This post is actually taken from a PM between me and another member of RPdom planning his first RP who asked for my help. When I replied, it occurred to me that this might be somewhat useful for others out there as well. Needless to say, other experienced Storytellers are welcome to expand on this guide with less or more abstract advice by replying to this thread.
There you have it, the answer and the problem in the same question. The man makes one hell of a point, eh?
I've made what, a couple of RPs here? Nivirres: The Frozen World, Amaranth, and now the upcoming Silent Hill. Not to mention that I've got more than solid ideas for at least two more games in my lair, and I've played half a dozen other people's games. Not exactly RPdom's leading authority on Storytelling, but ol' Wolf will do what he can. It helps that in real life I'm a rising writer, so words and thoughts are about the only things in the world that I'm good at.
Start off with the basics, I say. I don't know how much you've already got planned out, so I'll assume you're starting from scratch. You might be surprised to learn that I actually rely on improvisation nearly 80% of the time. However, always keep in mind that the more you improvise, the less organized and ordered your RP gets. On the other side, planning out every possible aspect of a game is not just time and resource consuming, but also downstraight impossible. What you need to do first, is find a healthy balance between the two. I wish I could just tell you how to do that, but it ain't that simple, remember? It depends on your personal Storyteller traits, general game characteristics, and the very idea that's powering the RP, its heart and soul. Relax, I'll lay down some support fire right away.
You should start by drawing some guidelines. These can be actual, visual drafts, or just in your head. Humans are both auditive and visual types, some, like me, really both. Every advantage you can get helps.
Regardless of where exactly you've put that slider between chaos and order, improvisation and planning, you need to know some things in advance. Pretend your whole game in its entirety is already a written book. Write the recapitulation. You need to know the setting of the world. To learn the answers, you must ask the questions. Simple as that.
What is the point of your story? It likely depicts the journey of some characters, right? Well, who are they? Why are they on that journey? What happened to have caused the journey? They will probably have some opposition along the way. Why? Who stands against them? What will happen if the enemy succeeds? What happens if the characters win? How does the story end?
Those are the questions that will trigger the right way of thinking. If you got this far reading but still didn't start getting ideas, then I am a damned Wolf and this is all for naught. But that's not the case, is it?
You are basing this roleplay off an existing world, right? That makes it as much harder as it helps things. Starting something from scratch grants unlimited freedom, but there's few things in the world as taunting as a blank piece of paper. On the other side, following an existing world grants you access to various resources to manipulate, but takes away a large portion of your freedom as well. Since you've already gone with option number one, I shan't digress.
You want answers? You want to know how to take a story and make it your own? Make a great RP out of it without messing it up? Well, then ask some more questions.
Do you really like the story? Don't do this if you don't. But since you do, the next question will be easy. You've probably immersed yourself quite a bit in the original story. Ask yourself, what would you change, if you could? Would the actions of some characters be different? Would you save some lives and take away others? And better yet, did you imagine some things, places, or people from the real story differently before you had the chance to see them?
Each and every aspect that would have been different in your head compared to the original story, is a damned ticket to making a great game. Why? Because by playing or reading through an existing world, your mind does all the bloody work for you. You think of ideas, however small or brief, you regret some events and wish you could change them - and now you have the chance. It's perfect because it will still be within the reasonable boundaries of that particular world. You created those ideas while in game/in character, so to speak.
Before drifting off further into abstract waters, I'll get back on point. You know how the original story goes. Write an alternative recapitulation. You'll have to decide what stays and what goes, and sure those will be some hard calls, but only you can make them. You will do well to remember that the more you distance yourself from the original, you run greater risk of ruining the spirit of the game - however the more you stick to the old story, people are more likely to be less interested because it might feel nearly the same.
You need to know how the story starts, progresses, and ends. An introduction, twist, climax, and finally ending. While making that simple, primitive draft, you will find your mind teeming with ideas like a hornet's nest. In a good way, I think. Probably. Maybe. I hope...
If your game is beyond plain freeform, it has a system. Probably skills. Putting together a near-final version of the character sheet template might help you understand how the players' characters will come to life and what they could be like. It is important to know the characters, because those sons of guns will reshape the story you have in plan with their unpredictable actions and foolish ideas, twisting it to their own ends. And that's alright. In the end, a single mind can only get so far before it drowns in its own saturated world. A single mind lacks perspective, and by leaving some things undefined until they need to be defined, you are allowing for the possibility that your players will inspire you - maybe even do your job for you, if you're lucky. Hell, you wouldn't believe how many times I let my players accidentally change my story. Sometimes it happened with events that I thought were made in stone.
Finally, trust yourself. Even if you don't know something now, it will come to you if you only try. Sometimes different problems will merge together, other times one will solve another. A journey of a thousand miles starts with that one first step, but it has to start - lest it never be completed. Do something. Write a brief recap of your story. Or write a recap of the real story, then go back and follow it, but make some changes this time. And never worry about all the details until you really have to. Also - and this is important - only thoroughly plan out along the path that you are absolutely sure the game will play by. You are the Storyteller, damnit. If you really want something to happen, it will happen. If you want the characters to all end up north, you can do it in ways that don't even have to be railroading. Hell, you can even do it through their own meaningful choices. They can't run, no matter how south they go. You are the Storyteller.
And whatever you do, remember... Shite. I forgot what I was going to write here. I just went to edit the last few sentences of the previous paragraph and when I came back, I forgot. Stared into the "And whatever you do, remember" that I wrote earlier and... Damnit. Let's hope it was nothing important. Still, you seem to have enough material already.
