I've played Story Games for a long time and have often wondered, what makes a "Story Game" a "Story Game"? This essay explores my definition of "Story Game" and my principles of design.

What is a Story Game?

Story Games are a category of storytelling game 1, typically for 2-5 players. Game rules guide how players interact to tell a story, for example, by helping: players develop a setting, craft compelling characters, and resolve conflicts. Beyond game rules, Story Games are a style of play.

How do I separate Story Games from other storytelling games?

  • A focus on cooperative story telling where games rules give all players equal narrative control. 2
  • A player’s ability to affect what happens in the game is not dependent on a their character’s fictional ability to do those things. 3

Different Story Games facilitate different kinds of stories.

Example Story Games:

  • Microscope focuses on telling an epic history.
  • Kingdom explores communities and how the people in them decide what they stand for.
  • Follow shapes a story about characters working together to complete a quest.

More Example Story Games

Design Philosophy

What design principles should Story Games adhere to?

I see design encompassing the entire Story Game experience - this goes beyond a specific game's rules and includes the expectations people have, and the way people interact with each other.

As a baseline all games must be safe and fun. To adhere to my definition of Story Game, the game must also have equal narrative control. The rest of the design principles help ease play.

Principles:

Safe

A Story Game should be safe for players.

A Story Game session consists of people telling a story together. As a story unfolds it's possible for content to be introduced that makes someone feel uncomfortable or unsafe. Everyone has different limits, and often we don't know what content makes us uncomfortable until it's in the game.

Meta rules are available to help 4 5; however, ultimately, making sure everyone feels comfortable is everyone's responsibility6.

Fun

A Story Game should be fun to play.

Players should walk away every time thinking "that was awesome, let's play again!". Story Games are games! It's hard to convince people to play a game that isn't fun.

There are many ways players can engage for fun:

  • Socialize with friends
  • Appreciate others' cool lideas
  • Explore new viewpoints
  • Create compelling emotional drama
  • Philosophical musing

Different players prefer different types of fun. A Story Game should choose the elements of fun to focus on.

When constructing a game, focus on "surrounding the fun" 7 - strengthen fun elements and remove unenjoyable ones. Playtest the game with many groups and audiences, collect actual play experiences, and revise the game to further surround the fun.

Equal Narrative Control

A Story Game should give all players equal control over the narrative.

This means dividing control of parts of the story among players and giving them ways to resolve conflicts. Ideally, the rules encourage players to interact by building on each others' ideas.

This differs from games like Dungeons & Dragons8 or Monsterhearts9 which have DM's or GM's - who have significantly more control over the narrative than other players.

Giving players equal narrative control allows a broader diversity of ideas to emerge, leading to more interesting stories. The point of Story Games is to cooperatively tell stories, not for a single person to dictate the narrative.

Accessible

A Story Game should be accessible to a wide audience.

Accessible means players with different life experiences and levels of experience can play together safely and have fun.

Targeting Story Games to new players helps expand the Story Game community. A larger Story Game community increases the number of people to play with, and allows more people to have the opportunity to develop and test games with wider audiences.

One-Shot

A Story Game should facilitate one-shot sessions that allow players to learn the game rules and complete a compelling story within four hours.

One-shot games allow players to play together with minimal planning. This works especially well for meet-up groups where players may not be present every session. One-shot games allow players to try different games and create new stories more frequently. There is variability in the quality of a story from the combination of setup, player combination, and specific game. More chances at more stories keeps players engaged and coming back for more.

A compelling game session can often be extended beyond a one-shot if players want to keep playing out a story.

Simple Rules

The concept and rules of a story game should be as simple as possible.

Simple rules are easier to teach and follow. Players should spend time telling the story verses mastering or disputing complex rules. In the one-shot scenario, where time is at a premium, it's particularly important that players spend as much time as possible telling the story verses dealing with the overhead of rules.

A Story Games rule book should be written to help players get playing quickly, and minimize rule lookup time during play. Even if a game has simple concept and simple rules - the explanation of those rules matters. Spending time on rules takes away from play time, maximize play time!

Minimal Materials

Game play should only require commonly available materials to reduce the barrier to play. Using minimal material also helps games transition to online play 10.

For in person play:

  • One copy of the rules
  • Pens / Pencils
  • Blank Paper / Note Cards
  • Standard Dice

For online play:

  • One copy of the rules
  • Video chat client
  • Shared text document
  • Online dice roller

Exploration

A Story Game should strive to be about more than having fun. Games allow us to explore challenging ideas, learn about the human condition, connect us to others, and enrich our lives.

Example Story Games

Reference

  1. Storytelling Game on Wikipedia ↩

  2. Our Ground is Level and Our Table is Round by Ben Robbins ↩

  3. Defining Story Games by Ben Robbins ↩

  4. Table Top Roll Playing Game Safety Toolkit by Kienna Shaw and Lauren Bryant-Monk ↩

  5. X-Card by John Stavropoulos ↩

  6. X Card insufficiency by Jamie Fristrom ↩

  7. Sid Meier Alpha Centauri Development on Wikipedia ↩

  8. Dungeons & Dragons on Wikipadia ↩

  9. Monsterhearts on Wikipedia ↩

  10. Story Games Online by Ben Robbins ↩