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<blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 9254140" data-attributes="member: 22779">In the excellent DM's Advice thread, this particular bit of advice caught my eye:Now, my initial reaction here is a big, heck no.&nbsp; Story, in my mind, is crucial in an RPG.&nbsp; But, stepping back a second, I wonder if there isn't a problem with how we each define what a story is.To me, a story is simply character, setting and plot.&nbsp; That's why you can have 5 word stories, Drabbles (100 word stories) and various other very short fiction.&nbsp; To me, a story isn't a closed system.&nbsp; But, I think a lot of people define story in terms of a complete narrative.&nbsp; That you have a definite beginning, middle and ending and until you get to that last bit of punctuation, you don't actually have a story, but, once that final bit is in, it's locked in and THAT is the story.Which, in my mind anyway, possibly explains why you see such different DMing advice.&nbsp; In another thread, we were talking about WotC's adventure paths and is an Adventure Anthology an actual campaign or not.&nbsp; Is it a campaign if you have a loose collection of episodes that are not really connected to each other, like Candlekeep Mysteries or Radiant Citadel?&nbsp; Is Dragon Queen a campaign because it has a definite beginning, middle and end point?&nbsp; Where does that leave things like Curse of Strahd, which is a pretty wide open sandbox until you get to the end and face Strahd.&nbsp; After all, if you complete Curse of Strahd, the final act of that campaign will be bearding Strahd in Castle Ravenloft, regardless of what order you do the rest of the module in.&nbsp; Is that more or less a story because it's open ended until the conclusion?&nbsp; Or, should we only strive for &quot;emergent&quot; stories? I don't have any conclusions here.&nbsp; I'm just tossing this out to see what folks think.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Hussar, post: 9254140, member: 22779"] In the excellent DM's Advice thread, this particular bit of advice caught my eye: Now, my initial reaction here is a big, heck no. Story, in my mind, is crucial in an RPG. But, stepping back a second, I wonder if there isn't a problem with how we each define what a story is. To me, a story is simply character, setting and plot. That's why you can have 5 word stories, Drabbles (100 word stories) and various other very short fiction. To me, a story isn't a closed system. But, I think a lot of people define story in terms of a complete narrative. That you have a definite beginning, middle and ending and until you get to that last bit of punctuation, you don't actually have a story, but, once that final bit is in, it's locked in and THAT is the story. Which, in my mind anyway, possibly explains why you see such different DMing advice. In another thread, we were talking about WotC's adventure paths and is an Adventure Anthology an actual campaign or not. Is it a campaign if you have a loose collection of episodes that are not really connected to each other, like Candlekeep Mysteries or Radiant Citadel? Is Dragon Queen a campaign because it has a definite beginning, middle and end point? Where does that leave things like Curse of Strahd, which is a pretty wide open sandbox until you get to the end and face Strahd. After all, if you complete Curse of Strahd, the final act of that campaign will be bearding Strahd in Castle Ravenloft, regardless of what order you do the rest of the module in. Is that more or less a story because it's open ended until the conclusion? Or, should we only strive for "emergent" stories? I don't have any conclusions here. I'm just tossing this out to see what folks think. [/QUOTE]

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