Storium transforms the Internet into a forum for storytelling

Have you ever wanted to tell stories by the fire with your friends? Storium, a web-based online storytelling platform that hit Kickstarter last week and has already doubled its goal, lets you do just that. Only it replaces the fires with the eerie, cybernetic glow of a computer screen.

Blending elements of Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: the Gathering, and the origins of human socialization, Storium looks to be an interesting new form of digitalized storytelling. It starts with setting, allowing players to choose from an array of customizable worlds: everything from cyberpunk to whatever exactly “occult pulp horror” is. Afterward, players are given story (or playing) cards with suggestions to help them shape obstacles, characters, and subplots. The main player (or narrator) sets the scene with challenges that the other players overcome using character cards of their own creations.

“Telling stories is a fundamental part of the human experience,” the developers said in their original post on Storium back in July 2013. And the internet descended in droves to agree with them, fully funding the Kickstarter within 24 hours. Already surpassing their fifth stretch goal of $49,000, the makers will continue to collaborate with well-known world builders in order to create a plethora of elaborate fantasy settings.