I'm chasing this white rabbit a bit myself...
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I posted in the thread Nazrix is talking about the idea of adopting strategy game conventions for an RPG: Namely, mirroring the way an RTS game's typical base works for an RPG town. Like Nazrix, I too think this will give a lot of choice.
I have often wondered about taking this further. Namely:
Is it possible to look at a story as a KIND of strategy? I posted about this before but couldn't rouse much interest. Either I explained the concept poorly or it has no merit. I'll try again, tho'
Star Wars, the Strategy Story Look at some of your favorite stories. I chose Star Wars, not for it's literary merits but because I like it and many know it.
Notice that there are similarities between characters in a story and tokens in a strategy game: Objectives, obstacles, physical locations, characteristics that give capabilities, and so on.
Take Vader. At the start, his objective: Get back the stolen plans. His obstacle, Princess Leia, another token making her own strategic manuevers. We pick up the story at the physical location of Tatooine, where 2 tokens (a Corellian Corvette vs. a Star Destoyer) are fighting it out.
The characteristics that give capabilities is the most important part: This is where you get into personality and motivation, and probably where much of "story" emerges. We could say that Leia's personality drives her to do certain things, associate with certain people, etc, and that this gives her certain options. She sacrifices herself for a greater good. She engages in a bit of deviousness (sending the plans with the droids).
Same with Vader. His personality gives him the capability of killing the captain of the ship, and torturing it's crew. It's vital to see that these are STRATEGIC OPTIONS, and govern the unfolding story as if it were a strategic contest.
So what? You can vary the story by varying the variables. What if the Corvette had been faster than the destoyer? What if the droids hadn't gotten away? What if, rather than a sacrificial personality, Leia had had a suicidal, or collabratory aspect? What if Vader had had a sympathetic personality, or compassionate one?
How would these changes affect the story? More importantly, notice that they would.
There are three HUGE (related) hurdles to making story, though: Indirect experience of the story, or stuff the player doesn't see firsthand, NPC communication, and authorial control.
All are pretty involved, and this post is running long already, so I'll only talk about these further if there's interest in this concept...
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Just waiting for the mothership...
Edited by - Wavinator on December 14, 2000 3:49:58 PM