Using Pearls in a Choose Your Own Adventure game

I had an idea for a game about how human organisations - like Governments or Tech Companies - might address the possible rise of an AI Superintelligence. This was inspired by the book "If anyone builds it, everyone dies" and the report "AI 2027".

I put forward my hastily put together ideas at a CLWG online design session.

My initial game concept was to use a script of the AI threat. The script would be presented to the players as a cut-scene, followed at the end with a series of prescribed choices. I likened this to "Choose Your Own Adventure (CYOA)".

In the design session I was cautioned about the wisdom of using CYOA. Too many options leading to too many possible outcomes that the designer gets lost or confused in writing lots of unlikely outcomes - known as Combinatorial Explosion. This is indeed a nasty little problem.

Taming Combinatorial Explosion

After the session I dipped Jesse Schell's "The Art of Game Design". It too made those wise criticisms of CYOA.

Schell makes the point that there only two successful ways of implementing story or narrative in games - The String of Pearls and the Story Machine. All other methods usually fail. (see p. 318-319). 

The String of Pearls method is a linear storyline. The "string" is a cut-scene setting out the motivation for the player actions. The pearls are the action scenes whereby the player defeats the obstacle, enemy and then moves to the next cut-scene. Story Machines are complex open ended games like Sims or Minecraft, that rely on emergent narratives.

Hill 70 and Containing Combinatorial Explosion in a Pearl

After reading Schell I thought about the one CYOA game I had made using Twine - Hill 70. I realised that I had used the String of Pearls approach to my CYOA.  

The String in Hill 70 were the Infantry Unit's orders and its situation. They were going to be ordered to the front line. 

Inside each Pearl the player made some choices about how to move their infantry unit in accordance to its orders. There was no choice about leaving the mission or deviating. They followed orders. The choices I presented the player were the choices a Commander of an Infantry Battalion would reasonably have. For example, did he order "coffee and hot bread rolls" to be served to the troops standing on alert? What formation did the unit use to advance in under artillery fire?

I had not realised that I had done that. In my analysis I identified three pearls - stand-to, move up to the front, in the front line.

AquaLuft's String of Pearls Approach to CYOA

After a little more searching, I discovered another game designer - the wonderfully named AquaLuft - had also implemented the same solution.

https://aqualuft.wordpress.com/2014/01/08/queen-at-arms/

"[The game] Queen At Arms follows the “string of pearls” method of interactive fiction, where a linear sequence of complex scenes are strung into a narrative. Each scene is an explosion of choice, that boils down into a handful of outcomes and set flags that are then referenced in further scenes. This is the most efficient method for creating a sense of player agency and real consequences, while still being reasonable to develop."

Conclusion

I wonder if I might go back to the CYOA approach for my "If anyone builds it" game. Using the String of Pearls to contain too much choice. I need to map out each of the Pearls. I need to decide what player options there are in each Pearl so I can then judge how well the players have done, and then move along the string to the next Pearl.

In Twine - the computer game engine I used for Hill 70 - I had used variables to change the paths presented at the end of each Pearl. For example if the players had not looked after their men and had taken too many casualties and exhausted them they did not get the final "hurrah, charge" ending. 

Let Our Bloody Colours Wave

Aim

To create a medieval figure wargame that starts with the organisation, preparation and planning for battle that leads to the final decision on the battlefield.

All medieval armies were hastily thrown together. Any organisation and training of units and appointment of commanders must have been done after they had assembled. There were no recognised ranks, just the usual medieval ranks of King, Nobles and their servants.

Organising the army into their three wards would be an interesting debate - who to command who, which contingent to march next to another etc. There would have been incidents on the march - looting, fighting, arguments etc. - that would need to be addressed. The leader of the army would need to impress upon the men why they were fighting and why theirs was a just cause that God would favour.

Then there is the night before when planning for the next day of battle is very important.

Game Description

The game will be a multiplayer game that has five Acts. 

1. Warriors for the Working Day

2. Marching in the Painful Field

3. The Royal Captain Walking

4. Through the Foul Womb of Night

5. Cry “Havoc,” and Let Slip the Dogs of War.

All players are on the same side - a better de. They are in effect comrades - though of course some are more equal than others - as the army leader will be a King or Duke, and the other leaders will be Dukes, Earls, Barons and assorted knights. They are effectively trying to win the war and also win their own victory conditions. Sometimes these might conflict.

We are but warriors for the working day;

Our gayness and our gilt are all besmirched

With rainy marching in the painful field.

Henry V - Act 4, scene 3

Act 1 - Warriors for the Working Day

The players are assigned the role of a Lord. This comes with the usual list of lands, estates, offices, wealth and also a short biography. The Lord will also have a list of friends and rivals etc. who will be in the same army. Each Lord will have a personal “retinue” of loyal retainers and servants, who act as their bodyguards, and will enhance status. Some Lords will have a Commander - a professional soldier servant - in their retinue Next a series are cards are dealt from the “hosts” pack. These represent the companies, groups and contingents of soldiers who have turned up. The Lords will then assign and organise these into three Wards. A Commander is an experienced professional soldier who will be able to advise their Lord.

