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For the ongoing EndMaster's Prompt Contest 4
Use this thread to talk about the writing you are or are not doing, your planning, your regrets, your life, whatever you want.

Also, share your writing music, please. I'm in the habit of locking in a single mood-fitting song throughout the entire storywriting process, and with a three month deadline, that might drive me mad.

(Here's the song I've been using for my first few pages)

I’m not a part of this contest, but I figured I would say anyways in light of the recent contest’s theme, this is my writing music. Here

This is the playlist I've been listening to for writing. I absolutely can't do lyrics when I'm trying to make/process words

As for writing, well, I've started. That's more than I could say the second day of most other contests, anyway.

Writing my first page and trying to write an idyllic chorus to start the player off right. Haven't done poetry in a while. Trying to do it in Tennyson's style.

I'm reminded why I don't do this so much lol

I try to be faithful to as much of the legends as possible. Unfortunately, I have realized that Arthurian legends contradict each other so much that it's way too difficult to tell the story I want to share without creating friction with another pre-existing tale. Deciding that the best way to honor the tradition is to put in my own contradictory tale that gives nods to the tales that I like and tries to explain the differences from certain other ones.

I do like those retellings that take the time to point out, "You may have heard this.  That guy was a drunk liar.  Here's what really happened."

Making up your own version that fits your sensibilities is based and exactly how the legend evolved. It was actually kind of unfortunate IMO that Malory's version became so popular that the French version became a "canon" and blocked out other stories that were closer to the real life battle that was the origin.

It's sort of a meme that I can't stand Arthurian legend, which isn't true necessarily, just for something that's supposed to be the origin of most modern fantasy, a lot of the takes on it I used to see felt a little sterilized and dull and like they were afraid to do anything beyond paint by numbers with the characters.

I actually researched this stuff once too for a different contest, the details about how the legends evolved and the fact that they still don't know for certain who Thomas Malory even was were in some ways more interesting to me than the content itself.

https://mythbank.com/list-of-arthurian-texts-ancient-and-modern/ - I'm sure you've seen these but for anyone else, here's a good overview of existing texts. And now I'm going to go on about this a little autistically just because I feel like it. The originals aren't even really focusing on Arthur, and the first mention of him is just a reference when talking about an unrelated character, but it's the earliest indicator of when Arthur could been established as having been a folk hero already existing in oral tales. (Hilariously one of the earlier written stories starts with "Arthur tries to rape a woman" before another character convinces him this is bad. He's definitely not considered the hero in some of these. ) There's also an attempt to connect Arthur to Greek legend by linking up his bloodline with a survivor of the Battle of Troy.

Merlin's evolution is also super interesting and goes all over the place. He was added in the 12th century based on a Celtic character:

Merlin first appears in literature in the History of the Kings of Britain by the Welsh cleric Geoffrey of Monmouth (c. 1100 - c. 1155 CE) ... Geoffrey Latinized Myrddin as Merlinus because the strict Latinization of Merdinus would have associated the name with the Latin merdus (feces, dung).

The character originated in Welsh folklore featuring the wildman-in-the-woods motif, a half-savage who lived on the fringe of civilization possessing great power and wisdom.

The most famous Welsh wildman was Myrddin Wyllt (“Myrddin the Wild”), a 6th-century CE bard who was said to have gone insane after a particularly bloody battle and retreated to the woods. Geoffrey wrote a short work, The Prophecies of Merlin (c. 1130 CE), prior to his famous history but this Merlin has nothing to do with the wizard of the Arthurian Legends. After the success of his History, Geoffrey wrote another work, The Life of Merlin (c. 1150 CE), in which the main character exhibits magical and prophetic skills but this work is unconnected to the Arthurian Legends. (https://www.worldhistory.org/Merlin/)

When Geoffrey did later insert him into the Arthurian story, there's a king being advised by his wizards to use Merlin's blood (who at the time was a child of supernatural birth with no father) to sprinkle on the foundation of a tower to ensure the foundation would be sound. And then Merlin flexes by outwitting the wizards and proves them to be lying, tells the king how to fix his tower, makes some prophecies and goes on to build Stonehenge. (This might actually be a pretty neat storygame of its own.)

The original Welsh wildman Myrddin I also should mention is believed to be a possible evolution of the Welsh god Gwydion (name means "Born of Trees) some of whose adventures with his nephew Lleu might be parallels to Merlin and Arthur's relation. Gwydion is a magician, trickster, and bard. (Of interest to some, might be that when I was collecting this stuff back up again, I found a pretty lengthy article connecting him to the god Pan. Haven't read it all yet so I won't go into it here.)

