Laying out the Storyline Narrative

The narrative is arranged out of a series of chunks (plot nodes)?. These chunks are the basic building blocks of each piece of narrative that is going to be told. They can stretch over multiple locations, as the player may move from one location to another to resolve the chunk.

Using the ideas mentioned in the previous blog entry, the plot nodes can be though of as being placed in a random fashion and arranged to make a web-like structure. Each node may have an effect on other nodes that the game will lay down in the narrative.

These relationships will then require definition. I'm going to have to investigate systems such as using tags that are shared between nodes that the system then uses to create links between the different nodes. I found this, which has given me a great deal of thought on the possiblities of this system.

From Brian L. Price:

Still, in order to form plots, relationships between plot nodes must be defined. The primary relationships are: exclusion, dependance, time frame acceleration, time frame deceleration, probability increase, and probability decrease. That is, the transition from non-existant to existant of one plot node will: cause the removal of all plot nodes which are related to it by exclusion, the existance of all dependant plot nodes, a time frame shift toward or away from the present for all plot nodes related through time frame acceleration or deceleration, and the alteration of the probability for future existance of all plot nodes related by probability increase or decrease.

Plot nodes are broken down into smaller units, such as scenes. Each of the Plot nodes should have a weighting as to how likely they are to appear, as well as being conditionally based. e.g. 'This node' will not trigger unless the player has fulfilled 'this condition'.

Some plot nodes are concerned with long term goals, and they will need to be set early, as they could contain information such as the games finish conditions. However, other events, such as the death of a character, is likely to be outside the basic plot node structure, as it would be directly driven by the game-play actions, rather than the narrative. A character may be killed by a plot node, but this would be the exception, as it is constraining the system, which should be driven by the game actions, rather than an outside design wherever possible.

For example, the plot nodes currently in play would have no mention of any characters being killed. The player kills a random member of faction A. This acts as the trigger for a new plot node: the random choice is for the faction to take revenge and send a hit man to attack the player.