My day started with a tweet: “Discovering the awesomeness of group storytelling through role playing games #rpg”
Last Sunday, my husband, David, and I gathered with a group of four others to start on a great adventure. David is running a Superhero role playing game and we are the characters in it. David’s job is to write the plot-line, while each of us role play our character’s interacting and live out the story based on the parameters set for our superhero world. We had an absolutely grand time.
After the guests had left and the empty pizza boxes cleaned up, I realized something: six people just got together and created the beginning of an awesome story. I had to write it down!
David and I had to drive to my parents house just then for a Father’s Day dinner, but I determinedly took along my laptop and wrote the first two scenes in the car. David helped me with the narration, and remembering the dialog people had come up with. By the end of the night, I had a chapter and a half of a new adventure.
To briefly summarize the tale as it has begun: The world’s superheros and supervillians are gone, killed in a massive explosion when all of them gathered, half to create mischief and the other half to stop it. But the world is still full of evil, and it needs new superheros to arise and protect it. Four people are approached by a mysterious stranger and given an envelope. Little do they know that the adventure is just beginning. Here’s an except to whet your appetite.
———
Cornelius leaned on his shovel as he watched the shiny black limousine approach down his gravel driveway. The grand car looked distinctly out of place in the rural setting of his farmstead outside of Terminus. Green fields and simple wooden outbuildings replaced metal skyscrapers and miles of concrete.
The limousine came to a stop in front of the house, and Cornelius carefully lifted his handgun from its secret compartment in his workbench. He slipped it into the back of his belt where it couldn’t be seen by whoever was in the car.
Guessing what was to come―he had worked for them for over twenty years after all―he approached the limousine. His reflection stared back at him as he gazed at the shiny exterior of the vehicle, the dark tinted windows preventing him from seeing inside.
The window in front of him rolled down, and a glove-clad hand emerged, holding a black envelope.
“Your country needs you.”
“I thought they had enough of me the last time.” Cornelius said, voice flat.
The shadowed man inside the limousine didn’t reply, just held the envelope.
With a sigh of resignation, Cornelius took it and stepped back, watching as the window rolled up and the vehicle pulled away, headed back down his driveway toward the main road.
Four people in four places opened a black envelope. They were unconnected by anything but their extraordinary abilities and track-record of doing good with them rather than harm. Inside the envelope was a single card. On the card were three things: GPS coordinates, a time, and a date. Four people contemplated the happenings of the day, and tried to decide if they would go, or if they would stay.
———
Unlike the novel I’m writing, this is more of a fun project that may or may not go anywhere. If nothing else, it will document the story that our collective group writes, joining our amazing powers of imagination and witty comebacks to make a story worth remembering. For my muse, this kind of stuff is crack cocaine.
An odd way to write a story you think? Actually, it’s not. Some really famous and popular books came from RPGs. Think of all the books inspired by RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons, Final Fantasy, World of Warcraft, and Vampire: The Masquerade just to name a few.
RPGs are a most fertile starting ground for story ideas and inspirations. How could they not be? In an RPG, we go back to what we did as children, pretending to be a made up person in a made up place creating a story not tied down by reality. The sky is the limit. Even better with RPGs, you have a group of friends to help you build the story, getting input and ideas that you would never have thought of yourself.
(disclaimer: There are many forms of RPGs. I speak here specifically of a group RPG where characters are created by each member and you play out a storyline, usually meeting in person on a regular basis to do so. However there are many other types, including online games, video games, tabletop games, etc.)
Even if your RPG never turns into a book, they are a very good way to exercise your imagination (and they’re fun too!). I would recommend anyone writing genre fiction to at least look into RPGs and find our more about all the incredible stories that have come from them over the years. If you want to do more than play video games or sit around a table rolling dice, you can even get into LARPing (Live Action Role Playing). In this more active version of RPGs, you actually make costumes and weapons, then play act the story in a large group!
Don’t get me wrong, RPGs aren’t necessary to tell a story. Rather, they are a delightful and inventive phenomenon that has been made popular by humanity’s collective need to tell stories. Just last Sunday, I myself discovered how incredibly inspiring they are. Writing is an inherently lonely art. I think it is good for our souls and our muses to get out and tell a story together with friends.
Just remember, you can be inspired up to the tip-tops of your ears, just don’t forget to write! Many more stories are told than are written, and many more stories are written than are published. As I discover daily, the path to being a published author is a long and arduous one, requiring self-discipline as well as imagination.
This week’s useful link is a Reader’s Digest post about what literary Agents look for in prospective clients. Even if you haven’t finished your book yet, keep these important principles in mind and start building your foundation. That way, when your story is written and ready, you will be ready as well.
Oh, and if you haven’t already subscribed to Reader’s Digest, do so! They send out a lot of good information, as well as having sales on useful craft books and writing conferences. To read more about getting connected and knowing your market, check out my post Becoming-a-Writer Tip # 2
Have a great week, and keep writing!
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