Storium 101: The Core Concept of Storium

If you're reading this blog, you're probably already a Storium Kickstarter backer.  That means you're probably already playing around on the Storium Beta.  That's awesome!  Maybe you're really starting to get behind Storium, but you still don't know quite how it works.  Fortunately, the developers have included a pretty solid "How to Play" section here.  It's got a ton of good info and comes directly from the horse's mouth, so it can be trusted.  If you find that it still hasn't clicked yet, keep reading and I'll throw in my two cents.

If you're just wondering what the heck Storium is all about this blog post might help you decide if this is something for you or not.

Pass the Story on Steroids
Have you ever played pass the story?  You know, everyone sits around a table or campfire or couches and you each tell a little bit about a story.  Then you pass it on to your buddy to keep it going.  Ring a bell?  Essentially, distilled down to its most basic elements, Storium is pass the story with a catch.  The catch is simple: narrator and players have story cards they can play to specifically influence how and where the story is headed.

Narrators and Players Work Together to Influence the Story
Through the clever story card mechanic, narrators and players get to work together to build the story they're writing.  Even though the narrator is in charge of creating and maintaining the space the story takes place in, the players have a whole lot of stake in where the story gets to go.  This is important, because realizing that the rules of the game don't just allow for - but actually demand - that players narrate outcomes can curb "story control issues" from narrators from the very beginning.  We'll talk more about this relationship in later blog posts.

Story Cards are Maps and Compasses
A lot of new players and narrators get kind of "stuck" on story cards.  Though they can be difficult to grasp at first, experienced Storium-ers (I guess that's what we're called?!?) eventually come to learn that story cards are the best overall resource in the game.  Feeling like you've got a case of writer's block?  Go back through your story cards to get a renewed look at your character.  Don't know where to take the scene?  Check with your story cards - or narrate some new ones if you're the narrator - and get some new inspiration.  Genuinely not sure how your character should respond?  Lean on his or her story cards to influence your own thinking in the situation.

If you play every single game of Storium with the understanding that it is a collective storytelling game where both narrators and players have control of the story at different points, you're going to really enjoy it.  This is exactly how it's meant to be played.

As always, get out there and write!

- mactheterrible