There Are Three Kinds of Story

However, this kind of story is just one of three types I should be adding to
sessions.

This type is an External Story.

It's something meaningful to the players, party, and milieu that's extrinsic to the
player characters.

The demons are out there, outside each character. They are what I call a Campaign
Story.

The last while I slacked off on Campaign Stories by doing a bit too much sandbox,
and not enough villain and world development.

I created the world of Duskfall and moved away from a published setting for this
reason. To roll up my sleeves and get more involved in world building to get more
Campaign Stories going on in my head. I find published settings more like passive
reading exercises for me, and not the same experience as world design.

We need an External Story highly relevant to each character.

That can take the form of a single story for the whole party with hooks aplenty, or
an External Story for each PC. Ideally, both.

The Second Story Type

We're digging deeper into storytelling theory now, leveraging the Hero's Journey
and other story frameworks I've studied.

The first story type is External Story, or what I call Campaign Story. How is the
saga of physical goals, challenges, and rewards unfolding each session?

The second story type is Internal Story. What ambitions and internal problems do
characters have?

For example, a character might quest to find missing family members, prove
themselves to their tribe, or get revenge for some harm delivered.

The character has a psychological motivation. It's an internal motivation because

it has special meaning the character or player.

For example, the party wants to hunt down the villain. An external goal would be to
level up the characters and to get cool magic loot. An internal goal would be to
bring the villain to justice because justice is important, to make home safe again,
or to prove oneself worthy.

I call Internal Stories Character Stories.

Campaign Stories operate on the world, milieu, and physical levels.

Character Stories operate on internal motivation and mental levels.

The Deeper Game

I now aim for three kinds of story in my games.

My test revealed beyond doubt to me that GMing one story type is better than none,
GMing two story types is better than one, and GMing all three types is the grail.
When our encounters reveal plot developments and story progressions for the
Campaign Story and at least one Character Story, session energy changes a lot.

I've watched it happen before my eyes.

For example, last night's game revealed a surprise connection between an NPC ally,
a powerful magic item, and a curse affecting another NPC ally.

Player reaction was deeper than just a plot twist. Surface level plot twists get
everyone excited for a bit, like a sugar rush. Then normal returns.

But this twist affected the Internal Story. The new connection between two allies
made the table quieter, more intense, and reflective on what it meant.

The Internal Story had players re-evaluating what these two NPCs meant to the
group. Was one now a possible enemy? Were the characters being tricked from some
long scheme? Was betrayal afoot?

You could see everyone chewing on this. A wonderful gaming event with repercussions
for many sessions to come.

That's the power of Character Stories. As the meanings of things shift,

crystallize, or become muddy, it draws our minds and imaginations deeply into the
game in ways a pile of gold or combat kill cannot.

The Third Story Type

We can go deeper still. The final story type rests on a philosophical conflict.

We want an external conflict (Campaign Story), an internal conflict (Character

Story), and now a philosophical conflict, which I call Player Story.

Every player brings their own beliefs, values, and filters to the game. Even the
best roleplayers cannot escape their own world views.

When we pose dilemmas between meaningful game elements, we create philosophical

conflicts because they touch on our personal mythos.

When encounters serve up evil, that's philosophical conflict. The characters aren't
just fighting demons, they are fighting for freedom because players believe in
that.

Questing for magic items gives us an external goal. Serving up justice gives us an
internal goal. Making the world a fair and just place serves up a philosophical
goal.

A Philosophical Approach
The trickiest story type is definitely the philosophical one. Player Stories
require you to know a bit about your players.

A quick hack to create a Player Story is to use the words should and ought.

The character should do X because of Y.

This puts you into the values, beliefs, and morals space. It frames any quest as
philosophical.

Should the party protect the innocent? Should they avenge great wrongs?
They ought to save the village because it's the right thing to do.

Hit All Three Notes

The best books and shows deliver all three story types. So too should we strive for
this.

However, we have a boon that movies and fiction do not. We are playing a game.

That means players can change the world. An audience cannot.

It means we have characters as the perfect plot device. An audience lives

viscerally through the characters, but they cannot choose character actions.

And it means player beliefs, kicks, and choices can tangle with all three story
types for a deeper experience. An audience can debate ethics and character choices
the next day at work, but they are never the authors of the story.

For too long did I just serve up Campaign Stories. Go get 10 scorpion tales. Find
the treasure. Level up.

Most game systems have an external story baked in via character progression. The
character sheet is mostly about Campaign Stories.

Once you add in Character Stories, you get that oft desired claim of a fantastic
session that leaves you excited and thoughtful.

Introduce Player Stories to go deep and make an impact treasure and typical
adventure plots cannot hope to reach.

Think of it as three layers to your storytelling.

Add each layer to boost your session ratings to new levels.