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<H1>[MUD-Dev] Quests</H1>
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<LI><em>To</em>: "MUD-DEV" <<A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A>></LI>
<LI><em>Subject</em>: [MUD-Dev] Quests</LI>
<LI><em>From</em>: "Raph Koster" <<A HREF="mailto:rkoster#austin,rr.com">rkoster#austin,rr.com</A>></LI>
<LI><em>Date</em>: Mon, 17 Apr 2000 10:25:36 -0500</LI>
<LI><em>Importance</em>: Normal</LI>
<LI><em>Reply-To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI>
<LI><em>Sender</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev-admin#kanga,nu">mud-dev-admin#kanga,nu</A></LI>
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<PRE>
I mentioned that I had been trading emails recently with Lee Sheldon about
the storytelling approach in The Gryphon Tapestry. Here is one of his
emails, with his kind permission. I'll see if he is willing to have his
slides and lecture notes posted, that's where the meat of his approach can
be found.
start quote--->
Anyway, there were a number of storytelling challenges we tackled in The
Gryphon Tapestry. Here are just a couple of them off the top of my head
that people question me about.
One was the overcrowding factor. Where is the suspense, and how is the
suspension of disbelief so necessary to hook someone into a story, possible
in a spooky graveyard where the place is neck deep in adventurers, and the
mobs die like cattle in a slaughterhouse?
In TGT we addressed the problem by creating three types of unique geography
within the world map: private spaces (your home - not REALLY on the map at
all even though it looked that way - to prevent ghetto-izing the
countryside); public places (one view of the rest of the map); and story
places (another iteration of the same map). Basically you could enter the
graveyard whenever you wanted. But, IF you were involved in the story I
called The Lady in Grey for example, you would enter the graveyard to find
yourself alone (or with only your own party members). Since stories could
be left and re-entered pretty much at will, the illusion was that there was
no difference between the two iterations EXCEPT the involvement in a story.
One other challenge (and then I'll stop for now) was facing PCs sharing of
knowledge about a particular story with other PCs. Stories, particularly
genre stories, rely so heavily on surprise after all. We couldn't very well
do what directors like Hitchcock and William Castle did in the 60s and warn
audiences not to reveal the ending. But with modular storytelling we at
least had a few factors working in our favor. In the really complex stories
the permutations of the possible order in which the modules could be stacked
were huge. Since we weren't deealing with paths and branching, the ONLY
limits on how many modules we could add were time and imagination. So there
were tons of ways of experiencing any given story.
Now everybody knows that sharing war stories is one of the ways our
communities love to interact. The many ways of experiencing a story
guaranteed lively discussion the same way finding the best tactics for
killing or playing your character do in most games. We didn't try to hide
the outcome of the stories. There would be enough surprise generated by the
sequence of story moves, and the occasional unique scenes that might be
accessed.
And the third thing we did was that the climaxes to the stories usually
involved one or more of three key ingredients: several solutions to the
final problem or conflict, a free-wheeling battle that could play itself out
in any number of ways as in any other MMORPG, and final "Twilight Zone" like
twists that hinted at stories yet to come and/or offered views of the
over-arcing story of the world. Finally, in GOOD stories we are drawn to
read/watch them again even knowing the ending. Does anyone really expect
Ingrid Bergman NOT to get on the plane at the end of Casablanca? The same
phenomenon can apply in a rich storytelling environment. Many should be
driven to play through a story, even if they already know the ending, simply
because it sounded so much fun when it was told to them by another PC.
This almost led me into other topics like "let em wander, but don't let em
get too lost" and PCs affecting the game world (both for themselves alone
and for everyone else). But I promised I'd stop. So I did.
Lee
<---end quote
-Raph
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<ul><li>Thread context:
<BLOCKQUOTE><UL>
<LI><STRONG>[MUD-Dev] Common Law [was: Declaration of the Rights of Avatars]</STRONG>, <EM>(continued)</EM>
<ul compact>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00365" HREF="msg00365.html">[MUD-Dev] Common Law [was: Declaration of the Rights of Avatars]</A></strong>,
Christopher Allen <a href="mailto:ChristopherA#skotos,net">ChristopherA#skotos,net</a>, Mon 17 Apr 2000, 16:23 GMT
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</ul>
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00348" HREF="msg00348.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Quests - allocative efficiency</A></strong>,
Lovecraft <a href="mailto:dave#darkages,com">dave#darkages,com</a>, Mon 17 Apr 2000, 16:22 GMT
<LI><strong><A NAME="00323" HREF="msg00323.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Quests</A></strong>,
Lovecraft <a href="mailto:dave#darkages,com">dave#darkages,com</a>, Mon 17 Apr 2000, 04:52 GMT
<UL>
<li><Possible follow-up(s)><br>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00341" HREF="msg00341.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Quests</A></strong>,
Jon Lambert <a href="mailto:jlsysinc#ix,netcom.com">jlsysinc#ix,netcom.com</a>, Mon 17 Apr 2000, 06:41 GMT
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00354" HREF="msg00354.html">[MUD-Dev] Quests</A></strong>,
Raph Koster <a href="mailto:rkoster#austin,rr.com">rkoster#austin,rr.com</a>, Mon 17 Apr 2000, 16:22 GMT
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00372" HREF="msg00372.html">RE: [MUD-Dev] Quests</A></strong>,
Sellers, Michael <a href="mailto:MSellers#maxis,com">MSellers#maxis,com</a>, Mon 17 Apr 2000, 20:16 GMT
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00376" HREF="msg00376.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Quests</A></strong>,
Paul Schwanz - Enterprise Services <a href="mailto:Paul.Schwanz#east,sun.com">Paul.Schwanz#east,sun.com</a>, Mon 17 Apr 2000, 20:17 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00321" HREF="msg00321.html">[MUD-Dev] Quote from a Simutronics developer</A></strong>,
Raph Koster <a href="mailto:rkoster#austin,rr.com">rkoster#austin,rr.com</a>, Mon 17 Apr 2000, 04:52 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00386" HREF="msg00386.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Quote from a Simutronics developer</A></strong>,
Erik Jarvi <a href="mailto:ejarvi#megsinet,net">ejarvi#megsinet,net</a>, Mon 17 Apr 2000, 20:17 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
</UL></BLOCKQUOTE>
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