# What is your favorite story hour - and Why?



## Enkhidu (Aug 23, 2002)

Knightfall1972 recently put up a poll asking who your favorite Story Hour writer was, but I noticed it left out some of the lesser newer Story Hours. 

So, how about this...

Rather than lock you in to some of the more well known Story Hours, I'll leave wide open - 

Which Story Hour is your favorite - and, more importantly, why is it your favorite? Is is plot? Or action? Or Characters? Or does the Story Hour have teh funny?

Let's hear it!


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## Piratecat (Aug 23, 2002)

It's so frustrating to me that there are so many good story hours, and not enough time for me to read all of them! I lurk on a half dozen or so, occasionally post on four or five more, but I find I'm dropping in and reading a whole lot at once than I am reading each update every day.  Anyone else do this, or am I just odd?


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## fett527 (Aug 23, 2002)

I don't know how people find time to read and post at all.  I have a hard enough time keeping up with our own story hour (link in the sig).  I wish I could because I've tried to start reading some of them and they are great reads, but can't make the time to keep up.


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## Ziona (Aug 23, 2002)

No, I agree. It's hard to keep up with them all (especially if you write your own story hour, which takes up tons of time!) But, I read posts like I read my comics...I wait for a few to pile up then read a chunk of them at once!


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## ForceUser (Aug 23, 2002)

Piratecat said:
			
		

> *It's so frustrating to me that there are so many good story hours, and not enough time for me to read all of them! I lurk on a half dozen or so, occasionally post on four or five more, but I find I'm dropping in and reading a whole lot at once than I am reading each update every day.  Anyone else do this, or am I just odd? *




I do it too. Once I read through to current on the "big three" (yours, Sagiro's, and Wulf's), I began a campaign to systematically read every story hour that hooked me, one at a time, in linear fashion. I read Sepulchrave's front to back (my favorite to date, but I'm into the intellectual content), then I started (contact)'s whole business with his ToEE2, which I am still chortling through. Not sure what I'm going to tackle next!


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## Wicht (Aug 23, 2002)

ForceUser said:
			
		

> *Not sure what I'm going to tackle next! *




You could always try mine 

I have been trying to read some of the others since I first started doing my own a couple months ago.  I gotta admit the longer ones are daunting to begin, but of the ones I have read portions of so far, my favorites (other than my own ) are Wulf's and Abertons.  (I haven't tried PCs or Sepulchraves yet.) I like the characters and the format in which the stories are presented.  I like less (not dislike but just like less) those storyhours that read more of a game log than a true story.


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## tleilaxu (Aug 24, 2002)

Well, I've been reading The Heretic of Wyre, PC's storyhour and cthuluftangn's RTTTOEE. I look forward to trying some of the others but there is only so much time! 

Anyway, I'd like to say that story hour is one of the best innovations on the boards


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## DanMcS (Aug 24, 2002)

I love the jonrog's darkmatter d20 one; I've liked that setting since it was first in rumors, I helped playtest it, and that game reads like a good novel or movie transcript.  The fact that the series pilot on USA by him was awesome is just a free bonus.

Piratecat's story and the DoD early days are tremendously engaging.

I'd have to say my most recent favorite is the Heretic of Wyre series- I started reading those sunday night, and ended up going to work on 2 hours of sleep as a result.  I'm dumb


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## Thebalor (Aug 24, 2002)

Wyre!  Been following it since the original "Can succubus be redeemed?" thread!


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## Knightfall (Aug 24, 2002)

I'm fairly choosy about which Story Hour's I read.  If you try to read too many at once it can hurt your brain.  I'm completely addicted to P'Cat's Defenders thread and Bandeeto's Early Years one as well.  I've resisted reading P'Cat's Scarred Land thread so far.

The other main story hour that can sucked me in is Taboo's From Slave to Heroes in the Making thread.  Taboo's got some good stuff.

I read a bit of drnuncheon's Freeport Story Hour Book One.  But haven't got hooked on it yet.

I'm thinking I might start reading one of Wulf's Story Hours but I'm not sure which thread to begin with.


