Vali's Tale
I believe that it was the summer of 2006 when I started running a campaign with my wife and two other couples. Most of us had gamed, and gamed together, before. I had an overall goal in mind for the campaign, but it wasn't as much about the adventures as it was about the development of the characters. As I often do as dungeon master, I asked them to each come up with back-stories to explain how they came to adventure with one another. One player, who also happens to have been the dungeon master of my first true Dungeons and Dragons adventure, said that he wanted his character to have amnesia and that I could slowly build up his back-story as the adventure progressed. While he was probably just being lazy about his character creation (he claims that this isn't the case), not only did the idea intrigue me, but it made the overall story fall into place.
Thus, I created for each character a template based on what I thought they would enjoy. This template would give them additional abilities, traits, and skills on top of their normal character progression. For the amnesia character, I also built up a series of "dreams" that his character would slowly experience each time he leveled up. Because of the nature of my friend's personality, I created as complex and interweaving character experience that I could think of. I arranged it so the powers would start at level four and would go all the way up to level twenty. We played the game for years, meeting every month or so. Despite some set-backs and my over-reliance on pre-created adventures, the story developed in ways that even all of my planning couldn't predict. In particular, the "dreams" gave a depth to the game that I have not experienced before or since. They also make for a grand story, which until now was largely only shared between the two of us.
I've made several false starts at trying to recreate the story, but I finally realized that what was holding me back was being too true to the game as it was played which, as I said, was a little too reliant on outside materials anyway. As I was trying to decide on what writing project to focus my energies this summer [2014], this revelation gave me the impetus to start working on the story again.
However, I always need a deadline of some sort to keep me honest, so here's the deal: every week I am going to complete at least ten pages of new material on this story (by Wednesday midnight). That might not seem like much, but I have several other projects that I would like to get done (in writing, publishing, and life), and note the "at least." You have a link here (the title of this page is also a link) to the live document on Google Docs. Feel free to check it whenever you want. You might even catch me in the process of writing on it. You should not have the ability to make any changes, but if you figure a way to do so, please stop yourself. I will, of course, take any suggestions you have into consideration, but don't get upset if I don't include them. [I have since stopped work on this project, but hope to come back to it in the near future.]
This might be a really bad idea, but I won't know until I try it. Enjoy.
[Note from 2018: Sadly, the pace has been closer to three pages a year than ten pages a week.]
Thus, I created for each character a template based on what I thought they would enjoy. This template would give them additional abilities, traits, and skills on top of their normal character progression. For the amnesia character, I also built up a series of "dreams" that his character would slowly experience each time he leveled up. Because of the nature of my friend's personality, I created as complex and interweaving character experience that I could think of. I arranged it so the powers would start at level four and would go all the way up to level twenty. We played the game for years, meeting every month or so. Despite some set-backs and my over-reliance on pre-created adventures, the story developed in ways that even all of my planning couldn't predict. In particular, the "dreams" gave a depth to the game that I have not experienced before or since. They also make for a grand story, which until now was largely only shared between the two of us.
I've made several false starts at trying to recreate the story, but I finally realized that what was holding me back was being too true to the game as it was played which, as I said, was a little too reliant on outside materials anyway. As I was trying to decide on what writing project to focus my energies this summer [2014], this revelation gave me the impetus to start working on the story again.
However, I always need a deadline of some sort to keep me honest, so here's the deal: every week I am going to complete at least ten pages of new material on this story (by Wednesday midnight). That might not seem like much, but I have several other projects that I would like to get done (in writing, publishing, and life), and note the "at least." You have a link here (the title of this page is also a link) to the live document on Google Docs. Feel free to check it whenever you want. You might even catch me in the process of writing on it. You should not have the ability to make any changes, but if you figure a way to do so, please stop yourself. I will, of course, take any suggestions you have into consideration, but don't get upset if I don't include them. [I have since stopped work on this project, but hope to come back to it in the near future.]
This might be a really bad idea, but I won't know until I try it. Enjoy.
[Note from 2018: Sadly, the pace has been closer to three pages a year than ten pages a week.]