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Submitting Scripted Mysteries
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Heimlich VonVictor
Heimlich VonVictor
Vigilante

Jan-4-2008 00:22

This question is mainly for people who have had a scripted mystery published on the site. How much of your original mystery is visible in the edited version? Would you say that your mystery is mostly intact after editing or are we talking Count of Monte Cristo film version? If anyone can give me examples of things that were changed, I would really appreciate it. I've played every scripted mystery in London, Shanghai, and New York for reference.

Replies

Secret_Squirrel
Secret_Squirrel
Safety Officer

Jan-4-2008 07:07

lol from memory... I didn't change anything major in jojo's. He wouldn't let me lol. Mainly I think it was getting Ben to allow some extra html into the pages for some horizontal rules. Besides which jojo had knocked himself out making sure it wa basically good to go, and had shared it with others to play first. So I wasn't the last set of eyes on it by any stretch.

Stooby's 'Miss Village's Fete...' very little. lol I shortened the title. :p I think there were suggestions about how some of the characters inter-related, and tying up loose ends towards the finish, but nothing plotwise. It was good to go.

Rosamund Clifford's mystery set in Cairo... ok I re-wrote quite a lot of the intro/crime scene, ending, twists etc etc, but we collaborate happily, and I was asked if I'd like to add some 'flowery prose'. We are writing one together at the moment (finished if I get some time this weekend... holidays are great up to a point :s ) So I had her blessing to make sweeping text changes, but they never effected her plot.

I had a hand in Buggles2000 New York Mystery. I did muck around with that for a fair while, before I passed it on to Ani. That was more a case of people being in too many places at the same time, and making the characters a little more fleshed out.

Shadowchi's new one, due out soon, not much at all. Made a semi-complicated set of twists at the end work.

Anikka and I are trying to swap SM's back and forth. I fiddle with mechanics, see if everything follows on, pick holes in the plot & characters :), fix any obvious typos and grammarmataical errors then I hoof it off to Ani to fix all MY typos :) and fix the speech areas, coz I'm always putting commas where there shoudn't be commas etc

I don't think anybody has completely changed the plot and done a Monte Christo or for you young folk Harry Potter.

Mostly editors are interested in spelling, grammar, sensibility & mechanics... and then other things with the author's consent.

Secret_Squirrel
Secret_Squirrel
Safety Officer

Jan-4-2008 07:11

* first para so I wasn't the 'first' set of eyes...

This in itself is worth mentioning. SHARING your mystery with others, so you can get an opinion from people you kinda know and maybe trust a bit more than an anonymous editor can be a good way to get the SM up to scratch and minimise the chances of having to spend too much time on the chopping err editing board :)

mmm grammarmamatical.

Stooby
Stooby
Well-Connected

Jan-4-2008 09:01

Yep SS only made very sensible suggestions about Miss Villages Fate (Origionaly entiteld Miss Village's Fate causes her to miss the village fete... the play on words was the inspiration behind the opening scenes.).

If you story is good (and the new share with freinds feature should help you iron out the kinks) then very little will be cut or changed.

Jojo
Jojo
Old Shoe

Jan-4-2008 11:56

Heh. Yeah, forgot to say that sharing with friends and such before submitting will help a lot.

And if not, just knock yourself out making sure it is near perfection before submitting like I did. :D

Heimlich VonVictor
Heimlich VonVictor
Vigilante

Jan-4-2008 16:47

Well I'm getting a lot of positive feedback from my friends who are playing it (coincidently including ShadowChi) and they've all give it a positive review.

Phoenix Shadow
Phoenix Shadow
Sleuth About Town

Jan-5-2008 04:28

Yeah, I've got a mystery which is currently being edited, but I shared it with 3 members of my Agency first. They all gave me some good & constructive feedback, which meant I was able to tweak out some glitches before submitting it for editing.

It seems to have helped with the editing, as Anikka has only had to come back to me once (so far!!)

Secret_Squirrel
Secret_Squirrel
Safety Officer

Jan-5-2008 04:28

Can I just add if you check game announcements at the moment you will find ShadowChi's new mystery is up and running in Delhi.

http://noir.playsleuth.com/map/cityhall/post.spy?id=25797

Heimlich VonVictor
Heimlich VonVictor
Vigilante

Jan-5-2008 13:14

I submitted a question about this to the subscriber center, but maybe you guys can answer it for me. When I test my mystery, the townspeople don't do automatic alibi confirmation for the characters who have a townsperson listed as their alibi, and no I didn't simply write in the name of the townsperson, I selected it from the dropdown menu. The option doesn't even come up to check in alibi, and the suspect has the alibi listed. Is this a bug, or something that needs to be added during editing?

Secret_Squirrel
Secret_Squirrel
Safety Officer

Jan-5-2008 21:12

Basically you have to:

(a) set up who the alibi is for in the Suspect's page eg Bob's Alibi = Bartender & True

(b) go to Suspect Screen and Set up an Alibi Question eg Where were you on the night of the murder? Answer: With the bartender.

(c) Add an effect to this Question 'Reveal Alibi'...

(d) Go to Witness Screen > Bartender > Create new question > Write your question and answer depending on true / false eg Was Bob here? Answer: Yeah he was here.

(e) Set up an effect for this question Confirm / Deny suspect Alibi > Choose Suspect = Bob

(f) Add an effect to Suspect Bob's Alibi Question 'Unlock Question' > Bartender > 'Was Bob here?'.

(there are other ways to do this, this just happens to be 'a' way to do it that displays what you need to do.)

Heimlich VonVictor
Heimlich VonVictor
Vigilante

Jan-5-2008 23:11

So it's not an automatic reveal like on the random mysteries if you do an alibi check? I was just confused because if said standard alibi checks are not included in the list of questions to be asked, so I assumed it was separate.

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