Issue 6: Choices

I was planning an issue about the gods and divinity in the Veiled Age universe when I realized there’s a topic a bit more fundamental to the project I have yet to address. One of the questions I get when discussing Veiled Age is "do the choices matter?" The short answer is that yes, your choices make a big difference.

But I want to take a step back and question some underlying assumptions about what it means for a choice to matter in a game. I think there are two main assumptions:

1. Choices should be challenging (difficult to decide what's best)

2. Choices should be impactful (cause a significant change in the story)

These are fine suggestions for ways to make choices more engaging. But as rules to apply every time, they're suspect. For one thing, they lack verisimilitude. Think of the choices you make in your everyday life. To illustrate…

Game #1: Order the Sandwich

I have an idea for a brilliant RPG. It’s called Order The Sandwich.

In it, you order a sandwich at the local diner, but the waitress brings you the wrong one. You want what you ordered instead. What do you do?

• (A) Explain the mistake in an easygoing and empathetic way.

• (B) Criticize her for being so careless.

Go ahead and pick your answer in your head before we move on. Got it? Ok. Now let's see the consequences.

Outcome A: She brings you the correct order and makes a lighthearted joke about the mistake.

Outcome B: She brings you the correct order. When she returns to the kitchen, she takes a deep breath and sighs.

There. Now is this game fun? It's not exactly thrilling, but if pressed, I'd have to say that yes, this little decision point was mildly fun. I chose (A), and even though it's an easy decision with a minimal consequence, I got to express myself and imagine I made someone's day better instead of worse.

Would it be more fun if this choice packed a bigger punch? Maybe, but in a real diner, you would be a background character from the waitress’ perspective, so it would actually be surprising if your attitude triggered some sort of plot point here. This is why I say it lacks verisimilitude for every choice to be challenging and impactful.

Here’s another example of a non-impactful choice from an obscure little game called Final Fantasy 7.

Not only are there no long-term consequences here, but the two options are barely different. The player can’t actually say “yes.” Still, it’s kind of gripping that the game pauses the scene to ask.

But if you approach games as only mechanical toys, then you're keenly aware that NPCs don’t actually have feelings. I think this hyper-awareness that we are playing a game is what makes us feel entitled to "something happening" as a result of each and every choice. Conversely, the more immersed we are in a piece of interactive fiction, the more we're able to go with the flow and make choices naturally without too many expectations.

But admittedly, our sandwich game is a little bit boring, so let’s try something more exciting.

Game #2: Save Humanity or Doom the Galaxy

Now we’re talking. This is a game where Your Choices Matter™.

Deep in an abandoned alien space station, you come across a panel with two buttons. Which one do you press?

• Button A, labelled "Activate Genesis Alpha"

• Button B, labelled "Deactivate Cerberus Omega"

Have you made the choice in your head? No takebacks. Ok, here's your result.

• (A) The machine terraformed a barren planet, creating a new homeworld to save the human race.

• (B) You released a godlike AI that destroyed the galaxy by turning all matter into grey goo. Game Over!

Wow, what a game, right? It has everything: a "creative" sci-fi scenario, high stakes, tricky choices, epic consequences. But there's definitely something missing. Comparing our two games, I may not have all that much agency in the diner scenario, but the agency in the sci-fi scenario feels fake. If the galaxy is destroyed here, it rests entirely on the idiot writer, not the player. I'm not a fan of unintelligible choices with extreme consequences. And yet I think many RPGs are guilty of having choices that amount to poorly labelled buttons.

Here’s just one example. In Fire Emblem: Three Houses, one of your students basically says, “hey, I’m going somewhere for a couple of days, want to come?” Then the game hits you with this:

Thanks for the warning that this will DRASTICALLY change the story, but… why? How?

Likewise, I’m not crazy about plotlines along the lines of Dark Souls 3, where your favorite NPCs die unless you read a wiki telling you to attack some random statue or whatever. Or old-timey adventure games where you have to make a disguise by using a piece of tape on the cat to make a fake mustache. I like tricky choices and mystery and puzzles, but I don’t like bullshit. Surprises and even an occasional moment of absurdity can be fun, but as a writer I am not primarily out to troll or trick the reader.

Choices in Veiled Age

In writing Veiled Age, I actively avoid having any strict rules about how a given choice can or can't affect the story. But I aim for variety, which I think increases immersion. As for choices being difficult, or mysterious, or having a big impact, I want to get the proportions right. Like real life, you can often guess the consequences of your actions, but not always. Sometimes consequences happen right away, sometimes much later.

I like to include choices that accumulate toward consequences. For example, how much Nora trusts you is actually a number that goes up or down depending on what you say and do. No one action is all that important. But it adds up, and I can make her say a certain line only if her opinion of you is above or below a certain hidden number.

Here's something simple, yet rare. I include minor callbacks to your choices a lot. For example, you make an offhand comment in a dialog tree, a character an hour later might reference it. Or a character might remember that you got injured even after you're healed. Tell Tale games popularized the "{name} will remember this" on-screen messages, but that sets the tone that a character remembering something is special. For better or worse, it's very gamey. I'd rather further the illusion that they're real people by having them show they remember random things you might not expect, even if they don't have strong feelings about it.

I do also enjoy the occasional mysterious choice, like this one during character creation. What does it do? I’ll never tell.

I have more thoughts about how choices can be used in this kind of game, and maybe I’ll dive deeper another time after Dwellers of Bodenforst is released. For now, I need to get back to editing. ✌️