How to Write (or run) a Pulp Story

[UltraRob]

http://www.miskatonic.org/dent.html

Rob

[Mad_Ernie]

This is GREAT!!

Thanks, Ultra Rob!

Sincerely,

Mad_Ernie

[Blue]

I've been thinking my attempts at pulp plots weren't pulpy enough. Now I've got no excuse!

[Mentor]

Kiiler site, UltraRob. Thanks for posting it.

[Steve Long]

Once you get Pulp Hero, in the GMing chapter you can find a gaming-friendly summary not only of the Dent metaplot mentioned above, but of similar "how to write pulp stories" advice from a couple of other well-known pulpsters.

[Super Squirrel]

Once you get Pulp Hero, in the GMing chapter you can find a gaming-friendly summary not only of the Dent metaplot mentioned above, but of similar "how to write pulp stories" advice from a couple of other well-known pulpsters.

I thought that website had familiar information. So it was one of the people in the Pulp Hero section. There was another one that Steve Long has included in the latest book that I felt covered the matter much better. But I'm pretty sure I don't have the PDF anymore to look it up.

[gojira]

Somewhat in the same vein, Gamasutra had an article a while back on What Every Game Developer Needs to Know about Story. (Free registration required.)

The author relies hevily on Story, by Robert McKee, who is apparently some sort of Hollywood writer extraordinaire. I have no idea who McKee is, but he likely knows more about writing stories than me, so his book might be interesting to check out. The Gamasutra article gives a pretty good summary of the book, but an even quicker summary might be:

Story isn't dialog....Story is CONFLICT. ...

• First, there's a protagonist, a hero.
• His or her world is thrown out of order by an inciting incident. (Look at the sabotaged dope deal in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City for a good example of this.)
• A gap opens up between the hero and an orderly life.
• The hero tries the normal, conservative action to overcome the gap. It fails. The world pushes back too hard.
• The hero then has to take a risk to overcome the obstacles that are pushing back.
• Then there is a reversal. Something new happens, or the hero learns something she didn't know before, and the world is out of whack again. A second gap has opened up.
• The hero has to take a greater risk to overcome the second gap.
  A
• fter overcoming the second gap, there is another reversal, opening a third gap.
• The hero has to take the greatest risk of all to overcome this gap and get to that object of desire, which is usually an orderly life.

Joe-Bob says check it out.