[MUD-Dev] narrative

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Christopher Kohnert wrote:

> For an analogy, look at a session (or series of sessions) of a pen
> & paper rpg game. When done properly (personal bias here *G*), I'd
> say the story experienced by a few players with a good GM is quite
> fulfilling.  It's dynamic. The GM reacts to the players, and
> nudges them where they need to go. They aren't reading a book or
> script about what's happening to them, they are actively partaking
> in and effecting the outcomes. The system caters to them. Now take
> this example of a GM, and give it access to a virtual
> world. Create a whole slew of them perhaps. What we want is a GM
> (system) that is capable of reacting and generating exciting
> stories based on the participants. There's no reason, really, why
> that sort of system shouldn't be able to serve 2000 people.

Sure there is.  You've just hand-waved away (1) the quality of
integration that a skilled human GM provides (2) the tiny group size
he typically serves.  If you want to create a robo-GM that serves 5
players, fine, I think you stand a chance, if you have good writers.
Put 400 groups of 5 people in semi-separate story threads.  Let 'em
chat with each other and kill randomly spawned wilderness monsters,
but keep them all in their own separate story threads with separate
story state just for them.

Putting all 2000 people into the same plotline just doesen't scale.
Frankly, it doesn't scale past 5.  That was my experience attempting
to run freeform PBEM RPG games with as many people as possible, full
time 40 hours a week, for periods of 6 weeks.  I made 7 attempts at
it; only on the first attempt did I try anything larger than 5
players.  I did 17 players, I had to drop it to 8 players and 4
plotlines, then the game collapsed.  It simply doesn't work, you get
way too many plots going on.  They cannot be properly exposited to
all the players attempting to participate, and so the actions of
other players just show up as random interruptions.  It's just too
many cooks spoiling the broth, it's a O(n^2) law of expanding
relationships.  A proper narrative has to be *about something*, it
must focus.  5 players and 3 independent groups is, as far as I'm
concerned, the max of what you can do and still keep a focused
narrative.

And I should note that even getting *5* right takes *skill*.  It's
not easy.  If you can do that with a robo-GM, I'm going to be
*really* impressed.  I think it is achieveable, but it is difficult
R&D, and you will spend years trying to get it right.

If you want quicker results, try groups of 3 players and don't allow
them to do anything independent of each other.  Give them 3
complementary roles within the same story framework.


Cheers,                         www.3DProgrammer.com
Brandon Van Every               Seattle, WA

20% of the world is real.
80% is gobbledygook we make up inside our own heads.


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