Point Me to Some Storytelling RPGs?

[chaochou]

Heroquest, Sorcerer, Burning Wheel, InSpectres, Dresden Files, Spirit of the Century, Fiasco, Mouse Guard, Dust Devils, Universalis and pretty much anything by Lumpley Games - Dogs in the Vineyard, Poison'd, In a Wicked Age, Apocalypse World.

I've just ordered Apocalypse World and can't wait....

 

[Nifft]

It's pretty much impossible for me to say enough good things about the Fiasco rpg. The PDF is $10; buy it, play it, and laugh your butt off. It's basically constrained storytelling, and it's brilliant.

I came in here to recommend Fiasco. It's an excellent gateway drug to cooperative creative roleplay.

There are a bunch of expansions up on the web for free, too.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Stormonu]

I haven't tried any of the others listed here, but for me I find that the World of Darkness book series is pretty strong on roleplaying/storytelling. You do have to be careful, powergamer types can turn the game ugly.

 

[LostSoul]

Primetime Adventures (PTA) is a pretty good one. Here's how it generates story.

1. You come up with, as a group, the "pitch" for your TV series. This creates buy-in for the players and gives the choices in the next step some meaning.

2. You come up with characters (PCs) who are protagonists with Issues. They are protagonists because their actions drive the story. The story is focused on the PC's Issue. Some examples (from the book) are Atonement, Control-Obsession, Commitment Phobia, etc. The Issue defines the protagonist and determines what the character's story is going to be about.

3. You set up a story arc for each PC by assigning a number (Screen Presence) for each session. 1 means you're more of a supporting character, 2 builds on your Issue, and 3 means it's your spotlight episode - when your Issue is brought into stark focus and the episode is all about you. At this point you don't know what's going to happen, but you have an idea about how things are going to ebb and flow.

4. When you start playing, each player gets a chance to set the bare-bones of the scene. The player says where it's happening, the focus of the scene (plot or issue), and the agenda of the scene, in general. The GM then fleshes all that out, adding meat to the skeleton. This allows players to drive the story but it still allows the GM a lot of input.

5. When there's a conflict in the scene, the player has resources they can spend to see if the PC gets what he wants. Generally speaking, the more the other players are invested in your character, the more likely you are to succeed. It means that you are rewarded for "good play" - interesting scenes about your character's Issue.

6. In addition to seeing which character gets what they want, which player gets to narrate the outcome of a conflict is randomized. This means that no single person can control the flow of the story; it's all going to be a surprise to see how it turns out. And once again, rewards for "good play" kick in.

7. I think there's something about the reward system that tends to have the action in any particular episode escalate over the course of the session. You start off with few resources and little adversity, and as the adversity builds so do the resources available to the PCs.

What happens is that you have an interesting premise for a series; you bring in interesting characters with issues they need to resolve; those issues are resolved over the course of the campaign; no single person can control the outcome, which is always doubt; as you play out each scene in the game, whatever the group considers "good play" is reinforced by the group.

 

[Rel]

I too will throw a recommendation at Fiasco. It's not a traditional RPG in the sense that you build an ongoing campaign from it. It's meant for one-shot play. But it definitely stretches the creative muscles while being a ton of fun.

However my recommendation is that you examine the "problem" here from some other angles before you seek to address it with the system. My experience is that if the game doesn't involve much in the way of story that it's because the GM isn't laying one down or the players aren't picking it up. I've played with the same group of players for a very long time and I know what they enjoy. When I proposed to bring Fiasco to play one night, it didn't surprise me at all that a couple of the players were very interested and a couple were not. The ones that weren't are just not "story guys". They are still good players and bring something to the game that is fun. But focus on the story is not their thing.

I highly recommend having a very open and frank discussion about how the players view themselves in terms of the sorts of gamers they are. Robin Laws has written some excellent stuff in both the 3.5 and 4e DMG's discussing the player types and that to me is the cornerstone of good gaming. If you don't know what it is that the players want from the game then you're planning your games by guesswork, which will only ever produce mediocre results. The bottom line is that you'll never be successful in running a story oriented game without telling stories that your players find interesting, no matter the system.

 

[MortonStromgal]

You may not want to jump from D&D to Amber as the difference is quite large (or maybe thats a good thing). If you still need the comfort of dice and something familiar I suggest going to something like Savage Worlds, Serenity, Hollow Earth Expiditions, World of Darkness or Burning Wheel. All of which have a mechanic to entice roleplay but still familiar enough to D&D players so as not to take them too much out of their comfort zone. Growing up the transition always seamed to be D&D->Shadowrun->Vampire->Amber

 

[Camelot]

Thanks for all the replies so far!

I'm not going to divert away from playing D&D; I know the problems with my specific group and am beginning to address them, but that's a topic for another thread. I'm actually just curious as to how the mechanics of games that want to focus on creating a story encourage that, because I'm designing my own game with that in mind, and looking for some inspiration.

 

[chaochou]

I'll add in another shout for Dogs in the Vineyard.

Specifically, the PCs play Dogs, religous enforcers in the 1830s (ish) Utah who hand down the word of God to the community, kissing babies, shaking hands, rooting out sinners and - curing villages of the problems caused by those sins.

The GM sets up a village with lots of things wrong with it. All interacting with each other and with the PCs (maybe friends or family of a PC are there. An aunt, say.)
And the game describes how to do this really well. What you don't do is design a village with 'a solution'. It's just a village going to rack and ruin and the players have to do what they feel is morally right. Players can be faced with some heavy choices.

The other cool thing is the way conflicts escalate. You can be arguing with someone and losing. You can choose to lose, or take a swing and escalate to fists. You can be beating on them and they can back down or draw a gun and escalate to guns. It's awesome - and it really clicks when you're having to decide whether to shoot your own aunt for brewing moonshine.

You can also go quite supernatural with it and have demonic witches crawling up the walls of the church. But the game makes clear the witches aren't the problem. They're a symptom of someone sinning...

 

[ancientvaults]

Barbarians of Lemuria is also very story oriented and now has multiple genre games. This and .vs Monsters are my favorite storytelling games.

 

[Holy Bovine]

What are some RPGs (tabletop, computer, collectable cards, board, or otherwise) that focus on creating a story? Specifically, what mechanics do they use to achieve this? I'm curious about game design, and hoping to maybe get me feet wet in something new.

My D&D games often devolve into (or just start out as) monotonous number crunching, despite my efforts to get the others to roleplay and give their characters complex goals besides "get treasure, kill enemies." I'm interested in seeing how other games not only inherently discourage just number crunching, but encourage storybuilding using the game's rules.

Once Upon a Time a card game that is pure story telling. You use the items described in your card to add important elements and features to the story you tell with your friends. Pause or mention something someone else has a card for (and can put into the story in a meaningful way) and play passes to that person.