Characters and dialogue
Learning paths through this topic
Count a timed answer as in time when it left before the deadline
A character asks for a decision within a few seconds, a player taps in time, and the answer is refused because the network took its time. Here is how to judge when the answer was given, without letting players buy extra time with a bad connection.
Hand out the story's roles so as many players as possible get a wish
First come, first served can leave a player with a role they ranked last while another got theirs by luck. Here is a way to hand out the roles that looks at the whole group, how to keep it fair between players, and what to do when wishes tie.
Allow a betrayal between player characters only where both agreed to it
A traitor twist is great when everyone signed up for it and miserable when a friend loses a hard-won item to a surprise. Here is a consent setting with levels, what happens when the two sides disagree, and why taking consent back must act at once while giving it waits.
Settle two players picking the same hero at the same moment
Both click the last free hero within a blink and both screens say "yours". Here is the order in which to decide, what the loser gets, and the small case where one player swaps and another takes the freed hero in the same batch.
Show dialogue lines in the right order when the network shuffles them
On a bad connection the character's reply can show up before the question, a line can appear twice, or one never arrives and the scene waits forever. Here is the small waiting room that fixes order, drops repeats and gives up on a missing line in time.
Write each hero's ending so it fits what happened to their friends
In the closing scene one hero grieves for a friend who fell, another waits for one who left early, and two who fell together are mentioned together. Here is how to choose one ending line per hero from the fates and bonds of the whole party, without contradictions.
Fit a scene with three speaking parts to two players or five
A scene written for three voices has to play with whoever is present. Here is how to share the parts out when there are too few players, when there are too many, and how to keep the same person from always getting the long speech.
Let a guest visit a friend's world without losing or skipping their own story
A friend joins your world at a late chapter. Afterwards they should keep what they earned, not suddenly stand at your chapter, and still remember what they witnessed. Here is how to sort the story facts into the ones that travel and the ones that stay.
Tell what a character says from what the player types to friends
A player types "brb, dinner" and the innkeeper answers it as if the hero said it. Here is a way to sort chat into what happens in the story and what is just talk between people, who can hear which, and the typing marks that cause false alarms.
Keep the story going when a player kills a character it depends on
In a shared world one player's sword can end the ferryman for everyone, and the quest that needed him is stuck. Here is a way to name who steps in, when the original returns, and what the story says when nobody is left.
Clean up a name a player typed before the story says it aloud
Players type blank names, invisible characters, names that flip the text direction, or a row of tiny pictures. Here is how to turn any input into a name a narrator can say, what to fall back on, and why counting letters the obvious way breaks.
Show only the nameplates that matter when a town is full of players
With forty players in the square every head carries a name and the screen turns into a thicket of words. Here is how to decide which names to show, in what order of importance, and how to stop plates from flickering on and off as people shuffle.