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## Wulf Ratbane (Aug 24, 2002)

Knightfall1972 said:
			
		

> *I'm thinking I might start reading one of Wulf's Story Hours but I'm not sure which thread to begin with. *




Wulf's Collected Story Hour; 60,000 page views can't be wrong.


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## Metus (Aug 24, 2002)

Nemm's story hour is my most favorite, followed closely by Wulf's.  One reason I got hooked with Nemm's story is cause he used to give massive updates frequently.  Another reason is because of the great characters (both PC and NPC) that I could really care about.  His story hour has a different feel from all the rest I've read, as does Wulf's.  So kudos to them both.

Oh, and I love Sep's story hour.  Doesn't everybody?


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## Piratecat (Aug 24, 2002)

Metus said:
			
		

> *Oh, and I love Sep's story hour.  Doesn't everybody?   *




Yes - or they should!


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## Bob Aberton (Aug 27, 2002)

Heretic of Wyre is...sinfully good (pun intended)  

My own storyhour rocks, too.  Thank you, Wicht, for your endorsement   Follow the link in the sig.  The leave a comment. 






> but of the ones I have read portions of so far, my favorites (other than my own ) are Wulf's and Abertons.


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## Jodo Kast (Aug 27, 2002)

I'm partial to Cthuluftaghn's Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil Story Hour (_DMCthulu's Campaign_) because I'm a player in the campaign (I'm the singleminded, overzealous, sometimes bungling cleric Gann Tolar).  Cthulu does a great job of keeping things interesting, and the story hour is always fresh to me even though I've played through the events.  His website (accessible through his story hour) has tons of artwork and goodies for DMs who wish to run RttToEE. 

I read NiTessine's Dungeons & Warhammers thread for the first time today and really enjoyed it, it is extremely well written.


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## Malachai_rose (Aug 27, 2002)

*my favorites*

Well I like a few, heh. 

The first i would mention is Rel's Faded Glory story hour. The characters are cool, I especially like Speaks and Scar but all of them rock, also I like the way in which Rel can make even a kobold formidable with a level or two of sorcerer. 

Next on the list is the Knights of the Silver Quill... thats fairly self explanatory, Vek rocks and nuff said on that acpount 

Then is the new Ice Luck and Honor story hour, hey one of the central characters is a cleric of Tyr, heh,  

Last but not least is Heros of the Vilhon Reach (shameless plug I realize). It's my group what can I say, heh, also its fun seeing the way Broc interprets the events in game and translates them into each post.

oh and if ya wanna go old skool   I loike the old time Meepos story hour, Malachai make nice with Meepo, lol.

There are numerous others I have started that are excellent but the length of the backstory can seem somewhat daunting to me sometimes. Though I'm workin on gettin over it


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## rackabello (Aug 27, 2002)

I've only recently begun reading Story Hours in earnest, and I'm hooked on Piratecat's Defenders (great synthesis of action and roleplaying) and (contact)'s* Liberators (ditto, and damn funny too).  But I also have to give high praise to ForceUser for the richly detailed writing in his Vietnamese adventures Story Hour.  Planning on digging into Sagiro's, Sepulchrave's, Wulf's and doubtless others now that I'm caught up with these three.

*how _does_ one punctuate that screen handle, anyway?


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## Wulf Ratbane (Aug 27, 2002)

rackabello said:
			
		

> *I'm hooked on (contact)'s* Liberators (ditto, and damn funny too). *




If you like (contact)'s, I recommend mine. 


Wulf


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## Piratecat (Aug 27, 2002)

Wulf Ratbane said:
			
		

> *
> 
> If you like (contact)'s, I recommend mine.
> 
> *




Tsk tsk tsk.  Shameless pandering.  Soon, Wulf, I expect you to be posting things like "If you like Sagiro's, I recommend mine" and "If you like General Discussion I recommend mine."  

Of course, you're correct, but that's besides the point.

 - PCat

PS I'm just jealous I can't write in semi-first person like you can!


