Becoming a StoryPlayer

Becoming a StoryPlayer is pretty easy: you select one of our games and you begin to play. Here's a slightly longer list of suggestions for how to carefully ease into one of our text-dominant games.

Choose a Game

The first step is to pick a game. The Skotos web site will be home to an ever-growing set of games, so this can be slightly daunting. Currently the best place to go to find games is the StoryPlayer Page. This lists current Grand Theatres and upcoming Stages. It also features the newest and most exciting games. The Our Games Page is a good secondary resource. It lists both our current games and our upcoming ones and will thus allow you to start planning for future Grand Theatres and Worlds that might interest you.

Learn About the Game

Before you dive into a game, learn a little bit about it. Each game page will include a number of additional resources. Complete PDF Player Guides will be available for our flagship games. The more popular games will be linked to forums where folks are chatting about in-game happenings. Learning about a game will help in your selection process, but is also important before you start creating a character.

Create a Character

Each of the games will guide you through a character creation process. You'll choose a name, your character's appearance, possibly an occupation, and perhaps a few important skills. However, you should try and think a little bit more about your character: how does he speak? What are his predominant emotions? How does he react to different stimuli? You can even ask yourself questions about the character creation process that the game takes you through: why did she choose that particular occupation? How does she feel about the skills she possesses? Does he know how to play piano but loathe doing so or does he absolutely revel in his cooking ability and try and demonstrate it whenever possible? By considering questions like these, you'll create a character that is much easier for you to roleplay.

Learn the Text Interface

The Skotos games are text-dominant, which means that your primary method of influencing the world is through typing text commands like "say 'hello' to sir ramon and bow" and "reluctantly give the aardvark to the zookeeper". Learning exactly how this text-interface works – what commands are legitimate and what aren't – can take a bit of work. Read the PDF Player's Guide for your game; it should contain some information on basic commands. Then, when you're in the game, make liberal use of the "tip" and "help" commands. They should have you reluctantly giving aardvarks to zookeepers in no time.

Play the Game

Play, play, play. Enjoy yourself!