Explain "Story Hour" to Me.

Ulric

First Post
I was looking at the Story Hour forum...for the first time. Explain Story Hour to me. Is it people novelizing the campaigns they already played? Or is it people creating campaigns (in story form) they will play? Both? Explain to me exactly what Story Hour is and how it works.
 

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Ulric said:
Explain to me exactly what Story Hour is and how it works.

Almost always it's people novelizing campaigns they are running or playing in, or doing so for a campaign that has ended. I think there are some outright fiction peices in there but I think that's pretty rare.
 

There is no defined "sytem" to the Story Hour forum. Basically, DMs or players write about the games they've played in a variety of forms. That's all there really is to it.

Sometimes peolple will create pure fiction (meaning it is just a story from there head and is in no way an account of an actual game).
 



At this point I have none going but one point I had four going at the same time.


One was about my ongoing Eberron campaign (The Creation Schema).

The others are campaigns I ran by myself. I created the characters, their stats, backgrounds and then motioned to tell a story using them. I woulkd actually roll out the attacks, checks and saves.

It gave me a means to tell a story I really wanted to even without the players I needed.


Tomorrow I begin the next campaign which I will do as a storyhour.

"We went to Hell and all we got was this damned shirt" or "To Hell and Back".


I am also working on a new illustrated storyhour.


Enough about me-

Storyhours can be retelling of existing campaigns, non-fiction, stated non-fiction (what I often do) and some even are more of a journal entry that gives quick breakdowns of what was done in their campaign.


What is nice is when you find talented writers (not me) or storyhours dealing with "dead" campaign worlds. My Under a Darksun was popular for this reason.

My advice, look around and see what you find. Also- Say hi to the writers and comment on their work. It encourages them to continue and that folks care.
 

Wow, what an awesome (and rarely asked) question!

There are several types of Story Hours:

1. Game Journal - This type is made by a player of an actual table top (or PbP) game who is chronicling their character's adventures from the perspective of the character.

2. Game Account - This type can be from a player's or a DM's hand, but it is usually from a more omniscient point of view. It recounts an actual game being played.

3. Fictional Story - This is the product of an ENWorlder's mind. Someone above said that they are rare, and they are. Although, there are a coupld of well liked ones going by some pretty good authors.



There is no set rule to what Story Hour contributions have to follow. It's a place to tell a story. Some people like to read decent free fiction, so they go there looking for the fiction tag. Some people can't get enough superhero tales (since there isn't a ton of superhero fiction out there) so they get what they can out of the Story Hour forum. Most often, people visit the Story Hour Forum looking for a game like the one they are playing and mine it for ideas. That would be the most productive use of the forum - although there is nothing wrong with kicking back and enjoying a great read!

If you're looking for fiction, I will say that I am one of the "rare" - as stated earlier in the thread - fiction writers. You can see the link in my sig. One Story Hour {Bitterness Overcome} is a complete Story of ~180,000 words. The second Story Hour {Into the Moral Darkness} is a little more than 3/4 finished and it should reach its conclusion sometime in September. If you are looking for fiction, feel free to give them a read, and maybe even a comment or two!
 

I use the story hour format as a game history and journal more than anything these days, but you can find some really outstanding fiction in that forum.
 

I can't speak for everyone but my story hours were a (n incredibly fantastic) chronicle of events that unfolded in a pair of campaigns I ran set in Old One's Faded Glory setting, the stealing of which led to a very nice friendship.
 

Note that there's a stickied post at the top of the SH forum in which most of the active stories are indexed. The index thread includes information about each SH, including whether they are fictional or game-based, length, frequency of posting, links, etc.

I've written 3 fictional stories and gotten over 2200 comments and over 150,000 views in all, so people do read them.
 

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