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## Wulf Ratbane (Aug 27, 2002)

Piratecat said:
			
		

> *Tsk tsk tsk.  Shameless pandering. *




No, it's just that (contact)'s Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil inspired me to start my story, and if I've captured a bit of that "damn funny" mood, it's thanks to him.



> *PS I'm just jealous I can't write in semi-first person like you can! *




That's ok, I can't write in that semi-present tense that (contact) uses, either.


Wulf


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## Plane Sailing (Aug 27, 2002)

I like storyhours with regular updates and where there is a fairly high proportion of story compared to comment. Having said that, it is always interesting in Wulf's storyhour when comment goes off into realms of discussion about sneaking vs blindsight, or the problems of certain spell combinations or whatever!

I also find things easier when (as well as short paragraphs) the story posts come in short sections. It makes it much easier to read things a bit at a time.

I like reading storyhours which are related to adventures I have either played in, run or are likely to run, for the ideas I get.

I also like ones which are more "adventure log" than "straight fiction" if you know what I mean.

(incidentally, I was rather pleased to have been included in Knightfalls poll, even if I only got there through sheer bloody-mindedness! Hopefully rubbing shoulders with entertaining storyhour writers like all the well-known ones will rub off sooner or later )


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## Piratecat (Aug 27, 2002)

I love your stuff, PS. 

And you bring up an interesting point: Wulf thinks that leaving comments in makes a story hour more homey. I find it distracting and annoying for new readers if they aren't judiciously pruned, removing non-plot-related comments and bumps. Do you folk have an opinion?


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## Jodo Kast (Aug 27, 2002)

I think some pruning is probably advisable after awhile.  Part of the difficulty of diving into these story hours for someone relatively new, like myself, is their enormity.  For some, there are far more non-plot comment posts than actual story posts.  I think comments are great and appreciate them tremendously in my thread, but after a month or so it would be nice to prune back comments I think.


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## el-remmen (Aug 27, 2002)

I prune all the bumps - but keep the commentary - unfortunately, i have more bumps than commentary - for some reason my readers rarely say much aside from "good update" or "we want more now or we will kidnap your children and feed them to Dinkledog".


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## Wulf Ratbane (Aug 27, 2002)

Piratecat said:
			
		

> *Wulf thinks that leaving comments in makes a story hour more homey. I find it distracting and annoying for new readers if they aren't judiciously pruned, removing non-plot-related comments and bumps.*




Which is why I have adopted the brilliant system of archiving all of my posts to the front of the thread. I usually try to do this after every new post.

So when a new post goes up on page 12, post #600, it will _also_ go up on page 2, appended right onto the end of the story in correct chronology. 

Anyone who starts my story hour from page 1 can get caught up without having his read interrupted by any commentary.

Wulf


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## Plane Sailing (Aug 27, 2002)

Wulf Ratbane said:
			
		

> *
> 
> Which is why I have adopted the brilliant system of archiving all of my posts to the front of the thread. I usually try to do this after every new post.
> 
> ...




Is there no end to his dwarvish cunning?!?

Someone on the general board today was asking a question about running "Deep Horizon" and I directed him to your storyhour, and I was astonished to find DH on page 2... now I understand how


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## Wulf Ratbane (Aug 27, 2002)

Plane Sailing said:
			
		

> *Is there no end to his dwarvish cunning?!?*




More cunning still:

I have patented this method of archiving my story and thus lowering the barrier of entry to new readers.

You may emulate it, but you will have to pay me.

Probably the easiest way is just to print out the limited User License from the back of my book, "Pimpin' Your Story Hour _For Dummies_."


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## Zad (Aug 27, 2002)

I guess that's the benefit of having a less widely-read story hour - I don't have to pay kickbacks to Wulf


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## Rune (Aug 27, 2002)

Plane Sailing said:
			
		

> I like storyhours with regular updates and where there is a fairly high proportion of story compared to comment. Having said that, it is always interesting in Wulf's storyhour when comment goes off into realms of discussion about sneaking vs blindsight, or the problems of certain spell combinations or whatever!




Or discussion about classical and mythological heroes and just precisely what a "hero" is.


