Piratecat
Sesquipedalian
Cool! I can't think of a better compliment, or use for the campaign log. Thank you.
Overwhelmed, please help with reading material.
Plane Sailing
Astral Admin - Mwahahaha!
"The Best" depends to a certain extent on what you are looking for...
- great dialog?
- cracking humour?
- inspirational adventures?
- a storyhour which reads like a story, or one that reads like an adventuring log?
Different storyhours have different strengths, and there are several wonderful contenders in all those categories (and more).
I hesitate to comment myself now, because I've not been reading storyhours for a several years (more pressure at work!) and although I'd recommend all the grand dames of the genre, there are probably lots of highly worthy storyhours that I've just not seen
Cheers
- great dialog?
- cracking humour?
- inspirational adventures?
- a storyhour which reads like a story, or one that reads like an adventuring log?
Different storyhours have different strengths, and there are several wonderful contenders in all those categories (and more).
I hesitate to comment myself now, because I've not been reading storyhours for a several years (more pressure at work!) and although I'd recommend all the grand dames of the genre, there are probably lots of highly worthy storyhours that I've just not seen
Cheers
Joshua Randall
Legend
I'm echoing a lot of what others said, but... I've got links.
= = =
(contact)'s Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil -- one of the first story hours ever posted on ENW. The author describes its origin: "We knew we wanted the "Return" to be true to the original: A huge, unbelievably deadly dungeon that chewed up player characters like Mama Kass at an all you can eat sushi bar. So I rolled up a happy-go-lucky halfling...."complete
(contact)'s Liberation of Tenh -- a follow-on to the above story, with some of the same characters. Affectionately known as, "Heydricus kills the sh*t out of them." incomplete; abandoned?
(contact)'s The Risen Goddess -- less well known that the other two, this is the most philosophical of the three stories. It begins: "Four adventurers sit around a familiar table in a familiar inn, not too far from a place they must have surely known their whole lives-- if they could only remember any of it." incomplete; abandoned?
I think (contact) conveys the glee of a fun D&D game better than anyone out there.
barsoomcore's Barsoom story -- very well written. You won't know what the hell is going on half the time, but you won't be able to stop reading despite that. complete; part 2 is in progress
Capellan's Company of the Random Encounter -- don't let the name of the story fool you; this is worth reading. don't know status
Capellan's In Hextor's Name -- to paraphrase the author, the story hour is "written from the limited and very, very biased point of view of Kull Redfist, LN Half-Orc Cleric of Hextor, Life's ambition: to become a mighty warrior and crush Hextor's enemies." complete, I think
Destan's Sins of our Fathers and Sins of our Fathers II -- grim, gritty, and utterly compelling, with a definite old school feel to it. incomplete; abandoned
James McMurray's Return to the Tomb of Horrors -- you know about the original ToH, you know about the Return, but you do not know the pleasure of this story hour's approach to it. This is the story hour that made me appreciate high-level play. It's also the first story hour I ever read on ENW. complete
Rel's Faded Glory -- proving that pitting the PCs against challenges 4+ ELs above their level makes for a great game. The story takes place in Old One's campaign setting, which is modeled on ancient Rome. complete
Rune's Oriental Adventures in the Dream -- the most mind-blowingly original campaign setting I have ever seen... "The world: Ah yes, the world... It is flat, but not really. There is no sun; there are no stars, nor moons. Day and night do exist, however. There is seasonal change (how could we have haiku without it?), but that change is sporadic." incomplete; abandoned
Rune was an incredibly imaginative, cool ENWorlder who has disappeared into the ether. He is missed.
Sagiro's Story Hour -- epic in scope, with a large cast of characters. It took me a while to get into this story, but once I did, I was hooked. You will be too. ongoing; sporadically updated
spyscribe's Welcome to the Halmae -- The campaign starts out small, but grows rapidly into a grand series of quests. Read this story because... justice demands it. ongoing?
You can download Halmae as a PDF from the same site that hosts Sagiro's story in PDF, which is a definite plus.
