As long as it doesn’t interrupt the story or cause consistency issues or comprehension issues with either lore or story.
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Hopefully lots, because that’s pretty much my WIP in a nutshell. 
I know what you mean. ^_^’ Same here.
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Love it. As long as the payoff turns out to make sense.
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I don’t mind lore heavy stories, but I agree with the “codex” method as far the lore goes.
First time I started making lore heavier stories, I realized that it was taking up valuable story space and decided to start separating all of it into its own sections.
So make it available in a separate link/choice if the reader wants to know more, but try not to go overboard with it within the actual meat of the story unless its somehow directly related to the plot (Like someone explaining something in dialog)
Do you think I should put it in parenthesis when it becomes available? For example:
Y/N follows a path that leads to a wicked tree. Your companion tells you what the tree is named. (You have unlocked a codex entry).
Or should I just continue the story and if you’re ever just interested to see what’s in the codex, it’ll be there?
Hope that made sense.
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One option is: at the beginning of the story indicate that double asterisks ( * * ) indicate a codex entry available. I’ve seen that done before.
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i was thinking… in a wip of mine, i plan to have a section in the stats screen where you can choose one of the npcs names and it will bring up their physical description, maybe a little backstory on them.
what would y’all make of this?
I wouldn’t use that; my sense is that if the backstory is important it should fit organically into the narrative.
I don’t tend to read ancillary material in the stats screen–it breaks my immersion too much, I think. I want to get lost in the story, not have to tear myself away to read what are, essentially, footnotes.
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I wouldn’t particularly like that either only because I don’t mess around with stats to much. Only when I need to see specific things. If the backstory is only in the stats screen then there’s a high chance I’ll never read about them.
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I agree with Gower - information like that that should be implemented unto the story itself in a concise manner. The big split in this thread is how lore should be handled since we have all sorts of readers here; some are lore-mongers who love descriptive walls of text while others prefer brief and straight-to-the-point bits.
Character descriptions are pratically essential and should come up the moment we encounter them. As for their backstory, I find it best when a character opens up slowly rather than spilling their entire lifestory to someone they just met. It gives us a chance to warm up to them and also avoids having huge blocks of text from the get go. As a reader, I like to form my own assumptions on an NPC (as well as the plot) and then later on be given the chance to find out if I was right or not… a good author knows how to build momemtum unto their story with a bit of suspence and mystery. Unfourtunately, not many here take advantage of that.
If you really want to spice up the stat screen with information then do so with trivial lore that doesn’t really serve a purpose other than spruce up the world we find ourselves in. Pratical lore that is useful to our current situation should go into the narrative as organically as possible.
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Yes. Maybe not ‘nobody’, but I come across this issue a lot as an editor. ‘Dear author, that person just met you. Why, if you speak to them once, are they suddenly telling you their entire life’s worth of drama?’
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I know a lot of people like that-mostly teachers. You ask them a simple question and they need to tell their life’s work. I think it’s funny.
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You have to fill the hour somehow…
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Don’t know about you but the lazy student in me always had a soft spot for those teachers that start talking non-stop about their lives - it was an excuse to either delay the class or do absolutely nothing for the entirety of it. Better than listening to boring lectures that nobody cared about! Sometimes my classmates would pull all sorts of random topics out of their butts just to keep the teacher talking. xD
Good times.
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i might have been confusing, now that i’ve read my message again.
what i meant was backstories and descriptions not at all related to the story. for example, you meet a group of post-apocalyptic survivors. some part of their backstory (as opposed to profession which would imply stats) is not relevant at all. this could be used as just a curiosity trigger and world enricher.
Some people are going to read it, some won’t. Just do it however you want if you personally feel strongly about including it.
When it comes to lore @Cataphrak as far as choice script goes does it the best in my opinion. The Codex he gives you gives you enough talk of conservation and enough back story where you know where people are coming from. But the world itself is huge with a rich amount of history that is slowly revealed by being part of it or relate to it. And the game will just imply that the main character is going to know it because of their social position. Which is great Lore is fed to slow and what is Paramount to the story. At the same time though the fans of his series at least two more hardcore ones are quite ravenous about lore what’s your some background information has held weapons function how people dress what are the etiquettes for a country party dance versus the city. What is the economic system back in the Home Country during this. Like how did people live during the excetera. That’s when things are not going to be in the game unless it needs to be known.
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@Rogar I knew I’d find you here. Also @ToxicDreams I enjoy a mix.
When a game is strictly lore I can get a little bored, now this is just me, but I love a little bit of fantasy mixed in. I’m a history buff at heart and always will be, but fantasy takes up the front. That’s why I enjoy things like the Thor Movies, or The Percy Jackson series. (Magnus Chase is my new drug) The lore is great, give it to me, but in doses laced with some fantasy.
Lore that affects my stats? Hmmm it’s new to me, so I can’t say, but it does sound intriguing so I wouldn’t mind trying it out. As for knowledge stats, if your talking about he kind presented to you in community college hero when you study for you HELL test then yes, if not then, like I said haven’t tried it and am willing to.
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TBH, I prefer the latter one, especially when you build the setting of your universe.
However, there might be a case like this where dumping whole info is preferrable:
Ready to kill the dragon?
- Yes. Let’s slay some dragons
- No. Ask some people to get more info about dragons
The point is, if the lore you’re going to present to the player is a huuuge one, universe building, I’d prefer to chunking those lores and present it at different place across the game.
However, if it’s more like bestiary, it’ll be better to present it as a whole info.
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