In my community we are knee deep into a gaming experiment I've wanted to do for a long time and I've learned a lot! For context High Shelf Collective is playing Cyberpunk Red in multiple short campaigns where all the campaigns are isolated stories taking place in or in relationship with the same building, Ascension. The structure follows the anthology storytelling approach.
If you have ever seen a movie like 4 Rooms or a show like American Horror Story, you've experienced an anthology. Isolated stories connected together by location, theme, and premise. Often they share characters, artifacts, and a world. They can flip your viewing experience as you see different creative teams contribute to a loosely connected story. The connection points are largely around a location, a style, and the themes.
As a viewer the shift from one creative team to another does this funny thing. The first chapter sets some foundational themes, and introduces the connective elements. At the same time it tells a self contained story. The funny thing is when the second chapter and all future chapters hit.
It re-frames the first chapter.
Along with a great story in Chapter 2 the connective elements are re-touched. This changes the audience relationship to those elements and punches up their importance. A thrown away comment in chapter 1 becomes pivotal in chapter 2. For the viewer that makes a scene in chapter 1 have new meaning because it binds two stories that are otherwise isolated from each other.
The Anthology storytelling approach co-opts our human desire to make connections where connections are not obvious. In the context of this project we are working on - a tabletop role playing game being told as an anthology - it's really special.
I want to take a break to talk about campfire moments. Table top RPGs are already a campfire experience. Each person taking their turn to add to the collective story. Since we stream this live we have some audience members who tune in and in their way contribute to the story. Comments, campaign journals, fan art... it all contributes to the campfire experience.
With this Ascension project each short campaign is like it's own campfire, but they are all in the same park or campground. The players in the game focus on their fire, but over time story notes from other fires filter into their story. It may not be obvious that we're all sharing fuel from different campfires but that's where the audience comes in.
Through the interaction with the audience the players in these short campaigns are becoming aware that their story is linked to others. I've watched as the audience has jumped up and down on a comment, calling attention to it, because it's a call back to the other part of the anthology and how the players respond to this is really fascinating to me.
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