Characters:
Ray, an 8
year old boy
Hunter, 8
year old boy, Ray’s friend
Everything
has a value, between -100 to 100 (Scale and system are both WiP).
1-20 is
minor
21-40 is noticeable
41-60 is significant
61-80 is important
81-100 is
extremely important
For example ray.hunter.friendship
= 70 means they’re best friends, -20 means they annoy each other, -100 means
they’ll start picking up things to throw at each other the moment the see one
another. Values experience decay over time (e.g. if at 100, will gradually
decay if not maintained, though barriers may be sticky)
Scene:
Ray and Hunter go to school
Default
version: Children go to school, commenting on the weather on the way
R: It’s
hot today (External Observation) | Priority 50
H:
Yeah, we should hurry up, I’m getting thirsty.
Priority 50
means that anything that would over-ride this event would have to have a
priority score >50. If multiple items are priority >50, they’ll all be
raised unless the event has a hard cap (e.g. only two events max in this
setting)
IF R’s
parent’s were fighting that morning, he’s feeling down. Knowledge/Experience: Parents
fighting | Priority 70
If Hunter.Social > 50 OR Hunter.Ray.Friendship>70 otherwise, move
to next
H: What’s wrong, Ray? You look sad.
If previous Experience on Record (i.e. ray.parents.fights >0)
If fights are common (ray.parents.fights>5)
R: Mum and dad were fighting, again.
They promised they wouldn’t, but they keep fighting, I hate it! I hate them!
If fights uncommon (ray.parents.fights<5)
R:Mum and dad were shouting, it was
scary!
Default
Response
H: That’s bad! | Priority score 20
(any response has to have a priority score of >20 to replace this)
Possible
conditional response
If
hunter.ray.parent.fights.discussed > 0 | Priority 60 AND
hunter.parent.fights>0
H:
They’ll be alright, like I told you, my mum and dad fight, but they get along
If
hunter.ray.parent.fights.discussed > 0 | Priority 50 AND hunter.parent.fights=0
H:
Aww, that’s bad. My mum and dad never fight.
If
hunter.ray.parent.fights.discussed = 0 | Priority 60
H:
Really? That’s bad. And this is the first time?
Each of those events also rolls a dice,
and if the roll clears a Difficulty Check (which is a different value in each
of those scenarios, Ray can have a bad day or a normal day, which feeds into
later events. Not detailing those minutiae here because I fear this has already
become fairly unwieldy to read. This is mostly a demonstration of story
adaptivity with numerous Quality Based stances.
Each event updates
variables, including personality traits, which is how story progression
happens. This framework is extraordinarily painful to write and playtest, but
fantastically adaptive and generous when you want to allow events to happen at
and point of time during your game, but for them to react to what’s happened
before and change what happens next.
Check for
response statement, otherwise default to normal one
Residual
add-on based on current state (e.g. if aloof, slight motion toward stoic)
Some traits
are hidden until faced (and their presence is highlighted)
