Story Stretching
Apr. 24th, 2007 11:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroI'm into rambling this week, aren't I?
My father was the first person I noticed to lament this problem with comic books: That what was once enough plot for a single issue has slowly been stretched into two-parters, then 4-issue miniseries, then six- or eight-issue miniseries. The 8-issue Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters miniseries that recently came out, for instance, was basically the origin of the new Freedom Fighters. Okay, fine. But eight issues? I feel like there were 6-page backup stories with the secret origin of the Justice League that had just as much plot and characterization, just fewer redundancies and splash panels. And this is a theme of the superhero books--1-issue stories become 4-issue arcs; and you can miss three issues of a six-issue mini and effectively miss nothing.
Am I just being crotchety here?
I'm currently working on an idea for a three-and-a-half session low-level D&D game, based on a single storyline with hopefully an emphasis on character interaction. But I want to make sure it's worth the time that goes into it. Normally, when I'm running a campaign, I try to make sure that every session has it's own beginning, middle and end to the story, and that it advances the ongoing plot and as many subplots as can fit. And I'll admit, pacing can be a bitch. But that's no excuse for taking one game's worth of story and padding it out to an arc by filling it full of combat scenes.
Which is just another problem of my recent Skype D&D arc.
My father was the first person I noticed to lament this problem with comic books: That what was once enough plot for a single issue has slowly been stretched into two-parters, then 4-issue miniseries, then six- or eight-issue miniseries. The 8-issue Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters miniseries that recently came out, for instance, was basically the origin of the new Freedom Fighters. Okay, fine. But eight issues? I feel like there were 6-page backup stories with the secret origin of the Justice League that had just as much plot and characterization, just fewer redundancies and splash panels. And this is a theme of the superhero books--1-issue stories become 4-issue arcs; and you can miss three issues of a six-issue mini and effectively miss nothing.
Am I just being crotchety here?
I'm currently working on an idea for a three-and-a-half session low-level D&D game, based on a single storyline with hopefully an emphasis on character interaction. But I want to make sure it's worth the time that goes into it. Normally, when I'm running a campaign, I try to make sure that every session has it's own beginning, middle and end to the story, and that it advances the ongoing plot and as many subplots as can fit. And I'll admit, pacing can be a bitch. But that's no excuse for taking one game's worth of story and padding it out to an arc by filling it full of combat scenes.
Which is just another problem of my recent Skype D&D arc.
