Storium Theory: Tell The Story Of The Characters

I've written in the past about the responsibility of the narrator to use the details provided by player characters, and to set up challenges for the player characters chosen for the game. Today, I'd like to delve into that same general idea, but from a slightly different angle.

As narrator, you're responsible for setting up the story. You're responsible for figuring out possibilities for the game arc - the way the game will start, how it will progress, what variations could come up along the way, how open things are to being altered by the player characters and by how much, and where the story is likely to go. I've written about these concepts quite a bit, as the responsibility the narrator holds for defining the game as a whole is pretty huge.

But don't forget that as narrator, your job is also to help the stories of the player characters - the main characters, the stars - emerge.

I wrote about this in brief a while back, when I discussed game arcs vs. character arcs - a story, ultimately, is not about what happens to the world at large, but what happens to the characters we are following. Therefore, the narrator's job is not just to define the world's plot, the game arc. The narrator's job is also - in fact, arguably more importantly - to help draw out character arcs and issues.

It is all well and good to have a grand, epic game plot, or events that will affect the fate of the world, or other things that will affect a great many people beyond the main characters. That's fine. In many genres, in fact, it's pretty darn essential.

And it's fine to have a structured story, plotted out to some degree in advance, with some events set reasonably in stone. Some narrators use looser setups with greater player influence, others use more defined ones with less player influence, and those are just a matter of the narrator's particular style. As I said in my discussion of said styles, they're all pretty much fine - it's just a matter of narrators and players who like similar styles finding each other.

So that's all fine.

But what's essential, no matter how you're running the game, is that the story needs to relate to the main characters. It needs to tie in with them. Not just involve them. Any story involves its main characters. What I'm encouraging you to do is more: Go beyond involving them. Go beyond just having them affect events in the story and be affected by them.

The story needs to be about them. It needs to relate to them. Even if there are events in the tale that would have happened without them, there need to be major, major elements of the tale that directly relate to the main characters.

Elements of the main characters' pasts should impact how the story develops. Who the main characters are should matter to the tale. Who they are should be tied intricately in.

Don't just set up events that would work with any group of characters. Look at the characters you have and design events, or at least twist events, to work specifically with them. The tale should never, ever feel like it would happen precisely the same way with another group of player characters. Sure, there can be certain broad strokes that could potentially come out regardless, but the intricate details of the story, the motivations and drama? That should all emerge from who these particular characters are.

And while the responsibility for that falls in part on the players - these are their characters, after all - it can't rest entirely on their shoulders. You, the narrator, must help them. You, the narrator, must make efforts to connect your tale to their tales.

I don't think I'm always successful at this, myself, but when I narrate a Storium game, I want the players to feel like it ended up tied in very strongly with their characters. I want them to feel like their characters' personal problems, issues, subplots, nemeses, and more all got involved. Even when the events start out not directly tied to them, I want them to end up tied in. I want the story to be the story of these characters, not the story of the situation.

That's the sort of mindset I encourage you to have.

Characters have their own subplots (they even have cards for those), their own issues, their own relationships, their own details. And these are not side elements to the story. These are the heart of the tale. These are what gives a tale meaning and drama and emotion.

Do not look at the individual character elements as the things to let players do when the main plot takes a break. Do not look at them as the things players can pull in if they want, so long as they don't get in the way of your primary tale. Do not look at them as "side" elements. Do not look at them as things to be covered "between" major threats.

These are not side elements. These are not less important. These are the very center of your story.

Some narrators plot out a lot in advance. Others take things as they come. Either is fine. But in either case, let the characters guide your story. You can plan events. But plan events around the issues raised by the main characters. Maybe you have things plotted out in advance. That's absolutely fine. But plot them out around the main characters.

There should never be a point in your tale where you say to yourself, "Well, this would be a good point to let the players go explore their personal plots, because I need a break between things for the main plot." That's because the personal plots and the overall plot should be interwoven sufficiently that pursuing the personal plots is pursuing the main plot, or vice versa.

If a player character has a villain in their background who kidnapped their brother, finding that person shouldn't be a side story. That person should be intricately tied to the main story, so that by pursuing the overall plot, the character plot is also explored, and by pursuing the kidnapper, the overall plot elements are revealed.

If a player character was accused of a crime they didn't commit, witnessed a foul deed, murdered a rival, sought approval from a parent, idolized a mentor...those are not things to leave on the sidelines or just explore when you have time. Those are things to tie into the tale. Those are things, in fact, to build the tale around as much as you can. The actual culprit is involved. The murdered rival had information that could've helped. The idolized mentor tried and failed to solve the problem...or maybe is involved in it.

