Hi! So, I think that it would be a good idea for stories to have "guest star" characters that would be played by a user for a single scene. This would allow a lot more potential for depth and detail for characters that are only present for a single scene, which would be good for the narrator, players, story, and everyone on Storium.

This quote is from me on the #storium-chat on Slack on December 29, 2018:

"I think a good random example would be; I have a game, Game X, and I want a potential character in my game, Character A. Character A is an anti-hero who will be working against the group of protagonists (random example there), and I want Character A to be a really deep, detailed character, not just a static, greedy, boring villain. Character A would only be relevant in Game X for a single scene, scene Y for example, so I can open submissions for a guest star (just like any normal character would be submitted) and I'd accept whatever character looks best for the story. After Scene Y is over, Character A would not be in the next scene, and they'd go on the character's profile under a 'guest starred in' category as: Character A in Game X for Scene Y."

Narrators would also have the ability to re-invite guest star characters from previous scenes if they desired to do so, and they would decide how many scenes the guest star would appear for in the story. Also, guest star characters would be submitted the same way as a regular character would, but the host would instead open submissions for a guest star instead of a permanent character.

You may wonder, "How is this different from having an NPC for a scene?"

Well, this would allow more depth and detail to the character, as a user would be controlling this character just as any other character in that scene.

You may also think, "Can't you do that already by inviting a character and them retiring them on the next scene?"

I have found that users do not enjoy accumulating a surplus of retired characters on their profile pages. Honestly, who wants those? Because of that, it rarely ever happens (I've never even seen it happen, myself). This would allow a user to proudly display their guest star character on their profile page, and it wouldn't reflect negatively on them by showing up as a retired character.

Feel free to ask me any questions or leave any comments/constructive criticism below, as this idea can definitely be tweaked and improved. Thank you!