How can I use Dramatica to write interactive fiction?
I am writing interactive fictions mostly (RPG etc). Since I can’t know if the players are going to be “be-ers” or “do-ers”, if they are going to “success” or not, I can't finish the Storyform. I am interested in (any kind of) tips on what Dramatica can offer in ways of improving a plot with an open ending.
There are all sorts of ways to use Dramatica for interactive, open-ended stories. However, the more open-ended the story is, the less Dramatica can do for you. Why? Because the way the Dramatica software is set up assumes that there is an author's intent—a message, if you will—and that the story's meaning is built into an argument. "Open-ended" implies that meaning is not determined by the author and that there isn't any explicit meaning in the story.
With that said, here are some ways to use Dramatica for interactive stories:
- Create a storyform (or set of storyforms) for your underlying story. Use the storyform for the "story" portion of the interactive fiction/game, particularly the Overall Story throughline. For example, specific tasks can be set up and achieved or not. If they're "storyform necessary" tasks, then certain criteria need to be met before moving on.
- Use the concepts of Dramatica's story points as conceptual guidelines for building the loose structure of your interactive fiction. For example, include the ideas of Story Goal, Requirements, Consequences, etc. in your story even though they may not be structurally related (not connected by a storyform). This will give the fiction the appearance of a "story" without the constraints of author's intent.
- Use the character elements as building blocks for creating characters and/or character "powers." These can give you an idea of how the character elements might interact.
The great thing about interactive fiction is that it is interactive—it responds to the desires of the role playing user. The greatest downside is that the story cannot "mean" anything and the user cannot enjoy the first person experience without a storyform (author's intent) molding the events into something meaningful. Grand argument stories are more complete than real life, even if "real life" is experience through role playing. Real life does not have story Outcomes because it is never over. There are no absolute beginnings or ends--everything is contextual. The closest things are birth and death and we're not really around before or after those events.
