# [POLL] What Kind of Story Hour Are You Writing?



## el-remmen (Apr 19, 2007)

So I spent some time thinking about the different kinds of story hours, and broke them down into the 7 categories detailed below.  I am curious to what the breakdown of story hours might be according to this criteria.

Please read the categories carefully before voting.  And yes, some story hours may not fit exactly and nearly into one category or another - but I tried to keep them fairly open - so it should not be hard to choose the closest category.  It is for this reason that I did not include an "Other" choice in the poll (to come), as I want people to choose one of these seven, but if you do feel like I forgot a category please describe it in the thread after you make your choice.


*The Straight Campaign Log*
This kind of "story hour" is a only a "story" in the loosest of ways. It is just a re-telling of the events of a campaign with little or no characterization or view into the internal states of the characters. Nothing is added or taken away.  This type of story hour usually has a lot of references to game mechanics as a way of explaining what happens (though not neccesarily).

*The Straight Narrative Re-Telling*
Similar to the log, this kind of story hour just tells it like it is.  If the PCs spend three hours bickering, the story tells of three hours bickering.  If the characters make a foolish assumption that sends them after a  red herring for three sessions, we learn of the events of those three sessions even if they have nothing to do with nothing.  While every  scene or event may not get equal coverage, they are all at least mentioned.  Unlike the log, the events of the campaign are woven into a narrative, and may have elaborate descriptions of people or scenes, and some insight into character internal states by means of dialogue, or perhaps even OOC explanations of character motivations.  This type of story hour may or may not include references to game mechanics.

*The Good Parts Version Story Hour*
This is similar to the "Straight Narrative Re-Telling" as the events of the campaign are presented as a story as opposed to a simple log of events, but it is edited to make it more of a novelization of the campaign.  Scenes may presented out of order, may just simply be referred to briefly, or even cut out completely for the sake of the continuity of the story and stylistic concerns about the presentation. It may even have cut scenes of the actions of NPCs when the PCs are not present. This type of story hour may or may not include references to game mechanics.

*The Journal/First Person*
These kinds of stories are written from the perspective of a particular character, and thus the events of the campaign being re-told might be skewed based on that perspective.  This might ostensibly be a straight re-telling, or a "good parts" version, but the fact that it is told in this form prejudices the POV to some degree. In some cases, it is obvious that the version the reader is getting is VERY skewed and perhaps purposefully so - or it may be generally faithful with more subtle indicators of the POV.  Note that if you are writing a story not based on actual campaign play, use one of the three categories below, even if it is also a first-person perspective.

*Game-Based Fiction (Mark I)*
These story hours are not based on actual campaigns at all. Instead, the author is writing a story framed by game mechanics. So for a D&D-based story hour of this type, for example, we would still find the typical types of classes and monsters and limits on what characters can do based on level.  Sometimes these stories are based on specific modules/adventures/settings, sometimes not.

*Game-Based Fiction (Mark II - The Hardcore)*
Much like the above, except while there is no "campaign", the author is still using mechanics to determine what happens. So he or she actually rolls out the battles and skill checks and the like to determine the outcomes of the situations the story's characters are placed in.  I am not sure that there are many of these, but I know there used to be at least one.

*Total Fiction*
This is just a story someone is posting in this forum.  It is not game-based, and while it may have some fantasy or sci-fi or pulp tropes that are seen in some games, it makes no effort to follow the rules/mechanics of any particular game system.


----------



## BLACKDIRGE (Apr 19, 2007)

My storyhours are straight fiction, although I'm not sure which category they fall into. They certainly use recognizable D&D classes, settings, and monsters, but I don't necessarily let that limit what a character can accomplish. I also don't make any rolls or use any other game-based mechanic to determine the outcome of the story. 

I'd like to vote in your poll, so, in your estimation, would I be "Game Based Fiction Mark II" or "Total Fiction"?

BD


----------



## Ankh-Morpork Guard (Apr 19, 2007)

Hmm...mine STARTED as a game, but the point I've reached writing now is fiction completely(or at least, the natural progression of where things would/could have gone) so uh...dunno what to vote for.


----------



## Raven Crowking (Apr 19, 2007)

Mine use my campaign notes, my boxed text, and my notes from during the game to come as close as possible to what actually happened in-game.


----------



## Gold Roger (Apr 19, 2007)

The short time when I wrote SH, it was a _Straight Narrative Re-Telling_, though my fallible memory propably scewed it a bit in direction of a _Good Parts Version Story Hour_.


----------



## el-remmen (Apr 19, 2007)

BLACKDIRGE said:
			
		

> I'd like to vote in your poll, so, in your estimation, would I be "Game Based Fiction Mark II" or "Total Fiction"?
> 
> BD




Actually, I would say "Game Based Fiction Mark I" OR "Total Fiction"? based on your own estimation of how far you stray.  It is up to you, this isn't meant to be scientific


----------



## el-remmen (Apr 19, 2007)

Ankh-Morpork Guard said:
			
		

> Hmm...mine STARTED as a game, but the point I've reached writing now is fiction completely(or at least, the natural progression of where things would/could have gone) so uh...dunno what to vote for.




Well, since the poll asks what kind of story hour you are _writing_ (as opposed to _wrote_) I would choose the one of the three "fiction" choices is closest to what you are doing now.


----------



## Ghostknight (Apr 19, 2007)

I went for total fiction.  Why?  because I wrote the story and then afterwards tried to work it back into the d20 system- trying to create rules around the narrative elements I had used.  I managed in some cases- gave up in others ...


