Stairs and methods for building them

## Building Stairs: and how traverse messages help

Describing a room as being stairs is a good start to informing the player how the layout of a build should be perceived. Stairs do just the 1 thing, so they are universally recognized to be connecting 2 different elevations. However, giving a room the name "stairs" is not enough to be meaningful, so builders have established a few common methods for indicating the direction of the rising elevation. This article will discuss those methods and provide a definitive answer to the question of which is best.

## The Room Description Method

Using just a room description is better than providing no detail at all. Something like "The stairs go down to the east and go up to the west", for example, is sufficient. However, those directions are already spoken in the look reply, so that adds redundancy.

## Breaking the 4th Wall

Providing the difficulty level of the connected elevations is a worse option. With something like "level 8 is east and level 9 is west", for example, the experience is completely demystified. In film production, this would be called "breaking the 4th wall", meaning the audience is exposed to something that makes it perfectly clear that the actors are on a stage. This method has the advantage of being informative, but it kills the fantasy experience of the game.

## Using Traverse Messages

The best method, by far, involves making use of the traverse message feature. With the Magic Marker Tool, builders can provide a message to be spoken when the player travels between rooms. These messages only trigger in 1 direction of a link, so movement in either direction can be handled differently.

In the case of stairs, its best to handle each direction. With the standard of 2 ends to stairs, a room named "stairs" would have 2 2-way exits. That makes 4 links through which a player might travel.

## Directions to Handle

The 4 directions are these:

* Upward, onto the stairs
* Upward, off the stairs
* Downward, onto the stairs
* Downward, off the stairs

## Example Traverse Messages

The traverse messages might sound like this:

* "You start upward on the stairs"
* "You move upward off the stairs"
* "You start downward on the stairs"
* "You move downward off the stairs"

### Tip on Traverse Message Content

Note that relative terms like "continue" are avoided. This is because we have no way to know if the player chose to go back the direction from which they arrived. We only know when they entered the stairs room, thus the use of "start".

### Detailed Instructions

A total of 3 rooms need to be edited with the Magic Marker: the stairs room, the next room up, and the next room down.

* 1. The next room up is given a message for its exit pointing toward the stairs room. It describes downward travel and entering the stairs.
* 2. The next room down is given a message for its exit pointing toward the stairs room. It describes upward travel and entering the stairs.
* 3. The stairs room is given 2 traverse messages:
* 3.1For the link pointing toward the up room, the message describes upward movement and leaving the stairs.
* 3.2For the link pointing toward the down room, the message describes downward movement and leaving the stairs.

## The Game Play Experience

In the process of passing through the stairs room, the player will have triggered a message describing the movement onto the stairs, then heard the room described, and heard a message describing movement back off the stairs. The details will be different, depending on the path taken and the direction of the elevation of the stairs.

The initial traverse message describes the change in elevation and lets the room description do its intended job of describing the room. The next traverse message is triggered by the player leaving the stairs. That traverse message also describes the change in elevation the player has chosen to take. While the player is on the stairs, they can look to review the room description, enjoy the flavor of that creative message, and still be reminded of which way the stairs go when they take the next step.

## Alternate Uses for This Method

This same method can be applied to any room intended to represent a change in elevation. Ramps, streambeds, ladders, cliffs, or whatever meets the needs. Traverse messages might describe different forms of travel such as climbing, swimming, sliding, or whatever.

## Summary

This method is certainly the most effort a builder can put into the design of a simple stairway. Its not always going to be more informative to provide all these traverse messages. The context of a simple stairway might not benefit from anything more than using the name "stairs". But, when a dungeon is intentionally designed to be a challenging maze, using traverse messages will give the player a better quality of game play experience.