Sepulchrave's Tales of Wyre, or, Lady Despina's Virtue -- you cannot beat this opening: "One of the PCs, a 14th level Paladin, [...] is currently attempting to CONVERT a succubus, and demonstrate to her the error of her ways." ongoing; extremely sporadically updated (like, every six months)
Wulf's Story Hour -- follow the adventures of Wulf Ratbane, dwarven bad-ass. Or would that be bad-axe? In any case, one of the strongest archetypal characters of any story hour on the boards. complete
For a second opinion, check out this thread or this one.
= = =
(contact)'s Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil -- one of the first story hours ever posted on ENW. The author describes its origin: "We knew we wanted the "Return" to be true to the original: A huge, unbelievably deadly dungeon that chewed up player characters like Mama Kass at an all you can eat sushi bar. So I rolled up a happy-go-lucky halfling...."complete
(contact)'s Liberation of Tenh -- a follow-on to the above story, with some of the same characters. Affectionately known as, "Heydricus kills the sh*t out of them." incomplete; abandoned?
(contact)'s The Risen Goddess -- less well known that the other two, this is the most philosophical of the three stories. It begins: "Four adventurers sit around a familiar table in a familiar inn, not too far from a place they must have surely known their whole lives-- if they could only remember any of it." incomplete; abandoned?
I think (contact) conveys the glee of a fun D&D game better than anyone out there.
barsoomcore's Barsoom story -- very well written. You won't know what the hell is going on half the time, but you won't be able to stop reading despite that. complete; part 2 is in progress
Capellan's Company of the Random Encounter -- don't let the name of the story fool you; this is worth reading. don't know status
Capellan's In Hextor's Name -- to paraphrase the author, the story hour is "written from the limited and very, very biased point of view of Kull Redfist, LN Half-Orc Cleric of Hextor, Life's ambition: to become a mighty warrior and crush Hextor's enemies." complete, I think
Destan's Sins of our Fathers and Sins of our Fathers II -- grim, gritty, and utterly compelling, with a definite old school feel to it. incomplete; abandoned
James McMurray's Return to the Tomb of Horrors -- you know about the original ToH, you know about the Return, but you do not know the pleasure of this story hour's approach to it. This is the story hour that made me appreciate high-level play. It's also the first story hour I ever read on ENW. complete
Rel's Faded Glory -- proving that pitting the PCs against challenges 4+ ELs above their level makes for a great game. The story takes place in Old One's campaign setting, which is modeled on ancient Rome. complete
Rune's Oriental Adventures in the Dream -- the most mind-blowingly original campaign setting I have ever seen... "The world: Ah yes, the world... It is flat, but not really. There is no sun; there are no stars, nor moons. Day and night do exist, however. There is seasonal change (how could we have haiku without it?), but that change is sporadic." incomplete; abandoned
Rune was an incredibly imaginative, cool ENWorlder who has disappeared into the ether. He is missed.
Sagiro's Story Hour -- epic in scope, with a large cast of characters. It took me a while to get into this story, but once I did, I was hooked. You will be too. ongoing; sporadically updated
spyscribe's Welcome to the Halmae -- The campaign starts out small, but grows rapidly into a grand series of quests. Read this story because... justice demands it. ongoing?
You can download Halmae as a PDF from the same site that hosts Sagiro's story in PDF, which is a definite plus.
Sepulchrave's Tales of Wyre, or, Lady Despina's Virtue -- you cannot beat this opening: "One of the PCs, a 14th level Paladin, [...] is currently attempting to CONVERT a succubus, and demonstrate to her the error of her ways." ongoing; extremely sporadically updated (like, every six months)
Wulf's Story Hour -- follow the adventures of Wulf Ratbane, dwarven bad-ass. Or would that be bad-axe? In any case, one of the strongest archetypal characters of any story hour on the boards. complete
For a second opinion, check out this thread or this one.
