The War of The Worlds - Narrative Structure Outline

	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H
1	The War of The Worlds - Detailed Narrative Structure
2	Scene Number	Act	Plot Point	Location	Date/Time	Characters in Scene	Synopsis	System Notes
3	A Shooting Star
4	1.1	Act 1	Exposition	Kew Gardens	Day	Narrator/Wife/Ogilvy	Characters are introduced. Marvel at the building and explore Victorian scientific artifacts. View through a telescope the launching of the objects from the surface of Mars	Dialogue QTE Learn the viewfinding mechanic Learn the scientific investigation mechanic
5	1.2	Act 1	Exposition	Horsell Village	Day	Narrator/Wife/Villagers	Characters return to house via the village and we understand a bit more of their personal story. The Narrator introduces his brothers story. They interact with people and items in the village in this section	Dialogue QTE
6	1.3	Act 1	Exposition	Streets of Central London/Brother's workplace	Day	Brother/Londoners/Workplace colleagues/ Paupers	Discover the story of the Narrator's brother. Explore a busy London. Examine the poverty of London streets and the opulence of the Upper classes as the brother enters the workplace. Understand a little about mechanical engineering (steam engines, etc)	Dialogue QTE Viewfinder Mechanic
7	1.4	Act 1	Inciting Incident	Narrator's House	Night	Narrator/Wife	Narrator and wife are in house and they peer through a window to see shooting star crash on the common. They agree to contact Ogilvy and inspect in the morning	Dialogue QTE
8	1.5	Act 1		Local telegraph station	Day	Narrator/Wife	Head to the telegraph station and learn how to send a message. Send to Ogilvy	Learn the communication mechanic
9	1.6	Act 1		Horsell Common	Morning	Narrator/Wife/Ogilvy	Arrive at the landing site and begin scientific investigation of the scene. The narrator examines clues and they start digging out the Martian ship. The ship reacts to them which causes them to leave.	Investigation Mechanic
10	1.7	Act 1		Narrator's House	Evening	Narrator/Wife	Send a letter to brother explaining what has happened and suggesting to meet at the safehouse in a few days if anything comes of it. Issue a press release for the newspapers	Dialogue QTE
11	1.8	Act 1	Inciting Incident	Horsell Common	Day	Narrator/Wife/Ogilvy	Woken by the sound of commotion, the Narrator and Wife go back to the site where large crowds and the military now gather. Ogilvy is also there. Enter into a dialogue with people nearby the capsule who are trying to break it open. In this process of breaking it open a section of the ship is collected for Ogilvy. The capsule performs an attack on some villagers and everyone flees as the Military start to mobilise and the capsule is indiscrimatory attacking the area.Ogilvy leaves the company of the narrator and heads home	Learn Martian Flight Mechanic
12	1.9	Act 1		Narrator's House	Day	Narrator/Wife/Artilleryman	As they flee towards their house they plan to go to the safehouse in Leatherhead. They enter their house and start packing their things. As the sounds of commotion outside gather momentum an Artilleryman hiding in their garden.	Dialogue QTE
13	1.10.	Act 1		Village	Day	Narrator/Wife/Artilleryman	A Tripod arrives in the village and this triggers a stealth avoidance tutorial whereby the Artilleryman teaches the Narrator how to perform stealth tactics	Learn Martian avoidance
14	1.11	Act 1	Plot Point One	Village	Day	Narrator/Wife/Artilleryman	Having avoided The Tripod they attempt to go to the stables to get a horse. On route to the stables a second appears rising in the sky and is looking directly at the group. They create a diversion to allow the wife to get to the stables which results in the Tripod shooting at them and destroying a building, covering them in rubble. The wife gets away	Martian avoidance QTE Major cutscene of Martian rising in front of Narrator and wife getting away
15	1.12	Act 1		Village	Night	Narrator/Artilleryman	The Narrator and Artilleryman are inside a collapsed building but are alive and the Tripods have left. They get out of the rubble through a series of QTE events and then have a sip of whiskey. The Narrator informs the Artilleryman of the safehouse and suggests meeting there if things don't go to plan. They get the two remaining horses and part company	Dialogue QTE
16	The Narrator's Journey
17	2.1.1	Act 2.1		Village	Night	Narrator	The narrator travels through an ethereal landscape of flashes and thunderstorms and witnesses another capsule landing. He needs to get past this Martian without being seen	Ride Horse
18	2.1.2	Act 2.1	Rising Action	Forest	Night	Narrator	The tripod presence pushes the narrator to travel towards Hampton Wick through wooded paths. Upon crossing a bridge a further tripod lands forcing him under the bridge to a rowboat, which he takes to continue downstream until it opens up to the Thames	Stealth Mechanic
19	2.1.3	Act 2.1		River	Night	Narrator	He travels along the river past Shepperton where he sees the mobilisation of an army, ending the trip by mooring the boat in Hampton Wick where he sees a ruined church on the outskirts of Hampton Court Palace and a Curate with his head in his hands	Row Boat
