Story and Plot Design

- by demagogue

Dark Mod FMs, like the long tradition of Thief FMs before them (which we should all take notes from), allow for a much bigger role for story and plot than other first person genres, and most players expect a good story to come as part of their experience playing FMs. It's not really sufficient anymore to build a mission first and try to throw together some plot or story to fit it without putting a little thought into what makes for good storytelling in an FM first, and ideally designing the mission's architecture, objectives, gameplay, AI pathing, plot, and story all as a coherent whole from the beginning. One story that inspires me is that, as is well known, Terry Pratchett (the famous fantasy writer) was a long-time player of our FMs and would often post questions and comments (like all of us), and *he* said that *our* FMs were among the best story-telling going on in all video gamedom! High praise from a master, and something we should all strive to live up to!

The purpose of wiki entry is to give a mapper some good methods and things to think about when working out the story and plot-progression of their FM. It's about the mechanical side of how to construct a plot that works in terms of gameplay to tell a story, as opposed to giving story ideas per se. It will walk through a number of ideas mappers can think about when plotting their FMs, although of course since storytelling is a creative thought process, there is no universally "right" way to design a good story and plot. But hopefully some of these ideas can inspire your own thoughts on the issue.

NB, For the next few days or weeks, this is going to be work in progress and probably subject to serious revision and complete re-writing. So it's not really a trustworthy tutorial until it's done.

Introduction: Plot, Story, and "Making Progress" in FMs

"Plot", in the context of an FM, really means two things that are interconnected and must work together:

(1) The gameplay plot, the progress and logic of the gameplay from the start of the mission to fulfilling all the objectives and winning the FM. E.g., sneaking past guards-A & B allows you to get into room-A, that gets you key-B, that opens door-B, which lets you into the room that has a readable telling you how to get access to the attic, etc ... until you finally reach the room to swipe the holy golden trinket of summoning, fulfilling objective-1; etc. The purpose of each step just has meaning insofar as it makes progress towards your ultimate goal of meeting your objectives; and

(2) The narrative plot, the progress and logic of the FMs storytelling from the briefing, to story details the player gathers as he explores the FM, to finally the "narrative climax" of the FM. E.g., if you had a FM with 10 rooms, various rooms will contain storytelling elements (readables, overheard conversations, visual-storytelling elements, etc), which the player will see or hear in the order he or she explores those rooms. The "narrative plot" would be the progress and logic of how those story-elements reach the player, e.g., the player reads readable-A before readable-B because the room with readable-B requires a key you found under readable-A, whereas readable-C is in an open room and could be read at any time, and altogether A, B, & C dole out the story to the player in an interesting way that carries the player in a "narrative flow" through the story, start to end, etc (this time A->B->C, another time A->C->B). The purpose of each storytelling element has meaning insofar as it contributes towards making progress in the (or a) narrative flow towards the ultimate goal of the narrative climax (which is the engine of the flow; the player can feel that "all this is going somewhere", and they feel a sense of gratification when they get there).

The two are interconnected, as one could guess from those descriptions, insofar as (1) the progress of the storytelling will flow primarily from the progress of the gameplay as the player explores the FM and opens up new areas [in contrast to normal fiction], and (2) in turn the "storytelling" directs gameplay by giving directions and cues to players what to do next or how to get past some gameplay barrier they face [affordance theory]. Both sides of the story-gameplay coin are driven ultimately by whatever gameplay events or narrative information gets the player closer to fulfilling the objectives/narrative-climax(es) of the FM. The two are connected at the hip and often there isn't a clear distinction between gameplay and narrative plot, and we capture both ideas in the shared concept of "making progress" in the mission closer to the objectives/story-fulfillment. [in contrast to story & gameplay that does not make progress. story/gameplay != narrative-plot/game-plot. The former are mechanics; the latter is the structure of the mechanics to create a flow for the player from start to objectives/climax.]

Spreading Story out in Time and Space & the Concept of "Narrative Space"

Now let's get very concrete. Both gameplay and narrative plot for an FM are ultimately about structuring the flow of plot-carrying information and physical progress-ability* to the player in the space of the FM as he moves through it, understanding that sometimes the author may want very controlled releases of these according to a carefully planned script, and other times she may allow uncontrolled and random releases at the player's own pace, or sometimes some semi-controlled variation in between.

