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Core mechanic

A round of the game can be defined by the following steps:

  1. A scene is portrayed to the audience with a short description.
  2. Music associated with the current scene is performed.
  3. If there are more than one possible paths, the audience votes in order to pursue a certain direction in the narrative.





Voting

How many choices?

As a rule of thumb, we advice to vary between one to three choices. It is possible to combine choices that bring the current character's arc forward with turning of spotlight to the other protagonist.

Voting can be done by using online interactive presentation tools, or by just letting the audience rising their hands. The Game Master, or narrator, is responsible for pacing the voting phase: on one hand, they have to keep the flow of the performance, on the other they have to allow enough room for discussion between the audience.

Storypaths design

The design of storypaths for A Gothic Gamebook can be a time-consuming process. The designer(s) should familiarize with the main tropes of the literary genre in order to evoke immersion and verisimilitude in the audience. It is possible to either start from a corpus of songs, or from a series of connected scenes. Either ways, ad-hoc adjustments have to be made by the designer(s) and performers during the rehearsal process.

In order to provide some inherent structre to the storypaths, we recommend to pace the scenes in three acts.

  1. Let the audice vote for which character will initiate the narrative. Afterwards,provide several options for the audience in order to turn the spotlight between protagonists.
  2. The narrative, and the number of possible scenes, reaches its climax.
  3. Narrow the possible paths until the final scenes are reached. We advise to provide at lest two possible finales.