Title: Prompts in CYOAs Author: Anonymous Pastebin link: http://pastebin.com/X8B6QT2h First Edit: Tuesday 9th of February 2016 09:15:12 PM CDT Last Edit: Tuesday 9th of February 2016 09:15:12 PM CDT   --- Prompts and (You)    Prompts and what constitutes a strong prompt vs a weak one is perhaps one of the more contentious debates in CYOA stories. Ultimately strong prompts are merely consistently immersive so it can be difficult to build a set of rules around which prompts can be structured. Different quests with different characters will have different allowances and often times good writing and plot planning will mean the difference between a good prompt and a bad one, even when the prompt is otherwise the same.   I personally believe that there are some general guidelines, do's and don'ts, that can help a QM understand what they should and should not aim for in their prompts. These guidelines are solely my own opinion and are open to interpretation and debate, furthermore these suggestions assume that you are attempting to write a story driven cyoa and not a player driven one. I do not make a habit of reading or participating in random suggestion/get based quests so I do not know what rules could apply there if any at all.     --- What is a prompt?   The first and largest barrier to good prompts is that the concept of a prompt is pretty fucking nebulous and explaining what a good prompt is can, despite good intentions, amount to 'make post, but good'.    In it's simplest form, a prompt is the end of your post. It's the result of whatever player suggestion preceded it and ideally it is a question to your player base as to what should be done next. It is what 'prompts' your players into choosing the next action.  The quality of your prompts are then determined by how actionable the information in your post is, in short your players should want to do something new after your post or press into an existing issue to further depth.     --- Strong prompts.   Now, if a prompt is actionable information conveyed through your post? What makes a 'good' prompt or a 'strong' prompt?   In my opinion a strong prompt is both open ended and divisive within the player base, prompting different players to suggest different solutions or it presents different goals that will appeal to different sets of the player base. As such, strong prompts do not have singular obvious solutions and ideally will end in such a way as to definitively outline what can and/or needs to be done.   Lets review examples:   In Urban Survival the player character was confronted with a distraught and drunken mare undergoing an emotional crisis based around her relationship with another character and what she wants out of it.   --- “Well, you’re welcome. But Raven, it’s not like that at all. Hype’s very new to the relationship game, and you being so forward is scaring him. He just prefers to hug and kiss a lot” >”Oh what HE prefers? All you stallions do is yap on and on about what you want! What about what I want? Huh?” “So what do you want?” >”I want some damn action! I-it’s been years since I’ve talked to, let alone touched a stallion! And when I did all it ever was is what the stallion wants, that’s all it ever is!” >You wait for her to calm down, the mare slowly catching her breath as she slumps further into the couch “Raven, that’s not what Hype needs though. All he knows, all he really wants is a relationship. A romantic one. Hell, he had never touched a girl in his entire life until last week” >”Yeah? And even the stuttering little squirt got action before I did…” “He wants to date you because he thinks that you could make each other happy in the long term but you're making him think that all you want from him is his body, and it’s putting him off” >”So what?” “So I’m just saying he’d probably let you sit on his face or whatever you want, but he wants all the other parts of a relationship first. If you're just going to sit on him and then boot him out the door then no, you're not good enough for him” >”I’M not good enough for HIM? Look at me, I-I’m beautiful!” >She tries to pose in a sexy manner, but ends up failing in her drunkenness, almost falling off the couch >”He’s, he’s just a little spaghetti spilling twerp! I deserve so much better and… and…” >You cringe a little as you watch tears start to roll down her muzzle >”W-well I do!” ---   Now what makes this a strong prompt? It is that the players are being presented with a problem that has no definitive obvious solution and can be approached from multiple different angles. Dealing with emotional distress has no easy answer and the characters response to your solutions has to be vetted by past experience with how that character would be expected to behave.   In this example, good writing shines through as your ability to consistently portray your characters through the lense of emotional trauma and inebriation will be paramount to your success and if you've successfully gotten your players emotionally invested in the success of your pc or the happiness of your NPC then they will strive to solve the problem and feel rewarded by passing the test.   