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## Enkhidu (Aug 27, 2002)

I've seen a couple instances where "pruning" a story hour is a a technique to make a story hour more readable, but the authors using that technique are mods!

So here's a question for you - would it be out of line to ask a mod to do some directed "pruning" on another story hour?


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## Wulf Ratbane (Aug 27, 2002)

Enkhidu said:
			
		

> *So here's a question for you - would it be out of line to ask a mod to do some directed "pruning" on another story hour? *




As long as it's your OWN story hour...


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## Moon_Goddess (Aug 27, 2002)

Someone suggested to me that there were other story hours other than Sepulcrave's but I scoffed at that silly notion.


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## Enkhidu (Aug 27, 2002)

Wulf Ratbane said:
			
		

> *
> 
> As long as it's your OWN story hour... *




"Yeah, I'm, uh, Wulf Ratbane. That's right. And I need about 150 posts pruned. Yeah. From pages 1,2 and 3. Yeah. That's the ticket."


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## Piratecat (Aug 27, 2002)

Enkhidu, I wouldn't be necessarily opposed to giving an author temporary mod power in the story hour forum, so that he could prune his own thread.


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## (contact) (Aug 28, 2002)

> If you like (contact)'s, I recommend mine.




I blame the media-industrial complex.



I'm not crafty enough to create an archive at the beginning of the thread, so my solution was to archive my logs up to date in .zip files online (here) and post a link to them at the start of the thread.

That way, new readers can get caught up without having to do it on the boards.  

Also, if you're like me, reading yellow on black text in any large concentration leads to headaches and binge-drinking, and pretty soon you're waking up in the airport parking garage, covered in blood with only one shoe on, and the word "PECK" carved between your shoulder-blades so that it reads in the mirror.

I have a partial .doc file of Wulf's story hour, along with Lars' and others, although no one can get me Sagrio's . . .

Do you guys all write your logs in Word or some other text editor?  I think some people write them in the ENWorld posting interface.


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## Wicht (Aug 28, 2002)

(contact) said:
			
		

> *Do you guys all write your logs in Word or some other text editor?  I think some people write them in the ENWorld posting interface. *




I write mine using Word.


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## Knightfall (Aug 28, 2002)

(contact) said:
			
		

> *Do you guys all write your logs in Word or some other text editor?  I think some people write them in the ENWorld posting interface. *




My original campaign journal is in word format, which I cut and paste into notepad.  Then I use the journal text to help guide me in my 'fictionalizing' of the events into a story hour.  Then I cut and paste that onto the messageboard.

I'm going to have to go through my story hour and cut and paste back to word eventually to create a compiled story hour.  Maybe this weekend I'll get started on doing that.  Not that I have any posts on my thread that need to be pruned off.

I'm not P'Cat (or Wulf).


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## Wulf Ratbane (Aug 28, 2002)

(contact) said:
			
		

> *pretty soon you're waking up in the airport parking garage, covered in blood with only one shoe on, and the word "PECK" carved between your shoulder-blades so that it reads in the mirror.*




I think, "Thanks, PECK!" would be more chilling.



> *Do you guys all write your logs in Word or some other text editor?  I think some people write them in the ENWorld posting interface. *




Heh... I write them in Word, then paste them into ENWorld... and then next time I go to update, I just type over the old word document. So I don't have any kind of "master" document other than ENWorld. It lends the story a certain vulnerability, an ephemeral quality.


Wulf


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## drnuncheon (Aug 28, 2002)

Knightfall1972 said:
			
		

> *I read a bit of drnuncheon's Freeport Story Hour Book One.  But haven't got hooked on it yet.*




Stick with it until the Guild dinner, where I change over from 'log' to 'story' - it's pretty rough up till there.  (Someday, I _will_ rewrite...)

J


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## Kid Charlemagne (Aug 28, 2002)

(contact) said:
			
		

> *
> 
> Do you guys all write your logs in Word or some other text editor?  I think some people write them in the ENWorld posting interface. *




I do mine in Word.  Then I paste it to the boards, and when I need to go back, I copy from the boards into a master document - because last minute edits get done only on the boards, not the original.


