The Collected Archives X: The Power of Story

It is striking to me that in the early chapters of the collected archives, Kenny Norris was talking very much about campaign prep and knowing the story arc.

Now when it comes down to storytelling, it is all going in the direction of character-centered playing to find out, and improvise/evolve the villain as the story plays.

This doesn’t feel like a sudden radical shift in Kenny’s thinking, but more as if Kenny really enjoys world-building and campaign-making almost as a solo game in its own right. But, when it comes to solo roleplaying he is just as character-led as I am.

I like the definition of what a story is. I tend to think of adventures as obstacles that stand between the characters and their goal. That is true for solo as well as my group games.

This means that a book, list, or set of tables that help you construct obstacles to put in the way of your characters may end up being one of the most used resources you have.

If you don’t have something like that now, maybe think about building yourself some random tables that fit your genre, play style and rules?

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