Parallel Narrative

Ludic Narrational Structure interactive · interactive

Several narrative strands run simultaneously. The agent switches between perspectives, characters or time levels. The strands can stay independent, cross or converge at the end. The parallelism creates contrasts, ironies and an overall picture that arises only through their combination.

Design question – Why does your story need several strands? What arises through the parallelism that a single strand could not achieve?

Reference example – Detroit: Become Human: three androids, three stories that gradually cross. Dungeons & Dragons: when the party splits up, the game master switches between the strands until they come together again. Football: at the World Cup many stories run in parallel in the group stage and cross in the knockout rounds.

Compatible with

• Rasa (DU-09) – Changing mood qualities through perspective switching.
• Wave (DU-02) – Switching between strands as a rhythm.