nothing but backseat drivers in this clown car

[socksuke_uchiha]

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Comments

Re: ayrt

[(Anonymous)]

I think that in a lot of cases these bit plot forks will be centered around the addition and removal of NPCs, so this is a pretty apt example. Generally my pressure test for whether a game does seem genuinely player reactive is whether it seems like the mods are willing to allow you have NPCs live or die, and for those deaths or continued presences to make a difference.

I think that even while running a genuinely plot-reactive game, not all choices are going to be as catastrophic as others, which can be employed to make things easier to handle - I do think in some events, what's your describing as version 2 is valid to slip in. The key, for me, is that not ALL events are like this. Don't hype something up as being a big player choice if you're going to backpedal on it later either by introducing the same stakes repeated until it is fulfilled or if you're just going to do what you want regardless.

Usually in situations where I'm building towards a specific outcome to set up future plot, I'll just be frank to the players. Like, don't worry about trying to win this one. Like if I really want an NPC to die I won't have the death be in a situation where the characters could do anything about it. Either because they weren't there, or because it happened suddently, or etc. Really I do think that sometimes minimizing the plot diversion caused by an event is necessary, I just think it really sucks to portray it as being a big player choice thing while also, behind the scenes, angling eveyrthing towards an outcome you already wanted.

I keep trying to write this reply and it keeps feeling rambly, I guess I just wanted to clarify that sometimes a bit of illusion can be fine, it's just when that is the backbone of your plot structure that it seems bad to me. Some of the best modding experiences I've ever had is when the players did something I was absolutely not expecting and I took the opportunity to run with it, causing ripples in the plot all the way to endgame.