The nature of story

[Jdvn1]

*drowns*

 

[RedShirtNo5]

Of course, when discussing D&D and literature, you need to remember these are not stories!

-RedShirt

 

[Mystery Man]

Anyway, yeah, good way to really defibrilate the discussion!

I had to look that up but sure.

I had an article somewhere lost in a database about effective storytelling that I've found useful but can't find it right now. I'll dig it up hopefully tomorrow and post it.

 

[Umbran]

Well, I suppose you could use semantics to make the topic go poof...

Whether or not I could isn't the issue, since I wasn't trying to do so.

There's no single answer to the broad question. So, I posed a question in an attempt to get more information and narrow the focus a bit. That was trying to continue the discussion, not trying to kill it.

 

[Turjan]

Well, I suppose you could use semantics to make the topic go poof, but I think the topic's done anyway, as most of the responses have shown.

Ah, so it's done? I suppose it would not hurt the discussion if the topic starter showed a little bit more effort . If the answers don't meet your expectations, you might consider giving a few hints yourself .

 

[Desdichado]

I had to look that up but sure.

What you've never seen E.R.?

 

[Jack Spencer Jr]

Ah, so it's done? I suppose it would not hurt the discussion if the topic starter showed a little bit more effort . If the answers don't meet your expectations, you might consider giving a few hints yourself .

Below? For the most part, no. Most have been pretty much on the mark for what I expected. A few did go below, but that's threadcrapping for you.

The reason I bring up the topic is because I am working on a product for just this kind of thing. I have an understanding into the nature of story, but I was uncertain how much of a "well, duh" reaction it would get. Hence the fishing expedition.

The nature of story is rooted in the way human beings think. When we remember our past or daydream about the future, our thoughts tend to conform to the crafting principles of story. We tend to focus on the parts that are interesting. Story is a fictional construct that mimmics human thought and memory.

Groovy. So what makes those interesting parts interesting? I mean aside from any otherwise meaningless matters of taste, such as a nice set of gams. I mean, I dig me some nice gams, but gams don't make a story. The interesting parts are based on a value. The sort of universal human values that anyone can recognize and identify with.

This is because story is change. Well, not just change. Story is meaningful change. The change is meaningful because a value reverses its charge by going from a positive to a negative or from a negative to a positive. Story is about how life goes from one state of being to another.

This means ordering eggs instead of pancakes for breakfast is not a meaningful change. Getting fired from your job is a better example of a meaningful change.

Which is not to say that ordering eggs can't be a meaningful change. That is the artist's challenge. Anything can be a story, but not everything is a story. This is the problem with the dictionary definition of a narrated series of related events. It seems to imply that any series of events is story. I suppose technically it could, but it would be a boring story. This is the problem with this sort of thing, I guess. What separates music from just noise? Artistic craftmanship, I would say.

This is the sort of thing I mean.

 

[Doug McCrae]

What separates music from just noise?

Intention.

 

[ThoughtBubble]

I'm actually expirementing with this in the game I'm going to be starting up in january (probablly just a 3-5 session spin). In my last campaign survey, The omst overwhelmingn response for what was wanted was 'chances to RP' and 'story'. Actually, not just story, but an overarching story. Well, that makes things more difficult. I usually see a story as a meaningful set of interactions/conflicts with some form of meaning or resolution. In an aproximation of a short story format, each session or two would end up wrapping itself up into a samll package of events that contain some meaning through interacting with the main characters (I've always believed that it should be the players' story). But, to aproximate a longer story, things get harder. More events need to 'click' together. There need to be more connections. There's more planning, more book-keeping, and more work.

And then there's factors A and B. My players (not all players mind you, just my group) are A) Horibly uncooperative when it comes to making a story, and B) Fairly boring. This makes the story as their story, or having them be the key players in a long term sort of thing, really difficult. (And, on a side note, while saying that directly is kind of harsh, I'm also aware of my own faults in the situation)

So, maybe it's not the players' story. What is it about then?
The villians? A large series of tied events? This time, I'm going to go for a particular sympathetic NPC. I'm casting her in the role of the 'princess who needs rescuing' and tieing a whole lot of the reasons, interactions, and other bits that make a story into that. The players are going to be, of course, the heroic rescuers. In this case, I feel ike I have enough of the things I like to have in a story (meaningful interactions between people, hard choices, and emotional moments) within view, or nearly so, while letting the players still kick ass, chew bubblegum and walk out of most any situation they want to.

And now that I said it, it seems pretty "well duh"