What do you do when you run out of stories to tell?

[Razjah]

Well, we have reading down. I like the books Eureka and Masks by the guys at Gnome Stew to find inspiration in moments. Some may be better than others, but it gets me thinking and finding something to use for the game.

 

[Halivar]

Ok, I might have been a bit presumptuous in the OP. When I say "story", I mean the themes, plot hooks, and general milieu events from which reactive collaborative storytelling arises. But also I mean the stories of people the PC's don't control, and backdrop events that in part define the world around them.

 

[Mary_Crowell]

Ok, I might have been a bit presumptuous in the OP. When I say "story", I mean the themes, plot hooks, and general milieu events from which reactive collaborative storytelling arises. But also I mean the stories of people the PC's don't control, and backdrop events that in part define the world around them.

For me I set a campaign in what could have been a fairly typical world. (It has a whole lot of Greek mythology in it.) But, I'm a musician, so all of my names and bits of character histories come from composers and pieces of music history--patchworked together. Also, I read Onward by Howard Schulz and got obsessed with researching coffee, how it's made and grown, religious associations with it, etc. And then all three of those elements interacted in a way that has been really interesting and fun for the players and has created sometimes mysterious but plausible and logical motivations for the NPCs.

Mike Shea describes something like this in his book the Lazy Dungeon Master. (Mash ups.)

I am fortunate that three of my five players are teenagers. They would make something happen--even if I did have an unimaginative night. Just listening to them speculate as to what I 'might' do next gives me great ideas.
Several DM's have mentioned using that particular strategy.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

grab the nearest newspaper and read out the headline story but with goblins

I don't have a newspaper to hand so I went to https:\\news.bbc.co.uk.

Top Story thus becomes: Accused Goblin Misses Sunday Mass.

Cardinal Keith O'Brien, Britain's most senior Goblin Cleric, misses Sunday Mass after allegations of improper behaviour.

Change the name, possibly change it to a human Cleric, and you've got a story right there. Why did he miss *insert important religious ceremony*. Who is this guy, anyway? Is he who he seems to be? If yes, what's he done and who's to blame? If not, what is he? Doppleganger? Mind control?

I like this as an idea.

NOTE: Please do not hijack the thread with a discussion of the real-world story. Taken as inspiration only.

 

[Umbran]

grab the nearest newspaper and read out the headline story but with goblins

Heh. This even works with, say, weather.com...

"Another big blast of Goblins ahead"

"Gnoll not always what it seems"

"Where did all the rats go after Sandy?" - this one requires no editing at all!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I know it sounds silly; logically, it's an impossible premise. But what do you do when you have the urge to tell a new story at the game table, but nothing feels new? Your muse has abandoned you, and everything you can think of is a stale rehash of a previous game or a bad adaptation of a book or movie? What do you do when you've run out of stories to tell?

While I have run some sandboxy stuff, and I have a couple of really cool and as-yet unplayed homebrews pretty well detailed*, I probably won't run either one. The drive to run yet another traditional fantasy campaign simply isn't there right now, and hasn't been for years.

And the stuff I DO want to run has been met with the chirping of crickets.

Essentially, then, I've retired from game mastery. At least, for the foreseeable future.








* my post-apocalyptic fantasy setting for 3.X and a M:tG campaign using HERO

 

[delericho]

One other thing I've found helpful - always keep a notepad handy, and keep at least one "random thoughts" file on your PC. I have all sorts of stray thoughts and weird ideas, some of which make for ideal adventure inspiration (and, of course, about 90% of which are dross!). But I have these ideas, I get distracted by something else, and they're gone.

Keeping a notepad handy means I can jot them down, and then review them later.

 

[Richards]

Delericho's method is something I've done myself over the years, with good results. Sometimes, when I'm stuck for ideas, I flip through my idea notebook and see what all is in there I haven't fleshed out just yet.

Johnathan

 

[Pentoth]

I may run a published adventure for a night. If it takes longer I pull out the newspaper and read it looking for new ideas.

 

[Evenglare]

Since when does setting up a premise NOT constitute as a story. I thought that's how you were supposed to play tabletop RPGs. Surely you can't just make characters and tell them to "GO" if so tell me where you play so I can stay far away. Some sort of framing device MUST be set up. Also known as STORY, specifically story introduction, but still story nonetheless.