Gwydion's backstory is also kind of hilarious. The first paragraph of the wiki entry:

Gilfaethwy, nephew to the Venedotian king, Math fab Mathonwy, becomes obsessed with his uncle's virgin foot-holder, Goewin. His brother Gwydion conspires to start a war between the north and the south. To this end, Gwydion employs his magic powers to steal a number of otherworldly pigs from the Demetian king, Pryderi, who retaliates by marching on Gwynedd. During the war, while Math is distracted, the brothers return home and Gilfaethwy rapes Goewin.

And more detail here: https://mythopedia.com/topics/gwydion

Upon discovering Gilfaethwy’s rape of Goewin, Math punished Gilfaethwy and Gwydion by turning them into mating animals. In turn, the two brothers were transformed into elk, cows, and wolves. During the course of each transformation, Gilfaethwy was forced to bear a child.

So you see, the moral is that Arthurian legend CAN be interesting, you just need to add bestality and gay incest! ^_^

Oh, and there's also this 6th century bard Taliesin who has had his various legends tied to Merlin or other parts of Arthurian legend, that's kind of interesting too but I've rambled enough, you guys can use Google on your own.

I've read at least four versions of the Arthurian legends (Malory, Pyle, Tennyson and one other that I can't remember). I guess Mark Twain's rendition also counts in some way lol

Hope this doesn't disappoint too much, but I will be using Le Morte d'Arthur as a main reference point. Most of my frustration in tying things together has to be tracking the main twelve knights at a certain event because Malory doesn't always keep good track of things. Also, who's actually ruling Cornwall can be weird, or even if it's referred to as Cornwall or Dumnonia. There's a particular Knight of the Round Table who I'm very confused by regarding a timeline (try to guess who I'm talking about) who's related to Dumnonia and becomes a king, appears in Mallory's story but isn't consistently in it despite the fact that Mallory insists at certain points that "all the knights were there" despite the fact that he might have died at some point, or it was a different guy who shared the same name. Really it's because he was trying to tie in a lot of different stories that don't make a whole lot of sense being put together, but I give him credit for trying.

I never really liked the Mark Twain one, it was too cynical and smug. Damn Yankees

Maybe that was the point of it though.

It was, but I understand not liking it.

Honestly, this little hang up isn't that critical to the story. I just have this particular autistic fixation on "getting everything right" in the setting before I proceed to the actual story.

Whatever you do, don't do the really gay thing of gender swapping the characters.

I think you already know whether or not I'd do that based on our interactions lol

I can't write and listen to anything at the same time, it's too distracting for me. Whatever it is that lets people blare TVs in the background when they sleep has always eluded me too so maybr that's related. Overnight stays with cousins as a kid were always distracted-to-exhaustion sleepless misery. :(

Working on planning. I am writing a historical storygame, so I'm trying to learn some more about the time period. I picked up a 170 page history book on the topic(it's pretty short for history books!) and I'm going to read it, hopefully finishing it before classes start. If I do 10-15 pages a day, that'll be fine. From there, I'll do a lot of my writing on the weekends, but if I can get a good chunk of the historical background and planning done before classes start, things become easier. I am starting now since I finished reading/rating all the stories for the gaybellion contest(they were pretty good across the board). I'm planning on writing reviews for the final 2 stories on the weekend.

Weirdly enough, when you're in a contest that has yet to be judged but you joined another one, it feels like you're sort of in limbo. It's difficult to fully detach myself from the gaybellion, because mentally I'm still in that headspace, waiting for the results and placements to be announced. I know cat said something similar to that effect, but I'm still really excited for my story for end master's contest, because of how much energy there is(seeing so many people join is really exciting, it feels like the starting line to a marathon where music is playing and 500 people line up at the starting line, waiting for the gun to be fired, ready to go!). I also like my idea a lot so far, hope that doesn't change as I keep writing and the months go by. I've been wanting to write this story for a while now, but was occupied with different projects and IRL stuff, so it's only remained an idea in my head(and a short description blurb in my notes so I don't forget it!), but Endmaster's contest seems like the perfect place to full realize this dream project idea. I read last year's prompt contest writing thread, and saw some interesting(and slightly foreboding!) posts on "writing tastelessness" by Mystic and Peng. I hope that doesn't happen to me.

I can't write and listen to music. I just enjoy the music too much and then forget to write. I tend to write best when it's a little quieter.

I'm also outlining this time. My past 3 stories, I wrote them as I went along, being more of a gardener than an architect. But I feel like for this one, that won't really work. I'm not much of a planner, I tend to discover the story as I go along and get to know the characters as I'm writing them, but for this one, I want to shift my strategy. I strongly suspect I'll remain a pantser(writing by the seat of my pants), but who knows, maybe this little experiment in outlining and planning will really work out for me.

