Hi everyone–a friend of mine thought this might be the best place to reach people interested in the history of storytelling games and roleplaying to share some things that don’t seem well-known.
A few months ago, I ran across a storytelling game published in French in the early 1800s (like, from 1801-1867 in at least 11 texts with 5 authors). I couldn’t find where anyone had ever written about this game, and working further through its sources, I eventually found another game that involves role-play–very specific role-play pretty focused on getting people to socialize, but still, a game that in its 1830 edition articulates how it has characters, roles, a situation, and the potential for extending the game to an indefinite length. I don’t know that these games influenced any others, but it’s been fun to think about them.
For both games, I’ve translated all the variants I can find and I’ve posted them here:
Early Collaborative Games of Fantasy and Imagination
I’ve also posted some notes on using Sara Coleridge’s 1837 fantasy novel Phantasmion as the basis for running the storytelling game, some stuff about how to redeem pledges, and a sort of storygame that was probably the basis for a better-known Surrealist game.