Story Game Online

Regenerative Culture Social Technology
#1

Story games are really, really cool, from what I’ve heard. They sound like they are great ways to build community and basic social skills (true, deep, connective skills) that we lack in our modern world(and they sound just plain fun :)). However, I don’t have a group of people in my area interested in playing, and I think there are a number of people out there who have the same problem. So, I was wondering if there were people out there who would be interested in carrying out an experiment into story gaming here, online. We could also use skype, as Willem suggested in another thread.

I don’t have no experience with story games, so I am reluctant to be game master (extremely reluctant) but, if worst came to absolute worst, I would be willing to try it out, but i would be more than happy to give the position up to anybody else.

#2

I lack for a local group, but at least not for RPG experience, so I’d volunteer for GM duty, even though we’ll play something I’ve never played before, either.

#3
  1. Awesom possum! :slight_smile:

Hey, I don’t mind standing by your side (playing online) so that you can practice your GM skills with me and play and create together. :slight_smile:

#4

yes! all this talk about story has got me really excited to create some. Do you have any idea what kindof game you want to try?

on the story-games forum someone just announced a new forum for specifically play-by-post centered story-gaming and all that comes with it. You can find it at http://www.thereisnoscreen.com/

Cheers!

#5
yes! all this talk about story has got me really excited to create some. Do you have any idea what kindof game you want to try?

The poll I just added should help, no?

I’d rather play over Skype than play-by-post, personally; for me, a lot of the value focuses on developing my oral skills. Of course, no reason we couldn’t have a Skype game and a PbP game going on at the same time.

EDIT (in childish scrawl): ME NO RITE PRITTEE TOO DAY!

#6

Cool, thanks for setting up the poll Jason.

Hmmm… choices, choices. Does anyone have any experience with any of these systems?

#7

Tooooo cool! Thanks Jason! You know you’ve got me in on this one too. But how to decide what game? I too vote for either Skype or Skype AND a separate play-by-post game.

Well, I finally think I’ve figured out PTA, so I might want to try it. I can pass on creator’s advice on playing it that I’ve had to scour the internet for.

Dogs in the Vineyard rocks pretty fun, but I still don’t completely understand it. I keep digging up new game flow-charts and such for it, but I still have to crack the code. This weekend I’ll attend an indie game convention, indie hurricane, and play some Dogs probably. I might have a better sense of it then.

You know how I feel about In A Wicked Age already, but I’d actually want to play something different, as I think IAWA expresses just one way to do the whole story-seeding thing. I’d love to try out others…

Which brings me to the missing game from the poll. If you like Savage Worlds, Jason, I think you’d love Burning Wheel: Revised. I confess I don’t own the game yet, but I’ve read enough of the free stuff and some rave reviews to get the sense that it combines the story-seeding coolness of the Dogs’ towns, with a better version of traditional systems (probably such as Savage Worlds). Check it out. Luke Crane, the designer, won some awards for it, I think. I would try to do something with the Burning Sands: Jihad supplement, based on a combination of the Dune book series and the current Middle East oil-wars, that we could retool for anti-civ purposes pretty easy, I bet.

#8

I’ve never gotten to play any of these, but I have the courage (or lack of sense) to jump in whole-hog, if needed. But if we play something Willem has some experience with, he might make a better GM than me, since he HAS played these.

I added Burning Wheel. Didn’t know if that put enough story in story games for yinz. :slight_smile:

I voted for Dogs, simply because it has so much prominence. I feel like a fraud until I play it. :slight_smile:

EDIT: And it occurs to me, if we mean to overcome our lack of local community by turning to the internet, and mean to form a long-distance story band, should we go all the way? Should we give our story band a name? Should we even, say, record these Skype games and possibly even release our jam sessions? I don’t know if the world can handle an actual play gaming podcast with an emphasis on rewilding and building a new oral tradition. Whether it needs one, well, that asks a different question, doesn’t it?

#9

I was just looking through the Burning Sands: Jihad booklet and laughing all the way. I don’t know if it was the innocuous substitution of salt for spice or the subtle (or not) hints towards an analogy with oil. Ahhhh… Dune :).

Anyway, I was wondering if FATE might be the best choice becuase the rules are easily available (free :)) online, meaning that people could reference them whenever they needed too. Then again, I pretty sure In Wicked Age and maybe Dogs in the Vineyard are simple enough that you wouldn’t need that. It isn’t a necessity I guess, it just might be nice.

#10

I thought FATE might work with perhaps a modern-day setting involving people breaking away from civilization, with lots of animism, shamanism, and maybe a healthy dose of eco-terrorist wish fulfillment, a la the old Werewolf game. :slight_smile:

With indie games, I feel good about ponying up the cash, personally. You know it goes directly to a human being who uses it to make more creative stuff, and myself, I think supporting that has some merit all on its own.

#11

Buying the books is all well and good when you have a source of income, but when not… :slight_smile: Even if I bought them, it would still take time to get them, but I guess we would have time. The money is still the issue though. I don’t need to have the books any way, I was just thinking it might be nice, especially if we wen with something relatively complicated like Burning Sands or FATE or maybe PTA.

