Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

Orcs build on whatever the player does, like improv's "yes, and" rule. The game secretly logs basic actions such as kill, flee, injure, heal and gather intel, and at the next encounter an orc picks the most interesting line from that log. Fleeing a captain gets you called a coward later; planting a spy makes the next orc vow to torture maggots until he is found.

The player never learns a special story input, because normal play is how they pitch story ideas. Even simpler memory works: Zumug taunts "Not letting you run this time!" after you fled. "The player does something, the game recognises it, and builds on it."

Orcs also hand the player story hooks they can choose to chase. Ar-Karo beats the player, picks up his sword and breaks it, so the player sets out to hunt him down. A memorable insult or humiliation creates a target the player picks themselves.

Story runs both ways: the orc prompts, and the player decides whether to take the bait and make it a personal goal.

The story is built at runtime, not plotted in advance. Even games with branches and multiple endings are scripted like a choose-your-own-adventure book. Mordor constructs its story encounter by encounter, using player interactions as "narrative brickwork."

In Mark Brown's run, an Olog who broke his sword was promoted, killed, returned as The Stitch, was recruited as a bodyguard, and ended as "Death-defying breaker of swords. Overlord for life." Monolith brought story generation, seen in Rimworld and Crusader Kings, to a real-time action game with blockbuster graphics.

Every fight has exits other than a kill, so characters survive to continue. Players can flee, hurt orcs retreat, downed orcs can escape, and an orc can spare a downed player to humiliate them. Maku the archer kept downing Mark with poisoned arrows and stopped short, saying "I want a victory, not a mercy killing."

Each exit leaves a memory the next meeting references. Prâk escapes crying "I can't go down like this!"

Player death is a story beat, not an error erased by reload. Talion is a gravewalker who respawns, so the orc that killed him becomes a revenge target. An orc that kills the player levels up, gains strengths, sheds weaknesses and often challenges a bigger orc.

Monolith borrowed from Burnout, where being wrecked sets up a rematch with the rival, and from the Call of Duty killcam. Much of the design tried to recreate multiplayer rivalry with AI characters.

Slain orcs can return scarred, reflecting the player's actions back. Every slain orc has a small chance to cheat death and come back with scars, injuries or prosthetics. Ar-Karo returned half an hour after being beheaded to say "Getting killed by you was the best thing that ever happened to me," later reappearing as The Stitch with an iron helmet holding his head together.

A ranking structure adds falls from grace and rags-to-riches arcs. Shadow of War ranks orcs as Overlord, Warchiefs, captains and soldiers. Killing Talion promotes an orc, shaming a warchief demotes them, and random timed missions shift power without the player.

Maku rose from humiliating captain to Overlord and became untouchable without a full assault on his fortress.

Bodyguards, blood brothers and recruits turn duels into a web of characters. Orcs can serve as bodyguards or blood brothers, and the player can recruit orcs like Ar-Karo. Recruits may betray you, a planted spy may be executed, and a follower may save you at a clutch moment.

Recruits mostly leave the map, so the follower bond is thinner than the rivalry.

Give each orc one strong, constantly repeated trait. With about 100 captains per game, each orc is built around one identity, like Ghûra who sings his threats or Zuka who speaks in verse. The trait shapes its look, weapon, combat and lines.

Players may forget the name but remember "that guy who keeps talking about branding."

Handcrafted characters slot into procedural roles to become iconic. The Stitch is handcrafted and may appear when an Olog cheats death, then serve as captain, warchief, spy or follower. Hundreds of voice lines per orc cover every situation.

Make defeat personal and pay off revenge with better loot. When an orc kills you, aggressive kill animations, a taunt, a celebration and a promotion follow, and the orc may rename itself after how it killed you. Killing an orc that murdered you drops much better loot.

Emotion and incentive point the same way.

Keep the most dramatic events rare so they stay surprising. Cheating death, betrayal and transformations run on low random rolls, some happen only once per playthrough, and most orcs never cheat death. Invisible die rolls decide whether a follower saves you when downed.

"If it happens over and over it becomes rote, predictable, and just another gameplay mechanic."

A hidden familiarity score makes rare events hit orcs you know. Each orc's player interaction score rises on every re-encounter and raises its odds of cheating death and surviving. Orcs that killed you repeatedly end up in key story roles.

The game cheats spawning so key rivals stay present. A key rival can teleport in at the worst moment, and orcs can rarely travel between regions so old rivals return. Ar-Karo appeared mid-fight half an hour after Mark killed him.

A balancing knob provokes betrayal when the player does too well. Design director Bob Roberts describes a knob that makes someone betray a player who has killed or recruited everything, creating a revenge target.

Mark Brown doubts it is aggressive: on easy settings his stories stagnated and he raised the difficulty himself.

Short lines leave gaps for the player's imagination. Orcs speak in short stabs rather than cutscenes. One seeks revenge for a blood brother without saying who, so the player picks the most interesting candidate.

"Why not just leave some of the heavy lifting to the player's brain?"

A patent and the sequel's lootbox reputation kept the system rare. Monolith holds a patent, and studios may fear a lawsuit like Sega's over The Simpsons: Road Rage. Shadow of War's microtransactions and lootboxes overshadowed its storytelling.

Similar systems such as Assassin's Creed Odyssey's mercenaries stay surface level. Warner Bros. should be free to use it, with Batman and Harry Potter rumours unconfirmed.

Orcs build on whatever the player does, like improv's "yes, and" rule. The game secretly logs basic actions such as kill, flee, injure, heal and gather intel, and at the next encounter an orc picks the most interesting line from that log. Fleeing a captain gets you called a coward later; planting a spy makes the next orc vow to torture maggots until he is found.

The player never learns a special story input, because normal play is how they pitch story ideas. Even simpler memory works: Zumug taunts "Not letting you run this time!" after you fled. "The player does something, the game recognises it, and builds on it."