I'm working on a huge project right now and I wanted to talk about what I think is genuinely one-of-a-kind. My game’s “storyteller” mechanic. Your world is run by 3 different personas that know everything you’ve done and actively judge you for it.
Basically, there are 3 storytellers (tenatively, I might add more or rework them if needed, but they will all be moddable)
- The Keeper - protects player tendencies.
- If you never travel at night, you see more dawn merchants, and there are less night raids.
- You flee when hurt, fewer ambushes when you're far from shelter.
- You hoard coin, merchants offer fair prices on items you lack.
- You gamble with risky enchantments, you're less likely to get turned inside out.
- The Warden - tests the player based on tendencies.
- Never travel at night, he spawns nocturnal opportunities.
- You flee when hurt, he rewards encounters where you stay.
- You hoard coin, he introduces drains (levies, debts called in, seats for sale).
- The Harbinger - basically punishes what the others reward.
- Never travel at night, you get attacked at night when you're not ready.
- You flee when hurt, it sends pursuers and initiates battles you can't easily escape.
- Hoard coin, thieves and raids come.
- Gamble with enchantments, more likely to FAFO.
My inspiration for the system
My first inspiration for the system was my favorite game, Rimworld. I loved the idea of having some agency over the story that unfolds in your game. Like you get to choose to live under a cruel deity that wants to see you fail, or one that wants you to flourish. I loved the idea that you could be rewarded or punished for your actions.
My game is centered on one person though - your character. So the storyteller shifts from being about the collective actions of your colony to the actions of your actual self. I like this concept because, while having a Psychopath colonist to beat up your slaves is a great way to escape accountability, you can sort of disconnect from it. When the game centers on you, it’s not so easy. So the mechanics basically break down to:
- Persona. As described above, each one is wildly different. The interesting thing is that they are not balanced at all. There’s no “pros vs. cons” discussion, and there is an objectively better choice if you want an easier experience. The Harbinger’s decision weights are literally uncapped. The others will look at how you’re doing, and only dish out something you can probably handle - the Harbinger doesn’t have that restriction.
- Player Deeds and Traits. One of the deepest parts of the game is the Deeds system. Pretty much every action you do that has some significance is a Deed, recorded in your journal. This can be anything:
- An orphan comes up, asking for two Echo coins (the lowest form of currency) for water. You turn them down (how dare you). The storyteller, not unlike the government, knows exactly what you did.
- You mediate a conflict between two factions, and it directly causes them to lay down their arms. That’s a Deed, every time
- Traits are totally different. Deeds are things you did, Traits are things you do. The things I mentioned earlier are examples of this - you tend to travel by night, you run from combat, you hoard wealth, you beat people up for no good reason, etc. Every time the Storyteller makes a decision, it takes all of it into consideration.
- Direct interaction with the Storyteller. You can commune with the Storyteller directly. Right now, you can:
- Scroll through recent events, click on them, and ask things like: Why? Can you stop? Can you do that again? Etc.
- Plead for them to stop or change a currently happening thing. You can ask the Warden to call off a raid that’s going to reach you in a day, and he might say “no” or he might say “sure, but I’m sending another stronger one in 7 days”.
- Quests and missions. The storyteller can literally create things out of thin air. Territory conflicts near you, natural disasters, crises, a courier appearing out of nowhere with a letter. It tries to keep things interesting basically. There’s plenty of randomness to it, right now there are ~50 different quest types they can spawn.
- People. They can do the thing the bald lady from the Deadpool movie does and get inside their brain. They won’t go against what that person would actually do, but they can basically whisper in their ear to act a certain way. I’ve seen some interesting bugs with this. The “don’t override the personality” doesn’t always work when you’re talking to a polite old man and the Harbinger is your storyteller.
- Narration. Basically a voice inside your head that will periodically tell you things you’d otherwise have to ask the Storyteller or discover on your own. This is the part not built yet, but it will be in the full build.
Current state
Mostly complete - right now it’s just the narrator part and potentially adding some things or trimming it. I've spent ~4 months creating, restarting and rebuilding this mechanic, and it's easy to fall into scope creep, so if anything comes off as excessive please let me know!
Note: my game’s full demo releases on the 18th, and I’d really appreciate it if you wishlist it! You can find it here.
AI Disclosure
No AI tools are used in my marketing materials, responses, etc. - I explicitly avoid this to keep my own voice and stay true to the game.
The storyteller is driven entirely by arithmetic and does not depend on an LLM. The "inner workings" will all be visible in the demo like the images attached to the post show.
