The Best of the Best: Story Hours

[Nonlethal Force]

My 1st storyhour is currently at 16th level, and it eventually hits 29. Not epic in terms of levels yet, but the PCs are about one update away from fighting a lesser archfiend atop the corpse of a dead god in the Astral, which is epic in my book.

I think that qualifies as epic as far as Merriam-Webster is concerned. D&D might object, but Webster wouldn't.

Shemeska, do you write fiction as well? By fiction, of course game logs are fiction ... I suppose I should ask if all your story hours are games converted to story form or do you write stuff off the top of your head, too? You (along with lazybones and el-remmen) were one of the ones I thought of earlier when I was writing my post, but I couldn't remember if all your work was a journaling-type Story Hour or a solely out-of-your-imagination fiction type Story Hour.

 

[el-remmen]

You (along with lazybones and el-remmen) were one of the ones I thought of earlier when I was writing my post

Eh?

My story hours are based on actual game sessions.

 

[Nonlethal Force]

Yeah, I know, el-remmen. Sorry for the poorly worded post above.

I was trying to say - embarrassing poor in a thread about communicating one's ideas I admit - that when I thought about Story Hour authors the first three I thought of were: Lazybones, el-remmen, and Shemeska. I couldn't remember exactly, but I thought you were almost completely an excellent example of the journal-style SH and I thought Lazybones dabbled in a fair mix of both styles. I was asking if Shemeska is all of one or a good mix of both.

 

[el-remmen]

Yeah, I know, el-remmen. Sorry for the poorly worded post above.

Not a problem. But I would not characterize my story hour as "journal style" either.

I see journal-style as either being from one character's point of view, or being more of clean factual re-telling of events; a log, if you will.

"Out of the Frying Pan" is more like a serialized version of the story of a campaign.

 

[Silver Moon]

Well, it you are a fan of "Firefly" I would suggest Ao the Overkitty's "Ruthless Bastards of the 'Verse". It's a little off-beat and quirky and it's obvious that most of the players really liked the Jayne character. It's fast-paced and a very fun read.

 

[Nonlethal Force]

I see journal-style as either being from one character's point of view, or being more of clean factual re-telling of events; a log, if you will.

"Out of the Frying Pan" is more like a serialized version of the story of a campaign.

Certainly. I wasn't trying to use journal-style as a derogatory term at all. Merely as a recounting of events from the table-top experiance. Everyone recounts the events differently, of course. It should go without saying that what you do works, because you have quite the following!

I suppose the easiest way to distinguish SHs are those that originate in the author's mind and those that originate at the tabletop.

EDIT: I think I'll stop typing for the night. The amount of typo-s coming from my keyboard is not inspiring tonight.

 

[Shemeska]

I think that qualifies as epic as far as Merriam-Webster is concerned. D&D might object, but Webster wouldn't.

Shemeska, do you write fiction as well? By fiction, of course game logs are fiction ... I suppose I should ask if all your story hours are games converted to story form or do you write stuff off the top of your head, too? You (along with lazybones and el-remmen) were one of the ones I thought of earlier when I was writing my post, but I couldn't remember if all your work was a journaling-type Story Hour or a solely out-of-your-imagination fiction type Story Hour.

My two storyhours on Enworld are based on actual games converted to story form. I add cut scenes, flashbacks, and stuff from the antagonists' point of view however, and that all is out-of-imagination stuff added to the actual PC centric plotline. Material from both PC and NPC perspective I tend to think fleshes out of the metaplot that develops over the course of the whole campaign/storyhour.

Off of Enworld over on Planewalker.com I've got (most) of my straight up fiction work (including the stories in the Baernaloth cycle) and one piece of mine was in Knowledge Arcana #5 over on WotC. I do this for a mixture of fun and to just toy with and develop characters that work their way into the game; the fiction on the side allows me to get in their heads so to speak. I like to think over time I'm getting better, hopefully, perhaps.

 

[RangerWickett]

My technique is similar to Shemeska's. I polish a few things, insert new material to flesh out side plot-lines, and sometimes just make stuff up if I can't remember exactly what happened, but the core of the story is what the PCs did. Thankfully, my players are awesome.

And I updated, like, 3 times today. Now to be able to update at least once in the next week. *grin*

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Thanks for the kind words and recommendations, everyone.

I am, as I type this, sitting here in Las Vegas, having just completed the second-of-three grueling but indescribably rewarding days of Robert McKee's STORY seminar. (Three days, a 12-hour session each day.)

Not only has it given me a lot of insight into what parts of my Story Hour worked, and why, it's also got me itching to give the whole ferkin thing a thorough rework.

I can't recommend this seminar enough for anyone interested in the technique of writing-- especially if you can get your employer to pay for it, as I have.

 

[happyelf]

I'm a fan of spyscribe's Welcome to the Halmae

Me too! It's fun to read and unlike a lot of threads it does actually start at the start.