Dice-rolling fun. Players sure love to shake them bones (me included).
Charles made a fair comment. There is a difference between reading material and telling a story. GM's without practiced performance skills (me) reading lots of text tends to switch players off. (I've noticed colleagues nodding off during presentations at work too). The advantage of giving them a handout to read is that you get across the information, fill in the color of the skald's tale at the feast, without such a pause to the players participation.
The same also applies to reading long scene descriptions to players. They tend to want the basic picture, then have facts filled in as they ask questions.
John Hughes wrote:
> One thing that worked for me - have your players take on 'the
roles' of the gods as the story progresses. Braggi is telling the
tale, but Danwyr loves trickster tales and embellishes almost
everything that's said.
I think that our group could certainly collectively improvise a tale in this way, and its considering. It is the presentation of the significant myths and tales that emphasize how people should behave, what the gods and ancestors did that I seem to fail at with storytelling as opposed to handouts.
John:
>Okay, okay so I'm way out on the storyteller axis of the fourfold
way.
There as much good and bad in beer & pretzels and the fourth way, its wwhatever works for your group. After all we're supposed to be having fun. I think its nice to draw on elements of both traditions.
John:
>I think Kevin's comments are very aposite here - keep the stories
short and simple. (and yes, hand out a printed copy when its over).
True, like descriptions it may be okay to read short ones, and handout or use Q&A for long ones.
Thanks for the ideas though all. Its definitely something to think about when trying to weave Glorantha's rich myth and history into a game.
Ian Cooper
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