I've come up with most of my species, the stats, the general layout, flavor and flow of the space station and the general framework of contest.  Need to work out exactly how many species I'm letting  the player pick from to play and how I want the judging to work.

I typically don't listen to music, but do a fair amount of writing to Dimension 20 actual plays.  Currently listening through Starstruck Odyssey again as it was very thematically appropriate to my prompt.  My biggest challenge is making my work similar but not a direct fanfic.  I have had to do a fair amount of digging already on things like "Is RecStation a unique term to that setting in this usage" and such

 

So I've been playing around with the number of alien species in my story. I have basically 13 major species.  I have already decided to limit the species the reader can choose from to six of those, so that the randomly selected judges will likely be species that none of the contestants are a direct match to.  My question is - Would it be a worthwhile feature to randomize the six species that the reader has to choose from at the start?  Should you write a storygame with the expectation that it will be read more than once from the very beginning?

 

My advice is not to, because I feel like story comes before all else. Randomizing the species so you get a new one each time might be a cool feature, but I feel like that's more bells and whistles. I honestly don't think people will really remember this as much as they would all the cool story and plot aspects. But I could be biased, since all my story games have been story and choices alone, the most basic type.

I think being able to choose from 6 alien species on its own is pretty cool, you don't have to randomize it, that's my thought at least.

Someone more experienced might have a different take, but I think that being able to choose from 6 alien species is awesome on its own. If you could do it easily then I guess you should do it, but if it's a feature that is challenging or time consuming to implement, then I would stick to just everyone having to choose from the same 6.

I second that advice. 

Your first priority should be to get the main story lines on paper. Customization such as choosing from Alien races is rather an afterthought. Remember that you only have three months, so keeping your imagined end product small is the way to go.

If you have time left, then you can add extra features.

Edit: I see that you participated in some contests already. The Little Princess of the Forest is kind of the scope that is very doable in three months. Aim for that, finish your story, and expand on it later :).

Because of the way every location that you go to may be treated slightly differently depending on which species you are playing as, including them is part of the Minimum Viable Product of the story. I am trying to keep the scope as small as possible, but to make feel like scifi to me it has to have a certain amount of bloat.

I am not going to randomize the starting species options though. Having those be a fixed range does help limit the number of other things I have to work on.

So half a month in, and I've gotten the starting description for all the species done, the backend support and first major decision point written up. Just over 3500 words shown as length, but I have at least another 250-500 words in PAGETEXT added script, so just a little less than 4k words so far.

You're doing really well! Keep it up

This is really good progress anthraxus, good way to stay focused!

Good lord dude. I have a prologue and one page I don't like haha. Nice work.

I wanted to push myself out of my comfort zone of fantasy and magic settings. That's why I used a random number generator to decide what prompt I was getting.

I've got some John Wick inspired story ideas rattling around but nothing concrete yet. I really want to finish the story game I've been working on before starting something new though.

P.S. If anyone knows any good assassin protagonist stories, please feel free to recommend them. I'd love to have some sources for inspiration.

If you're willing to sit down for a longer read, Celaena Sardothien from the Throne of Glass series is an assassin, and also the protagonist. It starts off with a kind of contest for assassins iirc. The plot kinda derails off that path once you get past the first book, though.

Interesting! I'll give it a look. Thanks!

If you want an example of assassin choose-your-own-adventure books, the Way of the Tiger series is pretty decent. It involves ninjas and a lot of fantasy, too, so if you feel too much out of your comfort zone with modern-era assassins you could try writing in that setting instead.

Yeah, fantasy is really quite broad. It doesn't even need a reliance on magic. I actually prefer settings where magic is rare to encounter and something special when it happens.

Ooh, ninjas! That could also be a cool direction to take this.

This is a bit on the nose, but how about "Assassin's Apprentice" by Robin Hobb? The farseer trilogy is really good, and if you like it, you can check out the "realm of the elderlings" books too.

I'll give it a looksie. Thanks. :]

If my planning is correct, this story will be about 100k with much more a chapter like structure. I finally have some free time to just tinker away at it. The outline was already planned out in advance, but I never came down to writing it properly. 

1/1	1000
1/2	1000
1/3	1005
1/4	1050

 

Writing to a song on repeat? That's some real serial killer stuff. I run 1-2 albums on repeat, start to finish, for each story. It's a good way to track time time too since each is roughly an hour.

