Don't go into Storium alone.
If at all possible, bring a friend with you. A good buddy of mine is responsible for turning me on to Storium in the first place and we've played together pretty much every step of the way. My first piece of advice is to explore Storium in private games with someone you can actually talk to - in person, texting, Skyping, whatever. This allows you the flexibility to use trial and error to get a knack for the system and then have a chance to deconstruct it and analyze how it's coming out. This has been immeasurably useful for me and instrumental in shaping my understanding of how the system works.
If you don't have a friend who's playing with you, try to connect with someone via the Storium Kickstarter page or even the Storium Subreddit. Ask someone who might kind of know what's going on to help you understand the way the game works, the anatomy of a move in practice, and a little bit of Storium etiquette. A little bit of companionship will go a long way.
Read, read, READ!
Make sure you read the tutorial pages. All of them. Trust me. Then, take the opportunity to browse games that are currently going on to see what kind of game you'd like to play and what kind of story you want to tell. If you have no idea where to start, click on "Browse Games" in your dashboard and then order them by "Most Favorited." This should give you a list of games the Storium community has rated as the best reads thus far. It's not perfect and doesn't mean these are the only games worth reading, but it's a start.
Reading never hurt anyone and you'll see how people interact using the Storium interface. Characters, cards, scenes - all the crunchy bits will really come together if you pair that with an understanding of the tutorial.
Play first.
This one is pretty much my answer to this post's headline. Now, if you came in with a buddy like I suggested up top and you both took turns narrating a game for each other, than you've already narrated. I get that. But when you get out into the Storium community and are playing publicly with people you don't have direct contact with, you should play first. There are two reasons for this.
First, playing under good narration will give you good ideas and create good habits for when you narrate in the future. Plain and simple. You'll get to see how narrators do a good job...and how they do things terribly. You'll learn a lot about pacing and challenges and goals and everything else a narrator gets to control. Seeing it from the other side of the table will give you an incredibly helpful perspective.
Second, play to get a handle on the base mechanics and to make good stories. This is what Storium is all about: good stories! We need good players out there with compelling characters doing interesting things. Playing as a character will help you hone your skills with the system's mechanics and get the creative juices flowing.
As always, get out there and write!
- mactheterrible
I wouldn't say it's strictly necessary to play first, especially if you're used to writing collaboratively with people. I went ahead and started narrating games, because I wanted to run games in shared universes I'd come up with, before I ever got into playing any. (I was a lot more interested in my own settings than anybody else's.) It's been a learning experience, but I think it's worked out.
ReplyDeleteThis is a fair point. For those who are curious as to exactly what Storium is about, I'd still suggest playing first to get the lay of the land. The other thing about that is not having the pressure to have a game "perform" with people you don't know. If you can narrate in private with people you can spitball with, go for it! :)
ReplyDeleteI think the "play first" suggestion is good advice. I've learned that, in RPGs, you become a better GM by playing under others. I'm sure that's true with Storium as well. I just started playing in my first game yesterday. I'm going to get into a couple more, see what works and what doesn't, and then focus on creating my own games.
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