3/22/2023

5/12/2025 9:16 PM

621

3

10 wins / 6 losses

Architect

A night in Dark Chicago

A retelling of a short story written by myself for an old Horror fanzine. That story focuses on a particularly eventful evening in the life of freelance photographer Pamela Grey in the world of the Dark Conspiracy RPG. In this story game you take the place of Pamela. 

The world you live in is much like today's, only a little worse.  The rich are richer, the poor are poorer, and the gap between is so much wider. So much is controlled by the mega-corporations and rich interests that large swatches of the ever expanding urban sprawl are marked as "Outlaw Territory, Enter At Own Risk" - where even the police don't go, either for fear or lack of resources.  The middle class has mostly disappeared except for the lowest echelon of corporate execs, and legislative changes have allowed many that would have previously been on the public dole to instead sell their vote to corporate interests in exchange for support. Crime is up, as are disappearances, theft, and violence. Even as bad as the world has become, there are persistent rumors that even worse things lurk in the shadows.  Many neighborhoods have abandoned houses that everyone knows better than to enter, and even in the outlaw where the police fear to tread there are rumors of entire blocks that no one but the mad or the most desperate are willing to risk going into after dark.

You and Susan, your significant other, are doing ok.  Her job with Aprico has afforded the two of you a small place in a small gated community owned by the company. A prized place in the vanishing middle class. Your home is close enough to the gates that you can still easily indulge in your favorite hobby, walking through Chicago with your trusty camera in hand, particularly at night.  The sale of these photos as art pieces to the ultrawealthy, facilitated by Susan's contacts, has helped with sporadic lump sums of money.  Susan pays the bills, but your money pays for luxuries and splurges.

In the twilight one often finds isolated moments of beauty and mystery that would never been seen in the daylight, and you work to capture these moments in the perfect clarity of your lens. You know the risks of being out alone at night outside the gates, but even Susan has had to admit that the last couple of pictures you sold would not have been possible if you hadn't been out there.  To help comfort her (and yourself to be completely honest), you recently bought a large knife to carry with you, just in case.

So, come explore the night and see what waits for you in the dark.

The Backup

The job listing was simple "Earn 100K » in your sleep!" Having not been able to find a steady job for over a local year and half, you jumped at the chance.

Now, eight months later by the clock on the pod, you have suddenly been awoken from hypersleep to fulfill your role as the emergency backup crew of PrimObs 80085. There is no sign of the regular crew, and even worse, no sign of the rest of the backup crew, so it is up to you to determine what happened and hopefully get a message back to sector command for rescue.

Entry for EndMaster's Prompt Contest 4: Prompt #27) A story involving a space station.

The Little Princess of the Forest

An entry for MHD's Fairytale contest, this is a retelling of the old Appalachian Fairy Tale "The Little Princess of the Forest".

Come listen to the telling of one of the wildest fairy tales I've ever heard.    This story was originally told by Marshall Ward for a fairy tale collection, and has stuck with me ever since I first heard it.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.  Grab a seat and listen up, as it starts like this...

169th Cycle IntraGalactic Culinary Competition by Mag King and Gal-actic Robotics

unpublished

You have made your way through the city, state, regional, national, planetary, sector, parsec, arm, 64th-, 32nd-, 16th-, octo-, quarter- and semi-finals to arrive with a guaranteed spot in the Finals of the 169th cycle IntraGalactic Culinary Challenge brought to you by Mag King and Gal-actic Robotics held on RecStation 420 in the Lagoon Nebula. When those magnetronics need to sing, 🎶🎶 Call on Mag King 🎶🎶! Do you need a handy robot pal? Everybody wants a Gal!

You face a varied array of challengers and an even more diverse panel of judges to win over in the two round Final. Before each round, you will have time to plan your dish and explore the features of the station. Who knows, you might even find something to help in the contest! Judges and contestants are randomly selected with every read-through, and finding things is done by a random function of your stats, so every new read is a fresh game.

