Temptre

Temptre is a coinage used in speculative fiction, game design discourse, and narrative analysis to describe a tree-like model of temptations and moral choices encountered by a character. In this framework, each node represents a decision point or event that may trigger temptation, and each edge encodes a possible transition to a subsequent state, with attributes such as temptation strength, perceived risk, and potential consequence. The temptre is not a universal standard but a flexible concept used to discuss branching structures that capture how choices influence story trajectories.

Etymology and history: The term temptre appears to be a neologism formed from the word temptation and the tree metaphor. Its exact origins are informal, arising in online writing communities and design discussions in the late 2010s and early 2020s. It has no formal governing body or official specification, and definitions vary by author or project.

Structure and mechanics: In practice, a temptre is a directed graph with a root node at the story’s starting point. Nodes hold metadata such as scene description, character state, and moral valence. Edges are labeled with action names and include data fields for temptation score, likelihood, and outcome notes. Some variants incorporate probabilistic branches, constraint rules, or temporal dimensions to reflect changing temptations over time.

Applications and reception: Temptres are used to analyze or design interactive narratives, moral dilemma simulations, and educational tools about decision making. They can help writers visualize branching narratives, balance pacing, and study how early temptations influence later outcomes. Critics note that the abstraction can oversimplify complex psychology or reduce characters to decision points.

See also: decision tree, narrative branching, moral psychology, interactive fiction.