A new way to tell stories
Fantassist
In a conventional story, events are organized (for the most part) sequentially. There is one narrative path, with a beginning, middle, and end.
Most novels, movies, TV shows, and other narrative-based-entertainment are examples of the conventional story. The main limitation of conventional stories is that they're "single use." No matter how many times you read a book, it contains the same story with the same ending. No matter how many times you watch a movie or TV show, it contains the same story with the same ending. At Eyesight, we refer to conventional storytelling as crafting an experience, because the writer is creating a singular experience and communicating that experience to the reader. |
Many readers and writers alike find the conventional story restrictive. After all, when a reader opens a book or watches a movie, they're hurtling down a fixed path towards an inevitable finish-line. Nothing they do has any impact on experience.
Enter the plot tree, more commonly called the "Choose Your Own Adventure" (CYOA) model. In this model, the story is organized into a series of concurrent narrative paths connected by choices from the reader! This creates a branching "tree" of different possible stories leading to different possible endings. By allowing the reader to make choices, a whole new world of imaginative possibilities is available to uncover. The reader can more easily immerse themselves in the story, because they can truly become a character rather than watch characters act out the story. The story becomes a true adventure rather than the illusion of one. Plot trees have always existed, but became much more mainstream with the release of "Choose Your Own Adventure" books. The model has also been applied to story based videogames, i.e. Undertale. Netflix's Black Mirror: Bandersnatch pioneered this form of storytelling into movies and TV. But even the longest, most complicated plot tree is still the sum of its parts. While there are many paths to choose from, the reader is limited to travelling down the path of their selection. You can visualize this limitation by thinking about how the plot can only flow in one direction: forward. There is no "lateral" movement that allows the reader to have freedom. |
It's time to break free.
Go anywhere. Do anything. Create everything! The open world narrative allows writers to create entire universes for readers to explore. The Fantassist model is based on the plot tree model. Imagine an array of miniature plot-trees arranged on a two-dimensional surface. The reader can visit each point on the array, and follow the minature plot tree available at that location. Each singular location is called an Event and the arrangement of each event forms the Map. But a bunch of mini plot-trees arranged in columns and rows isn't very exciting. It's how these Events interact with each other using Connections that create rich, dynamic, complex stories. Fantassist's Connections system is a way of crafting a narrative from something that isn't inherently linear. (like a book or movie) In this case, that non-linear format is the Map. |