It seems like it could be really interesting engine for collaborative storytelling. It does remind me a bit of the rules-light kind of bulletin board/forum messaging RPG style that seemed to be popular in the late 90s-mid 00s. It has cards and challenges too, though I don’t know whether that bears ANY resemblance to StoryNexus.
It sounds interesting. It also sounds multiplayer…I wish I could find a clearer description of the actual system. I guess for $10 I could find out.
Ok. Found the video. Sounds great as a framework for online role playing if one plays with people who can write and co-create. It does not seem like an author creation system whereby one makes an adventure to play, unless I’m missing the point. It seems to require an active narrator playing along, and boils down to sort of a refined version of message board roleplay. That’s my take from the video.
If an author can write a “module” sort of thing and then random groups can join together and play it without the author’s involvement, that would interest me.
I’m on Storium. Haven’t gotten around to playing with it yet. But yes, it’s a cooperative game rather than a Text Adventure. Kind of the Apples to Apples of IF rather than the crossword.
StoryNexus is the Echo Bazaar system, right? Pretty sure Storium is simpler than that – the cards/challenges seem like more of a way to structure the narrative than a game mechanic per se.
I’m also on Storium.
I would say it’s closer than anything else to playing a tabletop RPG (especially bulletin board style roleplaying). There are game mechanics, and one or more GMs are in charge, but it’s a collaborative storytelling system where each person controls (or primarily controls) a single character.
Disclaimer: The game I was in collapsed because the system wasn’t technically capable of handling a game with some three dozen people. And then I collapsed because I wasn’t temporally capable of handling multiple daily updates (especially not with some three dozen people). The technical limitations have been resolved, but my temporal limitations have not, so I haven’t gone back since.
But it seems like a very cool thing, and I’m glad it exists.
Wow three dozen people sound like a ton.
It also seems like they’re adding new features as they go to make it easier on the players.
I’m wondering if there is a ‘pick up and play’ option where you can enter into a story if you don’t have a set group?
I might have to check it out…it also seems like they were smart to bring in more established writers to set up some of the starter worlds.
That’s the part that makes me kind of go…ehhh: you have to LFG. And since it’s sort of forum-ey asynchronous, that might take a while.
I definitely see “Able to write your own games” as a feature, and it would stand that if there are famous authors making worlds that there is a way to write scenarios. I’m torn. But I’m also such a groupie for new platforms and mechanics that it might almost be worth $20 to check out.
Looks like they also have a yearly membership? And then you have to pay again to access certain world-types?
The more I look at this, it’s not “write your own games” (since the gimmick is everyone is “writing” the game) and I’m thinking in the lingo of Storium that the “ability to create your own games” might just mean that you can start one as a narrator, “creating” in this context meaning to create a team to play. Is that right, or is there any sort of authorial context outside of being a player?
Might have been a bit lower than that. I mostly remember we broke the system and that it had never been intended for that many people.