Nick Keirle

paganmist

Goatdance

nestordoescuba

LilyBF

Chris Gardiner

FBG Test

Caitydid

Misterarendt

Emily St Aubert

March Hare

eli0745

Jim Still

rrainer

Rabbit Stoddard

sprspr

Liam Wickham

Eneko95

taserian

densewords

... and more

This is a StoryNexus content design pattern. Other patterns can be found on the Content Design Patterns page.

Pyramid
This is based around Sometimes cards. A Burn after Reading storylet gives you a Pyramid quality at 1. There are some cards (say, 6) that each increase the Pyramid quality. When the quality reaches a certain level, those cards are locked, and a new set (of, say, 4 cards) unlocks. This is like a Python, but the difference is that there are multiple tiers of cards to play through, which can represent distinct stages of the story (so, finding the killer’s identity, then tracking down the killer, for example). The Pyramid eventually narrows to a conclusion

Variants:

• Charge a Toll at each stage.
• Put multiple branches on the last storylet, so the player can choose the ending.
• Reset the quality at the end, to make the whole thing replayable.
• Put a choice at the end of each tier. The player’s choice influences which cards are unlocked in the next tier.
• Put a length of Simple Chain between each tier of the Pyramid. This makes the structure a hybrid between a Pyramid and a Simple Chain - a Chained Pyramid.