Lets look at another example, this time from the CYOA 'Mazes & Medusas:   --- You ask passersby if they know of a shop with an imp problem, but they give you negative responses. >"Imp problem? That's foal stuff!" >"What kind of pony working in Cloudsdale can't handle a few imps?" >"Even if it were some old mare, I can't imagine having to make and post a job offer for something that small. It's not like anypony would have to travel or face something particularly dangerous." >"I think I remember seeing that poster earlier today, but a pair of unicorns snatched it away." "Wait, really? Do you remember the address?" >"I think, but that job's probably long done by now." The pony gives you an address, and after a bit of flying around, you find the place. Unlike the cloud buildings elsewhere, the ones in this area are made of stone. They must have been built after the fall to accommodate non-pegasi. There is a window on the first and second floor. The inside is a single, large room, with practically nothing in it but a rug in the center and a counter in the back wall. In the back corner of the room you see a doorway that leads to two flights of stairs: one leading up and another leading down. The mare behind the counter is a pink-furred earth pony with bright green eyes and a two-toned blonde mane done up in a tight bun. She has a few scars on her chest and forehooves.    "Did a unicorn, bat, and pegasus come here for a job? I need to speak to speak with them!" She adopts a thoughtful expression. >"No, I don't recall a group like that coming in." "No? Isn't this 318 Nimbus Lane?" >"It is! You must have seen my flyer for the job offer! I'm happy to inform you that it's still open, if you want to take it! Pesky little imps are holed up in my storage room. I haven't been able to get anything out from down there in ages." This is the right place and that is more or less the job the flyer described.  Did the others just not find the place? No, they had the flyer itself to tell them the address. "Wait, 'down there'? The flyer said the imps were in the attic." >"Is the attic not the one that goes downstairs? Oh gosh, how embarrassing! I can't believe I had that written down on my poster! Well, you're here. I would really appreciate it if you help me with my little problem. I've got the reward money ready for when you come right back up!" ---   Now this is a good example because of how the information is being conveyed to the players. We had been seperated from our allies and needed to meet with them in order to solve another pressing issue, but when we got to the shop they weren't there.   What separates it from the Urban survival example is that it presents multiple solutions to you organically while leaving room for doubt as to which line of thought is the red herring. Ultimately there is no hard evidence in either post that would directly point towards a solution, the players are expected to deduce a plausible answer as to what has occurred and in this example what stands out to me is in how the QM laced the post with suspicion to help direct the players without telling them anything concrete. We are told by the world that imps are generally not a problem, we are told that other ponies have followed up on the job before our party, we are presented with a shopkeeper described as scarred and then we are pressured into following up on the job immediately despite that not being our stated goal.  All of that builds into you feeling incredibly suspicious about the situation despite not actually having any proof of wrong-doing furthermore the players are pressed into action by the external problem that caused us to look for our friends in the first place, so do we as players address that first concern or investigate the highly suspicious circumstances surrounding our friends? Your players will all want the same thing but how they prioritize which thing to address first will be different and prompt discussion.     For a final example, lets examine Butt quest:   --- >Chili scratches his head >"Not...Really? They kinda know. They know that everypony that was taken was moved to a room of some sort to convince them to... something. They got an idea, but it's appreantly super hush-hush."   >You look over every pony in the room. >You've got quite the little army here. >While you try to rescue the parents, the rest can run interference, diverting a large portion of guards away from your active team.   >All that, and the truth find a way to rear it's ugly head. >You sigh deeply.   "I don't know if we can find everyone ourselves, Chili."   >"I know we can't, but with my mom's help we can probably get a few at least. She and everyone else can take care of the rest."   >You take the calling card out of your bag. >Upon activating this, your mission will begin.   >You have enough time to save a maximum of three parents >The others will simply have to endure until the rest of your class can make it to them. [strawpoll] ---   Now this is a relatively simple prompt, you are presented with multiple options but are limited in what you are actually capable of pursuing. This prompt is strong because while the question is the simple the answer provokes a conflict of interest among your players. Buttquest itself is structured as a love letter to cyoa memes, with characters pulled from many different quests and presented in the context of some of their more lovable interpretations. Now, the playerbase of such a quest is going to have favourites, be they characters or circumstances that they want to see explored in the context of the butt quest universe. In presenting this relatively simple prompt the players now have to choose how best they want to prioritize their time and which characters they really want to see and which must be discarded as a result of time pressure.   