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Village Narrative Architecture Research Audit

KI: Village Narrative Architecture — Research Audit

Section titled “KI: Village Narrative Architecture — Research Audit”

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Summary

Section titled “Summary”

A comprehensive research audit was conducted on how games should be structured to facilitate good narrative, with specific application to FableForge village. Two research agents ran in parallel: one on game design theory (38 findings, 40+ sources) and one on LLM narrative systems (45 findings, 30+ papers).

Five-Layer Narrative Framework (Research Consensus)

Section titled “Five-Layer Narrative Framework (Research Consensus)”
  1. Authored Core — fixed story beats / dramatic milestones (pearls on the string)
  2. Narrative Architecture — locations as story containers with embedded history
  3. Simulation/System — NPCs with goals, consequence systems, faction dynamics
  4. Drama Management — active curation of pacing and tension
  5. LLM/Procedural Language — LLM as narrator ONLY, never state owner

Critical LLM Constraints

Section titled “Critical LLM Constraints”
  • “Lost in the Middle” (Stanford/ACL): U-shaped attention — critical instructions at beginning/end of context only
  • LLMs cannot plan ahead — arc/chapter level must be human-authored
  • LLMs are narrators, not simulators — Convex DB owns world state

Bugs Identified (High Severity)

Section titled “Bugs Identified (High Severity)”
  • B1: hearRumor always generates fresh LLM rumors; never queries worldRumors table
  • B2: getPacingRecommendation hardcoded “maintain” — never reads storyBeats
  • B3: recordStoryBeat inserts to DB but nothing reads/consumes storyBeats
  • B4: No record_story_beat FFScript node — quest scripts are narratively silent
  • B7: No location_narrative_op FFScript node — locations don’t record events
  • B12: No narrativeHistory/narrativeTags/narrativeWeight on locations

Preliminary Recommendations (Not Yet Implemented)

Section titled “Preliminary Recommendations (Not Yet Implemented)”
  • R1: Narrative-Aware Location Schema
  • R2: Fix Rumor Loop (query before generate)
  • R3: Activate Drama Manager (read storyBeats, return actionable recommendations)
  • R4: 5 new FFScript narrative node types
  • R5: Dual Timeline (World Chronicle + Player Chronicle)
  • R6: NPC Memory Types expansion

Implementation Status

Section titled “Implementation Status”

Research only. Implementation plan pending user approval of direction.

Key Academic References

Section titled “Key Academic References”
  • Jenkins (2004): Four modes of spatial storytelling
  • Mateas & Stern, Facade (2005): Drama manager
  • “Lost in the Middle” (Stanford/ACL): U-shaped context attention
  • SWAG (EMNLP 2024): Story generation as search (arXiv:2402.03483)
  • DOME (NAACL 2025): Dynamic hierarchical outline + temporal KG (arXiv:2412.13575)
  • NarrativeGenie (AIIDE 2024): Partially ordered event graphs
  • James Ryan (UCSC PhD): Story sifting / curationism