*Progress-ability: a word I just made up meaning the ability to make further physical progress into the FM space closer 
to one's goal than one could access before. 

In this respect, it is very useful to think of your FM in terms of "rooms" (not necessarily always a literal room), with various rooms containing storytelling and progress-granting elements. Then we can think about structuring the flow of information and progress as ultimately about structuring the player's path through space to access those elements. For the gameplay plot, this is very intuitive stuff we are familiar with from the FMs we have played. We understand the basic idea of scattering keys and open windows and climbable walls to reward player exploration with further physical progress in the FM space, so I don't think I need to spend much time talking about that.

The concept I want to talk more about here is how story-telling and making progress in the narrative-plot follows a similar idea. And that idea is, carrying a narrative-plot in an FM is largely about literally spreading the story, not in time like a movie or novel, but into the space of the FM (in its "rooms") so that it is doled out to the player over time as they explore the FM space. Thus, to make progress in the physical space is to make progress into the narrative-space of the (narrative) plot.

Controlling the flow of Information and gameplay progress.

Unlike a movie where the filmmaker can control all information to the viewer, narrative plotting has graded levels of control of information-releases, which has pros and cons; some things the mapper can enforce (like you MUST read this book), some aspects the mapper can try to direct (putting things in earlier rooms makes it more likely they'll be read early on), and some aspects the mapper has little control over whether or how or when the player gets the info.

A Method for Story Writing and Plot Design

- start from the poles, the set-up (through the briefing and information in the first few rooms) and the climax. Then draw a line between the two and have nodes which connect the set-up to the climax. This is the plot-line. (Later we will talk about the fact that in games the line is not always a single linear line, but can be more like a spider web where you can travel across the nodes in different orders from start to finish.) You can think about each node is a plot-progressing event.

The number of nodes you draw depends on how long your FM is. For a small contest-sized FM, you'll want maybe 5-10 nodes. For a very large campaign-sized FM, you might want 20 or more. A basic rule of thumb I use is think about one node per major room or scene (like a building in a city) in the FM. So if your FM has 10 "rooms", you can think about 10 nodes, and then add or subtract a few. ...

Plot Dependence Relations

A "dependence relation" is a kind of technical term (from logic) that in this context refers to some pieces of story information requiring that previous pieces of information are accessed first before they are accessible. If your FM is set up so that readable-A should (or must) be read before readable-B can be read, then we can say readable-B is in a dependence relation with (or depends on) readable-A.

The typical tool of dependence relations in games is the "key" mechanic (not always a literal key), which just means some gizmo you find in one room allows you to get access to new rooms, thus the later rooms depend on the earlier ones. This is one way for the author to police or enforce the release of story information in a set order. But note that there are other ways to enforce or nudge the order of information as well, such as putting information closer to the starting point ensures that it's more likely the player will see it before information placed much farther away in the map, although that order is not literally "enforced" by a mechanic, so they're not strictly in a necessary dependence relation, just more likely than not.

Why it's useful to think in terms of dependence relations is that the author should really get in the habit of thinking about their bits of information getting released in any arbitrary order as the player arbitrarily wanders the map. If you watch FM playthroughs, you should know that every player is different. A dependence relation is just a way to say, whatever order the player goes in to get information, at least I know (with this key mechanic) that A will always precede B. That way B can refer to information given in A and the player will be able to follow it.

[Gradations of dependence and enforcement (or policing, guiding, cuing, nudging, etc.)] A necessary dependence relation would be "A must be read before B", like the room B is in doesn't open up unless A is read (either reading the readable triggers an objective & script that opens up the new area, or it literally gives the player a key, etc.) A strong but not necessary dependence relation would be "A should be read before B", which is like putting the key next to readable-A, so that the player could technically grab the key without reading A and run off to read B, but it's very unlikely. You can see how the strength of the dependence could vary according to the situation. If the key is on the other side of the room, it's more likely the player might miss the readable. In any event, I think most (if not all) players are in the habit of reading any readable at the time that they find them (so in the order they find them). So that makes the author's job easier.

But dependence can still be relevant. Good FMs are not long linear hallways, but should be open spaces that allow the player to freely explore the space in any order they want.

More Detail on Story-Telling Elements

Before getting to the actual plotting part, I think it's worth a brief look at the typical elements that go into FM storytelling.

