Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Day 57: FotLC through the 113 lenses from The Art of Game Design

Day 57 - Lens 76: The Lens of the Hero's Journey
Many heroic stories have similar structure. Use this lens to make sure you haven't missed out on any elements that might improve your story. Ask yourself these questions:

Does my story have elements that qualify it as a heroic story?
The highest level meta story had traces or heroism. The Teller preserving the game and sharing it with the peoples of the wasteland helping to spread its lessons. The story of the game itself is pretty unheroic... the overthrowing of the corrupt City sounds pretty good, but it never attacks you and you end up attacking the other players warriors. At best it's conflicted.

If so, how does it match up with the structure of the Hero's Journey?
I think that this story is pretty far from that heroic journey. There are still elements, again the teller as the mentor who dies. The player becoming the teller and taking up the game. But the politics and general nastiness that players are expected to do to each other is less heroic and not part of that narrative.

Would my story be improved by including more archetypal elements?
I think that I have included some. I have slowly been adding more as part of the theming of the game and the framing narrative.

Does my story match this form so closely that it feels hackneyed?
Nope. I think I am safe from that with this one!

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