Works & References

The works this part’s articles discuss and the texts they cite. The print edition carries the credited works and the references; the web edition adds the wider research consulted.

Works discussed

• 80 Days. inkle, 2014.
• afternoon, a story. Michael Joyce, 1990.
• All You Need Is Kill. Hiroshi Sakurazaka, 2004.
• Apocalypse World. D. Vincent Baker and Meguey Baker (lumpley games), 2010.
• Barrowmaze. Greg Gillespie, 2011.
• Blades in the Dark. John Harper (One Seven Design), 2017.
• Braid. Jonathan Blow (Number None), 2008.
• Cain’s Jawbone. Edward Powys Mathers (as Torquemada), 1934.
• Cloud Atlas. David Mitchell, 2004.
• Critical Role. Matthew Mercer and cast, 2015.
• DASH (Different Area, Same Hunt). DASH organising group, 2009.
• Death at the Dive Bar. Hunt A Killer, 2020.
• Disco Elysium. ZA/UM, 2019.
• Dolmenwood. Gavin Norman (Necrotic Gnome), 2024 to 2025.
• Dragonlance (the DL module series). TSR, 1984.
• Dungeons & Dragons. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson (TSR), 1974.
• Edge of Tomorrow. Doug Liman (Warner Bros.), 2014.
• Fallen London. Failbetter Games, 2009.
• Fiasco. Jason Morningstar (Bully Pulpit Games), 2009.
• The Forgotten City. Modern Storyteller (Dear Villagers), 2021.
• Gone Home. The Fullbright Company, 2013.
• Grand Theft Auto III. Rockstar Games, 2001.
• Groundhog Day. Harold Ramis (Columbia Pictures), 1993.
• The Halls of Arden Vul. Richard Barton, 2020.
• Heavy Rain. Quantic Dream, 2010.
• Her Story. Sam Barlow, 2015.
• Houdini’s Workshop. PanIQ Escape Room, New York (escape room; opening year not established).
• Hunt A Killer. Ryan Hogan and Derrick Smith (Baltimore), 2016.
• Inception. Christopher Nolan, 2010.
• The Ladder. Hatch Escapes (Los Angeles), 2024.
• Life is Strange. DON’T NOD (Square Enix), 2015.
• Living Greyhawk. Wizards of the Coast / RPGA, 2000.
• Magnolia. Paul Thomas Anderson (New Line Cinema), 1999.
• Masquerade. Kit Williams, 1979.
• Megagames (incl. Watch the Skies). The UK megagame tradition (Jim Wallman / Megagame Makers); Watch the Skies first run London 2013.
• Microscope. Ben Robbins (Lame Mage Productions), 2011.
• The MIT Mystery Hunt. Founded by Brad Schaefer, 1981.
• Monster of the Week. Michael Sands (Evil Hat Productions), revised edition 2015.
• NORCO. Geography of Robots (Raw Fury), 2022.
• The One Ring (2nd edition). Free League Publishing, 2021.
• Outdoor Survival. Avalon Hill, 1972.
• Outer Wilds. Mobius Digital (Annapurna Interactive), 2019.
• Pulp Fiction. Quentin Tarantino (Miramax), 1994.
• RESET. Alfredo Tarancón (a Breathless-system time-loop game; release year not established).
• Return of the Obra Dinn. Lucas Pope (3909), 2018.
• Russian Doll. Natasha Lyonne, Leslye Headland and Amy Poehler (Netflix), 2019.
• Save the Date. Chris Cornell (Paper Dino), 2013.
• Stars Without Number. Kevin Crawford (Sine Nomine), 2010.
• The Edison. Palace Games, San Francisco, 2018 (escape room).
• Time To Drop. Marn S., 2022.
• The Walking Dead. Telltale Games, 2012.
• The West Marches campaign. Ben Robbins, 2001 to 2003.
• Worlds Without Number. Kevin Crawford (Sine Nomine), 2020.

