Murder in the Round: A Shared Storytelling Activity

Night hid in the alleyway. It lurked back among the trash waiting out the day. The sun might hold sway in the streets of the city but these nooks and dirty crannies always belonged to the shadows, even at noon. A rank scent of rotting food, piss and shit clung to the place. Bins of hammered tin stood against the filthy brick walls, their lids locked with pins. A few of these though had been looted and overturned. The thieves lorded over the garbage heap, a gang of rats. They picked the choicest morels from the pile, carting away a fish head here or a bit of gut there to gnaw with feral abandon. One of the pests slipped away from the others. His greasy black fur made him a shadow himself as he slunk to the wall and followed it down the alley toward another large pile of refuse. He stood back on his haunches, ever cautious as he approached the hoard. Tiny pink nostrils flared and tasted the air, sifting the stench for the tell tale scent that drew him.  Carefully he approached, head low and darting from side to side. He stopped at the pile, a bunch of canvas sacks wet from the previous nights rain and something else. The rat began to gnaw at the nearest, sharp ivory teeth slicing through the burlap with little difficulty. He wormed his head into the bag, the smell now too strong to resist, until finally just his bare worm-like tail remained poking out.  After a few moments he had his prize and he back out, the delicate pink of a woman's pinky finger protruding from his jaws and he merged with the other shadows of the alley.

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Alright, this is something I and a few friends used to do for kicks. Basically this is an exercise in Open Storytelling. Unlike Open RP, you will control the entire narrative for your posting, all characters, scene, setting, etc. You don't have to introduce your own in game characters, you can work with NPCs, whatever. The rules are simple:

1. One paragraph, that's all your get. The point of this exercise is to create collaboratively. You add your bit and then you let go for the next person. Dialogue can be a bit of an exception, but in general 8 to 12 sentences should be your guideline.

2. Work with what you're given. What this means is that you don't take off on pointless tangents but instead try and build on what's come before. You can scene change, introduce new characters, add plot twists, whatever. Just remember though the material that's come before and try to tie your piece in.

3. No referee! I'm laying out these rules because every game needs some basic rules. However, this isn't my game. It's the players' game. No one player gets to call foul on a posting. You have to roll with it as best you can if the poster before you did something you don't like. Keep open minded and keep flexible. Again, this isn't about trying to write the best story ever. It's just about trying to work as a group the make something cohesive. Keep it light and fun.

4. Keep to format. Italics for your posting, section break and regular copy for any commentary you want to give. Try to keep the commentary polite.

5. No consecutive posting. Give other people a turn. After one or two go, then you can go again.

That's it, I've supplied the hook. It's a murder story. Who got murdered? Why? Where is this alley? How did it happen? Well that's up to all of us.

 P.S. OH, I almost forgot. Don't reply to specific postings if you can avoid it. Post new to the thread. Why? Well if you reply, folks can't edit the posts you replied to, if they want to clean up something they goofed. Also, it will help to keep the narrative in sequence.

P.P.S. "Damn! Someone posted before me and screwed up what I was going to do!" Well that's part of the game aspect. Get your idea down and posted quick. If they get there before you, you've got to work with what's they put in.