Different players will want different things and they will fight for their cause and become invested in the results.   Now, these three examples are not an exhaustive list of what amounts to a good prompt, in fact they probably don't even scratch the surface. A strong prompt ultimately keeps your players invested in your story and the nature of your prompt should always be adapted to service your audience. If your players are happy and enjoying your story, then you are doing good!   --- Weak prompts.   Where there are do's there are do not's. Where a strong prompt provides your players with things do, a weak prompt quite simple does not. Prompts that end with no majour developments or changes within the story will jar your players out of immersion as they retread old points or feel like they need to wait for something to happen in order to have any meaningful input.   Here's an example from Northern Excursion:   --- The sphere looms over you. Patches breaks the silence. >"So, how did you do it before?" "I just... touched it." >"Is that it?" "Yeah." >"What do we do?" "... Watch?" >"Will we be able to communicate with it as well?" "I'm not sure. I can ask if you'd like?" Patches and Sherbert nod. >"Not for me, thank you. I'm quite at home simply watching." "Alright." You turn and face the sphere. Okay. Just like before. You place your hooves on it. ---   Now the QM of this quest has the minor problem of not clearly deliniating what is a prompt and what is merely a pause between a series of connected posts. This is compounded somewhat by his habit of posting segments when they are done rather then waiting for a completed whole series to dump.   If the above is to be taken as a prompt then the problem is painfully apparent, an action was 'taken' but no result [or absence of a result] is presented to the players for the players to then act on. In touching the sphere we don't know if we've accomplished anything nor do we know if we didn't accomplish anything [because the touch not working is itself actionable information]. Instead all the players can do is wait for the QM to post again to see what actually happened. This is a weak prompt because the players most obvious solution is to simply wait for the next prompt and hope that one is better.   Lets examine another example from the CYOA Hijack:   --- >You use the Druidic Focus and unfurl it into a long strip. >You wrap it arond you two and hand the steel plate on the outside of the makeshift bunker to minimize damage from the blast. >Any moment now...   >Once the blast happens, hopefully the doors will be clear >Then all you do is book it! >No sweat >The scent of rotting hits your nostrils again. >You try to ignore it, until Keys starts trying to get your attention   >"H-Hey! My legs feel-" >Both of you look down at the edge of the bunker >... >Uh oh. https://www.anonpone.com/archive/hijack/1445828853068.jpg ---   Now on the surface there's nothing wrong with this prompt, the players have a fairly open ended assortment of tools to address the problem at the cutoff that the QM chose. Unfortunately, the problem here is that this prompt was a result of ignoring a cut off that should have been the actual prompt. Namely: “The scent of rotting hits your nostrils again.”   The problem with this prompt is the problem of railroading. In creating this otherwise perfectly acceptable prompt, the story was driven into a direction that artificially allowed the circumstances to occur, namely the main character ignoring critical actionable information that if presented to the players, would not have been ignored. The take home message here is that if you have a good prompt in your head, be sure that you arrive at it as a result of your players actions rather than in spite of what they might actually do.   Railroading is itself a huge demon to be grappled with and it alone could fill its own pastebin on when it is and is not appropriate, so do not take this example as a general condemnation of railroading as a concept.   For our next example lets return to Urban Survival:   --- >Looking at the clock, you’ve still got over 3 hours until the mares are supposed to be here   and several posts later:   >Looking at the time, the mares should be here in about 30 minutes ---   Now i'm sure you're thinking 'That can't be the whole post' and it wasn't. But that was the whole prompt.  The main character was tasked with finding ways to kill time and with no real options available to them, the players floundered on suggestions that had no meaningful impact on anything.   Here are some examples of votes from these prompts: -“was there something we needed to do? i got nothing. “   -“what food we got “   -“We need to buy some books or something to pass the time. “   -“Nothing else to do at the moment other then to watch tv. “   -“any last minute cleaning we need to do?”   -“I"d suggest getting on with our meetup and skipping these thirty minutes. “   As you can plainly see, prompts that amount to 'find a way to fill the time' are not particularly immersive for your audience and will grate on them for what amounts to wasting their time. Keep in mind that this QM is often lauded for the entertainment value of his writing but even with that high regard his players were not interested in a random sidetracking from the plot that plainly had no purpose in the greater scheme of the story.   For our last example we will examine the quest Delta P:   --- The captain thinks for a second before turning to the shy mare >"Crystal, announce to the crew to not panic, tell Rusty to reverse the gear." She nods quickly before returning to her console. "What are you doing?" >"We're steering away from here, and quickly." The submarine begins to backtrack before shaking again, although this time more violently. The intercom to the engine room opens up. >"Can y'all tell me what's happenin' out there? There's a floodin' in one of the adjacent rooms, what's goin' on?" Agathe creeps closer to you, the situation making you shiver. >"Coral, I'm scared." No, Coral, stay strong, stay ...confident, you close your eyes and try to think of an idea.   […]   You shake your head and gasp for a breath in panic before turning to the captain. "What if we use the terrain of the seafloor to run from it!?" The captain looks at you and seems uninterested by your suggestion. >"No, we're reversing gear and getting away from here. Rusty! How fast are we going?" >"'Bout sixteen knots captain, can't make her go any fast-" The submarine shakes heavily again and sends you stumbling, cutting the intercom to engine room shortly before it screeches on again. >"'Am not sure we can withstand another blow captain, might be a good idea to 'vacuate!"  ---   Sometimes you will have to present your players with a situation where they cannot win, where progress of our story is contingent on something specific actually happening. There is nothing wrong with that, however at all times you must respect the agency of your players in their ability to respond to what is happening in your prompts, even if it doing so changes nothing in how events play out.   In Delta P, the submarine had to crash. It was [supposedly] a critical component of the story that the submarine goes down, that is fine. However, the QM was presented with ideas on how to save the submarine and those ideas were flatly dismissed in favour of moving the story along and crashing the submarine faster. This is, I believe, a huge mistake. Even if an event is inescapable or unfixable, you should always give credit to your players attempt to struggle out of their circumstances. Indeed it is paramount to immersion that players choices are respected when they fail so that they can feel part of the characters fears and hopelessness.  At all times, allow your players to 'fight back' against inevitability. Acknowledge their plans and allow your players a chance to fight their unwinnable battle. If you give your players a prompt, do not ignore their input even if their input changes little to nothing. You are providing the adventure and this last example highlights the importance of letting your players choose.     --- No Pressure.    Now you might be thinking that writing nothing but good prompts seems mighty stressful. Don't. You don't need to make everything have a deeper meaning, you don't need to make every choice critical. Tension is best contrasted against the normal day to day experience of your quest, important events in your story need prompts done right but there is no real pressure on you for the day to day prompt. As an anon in the thread said, sometimes people just want to choose between waffles and pancakes. In discussions between characters, a good prompt can be as simple as an answer that 'prompts' a follow up question or a moment of retrospection.   Don't feel like you need to weave deepest lore with every update as you might then find yourself writing extremely long updates that skip smaller details in favour of hitting on plot critical events, but smaller details are just as important to a quest in helping players make it theirs. Always remember that a prompt that is nothing but a personal touch is a good prompt if you can incorporate that into your characters. Good Characterization is king in CYOAs so let your players feel things out and explore your characters as much as they explore the world itself.     --- Final thoughts   Prompts are, in the end, the vehicles upon which your players play the game. I've tried not to comment on how you as a QM can deliver prompts to your players because the answer is quite literally any way you want, be it in the small details of a drawing a la 11-54 or Lost, hidden within the narrative like in Mazes and Medusas or Urban Survival or presented to the player as a list of available options to be debated like in Hijack or Just Another Day. Literally any method can work, don't think of prompts as a limiting factor but as a general guideline for how you interact with your players, you can present them in any number of creative solutions and incorporate suggestions in a great number of different ways.   Or you could just explain why my hot opinions are shit That works too. The point is, prompts are fucking complicated and we're opening a dialogue where we can disagree and all learn something. Or call each other faggots.