Hello, I'm Doctor Perry, how are we feeling today? Good good... let's have a look at your chart here.
Lets see here, vitals look good. Uh oh. Symptoms include a history of interest in pen and paper role playing games... that's not conclusive in and of itself, but we should run a few more tests. Sit back on the table please.
OK, have you ever had an interest in writing, short stories, blogs? Unfinished book perhaps?
Yes? Fiction. Noted.
What about reading, especially fiction? More than, say, one book a year at least?
Yes? Noted.
Ok, breathe in and out normally...
Would you say you're imaginative? Looking for small creative outlets?
Yes, and yes...
Lastly... how are you for a sense of community?
Generally like that sort of thing... ok.
OK, I've got some good news and bad news. From these answers it looks like you're a strong candidate to contract Storium. Don't worry... there are lots of people out there living vital and normal lives while dealing with a Storium condition. You'd probably not even notice, if it weren't for their propensity to talk to people about how awesome their Storium campaigns are.
But ultimately, all you can do is manage this condition... at present, there's no known cure for Storium or Storium addiction. You may need to discuss this with your loved ones.
*The above is meant for the purposes of humor only. For actual advice and to find out if Storium is right for you, seek professional help. Not valid advice for residents of some states.
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SO! What the hell is Storium? The best elevator pitch I seem to muster is that Storium is a bit like "Multiplayer story writing, with a dash of pen and paper role playing".
Basically you've got 3-5 people, one acting as Narrator. The Narrator sets up a scene with a couple challenges in it, and the "players" all have a character who plays an action card from their hand, and then writes the next couple paragraphs of the story, describing what their character is doing exactly.
There are stories being ran for damn near anything you can imagine. There's traditional D&D type things, sci-fi space opera out the wazoo... but there's also a HUGE array of game that are romance novel settings, humor, Napoleonic era war stories, all female pirate crews, a high school story with completely normal kids, anime, Lost fanfic, even some NSFW intrigue and espionage in a high fashion company like some kind of Ally McBeal meets Fifty Shades PR firm.
You can hit "browse games", then sort by "looking for players" and just flop around among the options available to you.
There are literally games happening in Storium that would be impossible to create in any other known gaming format, and that's tremendously exciting.
I really can't recommend it all enough.
Here's the bottom line... if you enjoy actual pen and paper role playing, the kind that really encourages talking to NPCs and imagining fun interactions beyond casting 'Magic Missile'... and yet you find that you're becoming a real adult with a life and obligations and can't seem to get the old gang together reliably enough to run a role playing game...
Storium is for you.
It's asych, you can take your moves when you want, games have different paces (set by the narrators as to how many scenes are expected to happen over weeks or months even), it's easy enough to be a player in a handful of games so you don't have to pick and choose like you're making huge investments in time.
For me, it's a fantastic little creative outlet and a way to get better at writing and improv, and have a blast doing it.
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Details!
So, Storium had a great Kickstarter a while back, and they're in a Gamma state right now, and already have a really healthy population of players. All the options to support it are on the site.
Right now, to view stories you need to sign up for an account and become a member, but I'm told that when the game fully launches you'll be able to read all these great stories people are coming up with even if you're not a member. So, you can send out links to your works and such.
Right now the game is crazy robust, with internal messaging, forums, feedback, bios, etc... it's ridiculously posh.
The site is:
https://storium.com/
and here's a fantastic video about how it all works.
Storium is ran by Stephen Hood (@stilhood) and of course there's a Twitter addy at (@Storium)
There's even a swanky little blog called StoriumArc where guests discuss their games, styles, etc...
If you enjoy character work, writing, etc... get in there!!!
Good luck, fellow patients.
P.S. If you happen to join up, check out my user profile at MrLeePerry on the site, and you can see what games I'm playing in and running. It's always awesome when people are reading your work!
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