How about Betrayal at House on the Hill?  That attempts to put a story framework on the game.

We’re not seeing much of the story oriented game right now because stories are inherently text based and right now minimizing text usage is in vogue.

I thought the Mythos CCG game was very story oriented because it used ‘story cards’ to but the victory conditions a player would try to achieve in a combination (given reason for the game to progress like a linear story through the checklist of plot elements). As a CCG it could be both repetitive (a single designed deck that tells a story) and variable (break down the decks to build new ones).

So we’ve seen examples of story mechanics, designers just have to keep them alive in their new game designs.

Do the players have to be taken into the story by the game, or can they be encouraged to make the game into a story?  Children are so good at using their imaginations and inventing stories using relatively abstract materials--perhaps we simply need more encouragement to play like children again--we have enough wooden blocks (cubes)lying around, after all.  What if there was a strategy game that had a different environement each time it was played, the goal could still be a generic “most victory points wins” but telling bits of the story was a requirement to doing the various actions in the game?  Think Martin Wallace meets “Once Upon A Time.”

Jenseits was the game at Origins this year, that mostly made me feel (at least a bit) like I was in a story.  With the right crowd any game can become a story; with the wrong crowd, no amount of built in theme will prevent the game from being regarded as card/dice events.

I have thought long and hard about this, Frank. I own several paragraph games including Tales, and I think you’re right about the final product of a well produced game being a one-shot that would not do well in the marketplace. But an insight that came in a conversation with the designer of Tales of the Arabian Nights gave me an idea for a project that could potentially work. He said that the game was originally intended to be a computer adventure game. The branching paths, locations, and game-state-recording-device nature of the player mat shows that.

My solution would be to create a boardgame with a modular or customizable board, some stock characters, items, creatures, bosses, locations, etc., and then design a piece of software that would either run on a lap-top computer so you could put it on the table next to the board and components or allow you to print out a “paragraph-book” with a branching storyline in episodes or a single adventure. The software would come with several pre-packaged adventures, but it would also have a do-it-yourself feature that would walk you through the process of creating modules with fields and drop-down boxes, allowing you to see your story branch structure as you go. Basically, it would extend the life of the boardgame through a mod community of writers who could upload adventures to a central site, then download the files for the program to use. There would have to be support on the website for teaching people how to write branching stories. I have seen websites like this that already exist, but many of them went out of print or stopped being made after the late 1990s, when interest in hyperfiction (their term) seemed to drop off.

I can’t understand why no one has tried to combine flexible boardgame components with hyperfiction-making software, but it seems like a great solution: an application that would allow enterprising authors to write adventures in a game world like Tales of the Arabian Nights, which would automatically assign random entries to give you that authentic “Choose Your Own Adventure” feel. Obviously there’s no quality control, but if it’s yours, you’ll have fun with it anyway, maybe. Plus, it provides a platform for publishing and rating other people’s stuff on the website.

I was actually thinking more of creating a game to tell a specific story, and so J.M’s model of a collaborative environment would be most viable.

I’ve not really been a fan of story telling games, as the game structures actually seem to somewhat get in the way of the actual storytelling. Baron Munchausen is probably the best, as its minimalist structure and lack of cards and props. (Conversely, I’m also a fan of the Rocky and Bullwinkle RPG, but that is mostly because it has hand puppets, Fractured Fairy Tales, and cards that say things like “47 tons of bubble gum”.)
So I think a more complexity game that requires storytelling would produce very pale stories.

Betrayal. I am not a fan, but mostly that is because of the train wreck of development. I am also not a fan of the very random exploration phase of the game. ----- The second half has many unfulfilled promises.

Which DOES remind me of the intereresting plot twists we’ve seen in LARPs we’ve run over the years. I, sadly, know quite a bit about the whole Live Action role playing thing.

Let me think on that one.  Next week, LARP-ish boardgames and antagonistic story creation.

I don’t know that you can have the game tell the story, but I’m not expecting that.  What I appreciate are games that help me tell a good story.  I’m happy enough if the structure of the game is evocative to the point where are start adding rationalizations as to why things are happening.  I do find enough games that tickle that itch.

Antagonistic story creation sounds like fun as well.

One of the best exercises for a fiction writer is to take a chess problem and turn it into a story.  The best plots are like the best chess games: knowing where the pieces are, observing how they interact, and maneuvering them into some final position.  The game rules provide cause and effect; how this is expressed is the storyteller’s choice.  (Note: trying to just anthromorphize the chess pieces is taking the easy way out.)

And at any rate, the game is just the container for the story.  There are very few books out there that start out, as part of the literal story, “you sat down to read this book”.

Some of the new Forge style RPGs are pretty boardgame-like.  Many are competitive, some even have a winner.

Here are a couple that seem strongly boardgamey to me (descriptions from India Press Revolution)

The Mountain Witch
http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/product.php?productid=16144

A group of ronin samurai are hired for a simple yet terrifying task—to assault and kill O-Yanma, the dreaded Mountain Witch of Mount Fuji. But regretful pasts and dark fate conspire against the mission, testing both the courage and loyalty of the samurai.

When every heart holds betrayal, who can you trust?

The Mountain Witch is a self-contained role-playing adventure that mixes elements from Japanese mythology, horror, and film noir in a tale of trust, betrayal, and confronting one’s fate. With a simplified resolution system, player-created Fates, and innovative Trust mechanics that gives relying on others both a tangible benefit and risk, The Mountain Witch is designed for grab-n-go suspense-filled play.

The Shab-al-Hiri Roach
http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/product.php?productid=16178

The Shab-al-Hiri Roach is a dark comedy of manners, lampooning academia and asking players to answer a difficult question - are you willing to swallow a soul-eating telepathic insect bent on destroying human civilization?

No?

Even if it will get you tenure?

A fast paced and hilarious game, The Shab-al-Hiri Roach requires no Game Master and can be played in a single evening. If you enjoy crazed one-upmanship, furious stake-setting, and chanting gutteral commands in Sumerian, The Roach would like to have a word with you.