Heavenspire used two Staind albums:

1. Break the Cycle
2. Staind

Alter Bridge is the other band I'll primarily listen to for fantasy writing, rotating between 1-2 albums, start to finish. Blackbird may or may not have been the inspiration for the cleverly-titled Blackbirds storygame.

Sterling and the other degenerate storygames (Rockstar, Degenerate, True Life, etc.) used redneck rock. Music that's basically propaganda for Budweiser and Marlboros and no-ass blondes. Perfect to set the mood.

To be honest, I once studied for eight hours straight while listening the entire time to Bolero.

You're a psycho.

Ninja are you entering this year's contest?

We'll see.

That sounds really ominous.

I spent the entire month+ writing Fey Light listening to this song exclusively every minute I wrote: Fey Light song. It got me 2nd in that contest, and currently a 6.26 rating, which isn't bad, and I think this creepy song was 100% of that.

Also in that story you (spoilers) kind of kill your entire family, so I guess I'm a psycho.

You mentioned somewhere that you use a flowcharting method for planning.  What tools/programs do you use for that?

Just whatever is free and at the top of Google when I search 'flowchart tool' at the time of writing.

Would you be willing to share what one of your flowcharts looks like?

I've been using whimsical. It's a website that allows you to make flowcharts.

Oh writing music's a fun one, though like music in its entirety extremely personalized. Personally I like music a lot, during studying and working, so also when writing. Usually I got a playlist or multiple albums rather than a single song, though.

For brimstone for example I had these to set a proper mood:
- Much like the written work, the start is the best. Then it gradually becomes background noise people forget exists, before ending strong again.
- Not music per sé, but Corin Redgrave really manages to make the old text come alive. Listening just a few minutes of this jumpstarts that process everybody is familiar with, where you open and stare at an empty white page before actually starting.
- If everything else is too present, something like dark ambient sets a proper mood while easily slipping into the background.

And then for avarga there could be only:
- Dozens of hours of this.

I like themed playlists when I run out of inspiration. However, I write in silence most of the time. Music sometimes distracts me or makes me feel that a scene is more emotional than it actually is, which becomes a problem when the words alone don't create the same effect.

(And here I am pretending that I've actually written words since last year, lol). 

Yesterday I scrapped everything I had and I am writing a new intro tonight.
Is normal in contest.

I have a vague outline. I want to make my protagonist deep dive into some major trauma. But at this point I've bitten off more than I can chew and feel as hopeless as I intend for my protagonist to be.

Since my story is probably going to be desert theme, I've been listening to these types of songs (and these old Middle Eastern instruments are incredible, as an aside):

Progress is being made.

Not great progress but any progress at all before March 30th is impressive okay.

Hear, hear. I usually need about two months of doing nothing before I can write anything. Then I invariably take a big nap the day the story is due and then scramble and ruin it in the last forty-five minutes.

What would be great would be to have a way of getting my thoughts directly onto my laptop. Not speech to text; though to text. Because in my head, everything sounds so much better than it does when I write it down.

Anyway, this project is a bit more ambitious than my other two...and I'm hoping that it will be better. But we'll see.

The experience you're describing is actually the norm. There was a study on the brain activity of a group of humans eating ice cream showing that they realeased more dopamine in the anticipation of the ice cream than the actual tasting of it itself. It's not that our thoughts are actually better, we just become less emotionally heightened to the experience of them once they've been written down. 

I would imagine clarifying thoughts more narrowly also takes away some of the magic, as the idea becomes less of a vague emotion filled with potential and more of a concrete disappointment.

True. I often imagine things in pictures, almost movie style, so writing it out really doesn't work.

Huh. That makes a lot of sense, to be honest. I feel very similarly about all of my assignments for my apprenticeship, too.

I regret every setting choice I made. I'm no expert on any fantasy story aspects and in general am in over my head. 

It's too late to turn back, though. I'll work through it.

It is never too late to turn back.  There is still 2.5 months, If it is not working, it would be better to rework it now than 2 weeks before the deadline.  

I would have to scrap everything I currently have, though. Better to just keep going

I'm with DB on this, better to scrap now than later.

Or maybe just put it aside for a bit and start a new one, see how it feels. That's a very broad prompt you have for any time period or time period or tone or genre. If what you're writing isn't clicking with you though, that will probably be something visible to the readers too.

I say this having tried to press through with stuff that I didn't really like or get into. And then a couple weeks before the deadline hitting a wall, hating everything and trying to start over only to end up in shame. 

Whatever works best for you though.

I appreciate the help, y'all. But I think scrapping now would just make me feel defeated, as I've already put a lot of work into it. I just had a moment of weakness there. It'll all come together

Your prompt doesn't require fantasy. Or maybe make the fantasy they have seen so far fake, a holodeck or massive hallucination as they wake up to a grim noir world or scifi or biblical fiction, whatever makes the story lurch forward.