(contact) did eventually post about this and he basically said that things "had not gone well" for our heroes in the final confrontation or on the route to it. So there's not an official end to the SH, but it is essentially over.
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Joshua Randall
Legend
The campaign is over, but the story itself is incomplete.
One I don't see on Joshua Randall's excellent list is "The Knights of the Silver Quill" by Dr Midnight. Infact, I recomend anything written by Dr Midnight - though he has a habbit of getting 1/2 through a story and then dropping out (usually because the game blows up on him)... his WW2 Heros story was particularly amazing but unfortunately incomplete.
He did however complete The Knights of the Silver Quill.
He did however complete The Knights of the Silver Quill.
Neverwinter Knight
First Post
Yeah,
Dr. Midnight is what got me started on ENWorld Story Hours. The main story of Knights of the Silver Quill through Knights of the Spellforge Keep was an excellent read, with lots of classic moments, to which my signature still refers after over 6 years.
Now, THE story hours to read have got to be JollyDoc's & Co. IMHO, these guys epitomize what DnD should be like: a group of friends regularly taking the time to challenge each other and have fun with this great game! As players and DM, these DnD veterans continue to take DnD to the limit. All of this shows in JollyDocs chapters & the writing had truely become awesome over the years.
Not to forget Lazybones stories, which I also enjoyed immensly! Only start them, however, if you have enough time to finish them. His output is amazing.
Dr. Midnight is what got me started on ENWorld Story Hours. The main story of Knights of the Silver Quill through Knights of the Spellforge Keep was an excellent read, with lots of classic moments, to which my signature still refers after over 6 years.
Now, THE story hours to read have got to be JollyDoc's & Co. IMHO, these guys epitomize what DnD should be like: a group of friends regularly taking the time to challenge each other and have fun with this great game! As players and DM, these DnD veterans continue to take DnD to the limit. All of this shows in JollyDocs chapters & the writing had truely become awesome over the years.
Not to forget Lazybones stories, which I also enjoyed immensly! Only start them, however, if you have enough time to finish them. His output is amazing.
Jon Potter
First Post
I'll second (or third) the recommendation for DocMidnight's Knights of the Silver Quill. Very, very enjoyable stuff.
But here's a couple that I cut my teeth on back in the day. I'll steal from Joshua Randall's format and provide you with some links to make you happy.
First: drnuncheon's Freeport Story Hours. Found here and here. This SH (and OotFP, mentioned below) represent my first exposure both to Story Hours and to ENWorld. It got me hooked, kept me coming back, and inspired me to write my own. Status:complete The story continued (and petered out) in additional "Books", but "Books I and II" are what got me.
drnuncheon is one of those ENWorlders who's vanished over the years, much to my chagrin.
I'm sure that someone mentioned "Out of the Frying Pan" which I started reading back when el-remmen went by the name of nemmerle. It's grim, it's gritty and epic at the same time. Status: complete
jonrog1's SH is a must-read if you're into modern at all. DarkMatter D20: Drunk Southern Girls with Guns is a solid blueprint for how to run a modern campaign, IMO. Status: incomplete/abandoned
But here's a couple that I cut my teeth on back in the day. I'll steal from Joshua Randall's format and provide you with some links to make you happy.
First: drnuncheon's Freeport Story Hours. Found here and here. This SH (and OotFP, mentioned below) represent my first exposure both to Story Hours and to ENWorld. It got me hooked, kept me coming back, and inspired me to write my own. Status:complete The story continued (and petered out) in additional "Books", but "Books I and II" are what got me.
drnuncheon is one of those ENWorlders who's vanished over the years, much to my chagrin.
I'm sure that someone mentioned "Out of the Frying Pan" which I started reading back when el-remmen went by the name of nemmerle. It's grim, it's gritty and epic at the same time. Status: complete
jonrog1's SH is a must-read if you're into modern at all. DarkMatter D20: Drunk Southern Girls with Guns is a solid blueprint for how to run a modern campaign, IMO. Status: incomplete/abandoned