1. Cards

1. Lords and their Retinues 

2. Town, & City Contingents 

3. Mercenary Bands 

4. Professional Soldiers
   
   

2. Form Special Units

1. Mercenary Bands

2. Artillery

3. Scourers and Prickers

4. Forlorn Hopes of Archers

5. Men at Arms

3. The player places the cards into their “battles”

1. Three battles and a Reserve

2. Special Units assigned to a Battle

3. Commander of the Battle

1. Subordinates

2. Deputy

3. Professional Soldiers

Act 2 - Marching in the Painful Field

Incidents that might occur on the march.  A fight and a murder. A quarrel over loot or baggage or a bar maid!

What do you resolve each problem? 

How do you control the men, organise the baggage, the food, looting etc?

Act 3 - The Royal Captain Walking 

What methods do the leaders use to raise the morale of the troops; to tell them that their cause is just and honourable?

1. Masses

2. Theatre

3. Preaching

4. Victuals 

5. The Royal Captain Walking

Act 4 - Through the Foul Womb of Night

The planning for the battle on the night before. The field of battle is known or at least the terrain and some intelligence will be had on the enemy.

1. Any last minute changes to the Battles and Leaders

2. Any deployment of the Special Units

3. What is the battle plan

1. Deployment on the field of war

2. What signals and orders are pre-arranged

Act 5 - Cry “Havoc,” and Let Slip the Dogs of War.

The battle will require little intervention from the players. They will have a few decisions to take but might suffer from not being able to implement them.

1. Deploy the Battles and the special forces (some might be secret)

2. Some players might wish to now use another set of rules for a medieval wargame, integrating some of the factors from the campaign into the ruleset for the battle.

A Story-Telling Game: Until we Sink

I have played my first "story-telling game," Until We Sink.

Which begs the first question, what is a story-stelling game?

Is it a role-playing game, is it a matrix game, or is it improv acting?

Well my first response is to note that "Until We Sink" is unlike any game I have ever played before.

I suspect that is it more like a murder mystery game, except that the scenario is open ended. A story-telling game does not provide a murder and a murderer, or secrets for each player. It just starts off a scenario and asks the players to explain the occurrences in a story that they collaborate in telling.

There is a structure to these game, there were some mechanisms, but there is no method to determine the outcome of our play except through talking.

To put it crudely there was no dice rolling or coin tossing or paper, stones, scissors means to resolve conflict or outcomes.

We just talked and created a story that all could agree was consistent and then we could move on.

Game Structure

The structure of the game:

• each player has a character to role-play
• there is a story background and an environment - this is provided as a text to be read out
• the game is divided into turns, each turn being a day
• each day, a new event occurs - a card is randomly drawn from a stack of event cards
• the players can only interact at the end of each day on a verandah where we discuss the days events
• the day (turn) ends when at least two players leave the verandah
• the last day of the game starts when a particular event occurs
• the game can only end when we find an agreed explanation or story for each of the events of the previous days 

Characters

Each player takes on a character from a set of character cards provided by the game.

Each character has a basic description about the person, and we are encouraged to colour and flesh this out with, a name, age, nationality, and character traits.

An example of a character card.

Eternal Backpacker (guest) You have circled the globe, and ended up on this island You are a free thinker, independent and a little shabby You like to point out how square the other characters are

Events

And that is about it. Apart from the event cards that are played each day.

The players then have to explain the new event, in the context of the whole story.

Example of an Event Card

A theft of underwear. One of the character's underwear disappears. All the players roll dice. The one with the lower roll is one change of underwear short. If more than one player rolls low, those players should reroll.

Game Play

I will not give a blow by blow account of the game. Suffice it to say, we all had a lot of fun, laughs, funny accents and bizarre incidents, and consumed a couple of bottles of red wine.

My favourite story was how we resolved the above event card - theft of underwear. The manageress of the hotel owned up to stealing the one pair of underpants (boxers) that the South African eternal backpacker owned as she needed a flag for her healing ceremony. His boxers - only kept for best - had the South African flag printed on them.

Game Critique

My intention in running the game was to explore a game format unfamiliar to me, that was very light on rules and mechanisms, and was thus accessible to inexperienced players. I wondered if this game format could be usefully applied to a learning game for use in school rooms or other training situations.

All agreed it was fun. All agreed it was entertaining. I think the inexperienced players were a little worried about the requirements of an unscripted, loosely structured role play but they all grew into it and found it easier as the game progressed.

As for its potential as a learning game, I don't think it we could easily see an application. One person thought that children would find it difficult to "join" in and worry about "loosing their cool." I thought having one or two experienced role-players would help overcome this.

Another person thought that the learning aims of any game would have to be more tightly scripted. That each character would be given a secret or a skill that would link to an event card and that the event cards should be ordered to create a desired story.

One thought I had was that there was very little the players could do to influence events. We could not decide to act and then see the results of our actions. I had proposed a learning game scenario about a cyber warfare or cyber security. In this scenario the players would need to know if their actions, had stopped or prevented some incident. This sort of scenario would require a game director, or dungeon master or a facilitator. And then we are back to a matrix game, or a facilitated role-playing game.

We all agreed that it would be a great activity for a drama group, a English literature class exploring narrative, or an English language class.

In conclusion: I think the lightness of the game structure has a lot to commend this sort of game; quick to pick up, easy to play. I would suggest that if your teaching aim was not about acting or narration, it would have to be more tightly scripted and a facilitator added, even if they just act as prompt to nudge the play back to the learning aim objective.

Thanks

Thanks to Nicki, Polly, Seth and Stuart for making this an excellent evening's entertainment and for contributing and staying a bit longer to add their criticisms of the game. And for travelling into central London from the suburbs.