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I've been brewing this idea for my RPG in my mind for a really long while.

It's basically a space opera themed RPG set in a wide galaxy filled with various systems and planets that literally each have their own orbital periods, climates, surface gravities and

day/night cycles. Also travel between planets and systems take a considerable amount of time between days and months, leaving you to manage your spaceship and interact with fellow crewmates to pass the time.

My branching story is going to have so many branches, it'd make Mass Effect look as linear as a COD game... 

But as I thought about it lately and written down notes on how the branches would work, I found myself doubting if it could work at all.

Let me put in some context.

My story has the hero and his friends scattered across the galaxy by some incident and he is determined to seek them out.

However he finds a mystic artefact that grants him superhuman powers and he is enlisted by a mysterious organisation that researches these artefacts.

He is to help them find other relics across the galaxy as they compete with other factions who have their eye on them, in return for their help in assisting in his search for his friends.

To start off, the hero's friends starting locations will be randomised with every playthrough so you're never going to find them in the same place every time.

Basically, concurrently to the hero's journey, they will each undergo their own adventure with branching pathways that is randomly chosen and they will move on as time passes so

the player also has to track them down from any clues they leave behind - that is, if the player decides to look for them at all. And the calendar-based time progression and long space travel periods serve to add weight to this.

In the meantime, the player, as a space mercenary, has to pick jobs to earn money to improve his ship and equipment and on his travels, he will stumble onto plotlines involving

corporate corruption, civil conflict, epidemic, political conspiracy, social unrest and cultural change where his involvement - depending on the players choices - will have a profound effect in not only the immediate area but across the whole galaxy. Chances are, again by random chance, he may accidentally bump into one of his missing friends as it could be one of the random pathways he/she is going on.

If the player ever does reunite with a missing friend, depending on the journey they took so far, he/she may decide either to join the hero or stay behind (Maybe to help a noble cause or because he/she is coerced by some evil figure for some reason), leaving the player to decide from there. With anyone you do bring on board as a new crew member, you can build a relationship with and the various characters can also build relationships with each other. Most relationships will actually affect each other one way or another and certain breakthroughs in some relationships have strict prerequisites in order to be achieved - such as helping settle their personal demons or something. Some of these prerequisites may even intersect with other relationships, i.e. one friend will only be your best friend if you become good friends with someone else or if you break up a romantic bond with them.

Many scenes have different outcomes that depend not only on the player's dialogue choices or certain actions made in the past but also on your relationships with some party members...

And the party's stats! In some of the games I played, player stats (besides just the Charisma one) opened up branching decisions like a high Strength stat allowing me to intimidate an NPC to get what I want or move an obstacle out of the way. Well, it'd happen in my game as well. Let's say for example, a party member (whose BFF's with our hero thanks to the players efforts in building their relationship) has a high enough Perception skill to see a Sniper about to shoot our hero, then attempts to shove our hero out of harms way. If he has high enough Dexterity and Agility stats, he might succeed and survive himself - otherwise, he'll take the bullet and die. Or another character the guy taking the bullet happens to be BFF's with as well, could be able to treat his wound and save him unless he is either sworn rivals with him and/or doesn't have a high enough First Aid skill. But if the hero has a high enough Perception skill, he can dodge out of harms way himself without risking any of his friends.

Then there's another aspect to the plot, you see the magic artefact the hero uses is an ancient forbidden relic that's considered a bad omen in some religions and cultures but a tool of salvation and enlightenment in others and thus the hero's friends and anyone else tagging along will react differently to his powers. How often he resorts to them also affects his relationships (i.e. a condition for progressing the relationship with some characters would be to minimize his use of his powers and complete mission objectives by non-mystical means). In fact, progressing his powers also has an effect on the hero's character so the player has a choice whether to train his powers to the highest level or to keep as much of a mundane human mortal as possible, which will make completing the game and surviving whatever dangers come his way much more difficult but still beatable through other methods, especially in the party members co-operation with each other encouraged by their growing relationships and skill progression.

And back to the whole seeking your friends part, since their locations are randomized, there is not even a set order you find them and in some playthroughs you may not

manage to find them all by the time an important plot point happens and they will come out as dramatically different people if you happen to reunite with them very, very late in the game and see them react to what the long years of the hero's journey has changed him into - whether for the better or worse will be up to the player.

This description doesn't really do justice to my idea, but what I'm worried about is that I already actually formed a solid, more linear story in my mind and I find it being a non-linear, randomized story too chaotic. The reason I thought of making it a branching story was to encourage players to invest in the fates of the characters and their development and to try and go beyond what mainstream games do with their branching storylines.

Any feedback will be most welcome and if you have any questions or want any further explanation about my idea, don't hesitate to ask.