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Hi, im GMing Rotrl and im in need of some help.
I've just read alot of fiction where storytelling plays a big part and i wanna implement it in my game.
Therefore i've implementet NPCs that will meet with the Pcs and tell them stories.
However i want the stories to either foreshadow the events of the campaign or in some other way be useful to the pcs, without it being too obvious. This is where you come in :)
The first story is taking place on the way from sand point to magnimar where the Pcs meet a traveling group of varisian gypsies.
The second story is told by an old man the Pcs meet traveling from magninmar to turtleback.
If you have any sugestions om what the stries should be about or how they should be told, please feel free to contribute.
Why not run a session in which the players drop their normal pcs and play the participants of the story? You could have a brief respite from the main thrust of the story, and drive home the foreshadowing you want. Maybe run ancient heroes under the yoke of the Runelords, and show off their power.
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When passing stories amongst people in such a time similar to the Golarion setting, they would be told in the form of a song.
This made it easier to remember, and could be passed on, even by the illiterate.
Tolkien himself loved this idea. If you read/watched the Hobbit, the Dwarves sang tales of Smaug, and the lonely mountain.
Nice idea. If I think of anything that might help I'll post it up.
Boxy upthread has the best method I feel. Running the players through the story is probably the best way to make it impactful for them. Barring that (if you don't want to essentially run a throwaway session) you could run the characters through the story but in email so it doesn't eat up game time.
Another way to have them interact with the stories is to run them in the game. The players are their characters but they are woven into the tale as supporting cast or extras. The tale will happen around them regardless of their actions, but they might still get to know the characters and interact with them to gain insight.
Still another way to do it is tell the tale in flashes. Don't just have the gypsies tell them a tale...have them implant dreams. Tell the players they sit down to listen at the foot of the gypsy caravan stage, then suddenly they come to a few minutes later; the beautiful woman is gone, replaced by a pair of jugglers and a dancing monkey; they seem to have blacked out during the performance. Their money/gear is intact so no harm/no foul.
For the next few nights they have these bizarre, shared dreams of the tale you wanted to impart. If for example these dreams foreshadow them interacting with folk in Sandpoint, have them combat something in the dream and then after waking and walking out of the inn have them see a man from the dream they were having just minutes earlier. Or see a building that was there pre-fire in their dream and physically see it outside their window engulfed in flames; they blink and it's gone.
Finally you can tell the tale in real-time flashes. You say the second one is from an old man outside Turtleback? Why not from a series of latent psychic remnants tied to sites on the road, or through a series of Haunts they encounter? They combat these figments or intellectual remains and then, once in Turtleback they meet an old man who fills in the details with a bit of narrative. "Master Jedd? Sure, I heard of him... he's been dead nigh on 20 years now. You saw him on the road? Well, best set down a spell..." or whatever.
If you want to simply tell your players a story and don't want it played as a game, try telling it to them in unique ways. Singing it is one (thanks BBT!). Another might be in graphic novel form (people love comic books right?) and another still may be via paper puppets. Finally, if you're all of serious theatrical bent and into LARPing you could sit around a fire narrate the tale that way.
Still other ways to make it memorable for the players is to have props. Varisian gypsies may smell of exotic oils, their costumes might jangle and they'd likely dress in garish garb. Conversely the old man might be chewing an old pipe or using a 3-ringed staff as a tall cane.
Have these on hand. Put on music or set a mood (if you're allowed and such a setting would be acceptable in the social contract w/your players) with lighting. Perhaps have smaller elements of the story like a fantastic sword or a rare coin mocked up as a handout for the players to have to remind them of the tale.
Narration is often boring and it's definitely not interactive. If you're looking to entertain your audience as part or instead of playing a game with them then you have will need to be a performer and commit enough to it that you immerse them in the stories.