How do I tell a small story?

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Figure out how to make people care about something small.

>>48962342
So just allow normal things happen that humanize the characters in the setting?

I find it really helpful to let players create part of the setting and make characters story invested in the scenario from their very beginings. That way players care for what they created and characters have reason to care for it as well.

It's something I do quite a lot actually and it works wonderfuly. Let me give you example, this pic of yours gave me just enough inspiration. Make players create a city and it's history with you. You are judge and "tour guide" you ultimately decide if players idea are valid or how to scale them but you should really let players feel like their idea are really influencing the story.

Example: there is a mountain pass, it's very peculiar, it's between three countries that have sort of stranded relations. About three houndred years ago people started to settle this little town that lives on delicate balance between the three empires, independent just because no other 2 empires want any third to have it. Now who was the first to settle here? What architectural style they use mainly? What are form of goverment? Do they have king in this town, is it town council? What god do they venerate and where is it's temple? What do people do for fun in this town? Is there theatre? What peculiar thing is there around town? What peculiar thing is there in town? What peculiar custom is there in town? ETC, etc. It makes players super invested in anything they create themselves. It's quite amusing to watch actually. They care for their creation like would for little children. Your players would die to preserce this city that they created.

I also like to create character backstories the same way. And allow players to influence each other stories. Granted you need to "train" your players so that they will be no dickish behaviour, but it's worth it. You make their characters stories invested in the setting you created.

It's my own design, I'm quite proud of it. Sadly I never get around to really write it down, maybe someday I will. Hope it helped.

Read some Conan. Most of the stories involving him are small-scale personal matters. Some asshole is pissed off at him, there's some ruin with some valuable he needs to steel, he's pissed off at some asshole, and so and so forth.

>>48962325
It's the same as telling a good large story: getting the players emotionally involved on behalf of their characters.

>>48962457

That's half of it. The other half is to have character's humanity normalize the events. Part of what makes small scale work is that it's based on the fact that everyone experiences a daily rhythm of small needs appearing and being met. Slight hunger, slight thirst, uncomfortable temperature, boredom, and slight loneliness are things most people experience every day which gives us an automatic understanding of characters dealing with them. Ditto experiences that aren't daily but are common like caring for a sick friend or family member or seeking to repair/replace a broken object.

This only works, though, if you keep your scope focused on that framework. "Lena ended up walking further than she meant and got overheated, we should find a way to help her cool down before she gets sicker" is a perfectly good small-scale story because we can visualize, remember, and empathize with that experience. If you throw in an attack against the village by the 116th Panzer Division, though, it breaks that commonality.

They're both valid techniques to tell a story, but they're drastically different stories being told.

Same thing with a large story.

Focus on the characters.

>>48962708
>it's my own design

You designed Fate?

Working in player ideas into the setting and interweaving back stories is great, but not exactly original. Certainly isn't as common as it should be. As far as I'm concerned it should be mandatory in any RPG

>>48962325
Also OP try out The Quiet Year, its a cozy one shot system.

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>>48962325
Tell the biggest story ever told, then give your players smallest parts possible.
>world is populated with many interesting places and people
>world is organic, doesn't need a cataclysmic event to propagate any story
>in a world where everything is either a wonder or is well crafted self sustaining, elaborated and justified
>from the lowliest peasant to the highest lord, PCs will find themselves in the story THEY care about, which in any case, must begin with baby steps

Essentially, "fresh out of the bus to NYC, got no place to be, no one cares so I must make my own way" scenario but with dragons.

>pic related

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>>48965847
The first time I played The Quiet Year we had giant puffins, hill-cannibals, a population that was half-mutant, and the martyring of the the prophet Jeremy Corbyn (pbuh) by crucifixion sparking a race war. All of this on Rathlin Island

It was pretty lelsorandom but fun

I get it now, engage the players and their characters as best as possible, and the scale won't matter. It feels like I should have been doing that as a GM this entire time, haha.

>>48962725
This. Jack Vance was great for that as well.

I don't think you need to make your game about inconsequential slice of life stuff... most of the stories you read or watch probably involve conflict and bad things happening, but not necessarily world ending stuff.

Take the movie Seven Samurai for example. A tremendous epic that's inspired spin offs half a world away.

But in D&D terms, it's about a group of low level PC's defending a tiny mountain village from 40 1st level bandits.

The stakes: if the players fail, the bandits keep demanding ruinous tribute, and make life even worse for the town because they dared to resist. Mild stuff in a game where a high level PC can lay waste to a whole town because he was having a bad day.

Land marks, lots of them.

>>48962325
make it about something important to the POV characters. I've found that noir-ish crime stories work well for that. you just need to slap yourself on the wrist every time you start thinking "what if this was part of something bigger?". no, it isn't. it doesn't have to be.

>>48967153
This

My guys recently looked into an airship that is trying to get out of the water. They do small quests for the captain who is a broke 3rd lvl Aristocrate. Only things he refuses to sell off are his crew( brought on once their house fell. Basically butlers and maids with a few men at arms trying to work a ship), his ship, and his fathers rapier.
They get sent to pick up food for the trip and arent given money( "we're pirates now damnit!!"). So they go to the notice board and take some quest flyers to sort through in their small cabin back on the ship. Leafing through them and drinking they RP and eventually find a job to investigate a fishing community.

>>48962325
There's no small stories, only small storytellers.