# [Out of Game] Where do the Story Hours happen?



## Paka (May 30, 2003)

*Where do you Story Hour writers play and where do you write?*

I ask this because we have begun playing ([Midnight] Dark Tower's Shadow) in this great room built onto one of the players' childhood home.  It is an old barn's wood with the barn's old support beam cut into team main support beams for the room.  Deer heads and skulls adorn the walls along with pictures of JJ's father next to deer he has hunted, blood smears in the snow.

JJ's hospital bed is in the middle of the room while he heals his broken hip. 

There is a sunlight at the top of the room, giving it all a very earthy, wooden glow.

It is an amazing room and I feel that somehow the atmosphere (creepy, old-fashioned but also somehow cozy) will seep into the game through osmosis.

How about all of you? 

Where do you game your Story Hour sessions?

I write them on a comfy chair bought at Salvation Army for 20 bucks in a room where all of my roommates' computers are in my house, with my back to the window, otherwise I would get nothing done.


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## Drawmack (May 30, 2003)

We game in the parlor of a 200 year old house that's been remodeled a lot of times, so no old feel unless you considers the 50's old.

I write them in a modern apartment.

I have played in atmosphere locations in the past. I find that the atmosphere can work nicely but it can also tie you to a genre.


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## the Jester (Jun 3, 2003)

We play in a variety of places, most often at the home of the guys who play Sheva/Malford (same player, was Spukoni in my old story hour) and Angelfire (was Sith/Droidi in the old SH).  The room is small and crammed with couches and small tables, with a card table that comes out for the battlemat and computer stuff helter-skelter throughout the room.  There's a constant smell of pot smoke (mostly cause of the constant pot smoking, natch) and a general haze to the air.  It feels like a sort of decadent Turkish hash den, only with monsters.

I write my updates in a cheap Ikea office chair before a nice desk made of real wood, on a phat com-pu-tar that was the best thing I could get a year ago and now could use a few upgrades.


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## Piratecat (Jun 3, 2003)

In the summer we sometimes game on our back deck, overlooking the yard. Otherwise we game in a wonderful room on the third floor of our house. It's a little narrow to be ideal - the walls slope in towards the roof's peak - but we can easily fit nine players when necessary, and we're surrounded by gaming paraphenelia.  Before last week (when the poor little guy got eaten by coyotes, of all things - in suburban Boston!) the authentic three-legged piratecat made things a little tricky, as he'd immediately jump onto peoples' chairs the exact instant they stood up to look at the battlemap or get soda; sort of the epitome of a readied action. Our games might run a little smoother, but we'll miss him terribly. 

I either write the story hour at my kitchen counter,  or at my local coffee shop up the road. My writing comes in big creative bursts after I sit and ruminate on the story for a week or so.  If I waste an hour writing dribble one night, I can usually count on some productive writing the next.


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## pogre (Jun 3, 2003)

PC - sorry your cat got eaten by Coyotes. I suspect a similar fate has taken our cat this week. A little more understandable out here in the boonies.

More on topic - We play in my friends' game room. The have it surrounded with huge book shelves. A nice atmosphere for a game really. I write the SH (when I do) here at home amongst my toddlers running and jumping.


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## (contact) (Jun 3, 2003)

Wow, PC.  That sucks, but in a very cool way.  KnowwhatImean?  I imagine all three-legged pirate cats lie about on rainy days dreaming that they might someday die in a glorious battle against overwhelming odds . . . "_When my time comes, I'm gonna go out against a Coyote.  But that Coyote will crawl away somewhere and die, too, and as he does, he'll say to himself 'I never knew a cat with three legs could fight like he had six'._"

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We used to play at Heydricus and Prisantha's house just off the heroin epicenter here in S.F.  The apartment was nice, and the district gets the most sun of anyplace in the city, but the drug trade . . . whoo, boy.  You never quite knew what you were going to have to step over on your way from the train station to the gaming spot!

Now, they live in a misty, perpetually fog-encrusted faux suburbia at the very South end of San Francisco, and my new gaming commute is much longer and *much* less adventuresome.

We play in a smallish and very cozy dining room that more often than not has toddler food or toddler toys on it when I arrive to set it up.  The other feature in the room is a beautiful hardwood cabinet built into the wall, and the rolling cutting board that has been put to use as a miniature / Dwarven Forge / D&D book storage unit.

Helene calls the miniatures "Daddy toys".

I write  my SH sitting at my dining-room table, or on the couch in the livingroom.  I can mentally focus myself even when surrounded by activity, and I really enjoy the company of my loved ones even when my mind is elsewhere.


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## the Jester (Jun 3, 2003)

Piratecat said:
			
		

> * Before last week (when the poor little guy got eaten by coyotes, of all things - in suburban Boston!) the authentic three-legged piratecat made things a little tricky, as he'd immediately jump onto peoples' chairs the exact instant they stood up to look at the battlemap or get soda; sort of the epitome of a readied action. Our games might run a little smoother, but we'll miss him terribly.
> *




NOOO!!!  Dances With Chevies!!!  *NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!*


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## Piratecat (Jun 3, 2003)

I know. Our pirate flag is at half-mast. On the other hand, as (contact) said, I bet some damn coyote is nursing a stump wound to the eye.  Let's hope so, at least.

sorry to hijack the thread!


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## Capellan (Jun 3, 2003)

The games for both the story hours in my .sig, plus the games for arwink's story hours, are usually played in my dining room.  I have a big, open plan kitchen/dining area, with large windows next to the table.  The players sit around the dining table, at the battle map, and the DM (whoever it is that game) keeps his notes and dice on the nearby kitchen bench.

This puts everyone within about 10' of the kitchen and the microwave, and a similar distance from my two bookcases of gaming gear (which are in the hall next to the dining room.  There are really only two problems with the venue: it's not _quite_ wide enough (largely due to a sideboard that gets in the way, and during summer I have to remember to close the blinds during the morning before the game (we play in the afternoon) as the sun hits that side of the house until about lunch time.  If I leave the blinds open, it gets _very_ hot in there.


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## (contact) (Jun 3, 2003)




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## el-remmen (Jun 3, 2003)

{A moment of silence for the original pirate cat}


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The "Out of the Frying Pan" campaign is played (usually) in my tiny apartment in Brooklyn.  It is so cramped we have to climb over each other to get to the bathroom or to the fridge or sink (since the living room/dining room/kitchen are all the same room.  But then again I have a relatively huge table for my big battlemat.

In the summer on the really hot days we play at Sinuhe's house (plays Beorth) - it is only a few blocks away and is very spacious and he has an even longer table.

I write my story hour at my computer in the extra half-room in my tiny apartment.


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## WizarDru (Jun 3, 2003)

All of our Story Hours, by necessity, are played out in my living room/dining room.  This is because both my wife and I play, and the kids need to be abed before we begin 'The Dice Game', as my daughter calls it (though I think the time when we relax this restricition is fast approaching).  The same is true of both my Story Hour and the Avonshar story hour (and our RtToEE story hour, which I need to recreate). 

I do most of my writing either on the train or on the floor of my living room.  My best thinking, though...that usually occurs in the car listening to music, or in the shower, believe it or not.  I rarely bother to write much more than an outline of the game's major plot points, and perhaps a simple map.  I have a general macro-outline to adhere to, but that's it.  To me, the ideas and the NPCs (some of whom create themselves on the spot, often like some monsters) are more important than a tight script.  Knowing them allows me to understand what will happen next much more than a script.


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