Something I have noticed about Storyhours...

[seasong]

Most of the highest count story hours are also the longest-running (even when they start new threads). It takes time to build an audience, especially in a small, word-of-mouth venue like this one.

 

[gfunk]

The storyhours with the most views tend to feature high level characters.

Coincidence? I think not.

Anyone else notice this? Care to share your theories why?

Well, one reason is that 18th level sorcerers can shapechange into Trumpet Archons and command the local clergy to declare a national holiday in their honor -- lest they incur the wrath of their deity.

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33249&pagenumber=2

 

[(contact)]

I would imagine that it has a lot to do with the kind of players who want to play high-level games are also obsessive enough and without any thing better to do than view their D&D game's Story Hour thread over and over and over.

 

[gfunk]

I would imagine that it has a lot to do with the kind of players who want to play high-level games are also obsessive enough and without any thing better to do than view their D&D game's Story Hour thread over and over and over.

Or register under different usernames and leave themselves positive feedback.

 

[Sammael99]

Or register under different usernames and leave themselves positive feedback.

WOW ! Why did I never think of that before ?

I'll go create myself a Bumperdude account.

 

[Dinkeldog]

On top of which, in my opinion, the best parts are the low-level ones. Or maybe the low-mid range, say 4th to 7th.

Basically anything pre-teleport, pre-commune, pre-raise dead-- but that's my biased opinion of D&D in general. =)

Wulf

I like commune. It only gives good information if you ask the right questions.

 

[Piratecat]

I like commune, too. Actually, I like most divinations; they give me cool ways to advance the plot, reward my players for asking the right questions, and they're fun for me to write. I'm also adding a spell into my game that lasts for 24 hours and gives the diviner random glimpses of things going on elsewhere in the world, sort of like cut scenes. Ought to be interesting.

I think that high level storyhours are popular because most people have never run a campaign that's made it to really high levels. Lord knows I never have before. Every time my PCs level, I suffer anxiety that I won't be able to adequately challenge them... and it's not like there's a lot of resources that I can go to looking for advice, because a lot of folks haven't made it that far yet. Other storyhours are the best thing I've found. Plus, they're fun to read.

 

[Rackhir]

Some of this thread gets at something I'd been wondering about for a while. I've also wondered about how much of the view count was simply due to members of the story hour viewing it. While obviously, this is not an exact method, but I though dividing the views by the number of posts would give a rough idea of how many people were looking at the SH, though probably not in a 1 to 1 ratio (ie. the same people tend to view a post multiple times). The Story Hours were from the first page sorted descending by view counts.

Forgive the periods, I couldn't figure out another way to get things to stay in columns.

As you can see Piratecat's has by far the highest ratio, about 10x of most other story hours. Then we have three standouts Sagiro's Story Hour Returns, Wulf's Collected Story Hour and The Rape of Morne. There are about ten or so others in the 30 range. With most being in about the 10-20 twenty range.

So if you want a rough idea of how many people read your SH, I'd multiply the number of players+DM by about 2 and subtract that from the ratio. Then divide by two to get the number of other readers. Mind you this is a VERY rough calculation.

My apologies if I have made any errors, mucked up any names, counts etc...


