Script Entry

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What it controls

The Script Entry is the player’s first contact with a work and the point that leads into the first act. Keep player-facing copy separate from the background rules that guide the whole story. This guide uses Letter from Mist Harbor: Shen Yao receives an undelivered letter at the Tidebound Post Office.

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Story settings

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Write the summary

Use: who the player is → where they are → what problem is present → what they can look forward to.

You receive an undelivered letter at the Tidebound Post Office. The tide is rising, and its address points to the old pier that is still lit tonight. Find out who left it before the water reaches its highest mark.

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Write the overview and story control

For the overview, cover the work’s identity, opening situation, central question, tone, arc, and landing point. For story control, state what counts as a player action, which people and facts cannot be invented, what must happen before the next act, and what facts close the story. Example: the overview moves from a letter, to the salt mark, to the sender’s identity, and finally to a reply under the lighthouse. The story control says not to invent Shen Yao’s decisions and not to reveal the sender before the evidence is found.

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Story background

Background is shown as reading pages after Start New Game. Keep each page to one or two complete paragraphs and move from setting, to people or objects, to the immediate problem. Example pages: the post office loses power; the envelope has a salt mark; Lin Zhou holds the old-pier key while the tide rises.

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Opening design

Opening text plays after the background. Recommended actions appear once at the start and can be selected as the player’s input. Do not write “you decide to investigate” in fixed opening text. Leave the first decision to the player.

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Protagonist

Choose a character truly controlled by the player. For this example, choose Shen Yao and either keep that name as the script’s name or let the player enter one with a prompt such as “How should others address you?”

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Before leaving this node

Check that the summary makes sense alone, the background establishes place and problem, opening text states only facts, recommendations are executable, the entry connects to exactly one act, and the protagonist is clear. Next: Act.