Robert Mohr
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30 votesRobert Mohr
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19 votesRobert Mohr
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9 votesRobert Mohr
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5 votes
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201 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Robert Mohr
commented
This isn't the same thing as *having* a PVP system of some kind, but I did finally put some thought into how you might do this with the Storium system as it currently exists.
http://gamingcreatively.blogspot.com/2016/04/storium-theory-thoughts-on-pvp-player.html
I don't think this is the only way, and maybe it isn't even the right way, but it is *a* way!
An error occurred while saving the comment Robert Mohr
commented
I don't want this to become a PVP-focused thing or anything, and I don't see a need for dice, but it would be nice if there could be some way to kind of use Storium's system to adjudicate a conflict between two player characters. I can see putting an "obstacle" up that says "resolve conflict" right now, but there's not really much to that--players just play cards on the obstacle and it doesn't seem like it will provide any real controls over the conflict. If there's some way to maybe create a conflict system that can be started up optionally and that has a little bit of question over who will win the conflict, that would help.
One idea: you could do some kind of separate card pool for PVP conflicts only that doesn't refresh as often, so characters have to weigh how important this current conflict is to them in order to decide how many cards they're willing to spend on it before conceding?
Again, I don't want this to be a PVP thing, really--I just think it might help to have a bit of a system specially for player character conflicts. Opens up some more tension and stories.
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175 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Robert Mohr
commented
As a side note...presently, Storium actually adapts to this concept by allowing retired players to receive completion credit for the game. I'd prefer it to work differently, though--a player who actually does just disappear on the game or something receiving credit like they played through the full story just feels wrong to me.
I'd rather have it work like I state above -- make a difference between a player who completes his part in the tale, thus receiving completion credit, and a player who disappears or otherwise retires before his part in the tale is done.
This would allow Beginner's Games to provide completion credit for the time the players spent in the story (as people aren't expected to go the distance in those), and also allow people to receive completion credit for things like bits of the story where a main character needs to die and they step up and offer their character, while still making sure that people who actually do disappear on games aren't being shown like they stuck around and completed them.
There's a suggestion up regarding that part of things here: https://storium.uservoice.com/forums/211322-general/suggestions/13318461-not-give-completion-credit-for-retired-characters
Robert Mohr
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27 votesRobert Mohr
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An error occurred while saving the comment Robert Mohr
commented
FWIW, though, I think there's a way around it if the player has literally made *zero* moves--I'm pretty sure until the player has made at least one move, the narrator can go in and *reject* their character, removing it from the cast of characters entirely. But if they made one move, then left, they can only be retired.
An error occurred while saving the comment Robert Mohr
commented
I agree with this--though I'd like it paired with my suggestion here: https://storium.uservoice.com/forums/211322-general/suggestions/8547388-add-the-ability-to-mark-a-character-completed-in
Sometimes a player leaves a story because his character's tale is truly done / he's done what he needed to do, such as with Beginner's Games, or when the story feels like it needs one of the main characters to die and that player steps up and offers his. For those players, I feel like they should receive a completion credit. But if someone leaves a story in the lurch or something, especially early on, it feels wrong for them to then get the completion credit when the rest of the players manage to carry on and finish the tale.
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99 votesRobert Mohr
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An error occurred while saving the comment Robert Mohr
commented
I think I'd find this pretty useful as well. I'd like to see notification e-mails that include the text of scene beginnings, endings, or continuation. I agree that it'd be good to be able to follow along with the story more with those.
I'd also actually like to see the e-mails maybe, if possible, list the cards played--just the names and maybe the card type--at the bottom of the e-mail. Doesn't have to have graphics or anything (probably shouldn't so it can work on the most things possible)--but it'd be nice to see those in there too.
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18 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Robert Mohr
commented
I don't know what I'd see as the best way to do this, specifically, but it does sound like a cool idea. Being able to see when people have read your story and enjoyed it would be fun.
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12 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Robert Mohr
commented
I think it's more about making sure, as narrator, that it feels like each challenge truly matters and impacts the story. If you find that players are dropping their "less favored" cards on particular challenge types, that suggests to me that there's something about the construction of the challenge that makes players believe it will have less impact on the story. Look at how the outcomes are written, and see if you can figure out how they seem to mean less than the outcomes that are physical.
One big thing: make some plots in the game resolved with a non-physical challenge. If players understand that plots won't always come down to a big fight or something like that, they'll be more likely to play all challenges in a similar way.
Additionally...it sounds like this is describing a setup where players want to ensure they're getting a Strong result all the time on challenges that "matter." That may be something to look into as well. Storium games go better when players aren't afraid of getting Weak results - when they're able to look at those as just another part of the story, not a punishment or penalty for some kind of failure. Take a look at how the outcomes are written, again, and make sure that both Outcomes for a challenge feel interesting. If the Weak outcomes for a challenge commonly feel punitive, you'll get players pushing for Strong results more commonly.
I think overall I've found that if you have challenges that always seem like they'll impact the story, and for those challenges, Weak outcomes feel interesting and move the story forward, you'll find less trouble with players "holding back" or "burning cards" on challenges to save them for "more important" ones.
