Action/Adventure Storytelling Ideas (link)

[RickJ]

Whilst searching for images I found this link.  Of potential interest to us here are two lists of elements/progressions in an action/adventure story.  The first lists supposedly represents a linear progression of the story from beginning to end.  The second approach supposedly represents a circular progression with a parallel and transformative character development.   

The article at this URL http://www.nyu.edu/classes/keefer/TimeSpace/myth.html contains these two lists:  [edit format]

Joseph Campbell's Monomyth for action-adventure films: The Call to Adventure(II) The Refusal of the Call Supernatural Aid Crossing the First Threshold (pp1) Belly of the Whale The Road of Trials Meeting of the Goddess Atonement with the Father The Ultimate Boon Refusal of the Return The Magic Flight Rescue from Without Crossing of the Return Threshold Master of Two Worlds (resolution) Instead of Field's linear line, Christopher Vogler likes to see the journey as circular with the transformative character arc running pace with the hero's journey: limited awareness of problem ORDINARY WORLD increased awareness CALL TO ADVENTURE (II) reluctance to change REFUSAL overcoming reluctance MEETING WITH THE MENTOR committing to change CROSSING THE THRESHOLD (PP1) experimenting with first change TESTS, ALLIES, ENEMIES preparing for big change APPROACH TO INMOST CAVE attempting big change ORDEAL (Midpoint) consequences of the attempt REWARD (Seizing the Sword) (improvements and setbacks) rededication to change THE ROAD BACK (PP2) final attempt at big change RESURRECTION (Crisis/Climax) final mastery of the problem RETURN WITH THE ELIXIR (Resolution)

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To be honest I didn't understand much of the article as it seemed to ramble on about irrelevant things such as vomit.  The lists are also not very self explanatory either, presumably it would make more sense to someone who had taken the class.  There was one  sentence that caught my eye however and I thought it would make for an interesting discussion. 


"Instead of Field's linear line, Christopher Vogler likes to see the journey as circular with the transformative character arc running pace with the hero's journey..."


I thought it would be interesting to talk about how this might be done or has been done in adventure games.  Is  an adventure game, whose player character goes through profound changes as the game progress, enhanced or does it just confuse and frustrate the player.   

I was also thinking about how "reluctance to change" might be incorporated into the game.  I thought it would be interesting if things were arranged so that it was actually the player's reluctance that came into play rather than that of the player character.    The most obvious approach (at least to me) is to score different aspects of the player's/player character's personality based upon actions taken.      During the "limited awareness" phase of the game the player is encouraged to behave in a way appropriate to the player character's description.  If the PC is a pirate then the player must do piratie things to progress through the game.  The player would continue to be so rewarded during the "increased awaremess" phase as well.  The player would however find him/herself stuck in the "reluctance to change" phase until the player is able to change the personality scoring to fit the desired transformation.  In the PC Pirate example, the player would need to forgo the immediate rewards achievable through stealing, talking mean, and other piratie stuff, in favor of future rewards achievable through new and un-piratie behaviors.    The trick of course is to make this challenging without frustrating the player.  An intuitive gui, helpful dialogs, and frustration sensing logic would, in my opinion, be a necessary ingredient.

It also occured to me that during the "reluctance to change" phase it would be possible to allow the player to make choices that determine how "the" story ends or for that matter "which" story actually will plays out.  Continue to behave like a pirate and you will end up in a pirate adventure.

Well  what do you all think? 

[space boy]

Joseph Campbells monomyth is a description of recuring elements in myths, not a template for writing a story. At least that's how I view it and I would like other people to view it. It is certainly a great thing to draw inspiration from but trying to strictly follow each step is a sign of lack of creativity and can lead to an artificial and forced plot. One needs to know how to properly use the monomyth. I don't consider myself an expert but I think I read enough about it to know that misunderstanding of the monomyth leads to misuse of it. It's a really interesting topic to discuss but before talking about the application of the monomyth in games people who are new to the concept should be made aware of the various meanings of each step and usage of those steps in different stories.

[RickJ]

It never ocured to me that anyone would take either list literally and use them for story templates.  :   I suppose there are some who would have made such a futile attempt and are now, presumably, grateful for your warning.     Perhaps you could illuminate everyone futrher about the monomyth.   

I frankly find the second list more interesting as it deals primarily with the main character's development and suggests to me a novel way of structuring an adventure game.  I think progressing  through an adventure game by developing or tranforming the player character in some profound way would be more interesting than the common "aquire all the inventory objects, use them in obscure and non-obvious ways, and click through all the dialog" type of game play.   Instead of the game's ultimate goal being a material object such as a treasure or princess perhaps it could be something intangible like the PC growing as a person, discovering his/her own worth/place/purpose in the universe, discovering things grater than self, and/or discovering the meaning of life... etc, etc.   In the previous I give some examples of how I might approach this hoping to inspire some other ideas or at least some discussion on the topic.  So please feel free to share your thoughts.   

[space boy]

It never ocured to me that anyone would take either list literally and use them for story templates.  :   I suppose there are some who would have made such a futile attempt and are now, presumably, grateful for your warning.     Perhaps you could illuminate everyone futrher about the monomyth.

There are sources that can do that better than me. The obvious place to start is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth. Also http://www.monomyth.org/.

I think progressing  through an adventure game by developing or tranforming the player character in some profound way would be more interesting than the common "aquire all the inventory objects, use them in obscure and non-obvious ways, and click through all the dialog" type of game play. Instead of the game's ultimate goal being a material object such as a treasure or princess perhaps it could be something intangible like the PC growing as a person, discovering his/her own worth/place/purpose in the universe, discovering things grater than self, and/or discovering the meaning of life... etc, etc.

I second that whole bit.

What I would find interesting is to take games made by people who were not aware of the monomyth and see to what extend their story follows the steps that Campbell described.

[RickJ]

What I would find interesting is to take games made by people who were not aware of the monomyth and see to what extend their story follows the steps that Campbell described.

... or to look at games made by people who were aware of it to see how they integrated the various elements into the game.  It would be particularly interesting if, at the points where the main character must make a decision, that decision was left to the player which in turn would influence the ultimate outcome of the game and result in the PC taking different paths to the game's ending(s).   

[Snarky]

There was an article in Gamasutra precisely about this topic a few months back.

I'd just like to point out that Campbell's template also deals with the main character's development. Campbell sees personal development in myths being symbolically externalized. For instance, slaying a dragon is a symbolic act that can represent (among other things) overcoming inner demons.

[space boy]

Thanks for the link Snarky!

RickJ: I'm not sure if giving the player too much freedom in messing around with the story is a good idea. Multiple paths and alternative endings are overrated. You can give the player a lot of freedom to move around and explore the game world but storywise it might be overkill to make a branched structure with paths the player may never even take and that would just be a waste of content. Instead it would be better to deliver a predetermined story with one clearly defined path the player has to take, adding the occasional illusion of choice that doesn't interfere with your well thought out plot. What I think is essential in a story based adventure game is to tell a consistent story and not guessing what the player might want to do in a certain situation.

[Nikolas]

space boy:

While I do agree in practice to what you say (and what I prefer to play: I don't like a fully open world where I don't have a clue to what I have to do...) still I do think that a large portion of success in any style of story, open or close, one takes, depends on the deleverance and the aesthetics, as well as all the small details.

[Tiki]

rather than start a new thread, I thought I'd piggyback off of this

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2007/10/08/how_to_write_an_adventure_game/1
found it on digg, haven't read it in entirety yet, looks helpful