[arg_discuss] Topic of the Week Aug. 17: Ghost Players

[Christopher Amherst]

Naomi Alderman <naomi.alderman at gmail.com> commented:

>How about Imaginary Ghost Players, as a tactic of last resort? Where the

>players simply haven't done what you needed them to do, and yes you've

>learned valuable lessons for next time about puzzle design but nonetheless

>you really do need *someone* to have emailed your main character (the

>brunette in distress) to tell her the password to the secret file...


Personally, I'd still hedge on the side that there may be multiple ways to
resolve that on the design side.

In the hypothetical case, if the main character had a 'friend' (another NPC),
the friend could provide a hint or two where necessary.

In that situation, you've built into the design of your narrative, someone
that players may have interacted with and who is a known quantity in terms
of their connection to the main character (as a overt NPC).

Christopher