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More About Dramatic Principles and Components

There's a whole bag o' thingamabobs and whatchamacallits that go into making a complete storyworld. The most important ones are explained below. You really don't need to understand any of these to play a storyworld, but if you're thinking of becoming a storybuilder or are just curious, read on. For the purpose of this explanation, imagine that you are a storybuilder creating a little parody storyworld.


Verbs
Verbs are the driving force of a storyworld. Each Verb is a dramatic principle that represents one action that any Actor can do during the story, whether it is the player's Actor or a computer-controlled one. Therefore, a storyworld's collection of Verbs defines everything that Actors can do in it. Swat comes complete with a large dictionary of Verbs covering the spectrum of dramatic behavior.

A storyworld progresses by moving from Verb to Verb. Say, for example, that your story opens with Pete coming home from the army. This causes Miranda, who was always in love with Pete, to court him. Meanwhile, Pete's mother decides to hook him up with a girl she approves of, Mary. Also, Helen, Pete's younger stepsister, is envious, and runs away from home. She hooks up with a band of no-gooders, and they trash Mary's home. Mary complains to Pete, who goes after Helen, but accidentally runs her over with his car. He rushes her to the hospital, where Miranda catches sight of him and tries to seduce him…

In this way, each Verb an Actor performs causes one or more of the other Actors to react with Verbs of their own, and these chains of reactions combine to form the story.


Roles
Unlike in real life, in Storytronics not everyone can get a chance to react to every Verb they witness. Indeed, by default, no one is allowed to react to a given Verb. You might say that some people in real life can't react to every Verb they witness - prison inmates, for example, tend to have rather limited options for reaction. But that is nothing compared to Storytronics Actors - at the very least, inmates can yell, huff and puff, or rattle their cups against the bars. Storytronic Actors, on the other hand, aren't even given these options by default - they simply stand around, doing nothing. They aren't even allowed to have an emotional reaction to the Verb (although they will remember that it happened). Roles are a way for you to define who can react to a given Verb. For example, suppose Mary kisses Pete in their favorite bar, The Red Herring. By default, nobody can react to this Kiss. Of course, someone must react if we want to get some drama going, so let's start with the obvious - let's allow only Pete to react. To do so, you define one Role for the Verb Kiss; Kissee. Then, when any actor witnesses the Verb Kiss, be it the Kisser, Kissee, or a bystander, here's what goes on in their Storybrains:

"Gee, that sure is a Kiss, if I ever seen one. Hey, lookey! S' got one Role defined fer it - Kissee!
Now, do I fit this Role?"
…
"Nope, t' wasn' me what got kissed, guess I'll just ignore this Verb, then"
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_____OR
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"Golly gee! I'm the lucky son of a gun what's got kissed! That Role sure fits me like a glove! Guess I'd better react to that Verb, then…"

Since Pete is the only one who was kissed, the Role Kissee will only be assigned to him (If Mary were a two-mouthed mutant, maybe there would be two Kissees, but let's keep it simple for now). Pete now gets a chance to react to the Kiss.

If you also want Pete's jealous courter, Miranda, to be able to react, perhaps by jumping out from behind a curtain and shooting Mary, then you define another Role; JealousCourter. This way, if Pete's jealous courter (any one of them) sees the kiss, her mental process will go like this:

"Typical. Just like that Mary to go behind my back and try to steal Pete with a Kiss. Look, they even got two Roles defined for that Verb. Guess which one I fit? I'm certainly not the Kisee. Am I his courter? Yeah. Am I jealous? Hell yeah. I'm gonna react, just you wait…"

The second Role would be assigned to her, and she can react, too. You can also add a Role for Mary's ProtectiveFather, or, if your story takes place in Iran, a Revolutionary Guard SpecialChastitySquadTrooper.

Note that these Roles are assigned for this specific occurrence of Kiss - if, later, Mary sees Pete kiss Miranda, then suddenly Miranda is the Kissee, and Mary is the JealousCourter.
Or, if Pete enlists in the Revolutionary Guard, he might get the Role of SpecialChastitySquadTrooper if he sees Mary and Miranda kissing (In which case, of course, you'll also need a Role for the Revolutionary Guard EliteStoningUnitCommando).


Options
Unlike in real life, an Actor can't react to a Verb in any which way he or she pleases. Options are a way for you to define, for each Role, what Verbs this Role allows an Actor to choose as a reaction.

The most famous example of Options is in Hamlet - right at the beginning, the poor sap gets the Role DismayedSonOfMurderedKing. He has only two Verbs to choose from as reactions - ToBe and NotToBe - although along the way he CruellyJilts his lover and StealthilyKills his uncle.

By the way, the long soliloquy that follows is really the result of the slow processing speeds of 16th century storytelling engines - with Storytronics ™, he could have made the decision in nanoseconds, presenting us with a whooping 37.23% increase in dramatic efficiency! Just kidding, Storytronics is all about the drama in making decisions. It's simply that, like the cinema, it concentrates more on presenting the behavior chosen, not the decision making process.

Back to our subject, Pete's Options for his Role, Kissee, might be the Verbs Kiss, StrokeHair, ShyAway or ProposeMarriage (or, in certain cases, Ask:HaveWeMet?). Miranda's Role, JealousCourter, might have Options for Verbs like ShootKisser, RunAwayInTears, ConfrontKissee and so forth.


