Storium is a new kind of game in which players join together online to write stories in amazing settings. It’s a cross between modern storytelling games like Fiasco and an online writing circle, and it’s blazing fun. They launched a Kickstarter drive for it on April 8, and it runs for one month.
Here’s the pitch video:
Storium‘s creators—Stephen Hood and Josh Whiting of Protagonist Labs—lined up a killer team of designers and writers to help them out. Will Hindmarch of Vampire: The Masquerade, Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, Always/Never/Now, and Project Dark fame serves as the lead designer, and award-winning writers Mur Lafferty (I Should Be Writing and The Shambling Guide to New York City), J. C. Hutchins (The 33), and Chuck Wendig (Blackbirds and The Blue Blazes) round out the transmedia core.
Here’s an introduction to how the game plays. It involves the use of virtual cards to help set the stage and keep the plot moving along.
Besides the folks on their development and advisory team, Storium’s lined up a number of talented game designers and authors to create settings in which Storium players can create their own stories. This includes:
- Delilah S. Dawson
- Stephen Blackmoore
- Mark Diaz Truman
- Amanda and Clark Valentine
- Nancy Holder
- Jason Morningstar
- Maurice Broaddus
- Karin Lowachee
- Filamena Young
They’ve also arranged for a number of stretch goals, including worlds from Saladin Ahmed, Andrea Phillips, and Leonard Balsera. Should the drive go huge, we can expect many more to come.
The Kickstarter rewards start out with getting instant access to the game’s beta at the $10 level. They range all the way up to a chance to create your own world, play with the creators, or even visit them at their offices. Be sure to check it out.
Disclaimer: I know many of the excellent authors and game designers listed above and count many of them as friends. There’s also the outside possibility that one of my worlds might appear as a stretch goal. (You never know!)
