This isn't the first role play setting where I've seen SL(Story Line) used to describe the game as a whole, actually its the second. The first was where I met, Ren, Peanut, and others. And I readily admit it still throws me for a tiny loop as my background is in FFRP, Free Form RolePlay (Red Dragon Inn, All Creatures Tavern, etc).
Playing in those venues got me in the mindset that a Story Line is a small chapter or story arc within the setting involving one or more characters that has a beginning, middle, and resolution.Which may or may not be open ended. If Wicked Labyrinth as a whole is a Story Line then what is the direction of it?
This is just more for my own understanding of the game as a whole.
The SL (Story Line) is like a collection of books for instance or a television series as a whole. Sub-sls are the minor stories within the series that have more of a directed beginning, middle, and end feel to them. Where as the overarching SL is the lives of the characters themselves in their entirety (or whatever scope of entirety you want to show). At least that is how I have always looked at things.
The SL provides context, background, and function (i.e. the world you live in and the natural laws that apply to it) as well as a base for play. It is the foundation only that describes the world. The characters and their sub-sls then provide the content which is why in a lot of games the Mods tend to play highly visible characters who drive a lot of sub sls with the characters around them causing conflict, growth, development, etc. However, since it's free form every player has the ability to conceptualize their own story within the foundation lines of the SL itself. (As in, there are ways to tell great stories without bringing in aliens from another planet or were-gorillas).
The SL doesn't have a specific direction or means to an end because there is no "end". Like the world around us it is bigger than the characters who inhabit it. Characters can come and go, plots can end or begin, and the foundation will always be there to build on. A lot of us have used this same foundation for years with slight changes from time to time as we've seen what works and doesn't work for the majoroity of people. As long as there are characters who want to use this SL as a setting then there won't be an end, and we can take things in whatever direction the play leads us.
-- Edited by VIKTOR HAVEN on Monday 21st of November 2011 11:55:54 AM
The SL (Story Line) is like a collection of books for instance or a television series as a whole. Sub-sls are the minor stories within the series that have more of a directed beginning, middle, and end feel to them. Where as the overarching SL is the lives of the characters themselves in their entirety (or whatever scope of entirety you want to show). At least that is how I have always looked at things.
The SL provides context, background, and function (i.e. the world you live in and the natural laws that apply to it) as well as a base for play. It is the foundation only that describes the world. The characters and their sub-sls then provide the content which is why in a lot of games the Mods tend to play highly visible characters who drive a lot of sub sls with the characters around them causing conflict, growth, development, etc. However, since it's free form every player has the ability to conceptualize their own story within the foundation lines of the SL itself. (As in, there are ways to tell great stories without bringing in aliens from another planet or were-gorillas).
The SL doesn't have a specific direction or means to an end because there is no "end". Like the world around us it is bigger than the characters who inhabit it. Characters can come and go, plots can end or begin, and the foundation will always be there to build on. A lot of us have used this same foundation for years with slight changes from time to time as we've seen what works and doesn't work for the majoroity of people. As long as there are characters who want to use this SL as a setting then there won't be an end, and we can take things in whatever direction the play leads us.
-- Edited by VIKTOR HAVEN on Monday 21st of November 2011 11:55:54 AM
Thanks for the response! I know its just a terminology preference, still throws me for a loop every so often when you're used to just viewing the game/character universe as the Story Setting, and any plotted/cooberated events are the story lines.
I always thought that the SL was a story because it tells the story of the past. Like how the vampire lines came into being or how lycanthropy the disease came around. Or like how because of LoST we act under an assumption that one of the islands of Hawai'i is now under water. And how it says what the vampire infrastructure is. That kinda stuff. Those are all stories that are part of the main SL. So I guess that might also be why the terminology works in this case.
