Sagiro's Story Hour: writing style

Sagiro · Jul 10, 2003

As you probably know, I’ve recently started recording my game sessions to assist my note-taking. This has had an effect on the story hour, as now I can include more details and verbatim dialogue. (And I have, for the last five posts.)

But this isn’t necessarily a good thing. Please select from the choices above the one that best reflects your opinion (or lack thereof) on the matter.

Thanks!

-Sagiro

Duncan Haldane · Jul 10, 2003

Hey Sagiro,

I ticked the "may get tedious" box on the poll, but I was meaning in terms of it being more tedious for you to type up from the recording.

I like the extra dialogue, although we don't need every line IMO, but don't get burnt out by it!

And thanks for a wonderful story.

Duncan

Sagiro · Jul 10, 2003

Duncan Haldane said:
Hey Sagiro,

I ticked the "may get tedious" box on the poll, but I was meaning in terms of it being more tedious for you to type up from the recording.

Oops... for future voters, I meant "tedious for the reader."

-Sagiro

dpdx · Jul 10, 2003

Honestly, Sagiro, and you don't need me to tell you this, but I'm going to, anyway:

Your Story Hour rocks because of the personalities of the characters involved, the rich scenery, the complex plots, and for me anyway, the fact that at no point in the story (and I've been reading from jump - when Abernathy's Company first formed) has this ever been easy for the players. I suspect I'll never play in a campaign this good, much as I wish I would.

I'll also add: I've always just imagined the dialogue as it is, so if you wouldn't have told us you'd "changed your style", I wouldn't have noticed it. So I voted the neutral option. It would take a sea change in your narrative style to ever detract from your Story Hour.

Maybe you need a "What Style Change?" option.

(contact) · Jul 10, 2003

The best part about reading D&D stories is the D&D.

For those of us who play the game, we bring to the story our unspoken understanding of how a game is stuctured, what goes into resolving conflicts, creating ongoing storylines, etc.

Adding verbatim dialogue puts us "at the table" in a more concrete way, and that is a Good Thing. I think it's a fantastic addition!

Zad · Jul 10, 2003

The interesting thing I find as a reader who is never at the table is that it changes my perception of the characters. When I only see the cleaned up dialogue and such, I get a certain impression of the characters. When I hear Morningstar making an amusing quip, it makes her seem more like a character around my own gaming sessions since none of us can resist such a thing when it comes up. It makes them seem less . . . heroic? remote? (I'm at a loss for a good word) and more like real people.

This is neither good nor bad, but it's the biggest thing I noticed. Perhaps it would be accurate to say it is both good *and* bad and sort of depends on the kind of tone you're going for in your story.

Our game sessions are filled with every wise crack you can find (heck Scorch having his eye cut out resulted in every eye joke written for the rest of the night) but for the most part it doesn't make the story hour, resulting in a certain serious tone. Is that good or bad? Beats me. I just write it - you don't think I actually read my junk do you?

Gideon · Jul 10, 2003

Duncan Haldane is a smart man...I agree with him

Enkhidu · Jul 10, 2003

Personally, Sagiro, I love reading your stuff. You've proven to be a good story teller with a good story: that's something hat can be hard to pull off.

I like the inclusion of table dialogue - and your group seems like it is able to stay in character enough to make it possible for you to transcribe large portions of their dialogue verbatim and still make it sound pretty good. But, it is possible to overdo it...

You might make the mistake of putting too much dialogue in - so far, this hasn't been the case, but I suspect that it might be because the dialogue is "new." You have a wonderful tool to record your group's wonderful roleplaying, but don't be afraid to simply sum up the more tedious parts of the story once you have all the PC's voices worked out.

And I hope there's much much more like this to come!

Mathew_Freeman · Jul 10, 2003

I'm enjoying the new style. I like reading all the funny little quips your players come out with!

el-remmen · Jul 10, 2003

I love the extra dialogue and detail!

However, to be honest, I find the "out-of-game" quips kind of jarring (like when someone quipped about elves having 3 rings or something like that).