GM-ful games with gravitas
In this question, a "story game" means a game where all or most players have great degree of power to set scenes and generally add to the fiction. The ones I have played are Follow, Huldran, Fiasco and Universalis.
One thing I have observed is that these games often go to humour or other relative shallow themes, or otherwise already have a prepared, sharp focus that the group abides by and thus gets deeper contents.
Huldran is historical (fantasy) about the pressures of society and how people react to it, Follow became a comedy about gods with a shallow understanding of mythology, Universalis became a fight with cyborg-Hitler or a standard monster scifi story (different games). Fiasco was fantasy heroes with much comedy.
I wonder if there are ways out of this dilemma. How have you managed to have both deep and meaningful fictional content in these types of games and a free, open set-up, which does not specify (for example) a historical setting or a serious theme? Does it require an established group with shared taste, or can I also do it in a convention game?
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