Justin and I heard an episode of HGWT:FAFGM (#34) about structuring stories in RPGs and thought “Huh”. Here’s the 25 minutes that followed our monosyllabic revelation.
Hosts: Sean Nittner and Justin Evans
Length: 25:35
[00:28] Introduction to the show. Talking about story structure. Hippies vs. Engineers.
[00:57] Survey: http://www.spookyouthouse.com/survey
[01:19] Have Games Will Travel: For a Few Games More: #34. Story structures.
[01:56] Dirty Hippies and Stinking Engineers
[02:11] Story Structure: A pattern that we fall into or actively follow when telling stories.
[02:47] Hippies: The original gamers playing moment to moment and allowing story to follow from their actions. Allowing for more surprises, creativity, and immersion.
[05:07] Engineers: A gamer who wants to structure their game and drive towards specific goals in each game.
[07:02] Games with known ends: Grey Ranks, Roanake, Polaris. These games are one step closer to being engineered.
[07:36] Montsegur 1244 is very structured. A story told in four acts.
[09:50] Distinction between Hippie Indie Gamers and Story structures Hippies
[10:29] Dungeons and Dragons: A total hippie game.
[12:07] Patterns that we can draw on: Plays, TV shows, playing published adventures.
[15:15] Another engineered game: Dirty Secrets. We all know when it will end but now how it will end.
[18:00] Zombie Cinema : Also engineered, also without a GM, also uses a board. Hmmm… are we noticing a trend.
[19:49] Did the mechanics restrict the game? Yes, in a good way.
[22:00] A negative experience engineering a game. Some players really groove the hippie experience.
Direct Download: NC_Episode_028.mp3