References

• Alexander, Justin. “Don’t Prep Plots.” The Alexandrian, 23 March 2008. https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/1124/roleplaying-games/dont-prep-plots
• Alexander, Justin. “Game Structures, Part 6: Hexcrawls.” The Alexandrian. https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/15156/roleplaying-games/game-structures-part-6-hexcrawls
• Alexander, Justin. “Node-Based Scenario Design, Part 1.” The Alexandrian, 27 May 2010. https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/7949/roleplaying-games/node-based-scenario-design-part-1-the-plotted-approach
• Alexander, Justin. “Pointcrawls.” The Alexandrian. https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/48666/roleplaying-games/pointcrawls
• Alexander, Justin. “The Art of Pacing, Part 2: Scene-Framing.” The Alexandrian. https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/31520/roleplaying-games/the-art-of-pacing-part-2-scene-framing
• Alexander, Justin. “The Three Clue Rule.” The Alexandrian, 8 May 2008. https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/1118/roleplaying-games/three-clue-rule
• Ashwell, Sam Kabo. “Standard Patterns in Choice-Based Games.” These Heterogenous Tasks, 26 January 2015. https://heterogenoustasks.wordpress.com/2015/01/26/standard-patterns-in-choice-based-games/
• Baker, D. Vincent, and Meguey Baker. Apocalypse World. Lumpley Games, 2010 (2nd ed. 2016).
• Bergson, Henri. Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic. 1900.
• Bickham, Jack M. Scene and Structure. Writer’s Digest Books, 1993.
• Bordwell, David. “Mutual Friends and Chronologies of Chance.” In Poetics of Cinema. Routledge, 2008. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperlink_cinema
• Brody, Jessica. Save the Cat! Writes a Novel. Ten Speed Press, 2018.
• Campbell, Courtney (“-C”). “On Slaying the Quantum Ogre.” Hack & Slash, September 2011. http://hackslashmaster.blogspot.com/2011/09/on-slaying-quantum-ogre.html
• Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Pantheon Books, 1949.
• Coyne, Shawn. The Story Grid: What Good Editors Know. Black Irish Entertainment, 2015.
• Edwards, Ron. “GNS and Other Matters of Role-Playing Theory.” The Forge, 2001. http://www.indie-rpgs.com/articles/1/
• Field, Syd. Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting. Dell, 1979.
• Freytag, Gustav. Die Technik des Dramas. 1863. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dramatic_structure
• Genette, Gérard. Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method. Cornell University Press, 1980.
• Goldman, William. On “start late, leave early” in screenwriting. No Film School. https://nofilmschool.com/start-late-leave-early
• Gygax, Gary, and Dave Arneson. Dungeons & Dragons (Original Edition). TSR, 1974.
• Harmon, Dan. “Story Structure 101 to 104.” Channel 101 wiki, discussed by Scott Myers. https://scottdistillery.medium.com/dan-harmon-the-heros-journey-and-the-circle-theory-of-story-b64bb77d6976
• Hon, Adrian. “The Ladder: A Hilariously Absurd, Surprisingly Replayable Escape Room.” mssv.net, 6 July 2025. https://mssv.net/2025/07/06/the-ladder-a-hilariously-absurd-surprisingly-replayable-escape-room/
• Ingold, Jon. “Adventures in Text: Innovating in Interactive Fiction.” GDC 2015. https://gdcvault.com/play/1021774/Adventures-in-Text-Innovating-in
• Irpan, Alex. “Writing MIT Mystery Hunt 2023.” https://www.alexirpan.com/2023/02/27/mh-2023.html
• Jenkins, Henry. “Game Design as Narrative Architecture.” In First Person, MIT Press, 2004. http://web.mit.edu/~21fms/People/henry3/games&narrative.html
• Kennedy, Alexis. “Storynexus and Quality-Based Narrative.” Failbetter Games. https://www.failbettergames.com/news/storynexus
• Kutalik, Chris. “Pointcrawl Series Index” (2014) and “Hexcrawls vs Pointcrawls” (2016). Hill Cantons. http://hillcantons.blogspot.com/2014/11/pointcrawl-series-index.html
• Laws, Robin D. Robin’s Laws of Good Game Mastering. Steve Jackson Games, 2002.
• Laws, Robin D. Hamlet’s Hit Points. Gameplaywright Press, 2010.
• McKee, Robert. Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting. ReganBooks, 1997.
• Mittell, Jason. “Previously On: Prime Time Serials and the Mechanics of Memory.” Just TV, 3 July 2009. https://justtv.wordpress.com/2009/07/03/previously-on-prime-time-serials-and-the-mechanics-of-memory/
• Nicholson, Scott. “Peeking Behind the Locked Door: A Survey of Escape Room Facilities.” 2015. https://scottnicholson.com/pubs/erfacwhite.pdf
• Robbins, Ben. “Grand Experiments: West Marches.” ars ludi, October 2007. https://arsludi.lamemage.com/index.php/78/grand-experiments-west-marches/
• Ryan, Marie-Laure. Narrative as Virtual Reality. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.
• Sanderson, Brandon. “Lecture 7: Try/Fail Cycles.” BYU writing lectures, 2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkOMl6xTXIg
• Short, Emily. “Beyond Branching: Quality-Based, Salience-Based, and Waypoint Narrative Structures.” Emily Short’s Interactive Storytelling, 12 April 2016. https://emshort.blog/2016/04/12/beyond-branching-quality-based-and-salience-based-narrative-structures/
• Snyder, Blake. Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need. Michael Wiese Productions, 2005.
• Swain, Dwight V. Techniques of the Selling Writer. University of Oklahoma Press, 1965.
• Vogler, Christopher. The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers. Michael Wiese Productions, 1992.
• Whitta, Gary. “The Walking Dead and the Art of Providing No ‘Good’ Choice.” Game Developer. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/-i-the-walking-dead-i-and-the-art-of-providing-no-good-choice

