The way I have been trying to handle a strong background story that has evidence of it in the world is working on projects like IOL. I want a seriously strong AI that could run a couple hundred years of history and allow the world create its own history. As for you example I would want a reason why the fire burned down that side of the town, like a monster attack of a magical accident.

I think you''ve hit on a great idea. Background story is very important to an immersive RPG, but I get turned off by pages of dialog with NPCs that only serve to explain the local history.

And I usually skip that portion of the manual.

If you can figure out how to make the history reflected in the environment (graveyard, burned down buildings) that''s fantastic. That way a perceptive player can investigate the local history if so inclined.

I''ve been a way for a while, but now I''m back, and I have taken some new ideas on the how-to-tell-the-player-the-story-in-an-interactive-way-topic. Let''s say that 14 July 1943 there was a fire in the city and alot of people died. Ok, now the player don''t know any of this, but if he walk through the city he would see alot of burned down houses the same place. And if he go to the graveyard he will find that alot of people died the 14 July 1943. Now, what does that tell the player? Well there had been a fire in the city, and alot of people had died 14 July 1943 (and maybe on some of the gravestones he might aswell read that they died in some sort of fire), but it do not tell 100% sure that the dead people and the burned down houses are the same event. Now what could we do to this? One solution would be that when the player have seen most of the gravestones there would be a new topic in the next npc-dialogs. I do not prefer this way of doing it because what if the real player did not notice it? I think it would be cooler if the dialog system worked the same way as in the first ultima games. Then the PC could write "14 July 1943", "Fire", "Burned down houses" or something like that and if the NPC know the story he could tell it.

I have notice some of you (like me) like a good background story and search for ways to tell the player the story in a interactive way, so I will create a list with ways to tell the player the story, and I hope some of you would add to the list:

Manual (hehe *joke*)
Graveyards
NPC dialog (Of course in a interactive way so the player only hear what he is interested in)
The look of the buildings
...

Zredna

But that is not how I want to let the dialog to work. The player should only write keywords, and if I made it that way I would tell the player (in the manual, a readme file... Whatever!) that it worked that way.

Zredna

LOL!

Other ways: signposts - no guarantee player will see them.
Public newsbroadcasts (essentially a voice over while the player wanders nearby)

Re: conversation. A compromise is in order.

Given:
1) A player wouldn''t know from the start to type in 1943, so requiring that they look at the gravestones is not unreasonable.
2) It makes more sense to learn the same info from several sources. That is, the gravestones should not be the only source of knowledge about the date.

3) I am lazy point and clicker by nature, as I suspect much of your target audience is.

It would be reasonable, IMO, to offer the player the option to add a ''conversation topic'' after looking at the gravestones. In further dialogs, have the date appear as an icon in the conversation window, perhaps also a '' player knowledge'' window.


Iconic knowledge behavior: (this bit is important to do it right)
1) For large worlds, icons should be identified local to a region or area. If, for example, we leave the town with the fire and sail halfway across the world, don''t provide me the same 1943 icon when I talk with the locals there. But remember to add it back when (if) I return.

2) I should be able to R-click and get a brief reminder of what I know.

3) If I find out about the fire, remove the 1943 icon from the conversation window. Leave it in the knowledge window in case I forget about what it meant. Maybe a brief prompt from the other NPCs if necessary for continuity (''Fred goes on to ramble about the fire you''ve already heard about'')

4) Include plenty of useless or trivial items. Force the player to decide what''s important to remember or keep track of. Default to ask the player if he wants to keep the clues.

5) Allow the player to remove (hide) knowledge icons that are later determined to be useless.

6) If the game has a good chance the player will die, have an option to retain the knowledge items even if the previous save is a ways back. Don''t force me to click on the gravestones every time if there''s a high risk area nearby and I get killed several times.

Well, these are just my ideas, comments?

A good example is in Discworld Noir, where you carry around a notebook of clues. It doesn''t employ all of the suggestions, but it is done pretty well.

Ultima 7 has lots of gravestones, all readable Some fit the plot, some are just background info, and one or two were jokes relating to the development team