20	2.1.4	Act 2.1		Riverside	Night	Narrator/Curate	The narrator and the curate lament their situation under a backdrop of fighting. They watch from afar what appears to be a massacre on the shores of the thames and a thick black smoke begins appearing which they find suffocating. They hear nearby gunshots and the curate leads him away into the scullery of Hampton Court to hide out	Viewfinder Mechanic
21	2.1.5	Act 2.1		Scullery	Night/Day	Narrator/Curate	In the scullery they close all the windows to avoid the black smoke entering the building. They remain there until the early hours when they hear another capsule land. They hear Martians outside the window and see blue light glancing the windows	Dialogue QTE
22	2.1.6	Act 2.1		Scullery	Day	Narrator/Curate	As daylight rises they begin to examine the behaviour of the Martians through cracks in the door. They grow hungry and thirsty and look in the scullery for any food and drink they can find	Viewfinder Mechanic
23	2.1.7	Act 2.1	Midpoint	Scullery	Day	Narrator/Curate	This continues for days and the curate begins losing his mind as they discover more details of what the Martians are and how they feed on humans, as they are using the courtyard for storage of human bodily remains in order to feed. The narrator is lamenting that his wife is almost certainly now dead. As food and drink runs low, tensions begin to rise between both characters. The narrator in desperation begins extracting blackened water from a defunct sink tap. He manages to get half a glass of cloudy water which he puts in a glass, however the curate attempts to snatch it from him spilling the glass on the floor and in the process creating a large noise alerting the martians of their presence. A martian makes its way to the window and light spills into the room. Both men make a dart for the coal cellar but another martian appears at a gap in the wall and tentacles begin entering the room. Both men try to evade the tentacles, but do not necessarily both survive at this point depending on whether the player makes a decision to sacrifice the other character to save himself	Dialogue QTE Investigation Mechanic Operate taps Martian Dodge Mechanic
24	2.1.8	Act 2.1		Scullery	Day	Narrator/Curate	The narrator and curate dart into the coal cellar and bury themselves away in coal stores. The martian opens the door after a short while and begins praying for signs of life. It grabs some coal and will take the curate at this point if he wasn't taken previously, and the player will be required to operate the controller to remain in a calm state	Tension Mechanic
25	2.1.9	Act 2.1		Scullery	Day	Narrator	A day later the narrator gets up and peers outside the coal cellar. Within the scullery he can see a martian but it isnt moving. He can see that the martin has extracted the blood from the curate but has also gathered the remaining food and absorbed all the remaining liquid that was spilt by the curate the previous day. There are no other martians around any more. He concludes that he should collect anything that is relevant in the scene as samples because this situation presented to him seemed very odd. The narrator composes himself and notes that the black smoke has now disappeared and a red weed has now appeared outside and in the crack in the wall. On the basis that there are no martians in sight he decides to leave the room and head towards Kew Gardens to meet with the scientist regarding the discovery he made regarding the Martian's death.	Investigation Mechanic
26	2.1.10	Act 2.1	Plot Point Two	Kew Gardens	Night	Narrator/Ogilvy	The Narrator arrives at Kew Gardens which has been attacked by The Martians, but still operational. He meets with Ogilvy and they examine the artifacts and test it on the object previously collected in Horsell Common - establishing that it has a powerful effect. They grow the pathogen in the lab and create some vials for the Narrator to take with him to Leatherhead where he anticipates meeting up with others.	Investigation Mechanic
27	The Narrator's Wife's Journey
28	2.2.1	Act 2.2
29	The Narrator's Brother's Journey
30	2.3.1	Act 2.3
31	The Artilleryman's Journey
32	2.4.1	Act 2.4
33	Viral Reprise
34	3.1	Act 3		Safe House	Night	Narrator/Brother/Artilleryman	All companions arrive at the safe house. They spend the evening sharing their tales and formulate a plan to defeat the Martians with the pathogen vials in The Narrators possession	Dialogue QTE
35	3.2	Act 3		Journey to Weybridge	Day	Narrator/Brother/Artilleryman	The companions travel to Weybridge military HQ which is now abandoned. They access the military telegraph and send word out which is received by a Colonel in hiding. He accepts the challenge and agrees to coordinate a strike in 7 days time at Crossness, as well as seeking out Ogilvy to obtain further Pathogen.	Communication mechanic
