{"id":11,"date":"2025-07-01T16:25:37","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T16:25:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unicorn-castle.org\/reynardthefox\/?page_id=11"},"modified":"2025-11-14T17:32:22","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T17:32:22","slug":"storyworlds","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/unicorn-castle.org\/reynardthefox\/storyworlds\/","title":{"rendered":"Storyworlds"},"content":{"rendered":"

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What is a Storyworld?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A \u2018storyworld\u2019 is a \u2018world\u2019 (self-contained in the sense of being contained within a game, a dramatic or literary work but may be shared with other works) along with the geology, plant and animal life, inhabitants, society, languages\/discourses, values and (most importantly) its own signification systems (its own \u2018Symbolic\u2019 in Lacanian terms).\u00a0 A storyworld is exclusive to its own selection and exclusion of these features. \u00a0The creator may determine what is included or excluded, possible or not possible, allowed or not allowed, within their own creation.<\/p>\n

Some questions to answer when creating a storyworld \u2013 not necessarily all at once, as these tend to develop:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scenarios<\/strong><\/p>\n

Is creating the setting an end in itself: is exploring it the point of the game or is it the background for player action?\u00a0 Does it interact with players, have a \u2018life\u2019 of its own?\u00a0 Is it rural or urban, flourishing or desolate, dry or watery, forested, sandy, rocky, above\/on\/under ground level?<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \"\"<\/p>\n

(top to bottom, left to right:\u00a0 High country… the Long Mynd, Staffordshire (shot at eye level and the valley from above); sand dunes below Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland (shot from the castle walls above); rocky grassland at Ilam, Staffordshire (shot from below, looking up); the ‘striped’ cliffs at Hunstanton, Norfolk (shot at eye level)<\/p>\n

Is it ‘natural’ (in our terms) or ‘made’… sculpted, designed, built… with what materials (eg. paper, metal, rock, wood, extraterrestrial or supranatural)?\u00a0 Is it all \u2013 or a mix – of these?<\/p>\n

A variety of constructions can be placed to affect\/stimulate mood or action…how they are are experienced can be influenced by shooting from below\/above\/side-on (see Hints and Tips from Film Studies)<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

(Left to right, top to bottom:\u00a0 The burnt-out pier at Brighton, East Sussex; the plain below Corfe Castle, Isle of Portland, with a few ruins for context; Glastonbury Tor, Somerset, showing the climb from below; a deserted ‘scrubland’ graveyard on the Isle of Portland, with tombstones )<\/p>\n

The introduction of light effects can change or develop a scene…<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0 \u00a0 \"\"<\/p>\n

(A shot of the eighteenth-century iron bridge at Ironbridge in Staffordshire, taken at eye level, has a different mood from one taken closer, cut and in shade, with softer focus; whilst the shot of Whitby Harbour in Yorkshire combines softer focus with sepia tones.)<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Neon lighting transforms dark rocks and water in various ways, especially when reflected, e.g. in water:<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0 \u00a0 \"\" \"\"<\/p>\n

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Skies and seas can be used to create moods or enable\/stimulate action… seas and rivers can be barriers or conduits for progress.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0 \u00a0 \"\"<\/p>\n

Adding vegetation is something that should be carefully considered, as it alters the ‘feel’ of the experience, and can be used to further the narrative and\/or add benefits or harm to the players<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0 \u00a0 \"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

(From top left:\u00a0 lavender farm in North Yorkshire; tropical gardens in Abbotsbury, Dorset; snowdrops at Burton Agnes Hall, East Yorkshire)<\/p>\n

Society<\/strong><\/p>\n

What kind of inhabitants are there?\u00a0 How do they live within and interact with this world?\u00a0 How do they live?\u00a0 How do they get around, and how does a player explore this world; how will they travel and why? How are power and agency gained and held?\u00a0 What kind of society (democratic, meritocratic, hierarchical, autocratic, capitalist) is it; and is this common to all, or do groups organise themselves differently this world?\u00a0 Who is included and who is marginalised or outlawed? What do they find funny, and what\u2019s deadly serious?\u00a0 What do they see as wrong, and what do they value?<\/p>\n

What is the inhabitants\u2019 relationship with one another, with other groups, and with the world itself?\u00a0 How do they communicate \u2013 language, gestures, images, jargon etc?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Mood and generic features<\/strong><\/p>\n

The mood of a storyworld\/game, or of various part of it, are very important to \u2018draw in\u2019 the player.\u00a0 Is it dark or light, welcoming or forbidding, soft\/romantic or harsh\/horrific, pleasant or unpleasant, happy or sad, busy or quiet, colorful or monochrome, or a mix of some or all these things?\u00a0 How do you want the player to feel at different points of the game (especially the beginning and end)?\u00a0 These elements can be traced to generic features\u2026 horror, melodrama, comedy, tragedy, romance\u2026 players may make generic links to these.\u00a0 Of course, these associations can also be twisted and \u2018played\u2019 with\u2026 fantasy games usually mix the recognisable and the strange to create \u2018uncanny\u2019 worlds.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

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In a medievalist storyworld, the creator decides how \u2018period accurate\u2019 the world and its characters will be.\u00a0 It could be as accurate as possible, deliberately inaccurate, or some stage between the two.\u00a0 If the last of these, then which elements can be manipulated, and to what extent?<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t show every part of your storyworld and answer all the questions above (and any others you can think of) in one \u2018fell swoop\u2019 or in massive detail.\u00a0 You need to select what\u2019s really important to reveal for the purposes of the game, to make sure that the player understands where they are and how things work\u2026 they must be able to navigate it without so much trouble that they simply give up trying.\u00a0 Setting up ground rules can be a nuisance, but some are needed to make things \u2013 much \u2013 simpler later on.\u00a0 Rules, of course, are made to be broken!<\/p>\n

(You can keep your solutions and questions in a ‘progress portfolio’ and\/or keep a reflective journal for your own use, or if it’s classwork or examined work, for marking purposes.\u00a0 If more than one person is doing this, you can also compare\/share with others)<\/p>\n

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  What is a Storyworld? A \u2018storyworld\u2019 is a \u2018world\u2019 (self-contained in the sense of being contained within a game, a dramatic or literary work but may be shared with other works) along with the geology, plant and animal life, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-11","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unicorn-castle.org\/reynardthefox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unicorn-castle.org\/reynardthefox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unicorn-castle.org\/reynardthefox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unicorn-castle.org\/reynardthefox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unicorn-castle.org\/reynardthefox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/unicorn-castle.org\/reynardthefox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48,"href":"https:\/\/unicorn-castle.org\/reynardthefox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11\/revisions\/48"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unicorn-castle.org\/reynardthefox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unicorn-castle.org\/reynardthefox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}