Well it my Rpg complex choice matter profile, sry, so in other word you got a pretty linear story with some major choice, the reason i put that 72, is if you went into the idea of a player that want to hit on a certain toon instead of a other, after trying the normal mode, i got that there 4 team of 5 character, total which is 20 possible person to have fun with, now i'm not gonna get opinion on that just measure the total branch possibilities after i got in the new addons... so i saw the chart with all the stats from that point
if you got 16 character total to have fun with, 19 if you go with a queer option, not asking for that option personally lol, but got no objection either as it reflect our society, so let keep it simple to a more binary option, 16 character that the Mc could steal skill from , for a certain period, depending on another variable, that i didn't figure out since your story is incomplete, but let say for a simple matter that it a fix period of 24h reset at morning so in programming speaking: if var[Stole_skill]is on && var[hours]>23 var[stole_skill]is off.... now i guess it 1 var per character so more like [stole_skill_charatername] so a total of 16 variable, 19 with the man included , now for the story
as all toon got a interest bar, i guess we will be able to have fun with them, so an other 16 var (+3) that 38 var plus the hours system, and then come the complexity, if the mc got this [container _skill]=on then, this is on, and this is off, your 2 possible ending good or bad, the complex part is about the interest,does your system implies, as you describe, [steal_Passive] depending on hate/neutral/love.
I'm going to get an example star wars knight of the old republic, the one on xbox, you had light side/ the gray as neutral/ dark side, but to unlock special ability only available to true side you had to get really high that ladder, that was -100 to 100 dark side to light side that how they realise a variable for that kinda alignment, each action, choice add or remove point on that ladder to reflect your mentality, that the ladder i was speaking about.
Quick explanation: if var[side]<=-25 then var[dark] is on if var[side]<=25 then [gray] is on else var[light] is on
So when a game say choice matter i got that expectation.
So that explained, if we take a full universe of 19 character, with that ladder in mind. we need a story that give us those ~200 point total per character not really 200 because eventually a character will love you or hate you, but still need a story that will impact his personal thinking.
then an other option, i think you use is a more global impact, like if you choose an answer, all characters will be impacted depending on the choice, make it less complex, with only 4 main story line with 1 girl for each team... something like that
So i know in the end it is your story, your idea, and i'm just trying to let you view how big i see the picture, but again, maybe it too much and i understand that for a person that is on his own, it can be a PITA..
Don't go think i want to patronize you, were just sharing idea about developing a choice matter game, and as i said many time i really appreciate the time you take for your fanbase.