This was originally going to be an entry for EndMaster's Promt Contest 4, but I ran out of time and quickly wrote The Backup

Minion Hunter

unpublished

This is a storygame conversion of the Minion Hunter Board Game (and Minion Nation expansion) by GDW, based on the Dark Conspiracy TTRPG by GDW and Dynasty Presentations, with some modernization updates by myself, and is set in the same world as my "A Night in Chicago" storygame.

This is a simulation of a complex boardgame and while I have done my best to add some narrative to the events, it does not have a standard ending that you are working towards.  Every movement is a "round" in the game, and while you are developing your own stats and equipment, the forces of the Dark influences are advancing their plots.  The story ends when one of the main Dark Minion races (ETs, Fae, Morlocks, or Nukids) gains 20 plot points, or you defeat enough plots to run out the plot deck.

Full rules are detailed within.  Give it a try and see if you can save Dark America from the corrupting influence of the Dark Minions.

 

 

 

 

Witness

unpublished

It was just supposed to be a quick run down to the bodega. Ten minutes, tops. Then you saw something in the alley, and now everything has been turned upside down.

This is incomplete. Sorry, I just ran out time.

Entry for Sherbet's Summer's End Synergy Contest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It isn't clear from the Scripting Reference, but if I set a $DEST in a page script and the target page script also includes a $DEST redirect, will the chain of pages execute in sequence? Based on Intermediate Scripting I think it might.

Example: Page A uses a $DEST set to direct to Page B. Page B has a $DEST set for page C. When someone hits Page A, will they wind up on Page C with the page script of all three pages processed in A->B->C sequence, or will the $DEST only work to go to Page B and stop there?

A game I'm working on has a "Lose a turn" effect that can happen, in which multiple things get advanced automatically, and it would be great if I could have a "Lose your turn" page that I can bounce to from where ever that could then bounce them either back to Page A or too a small collection of pages for fail states or triggered secondary events. This would let me avoid having to replicate the "Lose a turn" code block on every page where that can happen.

If you like hard scifi I recommend both Space Doctor by Lee Correy or Forever War by Joe Haldeman

The Backup protag turned out to be a pacifist, pretty much.

What exactly are the rewards (outside of fame and cheers of your peers) for winning a contest?

I always work with sneak preview on, so this wouldn't really do anything for me, but I think it sounds like a generally good idea.

Thanks for the excellent review Petros. Congrats on the win Flux, and congrats to everyone that successfully submitted.

Hoisted by your own learned, grammatically correct petard.

I think the most likely top six would be: 1) Sherbet, As Ink 2) Mystic_Warrior, These Shackled Souls 3) fresh_out_the_oven, Gaiety and Sorrow 4) Fluxion, Shadow of a God-King 5) Orange, Lasso of Time 6) Mizal, Kobald Kebabs

We know that Endmaster is already working through the 17 entries for this contest, but while we wait for the official results, what do you think will be the final results?

(Stealing Fabrikant's excellent list)
(2) Mystic_Warrior, White as Bloodstained Snow [10,974]
(5) CavusRex, Lazarus Cage [4,252]
(7) TrueParanormal, Durwood Mansion [32,532]
(9) fresh_out_the_oven, Gaiety and Sorrow [102,080]
(11) Fabrikant, The Laconia Incident [57,647]
(16) Suranna, I Klled a half Black Man... [1,550]
(17) Petros, Of the struggles faced... [8,092]
(18) goodnight_a, Rifts [3,416]
(20) fluxion, Shadow of a God-King [126,673]
(21) Orange, Lasso of Time [41,146]
(25) Mystic_Warrior, These Shackled Souls [113,283]
(27) Anthraxus, The Backup [5,700]
(28) benholman44, GnD: The Snowbunny Society [5,134]
(37) MiltonManThing, Three Late Knights [12,958]
(39) MrAce321, Bird in a Cage [11,165]
(42) Sherbet, As Ink [111,262]
(46) Mizal, Kobald Kebabs[13,338]
(47) Clayfinger, Don't get distracted! [8,643]