Cross-posted from Playthisthing!
A "story game" is a non-digital roleplaying game with a set of rules that are designed to encourage improvisational roleplay leading to a narrative experience. I've reviewed a number of story games over the years, but today will instead talk about game poems.
What, pray tell, is a game poem?
Poetry differs from prose in that its purpose is concisely to evoke imagery, emotion, and epiphany, not necessarily to tell a story (although telling a story is permissable). A game poem, like a story game, is a form of improvisational roleplay within a rules structure, but it is intended to last for a short period -- no more than an hour, surely -- and its purpose is to evoke imagery, emotion, and potentially an epiphany, without necessarily creating a coherent narrative.
Here are some examples:
Playing 20 Questions with Cthulhu, attempting to discover how you may summon him and re-establish the dominion of the Great Old Ones over earth -- that is, do some physical action, such as crossing your eyes, that the Cthulhu player chose at start of play -- with the extra rule that each time you learn something about the ritual, a word, chosen by Cthulhu, is erased from your mind and may not be used by you again (or can be replaced by gibberish).
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