Telling stories out of order?

[Forager]

Has anyone had any measurable success with a nonlinear narrative? I don't mean did the author think it was a good arc; I mean did the players get it?

 

Looking for specific examples.

[sponazgul]

I don’t have any examples of my own, or other AE missions. In game, there’s only Mender Lazarus who experiences you in a different order than you experience him.

The other example is Trilogy in Night Ward who offers his missions out of order.

Both situations present a framework for the players to get it: time travel in one case, and explicitly being told the relative position in the three books the player is about to journey into.

So if you want to have an out of order story, you might consider how or when to clue the player in.

[Forager]

Yikes... a lot of real estate between those two examples as far as the quality of the execution lol.

 

I didn't mean nearly as subversive or complicated as those attempts. I just mean joining the story in media res. Literally just switching mission 1 and 2 out of 5 and making 2 a flashback.

 

Some stories are just better that way, but I'm worried about the player missing the indication that the mission is a flashback.

 

Where would you put it? 

[sponazgul]

I think you can probably just be explicit. Like, the Mission Accept text is “You feel a moment of deja vu coming on” and the Title of Mission Two is “Flashback to One Hour Ago”

[twozerofoxtrot]

In addition there's  the message popup you get on mission load.  It's right in the player's face and everyone has a chance to see it even on teams.

 

Just gotta keep the character count tight.

[sponazgul]

4 hours ago, twozerofoxtrot said:

In addition there's  the message popup you get on mission load.  It's right in the player's face and everyone has a chance to see it even on teams.

 

Just gotta keep the character count tight.

Yeah!

 

pop up: One Hour Ago …