Story.Hour.Name...............................................................Thread.Starter..#post.#views.... Ratio.
..............................................................................................................View/Post
Piratecat's.Updated.Story.Hour!...............................................Piratecat.......705...257365....365.06
.Sagiro's.Story.Hour.Returns..................................................Sagiro..........515...47587.....92.40
Wulf's.Collected.Story.Hour...................................................Wulf.Ratbane....1051..89921.....85.56
.The.Rape.of.Morne.[Final.Update].............................................Sepulchrave.II..646...34364.....53.20
.Poll:.DarkMatter.D20:.Drunk.Southern.Girls.with.Guns.Zombie.Toddlers.........jonrog1.........329...15035.....45.70
The.Rape.of.Morne.-.Part.2....................................................Sepulchrave.II..103...4481......43.50
Sniktch's.Story.Hour.-.City.of.the.Spider.Queen...............................Sniktch.........151...4765......31.56
Cascade.City:.a.Mutants.and.Masterminds.Campaign..............................Teflon.Billy....60....1845......30.75
."Out.of.the.Frying.Pan".-.Book.II:.Catching.the.Spark.(Part.II)..............nemmerle........398...11538.....28.99
.Wulf's."Lazy.Days".Campaign.Story.Hour.......................................Wulf.Ratbane....119...3422......28.76
.Pulp.Spycraft.(NEW!).........................................................jonrog1.........53....1489......28.09
[d20M].League.of.Extraordinary.Gentlemen.--.COMING.SOON.......................Wulf.Ratbane....30....839.......27.97
The.Adventures.of.the.Knights.of.Spellforge.Keep..............................Dr.Midnight.....1318..35924.....27.26
The.Unusual.Heroes.Enter.The.City.of.the.Spider.Queen!........................Ziona...........188...5040......26.81
.Dungeons.and.Warhammers......................................................NiTessine.......52....1263......24.29
Byzantium.on.the.Shannon.III..................................................CleverName......43....1023......23.79
.Sniktch's.Story.Hour.Prelude.-.From.the.Beginning............................Sniktch.........72....1695......23.54
.The.Adventures.of.the.A-Team.-.Caraxus'.Revenge..............................Inez.Hull.......33....757.......22.94
.Wizardru's.Story.Hour.-.Savage.Sword.of.Meepo................................Zad.............439...9776......22.27
.The.Liberation.of.Tenh.......................................................(contact).......134...2969......22.16
.Knightfall's.Realmsian.Dragonstar............................................Knightfall1972..55....1169......21.25
[OA/FR].Rokugan...............................................................Black.Omega.....151...3200......21.19
Small.Beginnings..............................................................Enkhidu.........299...6173......20.65
The.Risen.Goddess.............................................................(contact).......223...4476......20.07
drnuncheon's.Freeport.Story.Hour.-.Book.II:.Inheritance.......................drnuncheon......460...8896......19.34
.ForceUser's.Vietnamese.Adventures.Story.Hour!................................ForceUser.......169...3263......19.31
.[ENboards.Boston.Feng.Shui.Game].Six.in.the.Chamber.II:.HONG.KONG.BLOODBATH..Dr.Midnight.....277...5290......19.10
.Carnifex's.Story.Hour.-.Acrozatarim:.Fire.and.Ice............................Carnifex........255...4734......18.56
.Company.of.the.Random.Encounter..............................................Capellan........115...2073......18.03
Kyri.Chronicles.-.Of.Sound.Mind....and.beyond!................................Plane.Sailing...310...5400......17.42
.Under.The.Eclipse.(D20.Modern)...............................................Zubkavich.......78....1323......16.96
.Poll:.Against.the.Shadows.VII.-.A.Faded.Glory.Story.Hour.....................Old.One.........455...7552......16.60
Gfunk's.City.of.the.Spider.Queen.Story.Hour...................................gfunk...........40....658.......16.45
Drusilia.Naïlo:.The.Making.of.a.Watchman......................................Drusilia.Nailo..77....1254......16.29
From.Slaves.to.Heroes.in.the.Making.(Heroes.of.Destiny).......................Taboo...........70....1076......15.37
.Poll:.Travels.through.the.Wild.West:.Books.V-VII.............................Lazybones.......504...7729......15.34
[FR].Heroes.of.the.Vilhon.Reach.II/Annals.of.the.Stormwolf.Legion.............Broccli_Head....269...3966......14.74
.Servants.of.the.Swift.Sword.(A.Kalamar.campaign).............................Wicht...........121...1750......14.46
.The.Scars.Run.Deep.-.a.Scarred.Lands.campaign................................theRuinedOne....79....1123......14.22
Seldarn.Empire.-.The.Mega-Module.Jam..........................................arwink..........98....1387......14.15
.Pogre's.Story.Hour.-.with.Pics.of.Minis.&.Scenery............................pogre...........116...1595......13.75
Struggle.and.Strife-.A.scarred.lands.storyhour................................Lars.Frehse.....273...3671......13.45
.Another.Forge.of.Fury.in.the.FR..............................................diaglo..........159...1914......12.04
.Milo.Windby's.Collected.Story.Hour...........................................Milo.Windby.....330...3708......11.24
seasong's.Light.Against.The.Dark..............................................seasong.........319...3455......10.83
.the.Jester's.OLD.story.hour..................................................the.Jester......101...1062......10.51
THE.DARK.-.An.Illustrated.Fading.Suns.Story.Hour..............................Sammael99.......58....558........9.62
Les.Terres.Anciennes..........................................................Sammael99.......346...3098.......8.95
"Chinese.Take-out".-.Conclusion...............................................Isaiah..........95....834........8.78
Agents.of.Chaos.(the.Jester's.NEW.story.hour!)................................the.Jester......73....604........8.27

 

[Piratecat]

You need to remember that I've deleted close to a thousand posts out of my thread, as has Wulf. (Contact) and Sagiro have removed some posts, too. That messes up the ratio!

If anyone ever wants temporary Moderator rights in order to clean out their own story hour, feel free to email me.

 

[(contact)]

I like commune, too. Actually, I like most divinations; they give me cool ways to advance the plot, reward my players for asking the right questions, and they're fun for me to write.

Eeeyup. I lu-huv scrying and divinations, for the reason he mentioned. Scrying in particular is a fanstastic way for me to show my PCs some of the traits / backstory of a character that probably won't last but another 5-6 rounds "screen time" in my game.

An example: "Prisantha gazes into her crystal ball and sees a huge brute, large even by orcish standards, sitting on his heels in an unlit room, and rocking back and forth. He sweats profusely, and is intently sharpening a dagger. The knife has been nearly whittled away to nothing through his efforts, and his fingers are bleeding."

So is this guy nuts, or what? I love those opportunities to flesh out the goons/good guys in a way that the standard Villain Speech (TM) just can't do!

-----

PS: The only thing worse than high-level games are the damned high-level story hours. Blech! Thank the Risen Goddess I never have to deal with that mess!