I want to write short stories, but I'm also interested in doing it collaboratively and with game-y elements to guide and inspire more than just writing whatever I want straight up. I'm compelled to adapt SWM into a GM-less partners' writing prompt and pacing engine, essentially as one long rogues' phase. How do you all think this would work?
With a writing partner:
1. Choose two styles for your tale, and possibly a title thread. (obviously some styles 'rules' may work differently in this mode; just adapt and go with it).
2. Create either one or two protagonists, as usual for SWM (eidolon, all deserving of a name, feats heroic), but without tricks.
3. Someone rolls an overtone and establishes an opening shot/scene including thunder.
4. Alternate turns playing out
one long rogues phase (rolling dice for tones, overtone, and noting motifs, mysteries, and morals as usual). They both answer the demand given them and end their turn by making a follow-on demand.
5. If someone wishes, while they hold the dice, rather than making a new demand, they may temporarily shift into a discovery stance and describe something about the setting, environment, or a side character that a main character notices or fails to notice, followed by asking a loaded question of the other writer, who then rolls the dice and follows through on developing the new discovered information in the rolled tone.
6. As usual, when three motif threads are filled, enter endgame and reincorporate threads. When both writers have reincorporated, end after one more reincorporation occurs. The writer who didn't get a second reincorporation may add an epilogue statement or choose to end the tale.
(7. Note questions and implications that could fuel a new tale.)
This type of game would probably get fuzzy with affordances and constraints since main characters may be more shared, unless each writer's noted named items are fully within their purview, even if they're different aspects of a same character. The pacing and intimacy would depend heavily on the sorts of rogues' phase demands the players give each other. They could go wildly broad and action-oriented or wildly tight and personal/internal.
What would work or not work about this? Is adding possibility for the pseudo-discovery phase unecessary and complicated? Should it just be mechanically all a rogues phase?