That idea for the FATE game sounds really interesting, but then again, they all sound cool :slight_smile:.

#12

Have you looked into the cost? I don’t mean to presume about your means, and I’ve known people who’d have a problem even with this, but these don’t cost nearly what the traditional RPG’s do. You can get a PDF for most of these online for something in the neighborhood of $10. Obviously, wait until we pick one, but in terms of entertainment per dollar, it beats the pants off of the movie theater.

#13

I thought I checked, but looking a little deeper, I see that you’re right. Yeah, I would be happy to spend ten bucks, I’m used to traditional books that cost 30 or 40 dollars or more. It’s definitely a better investment than a movie ticket, I agree.

Dang, that took away my only simple way to decide how to allocate my vote though :), I don’t know what I’m going to vote for now.

#14

count me in if possible, I would totally love to get into this, I’ve got a mic and skype and all (x hardcore RTS gamer here…), I have no idea about any of the games so I can’t even make sense enough to vote, but thanks for brining up the idea!

#15

Sure. If we pick one I’ve done, I’ll give it a shot.

I added Burning Wheel. Didn't know if that put enough story in story games for yinz. [:)

It probably doesn’t fit the ‘just enough rules’ measure for storyjams (how I define them), but it definitely counts as a story and indie game, as (from what understand) it provides all the structure needed for plots, color, themes, and dynamic interactions!

I voted for Dogs, simply because it has so much prominence. I feel like a fraud until I play it. :)

That would probably give its creator a major warm fuzzy.

EDIT: And it occurs to me, if we mean to overcome our lack of local community by turning to the internet, and mean to form a long-distance story band, should we go all the way? Should we give our story band a name?

Duh! Of course, dood! :slight_smile:

Should we even, say, record these Skype games and possibly even release our jam sessions? I don't know if the world can handle an actual play gaming podcast with an emphasis on rewilding and building a new oral tradition. Whether it [i]needs[/i] one, well, that asks a different question, doesn't it?

You know the answers to all these questions already. Do not toy weet us!

I thought FATE might work with perhaps a modern-day setting involving people breaking away from civilization

I can’t deny that simpler rules will make my life easier, as long as FATE has that good story-structure stuff that PTA and so on have. I’ll check it out, but what do you think?

I was just looking through the Burning Sands: Jihad booklet and laughing all the way.

Yeah, I love Dune, and it seemed ripe for turning the Fedaykeen into a righteous animist revolution. :slight_smile: But it probably goes too complex, for our needs. It seemed like a cool Jason kind of game, though. :slight_smile:

count me in if possible

Yeah!

Hey, I don't mind standing by your side (playing online)

:slight_smile: let’s do it.

Hmmm. I still have to vote, too. Crap!

#16

Great to see so much enthusiasm! Id like to vote on something, but it just seems so final you know? Ill have to think on it some more haha!

If we decide to go do this thing on skype, which is a good idea, i’ll pass my talking stick to someone else. I don’t have access to a reliable connection and I live half a world in timezones away from the rest of you that would make things unneccesary difficult for all.

If a play-by-post is started somewhere well thats a different story then i guess!

make fun!

#17

Yeah, voting is so final. I see only Jason’s voted yet. I think that, for me, I’ve eliminated Burning Wheel and My Life with Master. I think that burning wheel, though it looks totally awesome, is just too complicated. My life with Master just doesn’t have the kind of re-wilding type story opportunities that I think would be really interesting. (Dogs in the Vineyard doesn’t really either I guess, but it just grabs me).

#18

I voted. Sigh. That felt hard. I wonder if we should change the Dogs setting, or just play it straight?

Maybe I should’ve voted for PTA. :stuck_out_tongue:

#19

Fellas, you can change your vote later if you change your mind. If you’ve voted, you’ve got a “Remove Vote” link on the side. Click that, it’ll remove your vote and you can vote again. Nothing final about it. :slight_smile:

The thing I like about Dogs comes from its subtlety. On the surface, it seems like you play Mormon paladins in a weird West. But really, the game sets itself up to create ethical and moral quandaries. The rulebook only sounds pious; in play, it puts your faith through the grinder.

And to stick up for My Life with Master, you don’t see the rewilding connection of living out your aspirations of freedom, while bound to the will of a terrible villain? I certainly do.

#20

Dogs tempts me. I have it but havent played it yet. I’ve heard all about how the setting is merely used to convey something else entirely and i can see how that could be done in play.

My Life with Master, another game id love to play. I can see indeed how this could make beautiful semi-tragic stories. I dont have this one, so that makes me want to play it even more.

PTA, have it, and im sure i will play it often, so im not really in a hurry with this one.

Fate could be fun when in the right mood the right type of cinematic story perhaps. I still have plans for running a Fate3 zombie game once

Burning Wheel, too much for me honestly. Though im only familiar with Burning Empires really, its just sooo much of everything it makes my head hurt.

In A Wicked Age, would love to play this, yet at the same time i feel like oracles and best interests could be ported to almost any game and those are for me the things that make In A wicked Age appealing.

In the end anything would work for me, im gonna put my vote on Dogs though its versatile…