Page 190 - World of Darkness

Telling Tales chapter is long enough to establish one or more key events
in the story. The players’ characters discover that their
Storytelling isn’t about standing before an audience rival is smuggling black-market goods through a warehouse
and reciting memorized lines. It’s a shared experience in by the river, and go to investigate. If exploring that dis-
which every player is involved in creating the story as it covery takes too long to resolve (perhaps the players spend
unfolds. Unlike interactive computer games, there is no a lot of time preparing for their outing), the chapter might
prewritten script — players don’t just stumble along trig- end on a cliffhanger, leaving the characters’ situation un-
gering occasional video playbacks. They create events as resolved at a point of danger or uncertainty.
they go, in competitive cooperation with the Storyteller. Basically, a chapter comprises whatever events can
The only limit is your imagination. This has been said take place within the span of a single game session. This
many times before about many different media, but can be handled rather loosely and chaotically, or the Sto-
roleplaying is the truest example of it. Since Storytelling ryteller can attempt to weave the disparate threads of
takes place in a collaborative imagined space, uninhib- player activity into what appears, by the end of the night,
ited by the limits of screen pixel count or broadband con- to have been a tightly plotted tale. Doing so requires guid-
nection speed, anything can happen as long as it’s agreed ing the players as they go, keeping them from veering in
upon by the players and Storyteller. There are certainly directions incidental to the plot. Tips on doing so are given
some rules, but they’re intended to aid consistency and below, in the section “How to Tell Stories” (see p. 192).
believability. They can always be thrown out if the Story-
teller thinks they impede the actual story. Stories
The majority of this book presents information for A complete story introduces and resolves a single plot
both players and Storytellers. This chapter is aimed at the (see p. 191). A simple plot might unfold in a single game
Storyteller alone, the single player most responsible for session, or 10 sessions might be required for a grand, epic
forming the shape and scope of the story. Players fill in plot. There can be many subplots within a story, but over-
valuable details, and can take the game in interesting di- all a story has a single, major focus, such as a mystery to
rections, but the Storyteller, like a film director, ultimately uncover or a death to avenge.
decides what parts of the collaborative script are made a To continue with the example of the rival’s warehouse,
part of the story. He does so not in the editing room, but perhaps the story is about discovering and shutting down
on the fly as the game is played. the business. The first chapter is spent seeding clues for
There are a number of tools and structures that writ- the players’ characters to uncover. The second chapter
ers traditionally use to create stories, novels, plays and involves their discovery of the warehouse and its loca-
films. Some of them can be quite handy for organizing the tion. The third and final chapter sees them shut it down
Storytelling experience, to keep a session from becoming — or fail to do so.
a random series of events. The most useful of these are
presented below. Storytellers are encouraged to experi- Chronicles
ment with their own techniques and crafts. A chronicle is a series of stories, most often interre-
lated or that build toward a grand plot. But a chronicle
The Parts of a Story can also be identified by its cast of recurring characters.
It’s like a television series made up of individual stories
Most long-form stories are divided into segments of (episodes) all about a group of characters or their mission.
one sort or another, to allow actors and the audience a Some series strive for complicated plots spread out over a
breather between major plot points. Storytelling games season of episodes (such as The Shield), while others pre-
are no different. fer self-contained episodes whose plots have little effect
The different units of time within a story — a turn, a on successive episodes (such as The Simpsons).
scene — are covered in the Dramatic Systems chapter Perhaps your chronicle is about toppling the ware-
(see p. 120). Below we introduce the concepts by which house owner’s crime empire. Discovering and shutting
we enhance the sense of connection between game ses- down the warehouse is only one stage of that quest. There
sions. With the real-world pressures of job and family, you are many more cesspools of crime to expose before the
might be able to get your friends together only once a boss can be hauled off to jail.
week, making it easy to lose the big picture of your tale.
By dividing your games into chapters, stories and
chronicles, you can better maintain a sense of cohesion The Meaning of a Story
and purpose over time. The parts of a story help to organize the roleplaying
experience and give it cohesion over a series of game ses-
Chapters sions. The meaning of a story reveals what the story is about
A chapter is the shortest part of a story, and most — not what happens in it (that’s the plot, described be-
stories are made up of many chapters. A single chapter low), but how events matter.
typically represents one game session or night of play. Like
a chapter in a novel or an episode in a matinee serial, a

189
TELLING TALES-Parts-MEANING