talking stick/speaker's staff
You have probably already gotten this suggestion, but just in case you haven't, or haven't had it presented in this manner...
Aboriginal tribes, especially the original natives of the northwest coast of North America, used an excellent early form of "Robert's Rules" to control the order of conversation. From Wikipedia:
"In a tribal council circle, a talking stick is passed around from member to member allowing only the person holding the stick to speak. This enables all those present at a council meeting to be heard, especially those who may be shy; consensus can force the stick to move along to assure that the "long winded" don't dominate the discussion; and the person holding the stick may allow others to interject."
I submit that something like this would be a most excellent 'optional' tool when running a story. The use of the 'stick' could be toggled by the narrator (e.g., added mid-story if more control is needed, then removed to open play again). The idea is that if no one has the stick, anyone can take it to keep the story from advancing until they were done crafting their move. Anyone who has the stick can pass it directly on to someone in particular (narrator or other character) to indicate a desire for that person to proceed next. The narrator would, of course, have full control of the stick with the ability to remove or re-assign as desired.
I believe that some construct like the talking stick, especially given your context and description of the creative source for Storium, would fit well into the structure of Storium and act as that 'mutex' that so many people have requested for a feature.
Respectfully,
Lyle H Janney
Lyle Janney
shared this idea
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AdminStephen Hood
(Co-founder, Storium)
commented
One thing we're considering that's relevant here is an option for shared narration, in which the narrator's powers would rotate between the players from scene to scene. So everyone gets their turn to be "in charge" and control the narrator's "talking stick". This would be an optional game mode that users could choose. Our thinking is that it would leave to very different types of stories that are even more collaborative. It would also help avoid the situation where a game grinds to a halt because its narrator is busy or disinterested. Would this help address the issues raised here, as well?
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Anonymous
commented
The problem I've been having is that my players seem to be waiting on an imaginary "talking stick". They each wait for whoever they think should make the next move against the challenge, rather than continuing to interact with one another more casually (which is what I had hoped most of the gameplay would look like). I'm not sure if the addition of a talking stick function would make this better or worse - they *might* see that it's up for grabs and take the opportunity to chat, or they might be quicker to realize when others are waiting on them. . . or they might feel even more limited by waiting for others, or never respond unless someone puts the stick into their hands.
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Brian Tkatch
commented
@Anthony Working in an intent-to-move might help. That is, a player sees something and wants to respond, he can now wait for the stick. Before taking off for the weekend, unflag it. Or something similar.
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Anthony Lower-Basch
commented
I definitely think a time limit is needed: You don't actually know when the player you handed the stick to would be online. Frankly, if I'd gone away for a weekend vacation, and came back to find that an hour into that vacation somebody had handed me the talking stick, I would feel first guilty and then upset at being put in a position where the game was slowed down because I have a life. Part of the charm of Storium is that I feel confident that if I'm away from the keyboard, some other player will likely pick up the slack and keep the story moving forward.
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Lyle Janney
commented
@Sylvia and @Brian -- An optional time limit sounds like a great attribute for the 'talking stick'.
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Sylvia Li
commented
This would be an awesome way of doing it. It's time-tested as something that *already works with how people think.*
Use of it should be entirely optional, and as flexible as possible. If it's enabled in a game, then its default position should be 'up for grabs' -- which is equivalent to the current situation where it's whoever posts first.
I suppose there could be a time limit. Some games could use one, others wouldn't want it, so I think the default time limit should be "However long it takes," and the narrator could set it to a definite time if appropriate for their game.
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Brian Tkatch
commented
How about adding a (default) time limit to the stick?