STORYWORLD COMPONENTS
In essence, a storyworld is a machine that generates stories. How do you generate a story? You describe an occurrence. Then you describe the occurrence that results from it. Then you describe a third occurrence, resulting from the second. You keep doing this until you reach an occurrence that has an air of finality to it, and then you stop. This is true whether your story is interactive or not. An interactive story differs in that the player is allowed to influence some events (those where the Protagonist is the active agent). So, to generate stories, a storyworld must repeatedly describe an occurrence, generate its resulting occurrence(s), describe those, generate their resulting occurrences, describe those, and so on.

The occurrences that a storyworld generates are called Sentences. They come in two varieties: Plans and Events. The difference is one of tense: a Plan represents an intended deed, whereas an Event represents a done deed. Plans are generated during the Reaction Cycle, in response to Events. Plans are carried out during the Action Cycle, becoming Events (and causing new Plans to be generated).

A Sentence is made up of Deikto Words. Many of these Words are actually names - the names of tangible elements participating in the story. Actors are the people in the story; Stages are the locations where the story takes place; and Props are the items which Actors carry around and use in the story. Being tangible, each of these storyworld elements has not only a name, but also a set of numeric Traits defining its character, its current state, and its relationships to the other elements in the story. Unlike an element's name, its Traits are not Deikto Words, so they never appear in Sentences (they are, however, central to most Scripts).

These tangible Words are used in Sentences to describe who is doing the action, and to whom or what it is being done. The action itself is described using another kind of Words: Verbs. A Sentence always has one Verb that describes the action depicted in that Sentence. This Verb is the heart of the Sentence, its predicate. Through its WordSockets, it determines the Sentence's form. It also determines the Sentence's consequences in the storyworld, and the circumstances under which it can be performed. Most importantly, it guides the process of generating Plans in response to the Sentence. It does this through Roles and Options. These, together with Scripts, guide the Reaction Cycle.

A Sentence may contain one or more Verbs in addition to its predicate. These are not nearly as important; they describe an action which is being referred to in the Sentence. For example, a Sentence predicated on the Verb “retell” would contain a second Verb, describing the action being retold.

Occasionally, Actors might create a Sentence to express their opinions of Props, Stages or other Actors. A Sentence of this type will have a Verb such as “describe.” It will also have a Trait Word, coupled with a Quantifier Word. The Trait Word is the name of the Trait of which an opinion is being expressed. The Quantifier is the opinion itself. There are eleven Quantifiers in Storytronics; ten ranging from “minimum” to “maximum,” and  an Interrogative, representing the question “how much?” Some Sentences may also have an Adverb. This is really just a Quantifier, describing the intensity of the Sentence in question.



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