Inclinations
You know how some shampoo companies try to get you all excited about buying a plastic bottle full of perfumed detergent by attaching labels to their products such as "sexy", "daring", "alluring", "commanding", and such? Well, Inclinations are just such labels, which you, the storybuilder, put on each Role's Options, so that some Actors in that Role are more inclined to take one Option over another, all based on their personality. There's Pete walking over to the Option shelf for his current Role, Kissee:

"Hmm, let's see… StrokeHair sounds exciting! Oh wait, there's an Inclination on it that says 'Sensual'. Says right here in my personality profile that I'm not at all sensual. Oh well. Hey! Kiss sounds just right! Oh, darn, its Inclination reads 'Doubly Sensual'. So if I were Sensual, I'd take Kiss over StrokeHair, but as it is, I'll pass on both. How about ShyAway? Now that's an Option! Its Inclination reads 'Timid'. Sounds like me, according to the personality profile my
friend, the storybuilder, gave me. Patience Pete, mama always said, read all the Options before you choose a reaction. Oh, look at that last one, ProposeMarriage! Its Inclination says
'LovesKisser'. Mary is the Kisser, and I do love her a lot - just look at my personality profile, it shows I'm hopelessly taken by her. I am Timid, true, but I'm not hopelessly timid. I am hopelessly in love with her, though, so I'll ProposeMarriage to her!"

Heartwarming, isn't it?

As you can see, just as in real life, some Actors are more likely to choose certain Options, while others will be more inclined towards different ones (depending on their personality profiles).
Inclinations are your way of defining what kind of Actor would choose each Option.
Remember this: Inclinations only apply to Actors who are controlled by the computer. The Protagonist Actor doesn't care about Inclinations - the player may choose any Option he or she fancies.

Disclaimer: Storytron makes no claim as to the viability of Options for the purpose of obtaining shiny hair or of dandruff control. The customer is entirely responsible for any such use and any side effects it may cause.


Plans
As in real life, Actors in Storytronics must think and decide what to do before actually doing it.
While the decision happens the instant an Actor is assigned a Role, that Actor might take some time until he or she performs the Verb decided on. For example, Pete might decide to propose to Mary, but he wants to wait until they're by themselves. Miranda might decide to take revenge on Pete, but she needs time to go get a flamethrower (you can define which verbs require time to prepare or that specific Actors be present or absent).

Unlike real life, Actors don't remember the decisions they've made. Instead, the Storytron keeps track of everything each Actor has decided to do, and adds it to a to-do list. Each entry in this list is called a Plan. A Plan records the following information: whose Plan it is (Pete), what he is planning to do (ProposeMarriage), to whom (Mary), When (AsSoonAsPossible), who must be present (none but the two of them). Sometimes a Plan could record additional information - if, for example, Pete has decided he wants Ferdinand to be his best man, the Plan could record that info as well.

Having written it all down, the Storytron can check to see when Pete and Mary are all by themselves. The moment they are, the program makes Pete remember his decision, and he proposes to Mary.


Events
Once Pete carries out his Plan, the Storytron checks it off the to-do list. However, it then records it in a different list; the historybook. This is simply a chronicle of everything that has happened in the story since it began. Each entry in the historybook is called an Event, and it records the Verb (ProposeMarriage), who performed it (Pete), to whom it was done (Mary), as well as where it happened, when, and who was present (maybe Miranda was eavesdropping on the couple). Again, it may also record other info, like the choice of Ferdinand as best man.


Actors
Actors are the people who perform all the action in your storyworld, and who go through all the fascinating experiences (actually, they don't have to be people - they can be any form of animal, vegetable or mineral, as long as they're sentient). As storybuilder, you designate one Actor of your choice as the storyworld's Protagonist. That Actor is controlled by the player. You, the storybuilder, get to decide how all the other Actors will behave.

Unlike in traditional stories, literary, cinematic, theatrical or other, in Storytronics you don’t plot out an Actor's actions directly. Instead, as storybuilder, you decide his or her behavior by defining that Actor's personality profile. By defining an Actor as smart, for example, you can make sure that this Actor will choose Options whose Inclination depends on being smart. Of course, it's also your responsibility to create such Inclinations for your Options, or the Actor won't have an opportunity to do smart things.

You also get to name your Actors, choose their appearance, their physical attributes and their relationships with each other at the outset of the story.


Stages
Stages are the locations where the story takes place. Not very similar to real life locations, they are more like photo-montage backdrops in a movie or TV show - they give context to the action, but the Actors don't actually interact with them or move around inside them - they just stand against them, doing whatever it is they want to do with each other. When they're done, they simply blink to another Stage.

Creating Stages is among the simplest of your endeavors as storybuilder. By default, all a Stage needs is a name and an image. You can also define some special characteristics for your Stage, if you think you need them. For example, Pete probably wants to propose to Mary someplace romantic (because you've defined that the Verb ProposeMarriage needs to take place in a romantic setting). You can define MountaintopLodge as a romantic Stage, and then Pete will know to take Mary there when he proposes. You could also create a twist, and decide that Pete has terrible taste. If you want to do so, you'll simply make sure he avoids the places you've designated as "romantic", and instead chooses a Stage that you've designated as "Tacky" to propose to Mary in.

Another attribute that you define for each Stage is how at ease each Actor feels in that stage. For example, Pete feels at ease in his home, and goes there often. He feels much less at ease in the women's restroom in the bar - he will never go in there (of course, if Pete were a home-o-phobic peeping tom, you'd define this differently, but no one would create an Actor like that - right?).


Props
Props are just what their name suggests - objects that the Actors carry around and/or use to aid the action. For example, if Miranda is going to be taking revenge on Pete, she needs that flamethrower, or at least a pistol. Pete had better be carrying that ring when he proposes.

Like stages, props are simple, and by default need only a name and an owner.

If you want, you can give your props other characteristics. For example, to calculate the chance of Miranda killing Pete, you can give different weapons a different lethality. The more lethal the weapon, the greater the chance it'll do the trick. If Mary is the materialistic type, you might want to give different engagement rings a different monetary value, and have her accept only if Pete chooses an expensive one.