what do u mean bad story for knightshift? i thought (well looking at the synopsis) it's among the most original & funniest storyline
@janggut
We do have the obvious right to differ my friend. The story may be funny and original, and I am really happy that there is a story at all. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />
*The Soul of the Writer* is something that I have developed a sense of feeling when interacting with or reading a story. I can imagine the writer behind the words, the ideas, and the plot of the story.
I am not going to argue against modern “forms” of stories but there are technicalities to be checked out.
Not every story could be good for an RPG, and that is why the alternative is to write a story for an RPG with originality as you have noticed.
There are two ways for writing a story for an RPG.
The first way is to ask a writer who is an expert player of RPG to write a story for RPG giving him full freedom to develop the story first and then the game should “flower” accordingly.
The second way is to assign a writers’ team with a leader who interfaces an “anatomy”, such as, “ok guys, we need to write a story about 6 races, 12 heroes, and 2 economies in a world of 15 locations and 360 active NPCs.” Then he continues, “Make sure to include at least 180 unique items, 30 for each race”.
Then he continues, “each one of you shall be dedicated to write for a race as an alternative entry point into the main plot which I am writing <grin>.”
Then he continues, “We shall make this an epoch class quality with a 1000 quests.”
An so on ...
Naturally, the first way is the classic way of writing stories while the new way is especially suitable for action movies and of course the current wave of RPG. That style of story may be acceptable to many people but it has no writer’s soul in it and usually such a story lacks coherence and has a medium thought-out structure and plot.
Usually the classic way or the standard way of writing a story is to begin by introducing the major characters as early as possible and to define the parameters of each character development along the story line showing the conflict that usually leads to the rise of one and the fall of the other. A good story should have a crisis approximately in the middle of the story and the resolutions that follows towards the conclusion of the story end.
There is a middle way between the two styles in which a story can be “co-authored” by two when that story is founded on dialogues rather than on narration. In that way the story can still be a good story that develops naturally as an interaction between the two writers. Multi-writer dialogue-based stories are usually very shallow but very interesting for TV serial style that continues for years without knowing a beginning or an end of the story, and that style is a “life-style” story that certainly has no writer’s soul in it.
That is why I have such a tough stance and I rate those stories written for RPG as “shallow” stories.
I do understand of course that such a story “Market” is still taking its form and not well developed yet.
The story I look forward to rate high is one written by a truly talented writer who fully understands the requirements of RPG, and it is not far fetched to imagine that such writers are fans in this forum who are gifted for writing as well as for playing a role in worlds of fantasy.
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