Cooperative Storytelling

Although progress on my main storyline has ground to an unceasing halt in the past decade, I am neither dead nor inactive. Lately, I've focused my storytelling efforts on long form cooperative story narration. Otherwise known as Dungeons and Dragons, or tabletop RPG gaming. Different people participate in the hobby for different reasons, but for me it is very much an exercise in telling a story. In this case, a story which I am making up as I go along.

This has brought a lot of challenges, particularly with plot continuity. The story is currently being styled after a pre-built module which encapsulates all of the larger plot points and things which are supposed to motivate the characters forward. The modules themselves have starting and ending points which the players progress between. Atop this I have two main challenges which are helping me flex my atrophied story writing capabilities. First, there's the character backgrounds and motivations themselves. This portion is very cooperative, as the backgrounds and plot hooks are all developed by the players and then shared with me at whatever moment seems ideal to them. Second is the overarching storyline I am developing by myself to tie together the Character's narratives along with the various modules' narratives.

I imagine at some point all of this will simply become too cumbersome to continue. However, for now I have had the delightful experience of seeing my narrative possibilities grow and expand to the point that I am now plotting out how best to carry my players to the next major point in my own story and determining which pre-made modules might best suit this journey.

This is by no means a story of which I am proud, but I am enjoying it enough to share the meat of its production in prose format on a separate weblog. Plot holes? I am certain there are many. Cliches? Undoubtedly thousands of them.

It is a bit freeing to work on a project without any self-imposed quality limitations. This is just for fun, and something I will continue to deem a success for as long as the players stay engaged and derive enjoyment from the plot progression.