Storyline(s) Question.

[ben]

So, over in M:Wi, the way we do things is that we have a setting and then within that setting we have multiple storylines. Overhere we call "settings" storylines, but for the purpose of my question I'm not talking about the various timelines, I mean "stories within the various settings."

In the various rooms that I partake in, we have a single storyteller who runs a storyline. It's handled in a sort of D&D manner, by what I mean is... they handle the story and then wrap it up by letting the Heroes face off against the Villain.

How do we handle storylines in this room? I've been holding off on starting a storyline in Gotham with Joker because of this question. So I thought I'd pose it to the room at large to see what they like? (Or to CB to see what he -wants-.)

[Charlie Brown]

I am all for people doing what they want. I fully encourage player driven settings/stories. I do have general plots for things but they are not necessarily meant to be the -only- thing happening.

In essence it's sort of a bit from column A and a bit from column B. I'd love to see more of column B, actually. With characters having their own "mini"-settings/storylines with the occasional "big event" happening that I (or someone else) might plan/Storytell.

[qpq]

I have a question.

Can I get an idea of what's been going on New Age wise. I mean if there are storylines going on can there be some general notice of what's going on. Because at the moment I has not a clue of what's been going on. There's no summaries or anything and with my schedule trying to get a recap from everyone is not exactly the most efficient way of getting an idea of what's going on in the world.

I guess I'm trying to get an idea of what characters have been doing if anything because some things have slowed some things have not, but an update idea to the forum would be nice so people knows what's what, because some things may have to be rethought as some things were working with certain characters being involved, but if they're not available as their player may have RL activities going on then certain things may need to be rethought, but I think some of problems that I have getting a little more engaged is that there are more conversations about SLs between a few players, but it may not be communicated to the entire player community.

Especially if there are nefarious happenings. I'm not asking to look behind the curtain, because that spoils a story, but a general idea of what's going on and what the hot spots are would be good.

[Charlie Brown]

I can definitely do something (although as far as people discussing Sl's between themselves, i'm probably as out of the loop as you are. NA has been a little inactive, to be honest you and Chele have been its most active players.) I had originally meant to do a weekly recap but I ended up not having enough material in one week to make it worth doing and by the time I did have enough I had forgotten all about the idea etc etc... I may set something similar to this up. Sifting through logs really is an impractical way to catch yourself up on SL's so I will see what can be done. If you have any suggestions, I'm open to anything.

Because people have such limited time I have pretty much dropped the reigns in terms of storytelling because there's no telling when things will get done. I feel like this casual approach puts less pressure on people and gives them the opportunity to do what they want in the time that they do have.

That said, I can tell you from my corner with the the gotham/Batman stuff, nothing has been done in months. When last we left off, Bruce had discovered the identity of Huntress which culminated in them facing off against a mob boss, who was subsequently killed. Helena was then forced to go on the run and I believe she's now in Hub City.

Meanwhile, in gotham, Catwoman turns up and steals a jewel of purported magical powers but is ran afoul by Bats. Some cultists show up and Catwoman gets away with the jewel (which contains the essence, or soul, I guess, of some sort of hell demon). Green Arrow and Batman set up a plan to entrap Catwoman by setting up a gala in which the "Wayne Family jewels" are to be auctioned off for charity. They're hoping to lure her into trying to steal the gem... But the room died around this time and it ended up never happening.

With Dick/Bruce I know we never played past their first meeting and I don't know what you have been doing with him (if anything) in the mean time. We can meta plan something or actually play it out, depending on what direction you want to go with Dick. Personally, I would like to see the beginnings of the Batfamily start to fall into place, but there's no rush..

In your opinion, what needs retooling/changing? You can PM me if you prefer, or get at me on AIM.

[qpq]

I have some thoughts and I'll get them up on the board between now and this weekend.

[qpq]

I think one of the things that might help and I don’t know if it’s implicit or not with the setting heading is possibly a current stories section. We have a bit a wrap up for things that happened after the fact and then we have the logs section where we record our logs but nothing for kind of current business.

