Props: 3D-game-like mediator for improvisational storytelling

• 3D-game-like system for mediating collaborative and improvisational storytelling.
• Field trials with three different age groups, children, adolescents and adults.
• Interaction from props and prop masters to narrators dominates storytelling.
• More immersive setting for storytelling enhances the enjoyment of the participants.

This paper introduces Props, a 3D-game-like system for mediating collaborative and improvisational storytelling. Props combines a virtual 3D stage and the surrounding physical world into a hybrid space for storytelling. Prop master sets the stage for a story that is narrated by a narrator by speaking or acting. The iterative and collaborative process of staging, narrating and acting goes on until the players agree that the story has been told. We evaluated Props by hosting several storytelling events where Props was played by audiences from different age groups. As the theoretical framework in the analysis of the storytelling events we use an extension of the Church–Murray aesthetics of virtual environments. The data shows that the interaction from props and prop masters to narrators dominates storytelling, and that the participants generally enjoyed playing Props.