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Story Hour
How to Write a Story Hour (by el-remmen)
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<blockquote data-quote="Berandor" data-source="post: 3249543" data-attributes="member: 225"><p>I also don't think el-remmen only pimps the kind of Story Hour he writes himself. I mean, two of the most popular SHs, Sagiro's and Piratecat's, are quite dissimilar in style. Still, he touches upon a few salient points.</p><p></p><p>When I began writing my Story Hour, I thought it would be a writing project on the side. I wish! It's loads of work. If I, like JollyDoc, didn't want the SH in order to enhance game atmosphere and provide my players with a way to remember what happened months ago, I likely would have quit by now. Things I do that deviate from what el-remmen does:</p><p></p><p>I include scenes the players don't experience first-hand at the table. Since my SH is updated to be current, I take care not to spoil too much, but there is a behind-the-scenes theme going on.</p><p></p><p>I deviate in style. Generally, I write in the way that is most comfortable to me, but I experiment for single updates. For example, I once wrote an update like a screenplay.</p><p></p><p>I don't use too much gamespeak. I write the Story Hour as much as a fictional text as possible. So I don't go round-by-round, and I also rarely employ D&D vocabulary like Power Attack or the specific names of spells (but I use latin names for arcane spells and prayers for divine ones). I try to abstract the combat even more, so that the hit point mechanic doesn't shine through too clearly. My shorter updates are about 1,800 words long, the usual length is 3,000+ words, though.</p><p></p><p>In order to generate comments, I offered guest spots in my campaign and Story Hour. One commentator will be chosen and get a full NPC write-up and will play a role in the current adventure.</p><p></p><p>In keeping with el-remmens tips, I offer PDF versions of our campaign complete with extras like handouts, maps, etc. I sometimes add what music I played in a specific scene, but I tend to forget that detail.</p><p></p><p>So I'm investing quite some time in my SH, and I find this has helped me gather a group of trusted readers despite the comparable smallness of the German board I frequent. But it's a lot of work, and if we didn't meet just once a month or less, I doubt I'd be able to put it all in and keep the quality up. So do what you think is best for your Story Hour, and keep in mind that there are a lot of SH's going on (especially here), and it's always an investment to read one. Heck, I only read two SHs, and I'm glad they don't update more often.</p><p></p><p>As for pimping: <a href="http://forum.dnd-gate.de/viewtopic.php?t=11791" target="_blank">here's</a> the current SH (I use a new thread for each chapter), and here's a link to the previous ones. Keep in mind these are German, though.</p><p><a href="http://www.p-pricken.de/pdf/basardeslebens.pdf" target="_blank">Stadt in Ketten I: Basar des Lebens</a></p><p><a href="http://www.p-pricken.de/pdf/flutzeit.pdf" target="_blank">Stadt in Ketten II: Flutzeit</a></p><p><a href="http://www.p-pricken.de/pdf/zenithdernacht.pdf" target="_blank">Stadt in Ketten III: Zenith der Nacht</a></p><p><a href="http://www.p-pricken.de/pdf/willkommenimdaemonenschlund.pdf" target="_blank">Stadt in Ketten IV: Willkommen im Dämonenschlund</a></p><p><a href="http://www.p-pricken.de/pdf/rauchendesauge.pdf" target="_blank">Stadt in Ketten V: Die Prüfung des Rauchenden Auges</a></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Berandor, post: 3249543, member: 225"] I also don't think el-remmen only pimps the kind of Story Hour he writes himself. I mean, two of the most popular SHs, Sagiro's and Piratecat's, are quite dissimilar in style. Still, he touches upon a few salient points. When I began writing my Story Hour, I thought it would be a writing project on the side. I wish! It's loads of work. If I, like JollyDoc, didn't want the SH in order to enhance game atmosphere and provide my players with a way to remember what happened months ago, I likely would have quit by now. Things I do that deviate from what el-remmen does: I include scenes the players don't experience first-hand at the table. Since my SH is updated to be current, I take care not to spoil too much, but there is a behind-the-scenes theme going on. I deviate in style. Generally, I write in the way that is most comfortable to me, but I experiment for single updates. For example, I once wrote an update like a screenplay. I don't use too much gamespeak. I write the Story Hour as much as a fictional text as possible. So I don't go round-by-round, and I also rarely employ D&D vocabulary like Power Attack or the specific names of spells (but I use latin names for arcane spells and prayers for divine ones). I try to abstract the combat even more, so that the hit point mechanic doesn't shine through too clearly. My shorter updates are about 1,800 words long, the usual length is 3,000+ words, though. In order to generate comments, I offered guest spots in my campaign and Story Hour. One commentator will be chosen and get a full NPC write-up and will play a role in the current adventure. In keeping with el-remmens tips, I offer PDF versions of our campaign complete with extras like handouts, maps, etc. I sometimes add what music I played in a specific scene, but I tend to forget that detail. So I'm investing quite some time in my SH, and I find this has helped me gather a group of trusted readers despite the comparable smallness of the German board I frequent. But it's a lot of work, and if we didn't meet just once a month or less, I doubt I'd be able to put it all in and keep the quality up. So do what you think is best for your Story Hour, and keep in mind that there are a lot of SH's going on (especially here), and it's always an investment to read one. Heck, I only read two SHs, and I'm glad they don't update more often. As for pimping: [url=http://forum.dnd-gate.de/viewtopic.php?t=11791]here's[/url] the current SH (I use a new thread for each chapter), and here's a link to the previous ones. Keep in mind these are German, though. [url=http://www.p-pricken.de/pdf/basardeslebens.pdf]Stadt in Ketten I: Basar des Lebens[/url] [url=http://www.p-pricken.de/pdf/flutzeit.pdf]Stadt in Ketten II: Flutzeit[/url] [url=http://www.p-pricken.de/pdf/zenithdernacht.pdf]Stadt in Ketten III: Zenith der Nacht[/url] [url=http://www.p-pricken.de/pdf/willkommenimdaemonenschlund.pdf]Stadt in Ketten IV: Willkommen im Dämonenschlund[/url] [url=http://www.p-pricken.de/pdf/rauchendesauge.pdf]Stadt in Ketten V: Die Prüfung des Rauchenden Auges[/url] [/QUOTE]
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