36	3.3	Act 3		Journey to Westminster	Day	Narrator/Brother/Artilleryman	The companions travel to London and en route they have to avoid Martians and they witness the Martians rounding up people and marching them to a camp. They witness the barrows of dead bodies. They must stay out of sight to avoid detection. The decide to follow the trail of prisoners. The narrator becomes increasingly unhinged in dialogue.	Stealth Mechanic Viewfinder Mechanic
37	3.4	Act 3		Westminster Concentration Camp	Night	Narrator/Brother/Artilleryman	Arriving at Westminster they climb a building to get sight of what appears to be a refugee camp. Using binoculars The Narrator witnesses his wife in the camp. The companions talk him out of a suicide mission to try to rescue her but the incident sends him into deep anxiety. The area is littered with Martians and they conclude to stealth travel to the Underground Station nearby by rooftop in order to get out of the area.	Viewfinder Mechanic Travelling across rooftops Stealth Mechanic
38	3.5	Act 3		Westminster Underground Station	Night	Narrator/Brother/Artilleryman	They enter the underground station and head down into the tunnels where they discover a human refugee camp. They are free to explore the refugee camp and they meet with characters from rich and poor backgrounds that are now unified by the same social nightmare: all are affected equally. The Narrator falls very unwell, triggering a dream sequence	Dialogue QTE
39	3.6	Act 3	Pre Climax	Narrator's Mind	N/A	Narrator/Tripod	The Narrator has flashbacks of all the Martian murder and destruction and sees his wife getting murdered. There is an abstract mechanic whereby the player is inside a tripod and is controlling the heatray which is visibly murdering human life.	Cutscene Combat mechanic
40	3.7	Act 3		Underground Tunnel and Rotherhithe Tunnel open top construction site	Night	Narrator/Brother/Artilleryman	The narrator is nursed back to health and the team depart on the final leg of their journey. They leave the camp and travel through dark tunnels using gas lights to see making their way through to Rotherhithe, at which point they are in a semi open environment. They are spotted by Martians and they have to flee through the tunnel construction site into the sewer system and lock the door to keep themselves safe from the pursuing Martians.	Navigating with Gas Light Martian Dodge Mechanic
41	3.8	Act 3		Sewer System	Night	Narrator/Brother/Artilleryman	They navigate through a maze of sewers and are being followed by Martians from outside the tunnels which is evident through blue light glancing through from above ground. The Martians do get into the sewers and the companions have to drop sluices within the tunnels in order to keep safe from the Martians. The companions get lost in the sewers but establish there are directions within the tunnels which are covered in mud, but they only realise this after they have navigated in circles for a while and circle back on their own marker. Upon revealing direction directly to Crossness they head down the network until they reach a ladder and a hatch	Navigate with Gas Light Operate sluices to open and close routes to protect from the Martians Martian Dodge Mechanic
42	3.9	Act 3	Climax	Crossness Treatment Plant	Night	Narrator/Brother/Artilleryman	This is the climactic scene whereby the companions need to establish how to restore power to Crossness Treatment Plant, infect the water supply with a mild pathogen, then put the sewage system in reverse so that the contaminated water is sent backwards through the pipes and floods the streets of London. They navigate through a dark basement layer and find a murdered plant worker who was in the middle of fixing the pipework. They then arrive into the glorious central chamber. Once the power is operational they marvel at the building design and then contaminate the water supply. A Tripod blows a hole in the building and they are chased by Martians into the central chamber where they must work as a team to reverse the water system to backfill the streets of London with contaminated sewage. The do this whilst being attacked by Martians. Upon completion they escape the building through a water outlet to the Thames as they watch the building self destruct, killing their Martian foes.	Navigate with Gas Light QTE Viewfinding Mechanic Martian Dodge Mechanic Operate Machinery Mechanic End Scene Pipe Puzzle Game
43	3.1	Act 3	Denouement	Central London	Day	Narrator/Brother/Artilleryman/Wife	The companions are ejected into the Thames and a cutscene triggers showing the similar efforts across London's supply network and the flooding of the London streets resulting in the Martian's dropping dead. The companions begin journeying back into Central London with the playable scene beginning in Westminster. They head to the concentration camp and find The Narrator's wife as refugees pour onto the streets from the tunnels. The game ends with an impromptu celebration with the companions travelling back towards Horsell.	Major cutscene ending with a playable scene in Westminster where the Narrator finds his wife in the camp and everyone pours onto the streets to celebrate
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