Research basis

Consulted while writing; not cited in the text.

• Further Alexandrian essays (the Hexcrawl series and addendum; “On the Matter of Quantum Ogres”; “The Art of Pacing”; “The Secret Life of Nodes, Part 2”). https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/17308/roleplaying-games/hexcrawl
• Analog Game Studies. “Computing Models of Escape Rooms.” December 2020. https://analoggamestudies.org/2020/12/computing-models-of-escape-rooms/
• Narrative-craft references on the “surprising yet inevitable” ending (Writers.com; Electric Literature on Aristotle’s Poetics). https://writers.com/feature/better-endings-surprising-yet-inevitable-and-astonishing
• “Chekhov’s Gun” (Wikipedia; Scribophile) and “Deus Ex Machina” (Chapter Blog). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chekhov%27s_gun
• Choice of Games design posts (“How We Plan a ChoiceScript Game”; “Length and Coding Efficiency”; “Vignette Structure as a Means of Controlling Branching”). https://www.choiceofgames.com/2010/05/planning-a-choicescript-game/
• Old-school and open-table campaign references (Crawling for Coppers on Stonehell; Grumpy Wizard; Principia Apocrypha; Prismatic Wasteland; The Retired Adventurer; Jeff Rients on Wessex and FLAILSNAILS; WestMarches.games; ALA Games and Gaming Round Table). https://lithyscaphe.blogspot.com/p/principia-apocrypha.html
• Japanese dramatic-structure references (“Jo-ha-kyū” and “Kishōtenketsu,” Wikipedia). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo-ha-ky%C5%AB
• Scene-and-sequel craft (Fawkes on Swain; “Scene and sequel,” Wikipedia; Weiland on Motivation-Reaction Units). https://www.septembercfawkes.com/2021/09/scene-structure-according-to-dwight-v.html
• Pacing guides (Sly Flourish; Roleplaying Tips; Run a Game; The TTRPG Factory; Phd20; The Angry GM). https://slyflourish.com/pacing.html
• Hexcrawl and pointcrawl design (Smale’s Welsh Piper series; Silverarm Press; Traverse Fantasy on OD&D and Outdoor Survival; Wayne’s Books). https://welshpiper.com/hex-based-campaign-design-part-1/
• Escape-room pacing and finale references (Elumir on The Codex; ER Workshop; EscapeRoomSupplier; The Escape Revolution; Mystery Soup Games; Room Escape Artist reviews). https://thecodex.ca/13-rules-for-escape-room-puzzle-design/
• Title/series background pages (Wikipedia on Inception, Dragonlance, Living Greyhawk, Stars Without Number, Outdoor Survival, afternoon, a story; The Digital Antiquarian on Kit Williams; Hatch Escapes and Room Escape Artist on The Ladder; The Edison and Houdini’s Workshop operator pages).
• Murray, Janet. Hamlet on the Holodeck. Free Press, 1997.
• Provost, Gary. 100 Ways to Improve Your Writing. Mentor, 1985.
• Railroading-and-sandbox discourse (RPG Diegesis “Whence cometh ‘Railroading’?”; luckthebard; EN World threads). https://rpgdiegesis.wordpress.com/2023/02/05/whence-cometh-railroading-some-history-of-the-term-and-on-the-german-love-for-trains/
• Totten, Christopher. “Designing and Integrating Puzzles in Action-Adventure Games.” Game Developer, 2019.