Story Design: Taboo Stories
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How can you add more intrigue and danger to your forbidden love story?
Story Design Volume 15 - In a taboo plot¸ the protagonist becomes involved in a forbidden romance. From the start everyone knows that the affair will fail because social forces don't approve of the pairing; what makes the relationship unacceptable will vary with the genre¸ place¸ and time of the story. Even if the lovers manage to be together at the end¸ they will never find acceptance. This story is almost always a tragedy.
Examples of the taboo plot include Harold and Maude¸ The Hunchback of Notre Dame¸ Madame Bovary¸ The Notebook¸ Romeo and Juliet¸ The Scarlet Letter¸ and Twilight.
Story Design: The Taboo covers all of the elements you need to prepare in order to tell a forbidden love story. It's based on concepts explored in Story Structure ¸ 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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