City of IF

[Shillelagh]

As I prepare to throw up a poll within the next few days, I've been mulling over some ideas about an immature end to the story. No, I don't plan on quitting, or shortening the story to make it end faster. I'm talking about you, the reader, making a foolish decision.

On another site, I write CYOA stories. In some ways, it's what I'm used to writing. If the reader makes a foolish decision, everything is okay. You simply back up to a previous decision, and keep going. Everything is okay. In fact, if it's a good CYOA, there will be a lot of false endings, just to make things interesting. But, you can't really do that with a storygame. This isn't the multiverse. There is only one ending.

But does that mean you should never get punished for doing something dangerous or foolish? I think not. And that's why I've come up with the Crisis Point system. In the event that you, the readers, do something ridiculously foolish, you will know it. Here's how it will work.

If the DP Vote has chosen an action which will put the main characters into significant, unnecessary danger, a Crisis Point will be activiated. The chapter heading will be denoted as such, and the chapter itself will only be about half as long. The chapter will end at a cliffhanger, and it will go into an immediate vote. This vote will be the same as any other DP, except that each option will require much more thought, planning, and detail than a normal option. If the Crisis is averted, the chapter will continue as normal. If not, the 'bad end' will be written, and the remaining DP options of the previous chapter will be issued a revote. In this event, the new chapter will bear the same number, and the old chapter will not be deleted.

Most Crisis Points will probably have at least one solution, provided everyone can come up with enough detailed plans to make it work. But, it might be that the Crisis Point has no solution. You'll just have to try your best regardless, because I certainly won't be telling you whether or not I think it's possible. Maybe you'll surprise me, and find a solution anyway. When the story begins to escalate into a climax, there might be more and more Crisis Points. They're not meant to be bad things. They simply represent a dangerous point in the story which requires more thought than "do this".

[Ingrothechundyer]

Sounds like an interesting system to me :D

[Smee]

A nice idea indeed. I look forward to seeing it in action.

[Thunderbird]

And our Experimental Guildmaster's mental gears go cranking! Wonderful concept Shille!

[D-Lotus]

This raises some questions about how DPs are made. For example, I always operated under the impression that every DP was a crisis point. That is, the character's actions affect the story in a way that changes the whole sequence of events-- for good or for bad.

In constructing a DP, perhaps a "do or die" approach should be avoided, at least until the final chapter. I never like it when there is a "wrong" option-- one that inevitably leads to demise.

I write this because I assume that the kind of crisis point you are referring to is when the character's irresponsibility or lack of wisdom irremediably doom the course of the story.

Nonetheless, I think that if the author is creative enough, she will find a way to minimize the effects of the reader's carelessness while still inflicting some sort of "punishment" for their behavior. In this scenario, it's the author who must exercise his imagination and craft. The system you intend to establish is too onerous on the reader.

Still, I've been wrong many times, so I'll look forward to observing (and participating) your crisis system and how it works in practice. :)

[Shillelagh]

Well, I can see where you're coming from, D. Certainly, it's something I've been thinking about for some time. I remember mentioning it to Crunchy ages ago, and she mentioned similar points. Her example involved a 'wrong' choice where the story continued, but the character lost him arm as punishment. Which, that's interesting, but I'm not sure it's the approach I want to take.

Every DP I've had so far, and every DP in the near future, has at least one completely safe option. But it's also entirely possible that the reader is going to stumble head first into a completely dangerous situation. I don't want to make the danger magically disappear just because you didn't know that it was there. That's a good way to start making plot holes. The story took an... interesting direction around chapter four, and it still hasn't quite recovered. With an open-ended DP, I have no idea where you guys are going to end up. If you put yourself in danger, you'll know.

That's really what I'm going for with the Crisis Point. It's away to alert the reader that things are less than ideal. Some of the Crisis Points might be easily solved. I just want the reader to know that I'm going to need more than just a one sentence option to proceed. I could have the characters do any number of secondary options while still following the general idea of the voted decision. Depending on the location and situation, those secondary options start getting very important. It's a second, more intense vote, designed to give the reader more information about the situation so that they can try and continue wisely.

And... yeah, it's different. But, like I said, I'm used to CYOA. This is what makes more sense to me. The idea of "minimizing the reader's carelessness" sounds to me like I'm holding the reader's hand, babying them, and ignoring what they said in favor of what they should have said. If the reader wants to do something silly, then let them. They can see the end result, learn why it was silly, and then we can start again.

[Crunchyfrog]

I see where you're coming from, especially knowing your CYOA background and having participated at IS. Crisis Points I think are an interesting deviation from the standard Storygame format. I look forward to seeing how this style pans out. Could be fun!

[Trevis]

If you read my original 'Tale of IF', you will see that even though (sadly) several IFians were horribly* killed, they were fully 'backed up' by Chinaren Labs inc. and their clones were back up and about in short order, though with no memory of what happened in the mines. Not that anything did you understand.



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