Short Stories

[JasonPalenske]

Has anyone found them to be good setting material? I'm looking to spread some short stories through my Frontier settings to help give a feel and some flavor for them. I'm wondering if anyone has done this and what kind of feedback they may have gotten in regards to it? Such as did they think it helped, distracted, or maybe even seemed oblivious? Or perhaps even came a cross a game that has done something similar and felt they did it well?

[TroyLovesRPG]

Hello Jason,

I think stories are a great introduction to a game, its setting and the "feel". Interestingly enough, games adopted popular works of fiction to set the tone of the setting. I like stories within the game system to help define the way the game is played. Here are some that did a good job in introducing the game through fiction: Call of Cthulhu, d6 Star Wars, Everway, Mutant Chronicles, Shadowrun, Cyberpunk, MERP, Torg, Warhammer Fantasy, Skyrealms of Jorune and Eberron Campaign Setting. Earthdawn was the only game that supplied uninteresting fiction.

Writing fiction takes time and I think its worthwhile. I love stories and love to write them (but I'm just so damn lazy). When I GMed often (in the 90's) I wrote stories that set the mood, deliver background and hint at things to come. All the players were encouraged to read the story, as it established a style of play that promoted collaboration, excitement and creative role-playing. Even if the players casually read it, you have the benefit of coalescing your thoughts, devising a style and being able to generate something in the player.

Defining the game is required to bring facts and guidelines for playability. It shows the players how to use the rules, what steps to take and how to resolve the situations.

Reproducing the game gives real examples of how play progresses. You essentially produce the transcript of session, including dialogue and descriptions of the mechanics.

Generating the game is what most designers want to do and few actually achieve it. You engage the player on a level that puts them into a mindset where the imagination is set free while creating a tangible reality based on the game system. What would you think about a story that is written in such a way, that it generates the notions and feel of the game system to the player...without mentioning the game system mechanics. Now that's a story and is truly the ulitimate expression of the game designer.

This is a narrative that may generate but probably just reproduces:

This is what I've been training for since dawn, and my heart is pounding in my chest. My gear is strapped and my life is in the hands of the rigger. I trust his years of experience and that relaxes me. The humming of the engine and dry coolness is soothing. Wake up! I sit on the harsh metal floor between the legs of another while the slick-suited guy sits at my front. Twelve of us, packed like sardines, using hand signals to communicate. I point at my back and a few seconds later a thumbs-up comes from behind. I open the access panel in front of me, check the status and continue the thumbs-up ahead of me. We're suddenly jostled and that familiar squeal issues from starboard. She had trouble with her leg straps and they only fit one way. I look around at the helmets and goggles with only a nose and mouth to distinguish. Ah. I see my instructor and he's barking something in a gravel voice. And there's the other nut who won't wear shoes! Some are talking and I can't hear them over the rumble. The rumble quiets, I tilt back, a slight whistle builds and seconds later the translucent cover slides clear. Streaming light pours in and the compartment is filled with a tornado. The temperature drops 20 degrees and I stand up with the others, I feel a grapple from behind and grab the suit in front of me. My head is rushing and I've got to pee. Stop it! Pay attention and focus on the movement. Five! Four! Three! Two! One! I push the guy in front and a split-second later feel his body pulling me. I'm off my feet and rushing past the portal. I welcome that nauseous feeling and grin as the stillness anchors me. I hardly notice I'm tumbling and feel my face slide towards my ears. Think! Grab a wrist, grab an ankle, arms out, legs bent. Gauge at 13k and I'm locked with the others. The sun blazes while wisps of vapor pass us. The air gets warmer and the horizon straightens. Was it ten seconds or a minute? Hands release me and recede. I release the suits, back away and wave off. 5K. I feel for the actuator on my right hip. 4K. What the hell? 3K. The pilot is out and the straps press into my chest and groin. Canopies are around me and I float towards the flag. Awesome!

Troy

[Simon C]

I'm usually pretty wary of making my players read through a bunch of material unless it's of dire importance to their enjoyment of the game.  I guess it depends on how motivated your players are, how good your fiction is, and how important it is to your game.  My advice would be: keep it brief, keep it flavourful, and, if at all possible, rely on other authors to provide texts.  "Flavour Quotes" were one of the things I found enthralling about the White Wolf books (far more than anything else), so I think there's potential there.  You don't even need your source to be directly relevant to the setting.  Sometimes it's interesting to read something anomalous, and then discove "in game" how it's relevant.

On a related note, I'm using a series of three short stories to "bridge a gap" during a　long hiatus in play for my regular group.  We'll resume play a good few years (in game and out) after we left it.  Rather than make a boring lecture on the developments in world politics during the intervening time, I'm writing a few short stories about minor characters experiencing major world events, for a flavourful look at developments.  One of the things I really like about the series "Deadwood", and Battle Star Galactica is their use of rapid jumps forward in time, with allusions to what's happened in the interim.  I think this is a rich source of roleplaying material.

[JasonPalenske]

Well I plan on the stories being there for flavor and to give a feel for the setting. One of the things I have toyed with is possibly tie in to the adventure ideas I'm going to put in.

[Ben Lehman]

My rule of thumb for stories is that they should be like art.

They should serve as an inspirational piece of work, they shouldn't be connected directly to game play or even the game setting, and they should be awesome enough that you would read them on your own, seperate from the game.

Too often people try to make fiction into play examples, or fiction from play exampels, with generally disastrous results.

yrs--
--Ben

[GreatWolf]

I concur with Ben.  (Shameless self-promotion warning!)  That's how I approached Legends of Alyria.  Each story is an "illustration" of a given part of the setting.  This technique is good if you can't afford much art or if your setting is surreal.

[Darren Hill]

Personally, I love interesting settings, but I very rarely read game fiction, and if I do, it has to be no more than a page or two. They might be the greatest works of art in contemporary fiction, but I'll never know. I've been burned by too many bade experiences. I'm looking at you, White Wolf!

I prefer the setting to be showcased through interesting game examples and sample adventures - a useful way to illustrate the setting in a way which matches the type of product you're creating (it's a rule book, not an anthology). Sadly these methods aren't used often - Polaris is an example where this approach (rules examples showing the setting) is used very well.

By the way, required reading on this subject: Condensation of All Gaming Fiction

[pells]

Hi Jason !!! Just giving out my two on the matter ... Have you thougth of writing down something in between ? Something between fiction and adventure ?
As I understand it, you want to write fiction to propose mood and perspective on your game world, and then, propose scenarios, that would be, somehow, based on your fiction. So, how about writing one single product instead of two ?

Fictions are a great source of inspiration, but need a lot of work form the DM to be adapted into scenarios (mainly because fictions don't cover all the information they need). As for scenarios, they are, most of the time, boring to read ... I believe that doing both at the same time is valuable : you set mood and provide information, in a way fun to read, and usable directly into play.

Of course, doing that kind of stuff might need some thinking from your part as how to present it.