Plot Ideas
David Whitten
but figured it might be interesting to see what anyone else may have
come up with since I last posted.
The general idea of a Plot is that it is a list of situations that happen
in a story. There is a basic ordering on the different situtations
so that things happen in order. In a simple written novel, the plot may
be likened to a path. Once you start down the path, there is no branching,
the story simply flows down the plot path.
Now, Interactive Fiction obviously involves the protagonist making decisions
that affect where the story is going. This could easily be recognized as
a path that has branches in it, and the plot progresses down different
paths based on which path is chosen.
Now, if the plot never comes back to a decision point, an aerial view
of the plot path would appear to be tree-shaped and the final points of
of the plot would be the end of the story, just as leaves are on the final
points of a tree.
This a more complex story, and is commonly seen in the 'choose your path'
adventure stories recently available at book stores. The main problem
with these stories is that in the effort to have a broad range of story
choices, the total story length becomes shorter. (because book publishers
have the same limitations on book length, whether a branching story is
being told or whether a linear plot is being used.)
Another variant of this is when paths are allowed to join back together,
but are still limited in moving 'forward in time'. The physical analogy
of this would be if several branches were tied together with a ribbon.
An ant climbing the tree could choose among several different branches, but
would eventually reach a point that had more than one precursor.
The tecnical name for this variant is a dag. (it is a computer science
acronym for Directed Acyclic Graph)
Plots that are written with a Dag style are slightly more complex than
tree styled plots since any story elements referred to after the rejoining
of the plot paths must have occurred on each of the separate branched paths.
One example of a simple Dag in a story appeared in one of Scott Adams' early
stories. It is necessary to get through a locked door in a hidden room
under a tree. to uncover the room, one must chop down the tree. The plot
branching occurs prior to chopping down the tree. If you climb the tree
prior to chopping it down, you will find the key to the door in a bird's
nest. If you don't climb it, when you chop down the tree, the key is lost
in the swamp as the tree falls down. In a poorly written IF story,
this would signal a dead-end path. Scott Adams, however, allowed the
use of the axe to chop the padlock off the locked door. Thus
two different plot paths exist, but which end at the same situation.
You may have noticed an earlier mention of 'flow of the story down a
plot path'. When a simple linear plot exists, there is really not much
more that can be said for plot flow except how fast the plot is progressing.
With a branching plot, it becomes possible to talk about plot inertia as
well. Essentially, the shortest path from the beginning of a story to
the end of the story is the the plot path with the most inertia. In
fact, when well crafted, the highest inertia plot path will be very
similar to a single path story. The concept of a 'walkthrough' is
a list of commands and actions that, when applied to an interactive story
provide the highest inertia plot path.
Ideally, of course, every path from the beginning of the story to the
end will be a satisfying story. Some of them will involve many actions
that don't move the story forward, although they may be amusing, or even
intriguing. When a story's plot path is actually circular, so actions
late in the story restore it back to a state which is indistinguishable
from one early in the story, an intertia sink occurs. (note: this is not
the same situation as restoring a saved game)
Plot inertia sinks are very bad for story telling. They essentially
can be followed an infinite number of times, and don't provide any
way to provide a satisfying conclusion to the interactive fiction.
Since the Plot (even a circular one) has alternate decisions that could
be made to progress the story, many people ignore this source of
dissatisfaction. I would suggest that this doesn't have to be in an
well written interactive fiction tale.
I would suggest the inclusion of Deux Ex Machina Demons in the structure
of an interactive novel. These are basically ways that the story
may progress, even if the protagonist is incapable of making the right
decision necessary to keep the story going. Since Deux Ex Machina
events in a linear plot is just a 'God in the Machine' fix, these Demons
just 'fix' the plot so the story may progress.
In the example of the locked Door, maybe a dwarf will walk up and
conveniently leave the door unlocked, so the protagonist can slip through.
Well, I've written quite enough for now,
Comments anyone?
David (whi...@netcom.com) (214) 437-5255
Carl Muckenhoupt
"Robin Hood", most minor oversights on the player's part are swiftly
remedied by Little John: "Well done, seeing through the sheriff's spy
like that! By the way, after you left, we found this letter on him..."
In graphic adventures, where no amount of additional overhead is small,
branching plots are rare. The plot-fixer gimmick prevents unwanted
branching.
--
Carl Muckenhoupt | Text Adventures are not dead!
b...@tiac.net | Read rec.[arts|games].int-fiction to see
http://www.tiac.net/users/baf | what you're missing!
David Whitten
: The idea of a plot-fixing Deus Ex Machina has been tried. In Sierra's
: "Robin Hood", most minor oversights on the player's part are swiftly
: remedied by Little John: "Well done, seeing through the sheriff's spy
: like that! By the way, after you left, we found this letter on him..."
: In graphic adventures, where no amount of additional overhead is small,
: branching plots are rare. The plot-fixer gimmick prevents unwanted
: branching.
Hmm, I hadn't thought of the limited case of using the plot fixer to
prevent branching. I was thinking of using it more as the Directoral
Story Manager similar to the ideas in the OZ project.
IE: actually having a demon that would keep track of a story's progress
and maybe give the protagonist another way to solve the problem.
I think this is a flaw of simulationist I-F. Since the protagonist
can do all kinds of things, its easy to wander around and have no
ideas about what the goals of the story are. (Presuming the goals
and Plots are what makes it a story to begin with)
David (Whi...@netcom.com) (214) 437-5255