DARA’S GUIDE: The Points System

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  • Each character has their own set of points and they all start with a score of 0.
  • Readers can gain or lose points depending on what choices they make.
  • You can add points to your actual characters, or you could create a new character and name it ROMANCE, FRIENDSHIP, HONESTY, etc. and create a point system for each category.

There are 2 ways to add/subtract points:

  • right next to their name when they speak
  • a simple @ command

Here is an example:

GIRL (talk_flirt)
Hi, it’s nice to meet you.

choice
“Be nice” {

BOY (talk_happy_smile) +2
Such a pleasure to meet you!

} “Be neutral” {

BOY (talk_neutral)
Oh hi.
@BOY +1

} “Be mean” {

BOY -2 (talk_arms_crossed_angry)
Don’t talk to me.
}

To create different outcomes depending on how many points were gained or lost, you will need to use the if/elif/else method.

BOY (talk_flirt)
Do you want to go on a date with me?

if (BOY > 1) {

GIRL (talk_excited)
I would absolutely love that!

} elif (BOY = 1) {

GIRL (talk_shrug)
Yea that sounds fine.

} else {

GIRL (talk_repulsed)
Ew as if, loser!
}

< means less than
> means greater than
= means equel to

To learn more about the if/elif/else method, CLICK HERE

To set a character’s points to a specific number or to reset it back to zero, use this command:
@CHARACTER =0
@CHARACTER =4

If you want an outcome based on which character has more points than another character, you would use this for the if/elif method:

if (BOY > GIRL) {

} elif (BOY < GIRL) {

} else {
[this is if they equal each other]
}

Showing Character Points

This method was discovered by @athoynilima

To show character points for a specific character, you will need to find their character number.

You can find the character number by going to the character creation section in the portal. The site link at the top of your browser shows the character number. It will look something like this:



The entire last numbers at the end of the site URL is the character number.

Now copy that number (your own character’s number, not the number in my example URL above).

​In your script, you will paste the number with straight brackets around the number to show the character points for that character. You have to use dialogue show points.

Example:

​NARRATOR
You have [4688312326619136] point(s).

In your story, it will automatically show how many character points that character has.

Screenshot (17)

  • Please keep in mind that the web previewer doesn’t accumulate points from previous chapters. This means that the web previewer will only show available points from just that chapter.
  • If you want to show accumulated points (all available points) from previous chapters, you will need to test your story in the app.
331 Likes

Thanks Dara! All around the forums to help out!
This will be really useful if I ever use this so bookmarking it! :wink:

5 Likes

Buzzing!

image

64 Likes

Useful as fuck :raised_hands:t4:

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What is the point system?

1 Like

A system of points for characters. Each character in a story has a score.

5 Likes

Does it show in the episode?

2 Likes

Could you do…

if (BOY = -1) {

}

Could you do minus numbers?

3 Likes

Of course! :slightly_smiling_face:

5 Likes

how would you use the point system for choices like u can only pick these choice if u have above 1 point?

1 Like

You’ll have to use the if/elif/else method, and put the choice with the option that needs over 1 point inside the if (CHAR > 1) and then put the same choice but without the option that needs over 1 point inside the (CHAR < 1)

if (CHARACTER > 1) {

NARR
Dialogue.

choice
“Option that needs to have 1 or more points” {

} “Other options” {
}

} elif (CHARACTER < 1) {

NARR
choice
“Other options” {
}

}

9 Likes

Thank you so much! Wanted to know how to do this :smiley:

1 Like

This helps me so much in my story! I’ve heard of other people using it but I wasn’t quite sure how it worked. Bless your soul for writing this.

1 Like

Hi,

just a question where do these points show up?
Like do they appear at the top of the screen?
or is it something that will come up in a Narrators box?

readerMessage Your message here.

but using that doesn’t really help as I don’t know what the reader chooses so I can’t use the message

Readers gain points by certain choices, as said above. You have to write in your script how many points they gain in certain choices. If you haven’t done that anywhere, all characters have 0 points. However, the reader won’t know how many points they have gained unless you tell them somehow, for example, by readerMessage.
You can’t see how many points each reader has, but you can use the if/elif/else commands as listed above :slight_smile: the points are something like the gain command, but they help a lot in any kind of relationship. Hope I answered your question :slight_smile:

Nope I’m still confused how am I to use the readerMessage if I don’t know the reader choices to tell them how many points they have, like how does the readerMessage show the points gained because essentially I would put readerMessage you have 5 points but its may not be correct they might have more or less based on the reader.

Oh I get it now. I usually say something like
readerMessage Character +1
if they get +1 point for a character by choosing a certain choice.
If they gain enough points, I use something like this:
if (CHARACTER >4) {
NARR
You have enough points for CHARACTER.
} else {
Blah blah blah
}

Also, if you don’t have many +1s, you can do something like this:
if (CHARACTER=0) {
NARR
You have 0 CHARACTER points.
}elif (CHARACTER =1) {
NARR
You have 1 CHARACTER point.
}else{
NARR
You have 2 CHARACTER points.
}

But this takes a lot of time and you have to always keep track of the points.

You could also rate their relationship good, average or bad if you’d like, by saying it’s good if they have, for example, above 5 points, average if they have 0-4 points and bad if they have below zero points.

I don’t think there is another way to show the reader their exact character points. But it’s not really necessary imo, as you can just tell them they have enough points for certain things :slight_smile:
I hope everything I said makes sense :joy::heart:

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