This week’s theme is to write about “other forms of storytelling, aside from books.” Heh, that’s easy. My favorite form of storytelling is the collaborative kind: Dungeons & Dragons. Oh yeah. A good D&D campaign follows the same kind of arc as any good story, as the plot unfolds and the tension & suspense increase. Hopefully there is a happy ending, but don’t count on it, bwahahahaha! Best of all, in D&D you are creating the story as you go. The Dungeon Master gives you the broad outlines, the setting, the overall goal of the quest, but the twists and turns of the plot are created by the players.
A couple of times I had characters who kept “journals” and I actually wrote up their journal entries. (This was in the pre-kids olden days, of course, when I actually had time on my hands.) Writing those journals was probably the most fun I’ve ever had writing anything, and it’s a lot of fun to go back and read them. Not just because they are reminders of bygone thrills, chills, & belly-laughs, but because D&D campaigns make such great stories.
Worldwide D&D Game Day is coming up on June 7, and our group will be entering the Tomb of Horrors that day. Maybe my character will bring along a diary.
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Ahhh…the olden days when there was free time. Sigh. Something we all remember. I like the idea of character journals. A way to approach first-person narrative that hadn’t occurred to me before. Thanks for the inspiration.
(I hope you do bring along your diary for Game Day. Maybe you could post from it?)
Thanks for the great post. I love the idea of collaborative storytelling. I always wanted to join a D&D group when I was a kid but my mom was one of those people who thought D&D was evil. :( So instead I read all the books and had adventures in my mind! ~LOL~
I’m really enjoying all the takes on this week’s Weekly Geeks!
And there’s something about being in *control* of the story, too. I’m not a player, but I can understand the pull. Hubby’s a DM (still!) and even M’s gotten into the act, arranging campaigns for her cousins (the first, last year, was a wild success, and she’s busy at work on another one for this year).
Though a Worldwide D&D day… that sounds like fun. :)
And, we expect that your diary will wind up right here on your blog!
I was never a player of DnD, but I loved watching my husband’s group. They would get into some of the most interesting situations and it was fun watching them get themselves out of the trouble they jumped into.
This sounds like fun. It is like we making up stories while we go along. Stopping, pausing and getting on.
Tell a Story!
I think I would have enjoyed D&D! There never were any players I knew of around — I think that’s why I’m stuck with console RPGs myself. :)
Well I never expected to get such an enthusiastic response to that post. Thanks, y’all! Maybe my character should start her own blog…