Again, that doesn't mean you can't have an outline to start - having an outline to start is a great narration style. But the outline should be modified by the player characters. The story should fit their stories, and call to their themes.

Remember, you aren't just telling a story - you are telling the story of the characters. Don't build a generic story and then slot them in, or fit their tales into the breaks. Interweave the characters with the tale, and the tale with the characters, as much as you can manage.

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Reset!

 After a lot of interruptions  calls to duty, and rejected reorganization and rules variants, I finally got to play the game today.  More on the end result later but here's a quick look.

The initial Rebel attack suffered heavy losses followed by a flank attack by Dominion cavalry.

A renewed assault fared a little better but ran out of steam when command control issues held up the reserves. This enticed the Dominion General to launch an attack by the Highlanders supported by cavalry and artillery.

The Rebel reserves finally made it to the front, threw the highlanders back and followed up, threatening the vital central hill.

\

Concentrated firepower halted the attacks and as the line wavered, the Gentlemen Pensioners charged home  and broke the Rebel morale.

12 turns played out of 15 before  Blue's army break point was reached.

 

Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling Review (NSW)

Written by Patrick Orquia

Title: Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling
Developer: Moonsprout Games
Publisher: Dangen Entertainment
Genre: Adventure, Platformer, RPG
Number of Players: 1
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Release Date: 28 May 2020
Price: $24.99
Also Available On: PS4, Steam, XB1

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I first played Paper Mario on the N64 almost 20 years ago. I remember liking it a lot, with its unique art style, quirky characters, cool story, and humorous dialogue. It was then followed by best game in the franchise, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. It is so good and set such a high bar for the series that all future Paper Mario games are measured with it, and, unfortunately, the next three, Super Paper Mario on Wii, Paper Mario: Sticker Star on 3DS and Paper Mario: Color Splash, are considered inferior to it. 

People have been clamoring for a new Paper Mario game. A GOOD Paper Mario game. Nintendo recently answered recently with Paper Mario: The Origami King on the Nintendo Switch and fans, including me, are excited. This game will not be out for another month, but a right now, Paper Mario-like game is now available in the Switch, and it's called Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling.

I first saw the trailer for this game late last year and I thought to myself, "This is the Paper Mario game that I have been waiting for!" Obviously, Nintendo has nothing to do with this game, but more obviously, the developers of this game are big fans of the Paper Mario games. Almost all aspect of the game, from the paper-like visuals to gameplay mechanics to musical beats and stylings, are inspired by the Paper Mario games, so much so that I can almost consider this as a Paper Mario game itself. Perhaps it can be considered as a spiritual sequel, sort of, but since Paper Mario is still an ongoing franchise, let's just say that this game is heavily-inspired by the game series.

In this game, you lead a team of, as the title suggests, bugs. You got Kabbu, the strong yet talkative beetle; Vi, the tiny yet feisty bee; and Leif, the zen-like cool yet magic-wielding moth. At the beginning, Kabbu and Vi reluctantly team up to collect artifacts for the Ant Queen so that she can obtain the legendary Everlasting Sapling, which can supposedly grant everlasting life. During the duo's first mission, they chanced upon rescuing Leif from the clasps of a giant spider within the Snakemouth Den, where the first artifact is located. The team was able to obtain the artifact, and the Ant queen, recognizing their effectivity as a team, ordered the team to acquire the rest of the artifacts. The trio, now known as the Team Snakemouth, then goes through an epic adventure across the land of Bugaria, visiting one kingdom after another, meeting interesting NPCs, solving mysteries, and battling a barrage of enemies, to fulfill their task.

The main gem of this game is the gameplay. Not only this game looks and sounds like Paper Mario, it also plays like Paper Mario, and does it amazingly well. So well, in fact, that I think that the game improved on some of the mechanics of its inspiration. One improvement is how the characters in your party play and interact with one another. The party has no real leader, and all three take turns during battles. You can choose who will be at the front of the team, who will usually have the higher powered attacks but will also have a higher chance of getting hit by enemies. You can perform timed button presses when you attack, to make them more effective, and during defense, which makes the enemy attacks hit less or be completely dodged when done right. Another improvement is the relay attack mechanic, which allows one character to relay their turn to another, albeit with a slightly less power. This opens up for more tactics for different scenarios during battle.

