Arcade Adventure/Lore/Writer's Guidelines

From Create Your Own Story

As this is more of a game than a story, some of the work in contributing to it is MUCH more difficult than your average story. This guideline is very much a work-in-progress, expect it to change and evolve a bit as the challenges present themselves.

Contents 1 Style 2 NPC Templates 3 Entries 4 Choices 4.1 Player Rewards 5 Tracking NPC Damage 6 Player Status Bar

Style

• Present Tense
• First Person

NPC Templates

• The first thing on the page should be the templates of all of the NPCs that are present. If only the player is present you can leave them out.
• The code for the NPC Templates can be found at the Character Templates Page
• If more than one NPC is present in the scene, put the templates in a table, like this:

{|
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
| {{ArcadeVanellopeTemplate}}
| {{ArcadeTaffytaTemplate}}
| {{ArcadeSnowannaTemplate}}
| {{ArcadeAdorabeezleTemplate}}
|}

• Try not to put more than four NPCs in a scene if you can help it, for the sake of those with smaller monitors/resolutions.

Entries

• The second part of the page should be the actual text of the entry.
• When NPCs speak, the word Gamer is always capitalized . . . like God.
• If the text is something that can affect a character Physically, Mentally, or Emotionally it should be followed by the results in it's own paragraph.
  • Actions that affect a character physically should be in red. Actions that affect a character mentally should be in blue. Actions that affect a character emotionally or socially should be in green.
  • All of the actions a character makes in a single entry must be of the same type (Physical, Mental, or Emotional/Social), and the results of those actions combined together cannot exceed the character's relative attribute (Body for physical, Mind for mental, and Spirit for emotional/social).
  • A character can use less than their full attribute if it is a weak attack. "You're a dumb-dumb!" is not going to cause much Spirit Damage, even if the character has a Spirit of 100.
  • Not all damage is a negative thing (well all Body Damage is). It can also reflect the struggle to convince another character of something through logic or persuasion.
  • Mind and Spirit damage can be restored by a character coming to the verbal defense of another character, or relieving tension through humor.

Example:

Ralph punches you hard in the face.

(<font color=red>Ralph inflicts 95 point of Body Damage to you.</font>)

"What did you do that for?" you ask with tears in your eyes.  "I didn't do anything to you."

(<font color=green>You inflict 15 point of Spirit Damage to Ralph</font>)

"You two shouldn't be fighting," says Felix, "you just met."

(<font color=blue>Felix inflicts 15 points of Mind Damage to Ralph.</font>)

"I'm sorry," says Ralph, "I didn't mean it."

which looks like this:

Ralph punches you hard in the face. (Ralph inflicts 95 point of Body Damage to you.) "What did you do that for?" you ask with tears in your eyes. "I didn't do anything to you." (You inflict 15 point of Spirit Damage to Ralph) "You two shouldn't be fighting," says Felix, "you just met." (Felix inflicts 15 points of Mind Damage to Ralph.) "I'm sorry," says Ralph, "I didn't mean it."

Choices

• Place two spaces between the text of the entry and the options.
• Always preface the options with something like How do you respond? or What do you do? in bold.
• Preface all choices with Arcade Adventure/Gender of the Player/
  • Make the choice Short, but descriptive and Unique. For example instead of using:

     [[Arcade Adventure/Male/Jill is a total hottie.  You should take her right here.|Jill is a total hottie.  You should take her right here.]]

    you should instead use something like this:

    [[Arcade Adventure/Male/Take Jill Here|Jill is a total hottie.  You should take her right here.]]

  • Always provide alternate text (the part after the | ). This will hide the Arcade Adventure/Gender/ text that is there to organize and separate the links. Be as free as you want to with the alternate text, just make sure it fits with the Entry and the rest of the story.
• There are two special case choices which require a very specific format. This is to easily connect various stories.
  • When returning to Game Central Station, the format for the choice is:

*[[Arcade Adventure/Gender of the Player/GCS Player's Body Attribute-Player's Mind Attribute-Player's Spirit Attribute|Any text you want]]

for example:

*[[Arcade Adventure/Female/GCS 50-25-70|Return to Game Central Station]]

• Only put an option up to return to Game Central Station if all of the player's attributes are multiples of 5. This is to make it easier for paths to intersect.

• Similarly, when entering a Gameworld from Game Central Station, the format should be:

*[[Arcade Adventure/Gender of the Player/The Game Code Player's Body Attribute-Player's Mind Attribute-Player's Spirit Attribute|Any text you want]]

for example, the same character going into Sugar Rush would look like this:

*[[Arcade Adventure/Female/SR 50-25-70|Sugar Rush]]

• Game codes will be on the pages for the various games once I get them written up.

Player Rewards

• If the player reduced an NPCs condition to 0 in this passage, or they had sex with an NPC in this passage, the only options should be to choose how to edit their code. There are a limited number of ways to change their code, as follows:
  • If the player reduced an NPCs condition to 0 they may:
    • Choose to alter their gender to that of the character, or if of opposite genders to hermaphrodite.
    • Choose to increase any of their attributes by 5 as long as the attribute they currently have is less than or equal to the character they defeated.
    • Choose to gain one of their opponent's Powers at it's full value.
  • If the player mingled their code with (had sex with) a character:
    • Choose to alter their gender one step toward the gender of the character.
      • If the NPC is Male, the Player can change from: Hermaphrodite to Male, or Female to Hermaphrodite.
      • If the NPC is female, the Player can change from: Hermaphrodite to Female, Male to Hermaphrodite.
    • Choose to increase any of their attributes by 1 as long as the attribute they currently have is less than or equal to the character they had sex with.
    • Choose to gain 5 points in one of their partner's Powers as long as any of levels of that Power that they currently have is less than or equal to the character they had sex with.
  • These reward stack with the number of NPCs involved.
• Options with a gender change should reflect the new gender after the *[[Arcade Adventure/, not their current gender.

Tracking NPC Damage

• After the choices place a comment with the current condition of each NPC whose condition is not full. Full condition is equal to 10 times the character's attribute. For example:

   <!-- Ralph Body=820, Mind=152, Spirit=81 Felix Body=500 --> 

• It is highly recommended that you copy the comment from the previous page (if there is one) into the new passage.
  • NPCs heal condition in an amount equal to the relevant attribute in each passage that they are not damaged in that attribute. Adjust the comment accordingly.

Player Status Bar

• The Status Bar gets a lot more play in this story (game) than most.
• It is highly recommended that you copy the Status Template from the previous page into the new passage.
  • The Player heals condition in an amount equal to the relevant attribute in each passage that they are not damaged in that attribute. Adjust the values accordingly.
  • Adjust condition and power for any changes that occurred during the passage.
  • If the character earned a reward in the last passage, reflect the changes to the Status Template.