[Meta] How Accurate is your Story Hour?

[el-remmen]

So, how accurate is you stroy hour in relation to the actual sessions?

In my own case - I think it is pretty much as close as it can possibly be seeing as I write them up six to eight weeks after the actual session took place - but I do take a little bit of creative license in order to gloss over certain parts but still include some of the details. . .

I also take a little bit of license with combat as well. . .I sometimes change the order of things within a round to just make the prose flow better and to describe actions on the part of the part of the PCs and their adversaries in exciting ways. But I have a good record of combat as Jana's player keeps notes.

The dialogue is damn accurate ever since Martin's player (Ciaran) started keeping a quote log of each session.

 

[Joker]

I had the one POV thing because my Story Hour (Chronicles of Darkness) is mostly in the eyes of one character. I do have to change things with combat a lot because it sounds strange if I said: X took a 5-ft step back so he could avoid the AoA for casting a spell or some such thing. Also, sometimes I change conversations somewhat so as to exclude things that really should not have been said or don't fit well into the story. But most of what I write is true.

Tata.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

I voted Pretty Accurate, but it's really almost the opposite of the way you describe it.

The broad strokes are 100% accurate to the best of my recollection (which is usually pretty good, and dinkeldog helps fill in the gaps). I don't make up entire sections-- if it is mentioned in the story, it "happened" at the table somehow. My story is written from a character's point of view so it pretty much has to be that way.

The dialogue is probably the single most interesting and most important thing to my story hour. But although I usually pick how things are said-- meaning, I create the dialogue-- I don't create entire topics of discussion. When there's a long discussion at table about something-- and even though it's not usually "in character"-- that discussion will make its way to the story hour and I will add the dialogue to put it in character.

That said, if there's a good quote at the table, I definitely write it down for later. We've had some good ones.

One last edit: Only rarely do I drop the story "out of character," but sometimes dinkeldog says something that is just too good NOT to include. Unfortunately there's no good way to "quote" the DM!

Wulf

 

[Dr Midnight]

Most of what Wulf said applies for me.

I take the broad direction of a conversation and apply it, adding dialogue in little "holes" when I need to. On rare occasions I've added dialogue where none actually was, to account for OOC dialogue or a situation that wouldn't make sense in a written story without it.

I often ham up the drama for the written story. Whereas a player might say "I take first watch", I might have the character in the story reflect on his problems and try to cope with what's happening.

I jot great quotes as they happen, and use them in the story when I can.

 

[Old One]

Pretty Accurate...

About 90 - 95% of what happens at the table is accurately reflected in the Story Hour. I take a little creative license with dialogue to help it "flow" better and might insert something the PCs never actually "saw" from time-to-time (like someone watching them from the shadows). I also tend to summarize gameplay that doesn't warrent detailed description.

I do leave things out and make mistakes, since sometimes the write-ups don't occur until a week or two after the game. My players are usually pretty good about piping in when I mis-attribute something to one player when it should of gone to another, but I tend not to sweat the minutia.

~ Old One

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

I concur with Wulf and Dr Midnight. I don't add new things to the story, but a great deal of the dialogue is me writing in that character's voice. The words may not be exact but the intent is there. I'll sometimes add some expository dialogue to reflect the PC's understanding of a situation, too.

I have to do it that way, because my Story Hour is being written largely from notes and memory. The sessions took place between a year and two years ago; I can't remember all the gritty detail, although whenever I'm unsure over a detail or two, I send out an email to my players to get them to help me recall things, and they're very good about that. If anything, I gloss ove the combat and concentrate on the role-playing.

This weekend, the group from my Story Hour is beginning to play again with these characters. I'll begin writing another Story Hour, and I'm very interested in seeing how it differs from the current one, since I'll be writing with strong, recent memories. My players always have good lines and quotes, and I feel like I've missed so many in the current story hour.

As to Wulf's mention of the difficulty of adding "metagame" comments, I like to add those in to the updates. I set them apart by setting them in their paragraph and italicizing them. I've had positive feedback, and it's nice to show how things were in game terms without breaking the mood too much...

 

[el-remmen]

Interesting, the comments on meta-game discussion. . .

I never had this problem - since I require all discussions to be made in character. . .

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

Interesting, the comments on meta-game discussion. . .

I never had this problem - since I require all discussions to be made in character. . .

Well, what I'm talking about is expressing in game mechanic form what I've described in prose, in-character form, ie: saying that something happened the way it did since a particular magic item was out of charges, or that something a character did was particularly brave since he had only 1 hit point at the time. It's kind of like looking behind the curtain, so to speak, or watching one of those DVD extras that tells you how they created a special effect.

My groups is pretty good about staying in character, and I don't police it strongly. I can understand DM's who do, but I don't necessarily like to do that myself. We stay fairly focused on the game without having to get too draconian. No 'pay the piggie' either...

 

[jasper]

darrly speaks from his pt of view. plus i drop a lot

 

[Talindra]

I would say that our story hour covers pretty much everything, although we do tend to gloss over the dialogue, using it sparingly. Also, since it is written by three different people from the point of view of three different characters, they each flesh out different parts of the story that their character would find important: ie: Misha concentrates on combat, Vallia and Karanaj on emotion.