- Readables

Journals, letters, books, etc, readables do storytelling obliquely. They don't usually narrate directly "X"; they are the writings of an NPC in the game-world thinking about "X" (unless that NPC himself is narrating something he saw). I think all of us have played enough FMs to know how readables work to get out the story and plot elements.

One thing I want to mention about them, though: A common criticism with FM readables are that they are "too long" or have irrelevant information. What I think this criticism really boils down to is exactly what I was talking about above. I don't think it's the length per se that's the issue. I think the feeling of "making progress" in the mission (or its lack) also applies when a player reads a readable. ...

- Conversations

Conversations happen when NPCs speak and act and the player is in proximity to listen and watch, usually either 2+ NPCs talking to each other, or an NPC and the player talking. The nice thing about conversations over readables is you can add some action, gestures, have the AI walk around a little or perform some action, and also it's a part of action live right in front of the player, so it's imminently relevant to the world & gameplay. The downside is the conversation can get interrupted or the player can wander off, so they're harder for the mapper to enforce.

- Visual Storytelling

Visual storytelling is any method of conveying narrative elements without using words, in effect, showing the player rather than telling. A classic example is finding an NPC body in a room. The player knows something dramatic happened that's probably relevant to the story he's wrapped up in.

- esp take advantage of sneaking gameplay (eavesdropping, events acted out around the player)

- Revelations

At its core, storytelling is mostly about the controlled (or uncontrolled, as the case may be) release of information in a structured way, where later pieces of information contribute to a narrative flow on top of the previous pieces in a directed way towards the goal or climax of the story, which lets the player feel like they're getting caught up in a dramatic flow and they can have a sense of making progress, and a sense of accomplishment when they arrive at the conclusion after a well-delivered build-up. (As we all recall from playing FMs with great stories, even if it's somewhat smoke & mirrors, it's a real feeling of fun when we're in a world we don't understand at first and we feel pieces start coming together in really interesting ways, and we want to push onwards to see what they're leading to; even if we can guess, we still feel that drive to discover more. Good plotting sparks that feeling.)

Essential to this picture are two things, (1) all the information pieces add up to an interesting and dramatic story when put together and (2) the player doesn't have access to all the information at the start, but they are revealed over time, and the new pieces must be important revelations or discoveries about the plot to really count as progressing the plot.

Now people sometimes complain that "plot twists" are cliche, or "I could see the end coming a mile away", and I think as a reaction that sometimes makes some mappers shrink from really writing in dramatic revelations into their plot and you get the opposite problem of a watery story where not much really happens at all.

- World or Character State Changes (or Apparent Changes)

- NPCs

Like a lot of games, it's sometimes useful to distinguish functionary AI (like guards) who are mostly there for gameplay reasons, and NPC AI, who play a role in the FM's story, although of course an AI can play both roles or switch between them.

Specific Techniques and Story-Types FMs have Used

- Jobs & Events

- Reconstructing Past Events and Leading them to the Present

- NPC-Relationship Webs

- Private Spaces in Proximity: Storytelling in City & Mansion FMs

Common Problems and Things to Avoid in Plotting

- Does the plot make sense? Does it pass the sanity or straight-face test?

- Is your plot breakable? (And is that so bad?). Can specific game mechanics screw up the plot flow?

- Is there a good balance between free gameplay and directed plotting?

- One plotting problem I encountered in my FM. In order to get the player to see an important event in one room, the mission design led him away from the path that continued the mission, requiring them to backtrack to get back on the "main path" of the plot flow. In retrospect this was a design mistake. ...

- Be wary of game-y puzzles and gameplay (which isn't to say you can't have fun). Game-y is when you leave the goal of gameplay moving the plot forward and move into the territory of just having the player do crap because it sounds cool on paper.

- Avoid "premonition" puzzles, avoid situations that bust or kill the player without fair warning (especially for ghosters), or require lots of reloads

- Never leave your player stuck without a way to win.

- Cuing. Try to let the player always have an idea something to try next. Use cues. Consider graduated levels of hints (so a puzzle is found early on and open throughout the FM, early things give loose hints, as you open up more areas conventionally other rooms can give increasingly detailed hints). If the puzzle has multiple states, use the failure states to give hints about the success state. Something somewhere should be obvious the way through. It should be possible to complete an FM without having to post a question. Avoid cultural or language puzzles (or math puzzles). Remember that a large number of our players are not native English speakers. Be sensitive.

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