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## Taboo (Aug 28, 2002)

I do all mine in Word, save each chapter in its own file. Then, after I've made enough edits in here, I end up copying the whole thing and copy it all into word and delete all the separate files on my hard drive keeping one master.

Then I start fresh with the new ones.  I taught my brother to do it the way I do, he'd been typing his using Enworld. He's much happier this way!


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## Plane Sailing (Aug 28, 2002)

Wicht said:
			
		

> *
> 
> I write mine using Word. *




As do I. Dramatically reduces the likelihood of losing lots of text at once!


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## Knight Otu (Aug 28, 2002)

My favorites would be RangerWicketts Savannah Knights, Piratecats Defenders of Daybreak, and Sepulchavre's Heretic of Wyre, in the order I got into them. Of course, Savannah Knights is complete and Wyre is paused, so I am left with a single story hour where I can expect updates.


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## Zad (Aug 28, 2002)

I do it in word, but I keep a running master document. That way I'm not out of luck if the boards poof (like that would ever happen ) 

Sometimes other players post to the story, and sometimes I copy it in, and other times not, but generally I try to keep a running master document of everything I posted and the DM might have.

It's only up to 324 pages.


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## Sammael99 (Aug 28, 2002)

Interestingly enough, I don't read the reference Story Hours (Piratecat, Sagiro), either because I don't know where to start or because the first few pages didn't grab me when I started. 

The first story hour I read (and still read) was Nemmerle's. The first few pages of the early thread were really gripping, and I remember devouring those last summer. Recently, the plot has kind of delved into interesting sidetracks, and I find I'm not as involved as a used to be, but I guess it's temporary. Why do I like it ? Great characters, interesting world, slow character advancement...

I then discovered Lady Despina's Virtue. Quite the opposite. High level, vancian feel, truly epic and, more important, religiously significant ! It really is a great story hour that no one should let go by, even though it's on hiatus right now.

Then recently, Nemmerle's being slow and Sep's on hiatus, I picked up a third one. For some reason, I sampled Force User's Vietnamese, and it hooked me from the start. The narrative is great and it gives you an amazing feel of being there. It's also great, as has been pointed many times in the story hour thread itself, to read about a non japanese non rokugan campaign. Amazing stuff, can't wait for it to go on.

Edit : And there's Horacio's GARS stuff. I'm not too keen on super-hero stuff in general, so I can't say I'm hooked, but what I've read is fun to read and it's Horacio, the compulsive bumber, so I owe him much 

And then of course, there's my own modest work, which probably won't interest many of you since it's not written in English... You can always check out the link below... The maps are nice, if I say so myself


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## Broccli_Head (Aug 28, 2002)

*a few of my favorites...*

By far my most favorite is _The Heretic of Wyre_. I love the characters and world and Sep. really is able to convey the epic, high-level scope of  his world and campaign. 

I also really like Old One's _Against the Shadows...Faded Glory_. This one more for the pseudo-Roman world.

The funnest characterization and another must read for me is _Knights of the Silver Quill_ by Doc Midnight. Glad it's going to start up again. 

I also like _Rel's Faded Glory story_,  _Ice, Luck, and Honor_, _Bloodstone Lands_, _Aeurndar_, anything by Rune I check out and wish he would continue _Oriental Adventures in a Dream_ and _Cthulu in a Small Town_...most of them because of great narrative descriptions and the world [FR for some]. 

Ancalagon used to be prolific but alas his stories have faded to page 4+

Loved Black Omega's HERO story also.


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## Lars Frehse (Aug 28, 2002)

I use


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## Taboo (Aug 28, 2002)

I'm cheating and posting twice!  

One of my favorites is the Heroes of Haven, but then again, I play Rowena and even though it hasn't been updated recently I have inside information that it's getting a REALLY good update REALLY soon!

What is there is really, really good! paulewaug is pretty funny, not to mention that he really nails the details.  

He started out with characters that don't really show up until later, but it adds a whole lot to the story. So, even though I play in the game, I can't wait to see what he comes up with next.


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