Story Design: Coming of Age Stories
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How can you add more character focus and a slice of life to your adventures?
Story Design Volume 13 - In a coming of age plot¸ the protagonist gains maturity. This is often literal as the character moves from one stage of their life to another¸ like from childhood to adolescence¸ or young adulthood to middle age. It can be metaphorical as they embark on a new career¸ learn to live alone after a long relationship¸ or discover how to function without some resource no longer available to them. By the end of a coming of age story¸ the protagonist has mastered some aspect of their life¸ taken control of their destiny¸ and come fully into their own.
Examples of the coming of age plot include Great Expectations¸ Huckleberry Finn¸ Jane Eyre¸ To Kill a Mockingbird¸ and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
Story Design: Coming of Age covers all of the elements you need to prepare in order to tell a maturation story. It's based on concepts explored in Story Structure for Writers and Roleplayers ¸ also published by Dancing Light Press. It's a big book that goes into greater detail on how to get the most out of the three-act structure¸ as well as developing a three-phase series (campaign¸ if you prefer) with a clear beginning¸ middle¸ and end. If you want to use your favorite roleplaying game system to tell stories with more depth than kill monster¸ get treasure¸ repeat (not that there's anything wrong with that)¸ it is worth looking into.
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