Sometimes depending on the log and the length people might not want to read through the entire log. If people have not done it I would suggest recommending a synopsis or summary of the log so people can get a quick view of what occurred during the scene.

However, for current story if there is a current story topic in the works such as the Chosen of Trigon especially since there are critical characters that could end being NPC’d we might want to indicate some things that might have occurred already to kind of work up the story so it would generate the interest we might be looking for. Help give the characters a direction to go in and let them know what they might know and might not know so if they do get involved they can take a little initiative after speaking with who is running the arc about what they might be able to uncover or get involved in.

Then as the major wraps up that occur they can be informed of what has occurred so far and what information might be out there for characters involved.

However in the current story area they can be informed for additional information that it could be discussed there in the forum topic or contacted whoever is running the story via PM, AIM, etc.

I know we’re a small focused group, but we’re all super busy too so communication may not always occur as consistently as we like and when we have those lull periods it would help us know what’s been done and where we were and what we were actually doing as it’s captured on the forum. It’ll also alleviate the need for some things to be posted out in the room if a general idea of things that have been occurred or are about to occur have been communicated.

This also allows characters and SL runners to determine a couple of things:

• What can my character be involved in?
  
• Can my character be involved in more than once thing?
  
• How heavily will my character be involved?
  
• And allow for coordination of events that may involve more than a couple of characters.
  
• Allow the person running the SL to determine the heros/villians and etc that may be involved to help provide effective threats for the characters.
  
• And determine who may need to be NPC’d because of power level reasons or critical character need.
  

[Charlie Brown]

I would like to continue Chosen of Trigon, but at the same time there is no rush to conclude the arc. I figure fighting the cult could be something of an ongoing, overarching story that will get resolved over time, while smaller, more immediate threats are handled during our individual plays. On the other hand, I would also like to see some teams start forming as I think that will bring us into a closer circle. If that makes sense? I just don't want to be depended on to story tell, for a few reasons (beyond laziness):

1. I'm just not that good at it
2. Lack the organizational mindset
3. my writing moods are pretty unpredictable and I hate making people wait on me for big events.

That's why I kind of want to just boot the door open and say 'I've presented the current situation, now you guys do your thing however you want'. I know that doesn't provide much direction (like you pointed out) but I feel overall the room has been more successful and sustained for longer periods with the more casually I treat things.

If someone wants to step up as a storyteller* and continue what I started or start something new then go for it. You guys all have 100% of my support in this regard. The only reason I am the host of NA is because I wanted to salvage what was left of the group, 'cause, damnit, I <3 you guys and we didn't have a real home anymore. I really like the current people we have playing in the room, small a group as it is. It's almost better for it, I can trust you guys to run things yourselves without needing me to play referee.

THAT SAID, Anything needing to be added to the forum to help inform people and keep people up to date is something I am fully willing to do. Now, I can do my best to update that type of forum on a semi regular basis but I can't promise that updates will come at any set schedule or all that frequently. So I guess it depends on how we want to 'update' do each of us do it individually with short summaries of what's been going on? Does someone volunteer (and I'm guessing if we go this route it will end up being me) to gather up info from everyone and then put it together in one 'big' piece every so often? I'm thinking 2 or 3 times a month would be good enough.

I also have some ideas, but I'm not sure if you guys will actually utilize them if presented. I want to do more meta game stuff on the forum, stuff people can do when they only have a little time or during a break at work, etc... I sort of started this with the 'heroes in the news' section, for people to post media articles about their characters that could be used as ingame information. It never caught on, but i also never really pushed it. But this is something I am interested in experimenting with. Another example, we could do board plays for plays that don't require much time/writing, like say, maybe a phone conversation or something? I don't know. Still waiting on other people to comment.

*Or if anyone wants to help out on the forum in an admin capacity (adding forums, etc..) then just lemme know and I will give you admin rights on the forum. Like I said, I'm not that dependable so the more work that gets spread around the more will get done.