Article written by Ashleigh Lowry.
Their site motto proudly states: “Storium is the creative writing game.”
Here, people from all over the world can connect and write every type of story under the sun. Storium is a platform for all role players and creative writers to expand their imaginations, not only through learning, but by growing their skills and connections to likeminded people across the globe.
The origin story is a simple one. It began as a modest Kickstarter in 2014. In their campaign video, creators said that while many people love stories, not everyone gets the opportunity to tell them or the breadth to have them truly heard. Their platform would be purely focussed on allowing its users in sharing their creativity.
At the end of the Kickstarter, Storium’s campaign had already gathered over 1000% of the original goal. All this surplus went towards all the ideas planned for development, including custom, ready-to-use role-playing worlds created by famous writers, online creators and game companies as well as a version of the site created specifically for the classroom for parents and teachers.
By the end of the campaign their beta was up with the bare bones, ready to use for anyone who had taken part in the Kickstarter. Now in 2018, Storium is on full release with thousands of games and invested writers & role-players logging on and enjoying the unique creative collaboration that the platform allows.
The goal of Storium is to provide a place for friends to create a joint writing venture, together. Though advertised and styled as a game, Storium provides the bare bones for people with a good idea to connect and combine with other people of similar ideas and create something better. Anything from a people finding connections during the first days of college to supernatural beings struggling to survive on a failing space ship. All forms of creative and ideas are accepted and encouraged.
Playing a game in Storium is simple. If any of you know anything of Dungeons & Dragons, this’ll all sound very familiar. There’s the game master (or “narrator”) and the players, taking the roles of main characters. The narrator picks a setting (or “world”) the story will be set in, or makes one from scratch. They then issue challenges & assets, such as having the player address a boardroom of investors or provide that character with a much-needed story item, create settings and all the NPCs (non-player characters). The narrator orders each section of the game known here as scene, with a collection of scenes referred to as a chapter. During story creation, the narrator gives a brief description or introduction to the story they wish to tell. They inform any potential players of any special requirements the story will require of them, be it only choosing from premade characters or submitting their own with their backstory written in a certain way.
The narrator is asked to give an idea of tense, length and maturity rating that will be the deciding factor for many players for if they wish to participate or not. This’ll also clue them into the frequency they’ll need to contribute to the story. On Storium there’s no set limit – games can range from a few hours to logging once or twice a fortnight.
During creation, players must choose a few different aspects to their character – simple character building, but easily forgotten. The system Storium puts forward helps other characters and the narrators interact with them in a succinct and consistent way.
First: a ‘nature’ – depending on the story this can be your character role in the team, what job your character has, or what personality type your character most strongly identities with. Then comes strengths and weakness.
These strength and weakness cards carry a connection to the story world. The last card chosen by the players during creation is the sub-goal, a personal character goal that player tries to achieve throughout the story. If they do, they’ll be rewarded an extra strength card for overcoming adversity.
Cards chosen, character name, picture and bio are submitted for the narrator to approve, deny or request changes. Trying different roles in a story each time is encouraged.
Once everything is created, the narrator begins the story. Throughout the scenes/chapters, it’s now their job providing goals, obstacles and guidance for the players as they collaborate and create a story. As they write together, they play off each other’s character interactions, completing the challenges provided. Players are encouraged to talk to each other both in and out of game to find solutions and make connections. Together the narrator and the characters create a story that they enjoy and are proud to be a part of.
Storium is free to join with the option to become a member with a choice of how much you pay either monthly or yearly. With a free account there are a few features limited, but you are still able to participate in stories freely and create your own world to be the narrator of.
I might as well now point out I have a strong positive bias towards the platform – I have been a part of the community since it was in beta. My love comes from knowing that this place exists on the internet; a place of pure creative freedom where people can grow and learn as writers. I’ve taken part in many a story, and even been the one narrating it from time to time. Part of the Storium experience I have written stories with people all over the word, one story I have been a part of for two years. It is a strong love and sense of positive community that has me returning to the platform and exploring for new stories to be a part of.
Storium is not just a D&D internet chatroom: it is a positive and creative experience based around people writing about what they love and bouncing ideas off each other’s imaginations.
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