A New Form of Storytelling Through Roleplaying Videos

When I first learned about the concept of a roleplaying game in the 1970s, I was confused.  How could you have a game with no board, no cards, no pieces even?  I was blown away when I learned how Dungeons and Dragons worked, and how it was a story being made up by several people sitting in a room together.

There are many people who have forgotten this concept, and turn role playing games into mathematical equations, (also referred to as roll playing.)  But the people who truly understand the concept know that it’s about creating characters and a story and everyone making it together.

I always knew the strength of using this to create stories and even books, or even as inspiration to make a movie.  What hadn’t occurred to me until recently is how the medium itself can be used to create a storytelling video; one where you do not use the story as a script, but rather you show the people creating the story to begin with.

This has been achieved with Wil Wheaton’s Titan’s Grave where he and four players create a story by playing a role playing game and taping it with a professional crew.  What’s groundbreaking about this is the fact that it’s not used as the structure for the story, but rather is the story.  The concept of a storyteller has of course been around for eons, and has been popularized the last few decades on A Prairie Home Companion.  This takes that concept and increases it by five in the way it has five storytellers all doing it together, and you get to see the story form in front of you.  It’s made all the more exciting by the fact that the end is not predetermined.  Characters can die, and the party can even lose in the end.  It’s a mixture of a story and a sporting event all in one.  And the fact that it’s low budget means they’re less likely to pander.

I’m looking to do my own role playing videos as soon as I can; thus mixing the three things I enjoy most, storytelling, gaming, and videos.  I have several I want to do, including D&D, Outbreak, Savage Worlds, Star Wars, and Deadlands, which has already been started, but without cameras.