Stages
Our tale unfolds in four stages:
The ritual phrase “So the story goes” moves the tale into the next stage.
- Ritual Phrase
- So the story goes.
- Use
- Move to advance the tale into the next stage
- Available
- At any time
When each player has used this ritual phrase, the tale moves into the next stage (or, from resolution to the end of the game). Once you use this phrase, your character loses agency until the next stage begins, so if you use it too quickly or try to hurry the tale along too quickly, you might find yourself stuck with little say about what happens for a while. But if you use it to mark when you think each stage has fulfilled its purpose, other players will likely recognize the same thing that you’ve noticed, and respond in kind.
At the beginning of each stage, each place generates one new moment of awareness.
Each stage serves a particular purpose in our tale, reinforced by a different cyclic principle that comes into play during that stage and no other. During that stage, your principles include all of the core principles plus that stage’s cyclic principle. This changes how the game unfolds in each stage, helping us identify the behavior of a fulfilling story as we hunt it.
Not all tales will divide their time between the stages equally, but particularly when you’ve agreed upon a time limit for a game session, you can use “So the story goes” to help enforce that. Divide the time allotted for the game into quarters, and use the ritual phrase when you reach that time limit if you haven’t already. For example, if you agree to play a two-hour game, and you find yourself nearing the one-hour mark while playing the “Development” stage, then you might use the ritual phrase, “So the story goes,” even if you could develop it further, to make sure the game reaches its conclusion on time.
The transition from one stage to the next can provide a perfect spot to take a short break, too.