----------



## Angcuru (Apr 19, 2007)

My SH is something of a mish-mash of these types.  I'd say it went from Mark 1 to Narrative Re-Telling to Mark 1 again.  Woe be the absence of the 'confused mutt' option.


----------



## Nonlethal Force (Apr 19, 2007)

el-remmen said:
			
		

> *Game-Based Fiction (Mark I)*
> 
> *Game-Based Fiction (Mark II - The Hardcore)*
> 
> *Total Fiction*




I had a hard time deciding between these three.  The closest match would probably be Game-Based Fiction Mark II.

I am using Game mechanics as a guide to what the characters can or cannot do.  I do occasionally roll - just to make sure that my writing is not just what "I want" as the author but so that the law of averages makes realism come through.  However, I do not often roll things like skill checks or especially knowledge checks.  Those just happen in my head!

I guess what I am saying is that I am probably closest to GBF Mark II, but I am not a slave to the rolling and do not always roll (especially outside of combat.  The mechanics are my guide - and the characters are actually being built on a class/prestige class model.

I duno if I chose write or wrong.


----------



## shilsen (Apr 19, 2007)

My story hour began as a Straight Narrative Re-Telling, but over time (detailing 56 sessions, close to 150 entries and well over a year of time on ENWorld) has changed to become a Good Parts Version Story Hour. So I chose the latter as what I am doing now.

I should admit that my players and readers generally seem to describe it more as a "Oh My God - When Will The Suffering Stop?" Version Story Hour


----------



## Whizbang Dustyboots (Apr 19, 2007)

Good Parts Version. If someone really wants 1,000 words of dickering with merchants and long philosophical discussions between priests of different gods, just ask on the OOC thread and I'll reprint them there. Otherwise, I take the best moments from each and move on.


----------



## Mycanid (Apr 20, 2007)

Fiction based on one of my favorite old modules featuring some NPC's that pop up in other adventures I wrote up ... sort of as a "origin" of how they wound up adventuring together kinda thing.

Note though ... I have not started the thread again. I wrote some of it before the crash and have been writing it in my notebooks, developing the story, since then... slowly.  :\


----------



## Mallus (Apr 20, 2007)

(Seeing as Rolzup, who writes the Story Hour of our campaign, pretty f-ing brilliantly, I might add, hasn't voted yet, I figuredt I should)

"The Chronicle of Burne, and Some Others of Lesser Importance" is Rolzup's brainchild. It's Burne's first personal journal as recorded by his snarky mechanical famalus, Abraxis the Ultimate Cat.

Seeing as there's no way to tell the "good parts version" from the the bad, it's pretty much everything that's happend in the campaign Burne's unmistakable point of view... The Story Hour also contains interludes of our slightly-reworked game emails, which shed some addtional light on the "story", such as it is, and excerpts from various CITY writers provide setting information, usually in the least efficient, though pretty damn clever, way possible.

I'm indebted to Rolzup for bring my game world to life here on the virtual pages of ENWorld. Dude, you rock, and, err skoal!


----------



## Lazybones (Apr 20, 2007)

Game-based fiction. I don't actually roll, but the game mechanics are there.


----------



## karianna (Apr 20, 2007)

*Campaign based Story Telling*

I try to write a wrapper around what happens in the campaign, occasionally making up dialog as I go as my group aren't always in a sober state to be role playing


----------



## Ealli (Apr 20, 2007)

I entered Journal even though it's not entirely first person.  I'm definitely telling the tale primarily through one character's perspective, but writing in the third person and willing to include things which happen out of her sight.  I prune and reshape a little, but most of the characters' meanderings are included.


----------



## sniffles (Apr 20, 2007)

Mine are all first-person journals. I prefer that narrative style because it means that I as a player don't have to try to track everything that every other player-character does during the game. I can assume that sometimes my narrator/character doesn't see everything, or forgets or misinterprets some things. 

Otherwise my natural tendency to be completely accurate would make my entries incredibly long, overly detailed and dull. And they would take even longer to write. This is supposed to be for fun, not a second job. I don't even get extra XP for writing them, except in one campaign.


----------



## talien (Apr 22, 2007)

Good parts version.  

Because the bad parts are boring.


----------



## Shemeska (Apr 22, 2007)

Mostly the good-parts version. At times there is significant NPC only interludes and cut-scenes to explain portions of the metaplot that ran through the campaign out of view of the PCs. It also lets me write more stuff with fiends 

And my 1st story hour is about fiends. 1k + pages of evil. Yummy yummy evil. It's also being written years in hindsight, so as time passes it's more a recreation of the campaign events than strictly following notes from each session (Storyhour 2 is much more in line with session notes).

One thing I don't do however is use rolls or game mechanics. It's a story, and any use or reference to those things except for an OOC post following an update talking about something at the gaming table would break it for me.


----------



## Dr. NRG (Apr 23, 2007)

None in the works, but I am curious how you would classify Out of the Frying Pan, el-remmen. 

NRG


----------



## el-remmen (Apr 23, 2007)

Dr. NRG said:
			
		

> I am curious how you would classify Out of the Frying Pan, el-remmen.
> 
> NRG




I would say same as my current one, "The Straight Narrative Re-Telling"

Every last battle is in there (down to the last orc) and the vast majority of the dialog was taken from very accurate quote logs.


----------

