Storylets
Definition
Discrete blocks of narrative content that traditionally affects stats and qualities. They can complete a pre-authored narrative or integrally define the world state (as in Fallen London).
Characteristics
Max Kreminski defines storylets as being:
- Discrete: there's a finite number of distinct storylets.
- Self-contained: no storylet requires another to contribute to the overall story.
- Reorderable.
- Gated by preconditions:
- Location is often taken into account;
- More generally, named parameters determine a storylet's availability (more dynamic interpretations are possible like in Kreminski's Starfreighter, in which, to appear, a storylet might not require a specific material in the ship's hold but one that has a precise a specific attribute).
Storylets if done right are always contextually relevant and keep the player in a healthy midpoint between constrained linearity and overwhelming freedom. Qualities being integral to their operation, they effectively let the author track the player's behavior and let the game react in consequence with visible or hidden meters.
As noted by Hugo Labrande and Léonard Bertos (french), storylets as a system are:
- Granular
- Flexible, but system-wide changes and balancing are tedious
- Expandable
They also typically require a lot of content to work and a well thought-out system of filtering and surfacing.
Content selection
- The game filters all content that currently fits with the game state and the game rules
- A selection is made, either by the game itself (again, like in a salience-based narrative à la Hades) or by the player (typical of StoryNexus games).
Keeping coherence
If a character dies, bar storylets involving them from appearing !
Handling numbers
Following Tadhg Kelly's terminology, Emily Short notes that regarding storylets:
- Metrics open or close content;
- Currencies (designed with lore in mind) are fungible and somewhat convertible;
- Territory usually works well with investigation / exploration gameplay;
- Tools open up new affordances and actions as long as future content justifies their existence ; another approach is to let them affect how other options play out (reducing risk in Fallen London, multiplying or dividing consequences, etc.).
Player vs Author
Storylets are author-generated bricks that compose player-generated stories, as well as a powerful expression of tension as described by Mata Haggis. Players are allowed to fit a gameplay need by weaving together storylets that don't belong together.
Opportunities and ideas
- Overall choices affecting the whole game or parts of it: (see Empress' Shadow below). A direct analogy would be a game in which a cat burglar has to select tools or partners for a mission, which will influence its course.
- Tracking cumulative choices but the game needs to be able to respond in consequence.
- Intermediate architectures: just like you can have differentiated decks with special rules and contents (see Below), you can have some storylets trigger various types of sequences. They are usually a great way to keep your pacing under control. For example:
- Short-term choice that progresses the story.
- Linear sequence in which you're locked until its end for intensity purposes.
- Open-ended sequence that encourages exploration of a location, of topics in a conversation, where the player is not penalized for taking his time and absorbing all the available content.
- Likewise, sequences that make use of a partially randomized deck dedicated to a specific narrative beat, which the player can exit at any time.
- Epilogues that simulate the passage of time, give closure to a sequence.
- Parameters: letting storylets accept input and adapt to it (can be hard to localize).
- Urgency and priority: a useful subsystem in surfacing content in order to timely react to what just happened to the player.
Some game examples
Special decks: Chris Gardiner's Below has two dedicated ones with complementary gameplay and lore)
Weighing parameters: Emily Short's Empress' Shadow gives you more negative storylets if you chose to educate problematic students