced into the story in such a seamless way that you just take it for granted. I think introducing the fantasy concept gradually into the beginning of the story with some amount of subtlety is the important thing.

Mad Harlequin wrote:I see no reason why you can't write a story about roommates who happen to be magic users in a mostly non-magic world. You don't need to tell an epic story to make use of fantastical elements.

I agree. I mean, if you need a case study, I did it (in a different way) with Three Guys That Paint, and that seemed to go down well with the people who played it.

Some useful articles you can read through for descriptions and examples:

Magic Realism - TV Tropes

Sliding Scale Of Realistic Versus Fantastic - TV Tropes

Genre Shift - TV Tropes