I split off the Role Playing part out of this thread, since it's really RP.
We finished our first game last week.
This game uses Rotating Narration, so every player gets a chance to tell the story. The rotation starts with me, followed by Steelhelm then Corona89. After Act I, it became me, then Corona89, followed by Linuial. It then repeats until the story is finished. Bear in mind: there are no notes shared between us after each scene: we're flying by the seat of our pants for the most part. Every scene, the next narrator takes what's been written before and contributes to the story as they can; like improv, we run with what's been established before for the most part.
Advice after finishing Act III...
- Expectations: Storium is at best a "rough draft" story made by multiple people. Whether there's one narrator or multiple narrators, three players or nearly 10, the interface is about quick development. Players have limited rights to edit and correct a post because when someone else moves your post is locked for good. People who make typos, mistakes or errors that catch the Narrator's attention can ask to be flagged for revision (where you have one chance to fix mistakes but can't move again until it is edited), or the narrator can ask them to revise a mistake they see (depending on the narrator, this may be a pain point, as a group that makes a lot of mistakes and ask for multiple revisions per move may become an issue.) It's best across the players if the game's script is seen as a rough draft and allowed to have some mistakes in it. GRAMMAR NAZIS AND ENGLISH MAJORS: Consider yourself warned.
- Communication: You have two tools for communicating to players in Storium, but in a private game they essentially behave the same way. Commentary is a shout-box chat next to the story. Players are free to plan the scene, talk OOC, or ask questions away from the storyline. When a scene is finished, the commentary is locked for that scene and cannot be continued. (A new Commentary thread starts in the next scene.) The Green Room is a separate area where players can talk away from the story. The Green Room's key difference from Commentary is that the Commentary can be read in a public game by anyone. The Green Room no matter what the game is for active players only, so it's the best place to mention real-life pauses to the game, discussions between players that you don't want the public to read, and to discuss plot issues for the next act and keep spoilers out of the public eye.
- Content Control: If a player wants out of the game, you would retire their character. The host of the game (who made it, this isn't necessarily who is narrating at the moment) has the ability to issue invites and retire characters. When a character is retired, they STILL HAVE READ ONLY ACCESS to the game. This is Storium's design: any contribution is accessible to a player at any time, even if they're not playing anymore. A host can't really kick a player out of the game so that they can't get to what they wrote, and hosts cannot delete a game without getting the consent of all players first.
- Pacing: Realistically, Pacing in a Storium game for people who have real-life needs and wants will be Slow-to-Casual at best. If a holiday weekend comes up, you can speed past a scene in as short as a day, but for most folks who expect to move once per day 45 minutes before going to bed, one scene a week or two weeks is reasonable.
