How do you personally use storylines?

[DreamGoddessLindsey]

I've been pondering the use of storylines, and am wondering about others' experiences. Do you re-use similar storylines on a frequent basis, or wait a year or two between them? Do you make a bunch of custom storylines? Do you stick to unchained storylines? I'm just not sure how I want to deal with my major storylines and am looking for advice.

[NordVolf]

It really varies by what I happen to be doing at the time. Quite literally.

 

Say for example, as I play, I decide that I want a story line. I look at my roster and think about whom I want to "pair up". I also consider what I have already in my head for story lines that are coming, or that I already have going. If I find something that looks like what I want in the 'canned' lines, I use it, playing it out and making minor "adjustments" in my diary or in my head to tell what I want to tell, thus 'bending' the story line to my desires.

 

Other times, I either don't find something that 'fits', or I don't have a solid plan. So I go with an unchained line, doing whatever I want when the mood strikes me there-after(often in the middle of booking a show!).

 

Yet other times, I have a canned or unchained line going, and something takes off on me. At that point, I evolve the story line as needed; either from an unchained into a canned one that "fits" and will finish as I want it to, or from a canned into an unchained when I have in my head a line that nothing canned will fit.

 

I've even evolved from one unchained into another, when someone is added to or taken away from the "mix" of workers in that particular line. Or from a canned into another canned, right in the middle of the first line, when my idea changes or something "unexpected comes up", usually in a shows results. Not easy to do, but it maintains some heat when the "following" line takes off. It's also a good way to take a hard left turn, just when people "have it all figured out". But it still has to make sense, which is important to me, so I don't swerve like that very often at all.

 

I've never written my own story line. I've never even looked into it. I suppose I'm inherently lazy that way. It looks like a lot more work than I want to get into: setting it up; tweaking it; then trouble-shooting it to make sure it won't blow up on you mid-use. And what I do now and the way I do it works well for me.

 

In the end, for me it boils down to whim. What do I fancy right now, and what will it take to get me there? As long as I end up where I want, or reasonably close to it, I'm happy.

[Remianen]

Unchained, religiously. It offers me the greatest flexibility and the means to do things freeform. Most of the time, entire swaths of my roster are involved in storylines (like the top 8 people in contention for each singles title, the top four teams for the tag titles, as well as the second tier of people/teams) and I can often fluff the heat of three to four storylines in one segment, if necessary (the massive brawl at the end of the go-home show before the PPV, for example).

[1PWfan]

I tend to go the opposite way to Remi on everything except the unchained thing, which I use every time. I only have three or four storylines- one each for main event, midcard and tag titles, plus an extra one or two if there's an idea that grabbed me elsewhere on the card. Sometimes I don't even have a story for the midcard title if I've got a talented midcard I want to cycle through.

[Remianen]

Heh my method is as much for me as it is for gameplay purposes. Since I tend to have so many games going at once, I need a way to keep track of what I'm trying to do with each one. So most of the time, looking at the ongoing storylines (and the advance bookings) tells me who I'm pushing and when.

[Comradebot]

I try to write out my storylines beforehand... having structure allows me to schedule my storylines to work with one another, and I tend to come up with better storylines when I have time to plot the whole thing out. And, of course, sometimes I don't want to have a tag team beat a jobber team in a E+ dark match and have it effect the storyline!

 

The end result is I vastly enjoy watching my stories succeed (thus further enjoying watching my workers get over!), meaning I enjoy that game more.

 

I do, typically, work an unchained storyline also, simply because I can't plan everything (just isn't realistic), and it's good to have a minor story going in the background that can take up space when you need it to.

 

Though I have, actually, had some success with the default unchained stories going on in FCW. Well, the PRP vs. Handsome Stranger one. I'm proud of watching Handsome Stranger teamed with Titan causing all kinds of shenanigans. The other default unchained, however, is about to be mercifully ended, simply because there isn't much more I feel I can do with it other than Hell's Bouncer and Leper Messiah beating down Peverell and Shawn Gonzalez over and over again, with the faces then getting revenge (or Peverell cutting the occaisonal promo). Or!.... hmm... idea forming.