Story Hour feedback

[Wicht]

On another story hour topic, how far behind is everyone else? I get the impression that Piratecat is generally somewhere around 3-5 games behind; I know that I'm exactly five behind now (updating frequently, gaming infrequently at the moment due to getting ready to go traveling for a while). How do you all keep things accurate? Or rather, how accurate do you all keep things?

I update my storyhour a day (or two) after each session. The storyhour is taken from notes I made and is generally spot on, concerning who did or said what.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

I agree, it takes a long time to get noticed, and I've read some excellent story hours (like Kid C's) that don't have a lot of regular posters (except his players).

Thanks for the mention! But even my Story Hour, with relatively few regular commentors, has gotten over the 4,000 view mark. No doubt due to sheer bull-headedness on my part... It took me over fifty updates to just get all my own players to read it regularly! Geez!

Keep plugging away. Eventually, you'll pick up some loyal readers, assuming you have some skills at writing. I write my story hour for my benefit and that of my players. If I had been writing it for the accolades, I'd have given up long before I got much in the way of feedback.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

On another story hour topic, how far behind is everyone else? I get the impression that Piratecat is generally somewhere around 3-5 games behind; I know that I'm exactly five behind now (updating frequently, gaming infrequently at the moment due to getting ready to go traveling for a while). How do you all keep things accurate? Or rather, how accurate do you all keep things?

I'm currently a couple sessions behind, due to real life considerations and slight case of story-hour-author burnout. I normally have been trying to get the SH updated between sessions, so that I was fully up-to-date.

My original SH thread, however, was of stuff that had happened three years prior, so that was a toughie. Lots of reconstructing things and filling in details.

I try to stay accurate, but I don't take hugely detailed notes as I run. My focus must stay on the players and the game, not stuff I need for the Story Hour.

 

[Someone]

I started the campaing two months before posting the first time, so to have material to post regularly despite exams periods and such RL intromisions in gaming. One of my players takes notes of combats; I write the rest from memory.

And I also have few views; but that´s because my SH is both very new and written in spanish.

 

[Piratecat]

I'm about 2 sessions behind right now, maybe one and a half. I vary between totally-caught-up and three sessions behind. I find that the combats are more interesting when I write the story hour soon after the game.

I think it's incredibly cool that there's a story hour in Spanish and one in French. I also think it's cool that people like Lars and Horatio are writing story hours in English when it isn't their native tongue! Wow, now that takes guts.

Finally, don't put too much stock in the number of views, at least on the longer story hours. One person may add 10+ views as they catch up on the story.

I was also thinking... it seems like it helps a story hour to have a memorable hook. For instance, Dr Nuncheon's started with the PCs as Guard in Freeport. Forceuser's is set in a Vietnamese fantasy world. (contact)'s first ToEE2 thread was notable for great writing and a vicious body count. Wulf's is remarkable for the story being told through one PC's eyes, and the Adventure Path focus. And I know I love Dr Midnight's campaign trailers and illustrations.

 

[the Jester]

Speaking of which, Piratecat, when are you posting another update? (Hey, I wasn't planning on pimping _your_ story hour here, but it sure seems to be happening!)

 

[Piratecat]

Just did! Two of them!

 

[Carnifex]

My own story hour is nearing 4,000 now, but none of those who read my story hour ever seem to post comments! Broccli_Head does (check out his Heroes of Vilhon Reach story hour, btw), but he's subscribed to the actual game posts themselves - it's a messageboard run game. My players used to post a lot on it, but now only do so rarely . Apart from that, the Sunderer and theRuinedOne used to post a bit but haven't for ages , and I've had Piratecat post twice (once because of my pimping campaign involving touting the fact I had stolen one of his more nefarious tactics for my own campaign ).

And that's it. 4,000 views, but bugger all actual comments apart from those very few.

I'm actually going to start a new thread for my story hour soon, with a different format including lots of crunchy bits from my campaign. THere'll be prestige classes (like the Dread Slayer, Cerulean One and Unyielding One), spells (loads of these), new monsters (like the scything slayer, dreadspawn and drazhikar), and suchlike. Hopefully this'll help pull more viewers in to read it and comment!

 

[Piratecat]

I'm actually going to start a new thread for my story hour soon, with a different format including lots of crunchy bits from my campaign. THere'll be prestige classes (like the Dread Slayer, Cerulean One and Unyielding One), spells (loads of these), new monsters (like the scything slayer, dreadspawn and drazhikar), and suchlike. Hopefully this'll help pull more viewers in to read it and comment!

That's a darn cool idea!

 

[Serpenteye]

On the other hand, why don't you post in someone's story hour that you read? Is it to avoid clutter? Piratecat can trim out the weeds (as it were) since he's a moderator, most of us can't; does that have anything to do with it?

Just curious...

I read a lot of story hours, but I don't usually post in them since it's impractical for me to do so. Most of the time when I log in to the boards I open up ca 20-25 pages, log off the internet and browse trough the pages offline. Therefore when I get to a thread i might like to contribute to it's usually not worth the bother to log on just to reply. The fact that I've posted to your story hour is because I find it a tragically under-commented thread for such a good sh.