An important goal of game design is to tie story and gameplay as close as possible. One way to achieve this would be to view the story elements as usable game resources, on par with magic potions and the others. Story objects can be used to influence the NPCs. The simplest NPC action caused by stories would be story exchange. Telling the NPC a story she likes will result in the NPC telling a story herself. (But only if the fun attribute of the PC character is high enough.) Likewise, telling a story about the evil deeds of (insert random Evil Overlord here) will get a similar story (if the NPC knows one and isn''t too frightened, etc.) or even information to fight the EO. Recruiting NPCs in your party can also be influenced by stories. Various quests can rely on stories. For the classic rescue for ransom scenario, maybe the ransom-paying guy doesn''t even know about the whereabouts of his missing relative. So you can bring a story to him to get the quest (and half the money upfront - getting the story was a quest in itself). Certain game objects can prove a story. A signed and sealed letter, an unique ring of the missing person, etc. Certain character classes could move further away from the kill-em all warrior. The bard comes to mind (he can get more effect of a story - storing different story texts for each version and allowing a bard to tell the better story depending on his skills is an option). The starting stories can differentiate classes. If a barbarian starts out with few not very interesting stories, a bard can have a good array of them. A thief can have deceiving stories - fool the gullible into losing their money. A thief or bard can also simply make up stories at different game points. Some attributes can have a better use too. Charisma for increasing the effect of a story, will power for resisting torture without giving away a certain story, intelligence for making up stories, wisdom for receiving stories out of seemingly unimportant game events.. And the best part is the implementation doesn''t seem too complicated (I didn’t say a word about dynamic story creation, NPC spreading stories themselves, etc.). All there is to a story is type (general types like fun, sad, heroic, EO is evil as well as specific types like character X is hold hostage by the EO – everything predefined tho), truthfulness (a holy character - priest or paladin would get bonuses here while known thieves would get penalties; proof can increase truthfulness; old friendships also give a bonus - and an use for having NPC friends – which brings another use for stories) and intensity (bards get a bonus here). Then some predefined NPC reactions have to be triggered by certain types of story. A good search engine to allow the player easy access to the stories she has gathered is necessary though. (something like google – directories included) Of course, the numbers behind the stories are hidden, although they should be pretty self-evident. This way reading and remembering the stories become gameplay.

cool

This is a good idea, but I think it''s better suited for a non-terminal RPG like PSO. Having NPCs and PCs exchanging story objects themselves would seem to bring about storytelling choas. That sort of choas is excellent for a non-terminal RPG, because it consists of any number of small quests that aren''t well interconnected. Unfourtunatly, it would seem to lower the game to that of a hack-n-slash which you were trying to avoid in the first place.

Then again, by anchoring the NPCs to a certain geographic location in the game, and predefining the physical path the PCs take, one could formulate a more linear story.

Secondly, the way this is written implies -- at least to me -- hard coding each story object. If a powerful scripting system was employed, new stories could be "imported" into the game at time goes on. Not only would this have a great mod-factor, but it would reduce the size of memory requirements of the game.

-Solstice

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"...I was given three choices, the earth, the stars, or..."

I am playing with an idea sort of spun off this concept. Basically, I design a story set, with preconditions that must be met for the story to take place and possible consequences. Actually they are not stories, but are plot devices. They have certain conditions to begin their incorporation into the game, certain effects on it, and certain conditions to stop being active. For example, an assassination....

NPc x has some sort of deep grudge against NPC y, and x is a wealthy person. The stage is set for a plot device, perhaps an assassination...