Help / Player guide / Managing play
Narrator — Managing play
This page discusses the various ways in which narrators manage their games once they are under way.
Requesting revisions to player moves
If a player makes a move that seems inappropriate for the story, you as narrator have the ability to request that they change it. Perhaps they overreached in their narration of a challenge’s outcome. Or maybe they wrote something that doesn’t make sense for their character, or for the story’s setting.
Once you click the “Request revisions” link, the move in question will be marked in red and the player who wrote it will receive an email asking them to take take action. You can (and should) include brief notes to help them understand what is wrong and how to fix it. These comments can be made private if you so desire, so that only you and the player in question can read them.
The player will be able to revise the text of their move. They can also change the cards they played, picked up, or gave away, provided that their changes do not cause conflicts with moves other players have already made.
Requesting revisions is a big hammer, and swinging it too often can have consequences on your fellow players’ morale. We recommend you use it sparingly.
Continuing a scene
You can continue a scene at any time. This is useful in cases where the story is developing in a way such that it makes sense to continue the action within the existing scene.
When continuing a scene, the narrator can introduce new challenges, if the players have enough cards left to play in the current scene.
Ending a scene and starting the next one
Once all the scene’s challenges have been overcome, the scene can be ended. Ending a scene prohibits any further moves by players, as well as any continuations of the scene by the narrator.
When ending a scene, you have the option to write some closing text. This is often useful for “wrapping-up” the scene’s events, but it’s not required. You can also give cards directly to specific characters; this is useful for giving out rewards or otherwise acknowledging what players achieved in the scene.
If you try to end a scene before all of its challenges have been overcome, Storium will warn you that you are potentially cutting-off your players before they’ve had a chance to finish their moves. You can still elect to proceed if you think that it is appropriate to do so.
Once the scene has ended, you can start the next one at any time!