Well, that's about it. If I can be of some more help do not hesitate to ask. Wolf's always here for ya *reassuring barking*
p.s. listening to inspirational music also helps *woof*
Wolf
- Rucks (from the "Bastion")"Proper story starts at the beginning. It ain't so simple with this one."
There you have it, the answer and the problem in the same question. The man makes one hell of a point, eh?
I've made what, a couple of RPs here? Nivirres: The Frozen World, Amaranth, and now the upcoming Silent Hill. Not to mention that I've got more than solid ideas for at least two more games in my lair, and I've played half a dozen other people's games. Not exactly RPdom's leading authority on Storytelling, but ol' Wolf will do what he can. It helps that in real life I'm a rising writer, so words and thoughts are about the only things in the world that I'm good at.
Start off with the basics, I say. I don't know how much you've already got planned out, so I'll assume you're starting from scratch. You might be surprised to learn that I actually rely on improvisation nearly 80% of the time. However, always keep in mind that the more you improvise, the less organized and ordered your RP gets. On the other side, planning out every possible aspect of a game is not just time and resource consuming, but also downstraight impossible. What you need to do first, is find a healthy balance between the two. I wish I could just tell you how to do that, but it ain't that simple, remember? It depends on your personal Storyteller traits, general game characteristics, and the very idea that's powering the RP, its heart and soul. Relax, I'll lay down some support fire right away.
You should start by drawing some guidelines. These can be actual, visual drafts, or just in your head. Humans are both auditive and visual types, some, like me, really both. Every advantage you can get helps.
Regardless of where exactly you've put that slider between chaos and order, improvisation and planning, you need to know some things in advance. Pretend your whole game in its entirety is already a written book. Write the recapitulation. You need to know the setting of the world. To learn the answers, you must ask the questions. Simple as that.
What is the point of your story? It likely depicts the journey of some characters, right? Well, who are they? Why are they on that journey? What happened to have caused the journey? They will probably have some opposition along the way. Why? Who stands against them? What will happen if the enemy succeeds? What happens if the characters win? How does the story end?
Those are the questions that will trigger the right way of thinking. If you got this far reading but still didn't start getting ideas, then I am a damned Wolf and this is all for naught. But that's not the case, is it?
You are basing this roleplay off an existing world, right? That makes it as much harder as it helps things. Starting something from scratch grants unlimited freedom, but there's few things in the world as taunting as a blank piece of paper. On the other side, following an existing world grants you access to various resources to manipulate, but takes away a large portion of your freedom as well. Since you've already gone with option number one, I shan't digress.
You want answers? You want to know how to take a story and make it your own? Make a great RP out of it without messing it up? Well, then ask some more questions.
Do you really like the story? Don't do this if you don't. But since you do, the next question will be easy. You've probably immersed yourself quite a bit in the original story. Ask yourself, what would you change, if you could? Would the actions of some characters be different? Would you save some lives and take away others? And better yet, did you imagine some things, places, or people from the real story differently before you had the chance to see them?
Each and every aspect that would have been different in your head compared to the original story, is a damned ticket to making a great game. Why? Because by playing or reading through an existing world, your mind does all the bloody work for you. You think of ideas, however small or brief, you regret some events and wish you could change them - and now you have the chance. It's perfect because it will still be within the reasonable boundaries of that particular world. You created those ideas while in game/in character, so to speak.
Before drifting off further into abstract waters, I'll get back on point. You know how the original story goes. Write an alternative recapitulation. You'll have to decide what stays and what goes, and sure those will be some hard calls, but only you can make them. You will do well to remember that the more you distance yourself from the original, you run greater risk of ruining the spirit of the game - however the more you stick to the old story, people are more likely to be less interested because it might feel nearly the same.
You need to know how the story starts, progresses, and ends. An introduction, twist, climax, and finally ending. While making that simple, primitive draft, you will find your mind teeming with ideas like a hornet's nest. In a good way, I think. Probably. Maybe. I hope...
If your game is beyond plain freeform, it has a system. Probably skills. Putting together a near-final version of the character sheet template might help you understand how the players' characters will come to life and what they could be like. It is important to know the characters, because those sons of guns will reshape the story you have in plan with their unpredictable actions and foolish ideas, twisting it to their own ends. And that's alright. In the end, a single mind can only get so far before it drowns in its own saturated world. A single mind lacks perspective, and by leaving some things undefined until they need to be defined, you are allowing for the possibility that your players will inspire you - maybe even do your job for you, if you're lucky. Hell, you wouldn't believe how many times I let my players accidentally change my story. Sometimes it happened with events that I thought were made in stone.
Finally, trust yourself. Even if you don't know something now, it will come to you if you only try. Sometimes different problems will merge together, other times one will solve another. A journey of a thousand miles starts with that one first step, but it has to start - lest it never be completed. Do something. Write a brief recap of your story. Or write a recap of the real story, then go back and follow it, but make some changes this time. And never worry about all the details until you really have to. Also - and this is important - only thoroughly plan out along the path that you are absolutely sure the game will play by. You are the Storyteller, damnit. If you really want something to happen, it will happen. If you want the characters to all end up north, you can do it in ways that don't even have to be railroading. Hell, you can even do it through their own meaningful choices. They can't run, no matter how south they go. You are the Storyteller.
And whatever you do, remember... Shite. I forgot what I was going to write here. I just went to edit the last few sentences of the previous paragraph and when I came back, I forgot. Stared into the "And whatever you do, remember" that I wrote earlier and... Damnit. Let's hope it was nothing important. Still, you seem to have enough material already.
Well, that's about it. If I can be of some more help do not hesitate to ask. Wolf's always here for ya *reassuring barking*
p.s. listening to inspirational music also helps *woof*