How Fantasy Contracts Become Story Choices: Let Players Understand the Promise Before Signing
To write a contract as a story choice, the key is to put three things on the table before the player makes a decision: what each side must do, under what circumstances exceptions apply, and what to do if they want to exit. If any one is missing, the contract is just background decoration, and the player's choice becomes guesswork. Below, a fictional teaching example, "Borrowed Wind Agency," is used to demonstrate; the characters, terms, and numbers in the example are all fabricated, used only to explain the writing approach, and do not constitute real contract advice.
Introduction
To write a contract as a story choice, the key is to put three things on the table before the player makes a decision: what each side must do, under what circumstances exceptions apply, and what to do if they want to exit. If any one is missing, the contract is just background decoration, and the player's choice becomes guesswork. Below, a fictional teaching example, "Borrowed Wind Agency," is used to demonstrate; the characters, terms, and numbers in the example are all fabricated, used only to explain the writing approach, and do not constitute real contract advice.
First Make the Terms Comparable, Then Let the Player Sign
In "Borrowed Wind Agency," the protagonist is a wind courier who runs errands for others and can use the wind to deliver letters, people, or a small object. Three short contracts hang on the agency wall, and the player must choose one to take on in Chapter One.
| Contract | Other Party's Requirement | What We Gain | Exception | Termination |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deliver Letter | Deliver the letter to Mist Ridge Station within three days, without opening it | An old wind chime, can summon one favorable wind | If the station is closed, may deliver instead to the inn at the foot of the mountain | Return the wind chime, pay for one night's lodging |
| Find Person | Find the missing apprentice Atang and bring her back | A hidden old road that Atang knows | If Atang clearly refuses, must not force her to come | Give up the old road information and may leave |
| Night Watch | Watch for three nights in the bell tower, must not leave when the bell rings | One copper button per night, can be exchanged for one asking of directions | May evacuate if the bell tower catches fire | Return the copper buttons already received |
The three rows carry a comparable amount of information, so the player can compare them side by side: delivering the letter is low risk and low reward; finding the person involves a moral dilemma; night watch takes time but is stable. The contract is not a binary choice of "take it or not," but "which cost to trade for which benefit."
Write the Performance Content as Performable Actions
If "deliver letter" only says "complete the commission," the player does not know what to do. Change it into performable actions: enter Mist Ridge, find the station, hand the letter to the gray-robed recipient, and get a receipt. Each step can become a scene or an option.
Likewise, the performance of "night watch" is: arrive at the bell tower before nightfall, stay in place when the bell rings, and report to the steward after dawn. Written this way, breach also has a concrete form—running downstairs when the bell rings is a breach, and no extra explanation is needed.
Exception Clauses Must Appear in Advance, Not Be Added After the Fact
The delivery contract in "Borrowed Wind Agency" says, "If the station is closed, may deliver instead to the inn at the foot of the mountain." This exception must be shown when the player takes the contract, not pop up only after the station actually closes. Otherwise, the player will feel that the rules were made up on the spot.
Exceptions should also be limited. The exception in the find-person contract is "If Atang clearly refuses, must not force her to come." It protects Atang, not the protagonist's convenience. If it were written as "If the protagonist feels it is unsuitable, he may not bring her," the exception would swallow the responsibility.
Explain Once: Let the NPC Speak Clearly
Before the player takes a contract, they can ask the agency steward three questions. The steward's surname is Lu, and he is an old hand at bookkeeping. The dialogue can be written like this:
Player: What if the station is closed? Steward Lu: It says on the back of the contract, deliver instead to the inn at the foot of the mountain, and the receipt still counts. Don't change the address yourself. Player: What if Atang refuses to come back? Steward Lu: Then you come back, and I'll find another way about the old road. The agency does not recognize forcing someone to come. Player: What if the bell tower collapses during the night watch? Steward Lu: Life matters most, run first. Return the copper buttons to me.
The purpose of this dialogue is not to supplement the worldbuilding, but to turn the three columns in the table into words the player can remember. Steward Lu does not judge which contract is better; he only states the rules. Only after hearing this does the player choose, and only then does the act of signing carry weight.
Note: Steward Lu's "the agency does not recognize" is the agency's position, not a world law. Excuses, evasions, or exaggerations fabricated by characters must be clearly marked as only this character's statement, and cannot be treated as new world facts.
Two Branches: Signing and Modifying Terms
The player can sign as is, or ask to change one clause. Changing a clause is not a free lunch; what it changes is the distribution of responsibility between both sides.
Signing branch: choose any one of the three contracts and execute it according to the original terms. Delivering the letter is the simplest; finding the person is most likely to get stuck when Atang refuses; night watch consumes the most time but gives a copper button each night. After the player signs, the contract enters the log, and later scenes are judged according to the terms.
Modifying terms branch: the player can change only one clause, and must pay the corresponding cost. For example, changing the delivery deadline from three days to five days, Steward Lu will require the wind chime as collateral; changing the find-person requirement from "bring back" to "confirm safety is enough," the reward drops from the old road information to one copper button; changing the night watch from "three nights" to "two nights," then the copper button per night is reduced to half, and when the bell rings on the third night the player is not present, triggering an extra trouble.
Modified terms must be displayed again in full, not merely shown as "modified." The player needs to see the new obligations of both sides, the new exceptions, and the new termination method in order to judge whether the deal is still worth it.
Completion Check
After writing a contract, self-check with the following items:
- Can the performance content be broken down into specific actions, and can each action correspond to a scene or option?
- Do exceptions appear before signing, and are they limited in scope without swallowing responsibility?
- Is the termination method written with its cost, rather than "can exit at any time"?
- Can three or more contracts be compared side by side, rather than only divided into good and bad?
- When characters explain the rules, is there a distinction between "character position" and "world fact"?
- After modifying terms, are the new terms displayed again in full?
If item 2 or item 3 cannot be answered, do not write the signing scene yet. If the player cannot understand the promise, the later choices are just random buttons.
Next step: take one contract you have on hand, add only the two lines "exception" and "termination," then have a character explain it to the player in three sentences.