On the actual suggestion...I'd rather not have the split, myself, as that split would basically require characters to have abilities in both categories. If I'm playing a scientific genius with a stick-thin body, for instance, I may not feel it's ever appropriate to really give my character a physical strength. Instead, he should have to figure out how to use his mental strengths to help out in unusual situations. Similarly, if I'm playing a diplomat, I might not be good at anything related to physical scenes. Or, if I'm playing a big brute of a warrior, maybe my only social cards are weaknesses. It's certainly possible that any of these character types could have Strengths/Weaknesses in different "categories," as well, but players shouldn't be forced into it--they should be playing the character they want to play.
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1 vote
An error occurred while saving the comment Robert Mohr
commented
This is a nice idea! Actually, I'd take it one step further--allow the outcomes to be written before posting the challenge to a scene.
I know the intent of challenges in Storium is to allow them to be reusable, with the outcomes text changing each time they come into play, but I've found it much more helpful to players to change up the title and description text each time too, so I'm not reusing cards basically at all--I'll create a copy and change up the text to reflect the current situation.
I can't help but wonder, therefore, if it might be better for Storium to just let us do the whole challenge setup and save that (possibly excluding the points setting), then later put that into the scene.
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17 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Robert Mohr
commented
Don't have votes left, but I do want to express support here: I think this would be a great option to add to the rotating narration concept. Allow the host to choose if they want the narration to rotate on a scene basis or a chapter basis--both are good concepts.
A scene-by-scene basis is more openly collaborative, with each narrator having to build off of what someone else wrote even in the midst of a chapter or story segment.
A chapter-by-chapter basis more fits the "rotating GM" model used by some tabletop groups, where each chapter can kind of be its own story and each narrator can just concentrate on keeping the general themes of the story going.
I think both would be rather interesting, and would love to see the chapter approach supported without losing the scene approach.
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33 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Robert Mohr
commented
Really like this idea. Unfortunately out of votes, or I'd put one on there. O_O
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9 votes
FYI we are looking at ways to do this. One that we particularly like is to link “as of now” edits to playing your Nature card, and thus making it a big event in your character’s evolution. For example, when Luke’s Nature card changes from “Farmboy” to “Rebel pilot”, and his photo and description get updated to match.
An error occurred while saving the comment Robert Mohr
commented
I was just looking to submit an idea like this myself--this is definitely an interesting idea.
I don't want it to *replace* the character edits entirely (sometimes you really are just cleaning things up), but having the ability to add a new *version* of the character description and image when certain points in the game come up, that would then show up for readers only once that point was reached, would be a major plus.
I agree with the submitter that images in particular can be spoilers or cause confusion. For instance, a major point with one of my characters was a mystery about just what he might be--when the reveal eventually came near the very end of the story, I changed his image to reveal his true form. However, anyone who reads the story after that point can just see his true form as his image from the beginning, lessening the impact.
Likewise, I've got a game going now where some of the characters ended up transformed by a vindictive genie's willful misinterpretation of their wishes. Players have edited their character images to reflect the change, but if people are reading from the beginning, they could get the wrong idea about who the characters originally were!
Even looking at it from the standpoint of the character description this could be a nice positive for Storium, allowing you to use your character page as a kind of running record / in-game history or keep track of reveals. Definitely quite in favor of this.
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17 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Robert Mohr
commented
Just wanted to chime in on this--Boyd's suggestion below is *very* good if you encounter this issue. Let people know that you are currently working on an app, and they may be willing to hold the game open (or at least tell you if they already have the cast they want, so you don't waste any time). I personally do my best to keep track of who has expressed interest in my games and to check in with players if they expressed interest but I haven't seen something yet as the end of submissions approaches. If you find you take a longer time to do apps, or are apping near the end of the established open invitation period or when the game displays several characters selected, *absolutely* contact the narrator and notify him that you have one in the works. It isn't presumptuous to do so at all--you're not demanding the character get accepted, just making sure he knows something is still out there so he can have a look.
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2 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Robert Mohr
commented
This *could* be interesting, but I can also see potential problems with it. Storium works best in general when narrators really use what players wrote to define the next part of the plot, and if you're preparing things in advance of challenge completion you can't do that. So...while this would be useful in the cases where there really is some kind of binary challenge with very limited player input or some such, it feels like the situations where it could be used should be limited.
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12 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Robert Mohr
commented
Not sure I understand what else is really necessary to do this? You can already just set up a game with one generic card in each set and just completely ignore the mechanics from there if you'd like.
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89 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Robert Mohr
commented
I wouldn't want them deleted (sometimes I like to go back and reread games even when they didn't actually complete), but I'd love to be able to request that they be suspended.
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1 vote
An error occurred while saving the comment Robert Mohr
commented
When a person disappears, I retire the character using the Edit Game interface. If they have assets/goals that seem important to give to other players, I give those using a narrator move (at the amounts that the retired character held, if necessary).
I also--and I advise being open about this from day one if you intend to do it, so if someone would object to it they can do so from the beginning so you know in advance--keep the character in the story as a kind of group NPC--I give the retired character to everyone else in the form of an asset card, and keep including him in narration and let other people use him in moves. That way, everyone can work together to keep the "cast" consistent so you don't end up with holes in the story.
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5 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Robert Mohr
commented
On scene creation, you're right so far as I know, but on cards, you can create and edit cards all you like through the Edit Game interface.
While I can see merit to adding this as more of an option, I do want to note that you can pretty much do this currently. Just pop through and make any selection at random for the boxes, and then you can click "Change" on any of them afterwards and make your actual choices. You're not locked into your initial choice, so if you don't feel like you can pick in the order Storium establishes, you can just make fake choices and then go back and make your real ones in whatever order you like.