Sleuth Home - Message Boards - Writer's Workshop

Mar-16-2007 14:49

The power of Sleuth is now in your hands!

There is now an online Scripted Mystery editor available in the new Writer's Workshop section of City Hall. The idea here is better empower all of you to contribute your own content, which will hopefully keep things fresher for longtime players.

Also, if you just want to keep the mysteries you write private, you can can choose to do that. We'll be providing ways to share those private mysteries with your friends soon.

Note: Scripted Mysteries = Featured Mysteries, although since we're likely to have a lot more of them soon, eventually we'll start to "Feature" some of the "Scripted" mysteries, and the non featured ones will just be referred to as Scripted Mysteries. Confusing?

Feel free to use this thread for questions about the Mystery Editor and to discuss mystery writing.

If you had previously submitted a mystery by email, feel free to resubmit it through the tool. Doing so will also allow you to preview the mystery before it is published for public consumption.

I'm looking forward to see what you all come up with!

Mar-20-2007 01:09

Good point, I was worried about screwing up what question unlocks who and things like that. And this takes care of everything.

Mar-20-2007 10:04

As I was working with the Scripted Mystery interface I was wondering if it would be possible to get tags that would allow suspects/clients/townies to refer to your character by name? It's not something that's 'required' just something that would give it a more personal feel.

Mar-20-2007 23:02

I remember that in the ending of Doomsayer pt. 1, it referred to you by name, but I'm not sure how it's done.

Mar-22-2007 12:22

The bug that was breaking FM twists is fixed now.

Odietrying: A few of the fields support the [DetectiveName] replacement tag. Try placing that tag in where you want the detective's name to appear and then preview the mystery. It should work in the intro, twists and ending, but I'm not sure. I'll try to get it active for other fields as well.

Mar-22-2007 16:42

Thanks Ben!

Mar-25-2007 16:01

At the present time, it's only possible to make it so multiple things can cause an item to be revealed. However, is there a way to make it so two or more things are required for an item to be revealed?

Mar-26-2007 15:18

Well Jojo, you can make it so that only A can unlock B and only B can unlock C. It makes it a little more linear than it sounds like you want it to be, but I'm not sure if there is another way.

Mar-26-2007 20:38

Yeah. That's how I'll have to do it if I can't do it this way.

Mar-27-2007 07:35

Yeah I'm having this 'problem' too. I think my story is kinda linear so I have to through in lots of unnessecary questions.

Mar-30-2007 10:09

Hi Jojo,

I've been thinking of a way to require the combination of two or more events to unlock something. The tricky part is the interface. I'm not sure how to make that feature accessible to users in a way that doesn't complicate the Cause/Effect controls too much.

Yoyo, don't discount the usefulness of twists (particularly suspect twists) for advancing the narrative and logic of your mystery. If there are three events you want to happen in a row, you could structure it as three questions that unlock each other, or you could structure it as a question that unlocks a suspect twist that unlocks another question.