Kabbu has the most time of being at the front during my playtime, because of his high attack power against ground enemies, but only those at the front of the opposing team, plus he is pretty much useless against flying ones. For those winged enemies, Vi is the best bet, with her beemerang that hits them and make them drop to the ground, plus she can also hit grounded ones wherever they are positioned, but with less attack power. Leif, on the other hand, takes care of those that drill into the ground, since he can attack with his ice spikes from underneath, making those enemies in hiding back to the surface. That is one of the ice-based spells that he can perform. His special attacks are the best of the bunch, since he can freeze multiple enemies for a turn or so, thus allowing the rest of the party to either heal up or perform higher-powered attacks. Very handy during boss battles. Kabbu, Vi, and Leif all learn special abilities as you progress into the game, most of them introduced when a specific scenario requires for such an ability to come up, such as Kabbu's ability to dig through soft earth or Leif's ability to put up a force field that would protect the entire party against outside hostilities. These special abilities open up new areas, ala metroidvania, and allows you to progress further into the game. The game is mostly linear, but you would be required to back track to previous areas as you progress more into the game.

Winning in battles award the team experience points. Not individually, but for the entire team, and upon reaching a certain number of XP, they level up, or rather, rank up, as it is referred to in-game. And upon ranking up, you guessed it, you can either choose to upgrade XP, TP (Team Points, used for special moves/spells), and MP (Medal Points, which allows you to wear medals, aka badges).

Medals give either individual wearers or the entire party additional buffs and special attacks. One of such medals, when activated, sneakily turn on hard mode from the get go. Medals can be obtained either by progressing through the game (some are located in hidden areas), completing subquests, or bought from NPCs. Unfortunately, the medals are not as varied as the badges in the first two Paper Mario games, but they in the game to make you more prepared or beef up for the battles ahead.

Berries is this game's currency and they can be obtained by slashing grass on the ground, by winning battles, or by completing tasks. Berries pay for items bought from shops, inn stops, and for some upgrades. You can also deposit berries to a bank, which earns interest every 30 minutes of play time. The enemies in this game hit hard and thus you are required to use healing/buff items a lot during battles. Having enough berries allows you to buy such items and you are encouraged to prepare and stock up in case you encounter a heavy-hitting enemy on your way to your next stop.

You have limited inventory slots and thus you are required to optimize the items that you can carry with you at any given time. Fortunately, there are cooks found across the land who can cook some of your healing items or food to make them more effective. They can even combine two of such items to make a new dish, and thus saving inventory space. Again, like in Paper Mario, you can collect these recipes for future reference.

Additional goodies in the game include hidden areas where you can battle past bosses where you can obtain additional XP, berries, and medals; lots of subquests, also for additional XP, berries, and medals; and hidden bosses that may oftentimes catch you by surprise. This game is really has a very good amount of content that could rival a triple A game.

Overall, Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling is truly one of the best indie games that released recently. All the gameplay mechanics and interconnected systems make this game really good. Kudos to the developers who takes the best part of their inspirations and incorporated them to this game. They may have overdone it, as this game really is pretty much a Paper Mario game except for the name, but they made enough tweaking to some of the mechanics and design to make it stand out on its own. So, whether you're a fan of the Paper Mario series that has that Paper Mario itch that you want to be scratched or just fan of the adventure RPG genre in general, go give this game a go and I pretty sure, you will love it, too.

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REPLAY VALUE: High

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PROS

• Excellent visuals, gameplay, and sounds – very much inspired by the Paper Mario games from top to bottom
• Very interesting characters, both main ones and NPCs
• Excellent level design, with some areas interconnecting with the others, allowing for easier
• backtracking
• Engaging story
• High variety of enemy types
• Cool boss fights
• Lots of sub quests to complete that flesh out more of the lore in the game
• Hard-hitting secret bosses
• Very good use of HD Rumble
• Looks good and ideal for handheld gaming

CONS

• The map requires a few button presses too many to be accessed
• Subquests are a bit hard to follow at times
• Fleeing battles require complex button presses that can be hard to perform and also cost berries and thus are not encouraged to perform
• Attack hits are always the same; there are no critical hits, and if you fail the required button presses, the attack fails
• The medals could have been more varied and useful
• The platforming could be much better

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RATING: 4.5/5 Paper marios in bug disguises

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SuperStarfighter, A Local Multiplayer Game Made With Godot

Looks like FOSS game development with Godot is a breeze :)

SuperStarfighter is a fast-paced local party game for up to 4 players. Outmaneuver and shoot your opponents in a 2d top-down arena, and become an intergalactic champion!

Get it on Itch.io or find the source code here.

Hat-tip to GoL.

For commenting please visit our forums.

This post was retrieved from freegamer.blogspot.com.

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