You can do it Fresh. Keep with it.

I know it doesn't, but for some reason I thought that it would be cool. I appreciate the suggestions though! Definitely something to think about

Oh, you could do a double fake out on one or more branches. They start in a fantasy world that they wake up from, only to later wake up from that world into yet another!

Then if you want to undercut everything, have an ending where they wake up in the first world at the beginning of the story, and it was all just a weird dream.

Actually, I really like this idea. I think there may be a way to work it in there without it being obvious that it was added on after I'd already started writing. No guarantee it'll make it, but it's worth a shot— especially if it gets me back to writing. Thank you

I like what Mizal said about trying on a new idea for size just in case you’re worried but I would say keep going with this idea, because it sounds epic. I think as long as you’re still excited and passionate about the idea, you should still write it. If worst gets to worst you can prune one or 2 extra emergency branches before the deadline and then add them afterward once the deadline is over. Also, these things usually have a way of working themselves out, and you may find inspiration in unexpected sources.

With the fantasy word building, keep it simple in the start and then as the story goes on, you may add on some more elements. You don’t have to have everything set in stone before you write it, and sometimes you can create stuff to serve the situation the character is in, like if you wanted to throw the character in water, you can make a up a water race for them to interact with.



All this to say, you got this! I know you’ll work through it, but if you’re really worried keep a shorter back up idea in reserve.

Also with your prompt, the relationship dynamics and power imbalances are so key. The love-hate relationship in the eternal struggle path between the eternal and Semra was one of the most memorable aspects of the story. The dysfunction and the really unhealthy dynamic made them really interesting as characters. My point is don’t worry about nailing every aspect of the setting, and don’t feel discouraged about the idea because if the relationship dynamic is good, then we’re taken into the story and immersed into it. Worldbuilding and setting is important, but they serve as the backdrop to the overall story, which is the love hate relationship in a fantasy setting.

For some stupid reason, I decided to have the player character have a journal with them that has entries from their loved one who has passed away...and that most of the pages would have the option to use the journal (i.e., read a page); mostly to learn about the history, but also to unlock choices every so often.

I really wish I hadn't decided to do that now. It was one of those ideas that felt like a good one at the time.

My laptop has now reached a point where it doesn't want to play music, which really sucks. I need a new laptop, but I need to be earning more to get a new laptop (apprenticeship wage has had me pretty much living from paycheck to paycheck and having to move twice has been Not Helpful), but I normally have a few songs that fit the feel for whatever project I'm working on, then sometimes create a playlist and other times just listen to the same song (or couple of songs) on repeat.

I joined half a month late, but that still gives me almost too much time. Wrote up the first page already and have a partial map of the story but not planning on slowing down just yet. Most likely going to finish mapping the initial concept I had first then see where I can add more branches for further variability. I only have 1k words so far and a single page, but I feel if I know where things are going I can keep everything way more cohesive. I almost feel that I have too much time to write this and I'll bite off more than I can chew but I'll be sure to get this done.

As things are right now, I just have a bunch of journals where I'm keeping track of all the 'paths' that are going to be possible but I can't help but wonder whether there's a better way to be doing that. Any suggestions before I get too far into the planning process that I don't feel like converting it into a new format?

I'm not entirely sure how long this is going to end up being, either; I don't really have a plan. Is a lack of scope detrimental or something I can adjust later (pacing-wise, at least)?

The other thing I've made sure of is having a bunch of people I know irl to encourage me to write more consistently (which is something I'm truly awful with). Hoping that this contest helps me maintain writing for its entirety, so at the very least I'll have a finished project!

So my progress so far is that I have been thinking about the fact that at some point I really need to think about a plot for my contest entry.

This is the most time-tested method to writing a contest entry.

I've been editing as a I go. When I make a new page, I reread the story up to that page with a route I haven't done before, or if there are none, rereading an existing path again to look for errors or places that more needs to be added. It may become unweildy as the story goes, but it has been working ok for me so far.

And people bag on your writing, but really only to try to drive you to improve. Improvement comes with practice. Each story you have done has gotten better. If you go back and look at your own output you can see that.

Funny, I've had that exact idea for a storygame before.

Isn't that the plot of [spoiler redacted], but with a friends rather than a family?

(Now that I removed the spoiler this post doesn't make sense anymore, oh well)

It's okay, I still know what you mean. I'm sure others will as well

Was it this one?

Finally got the first 2k (some planning, some writing) done, and hopefully I can keep this momentum going daily now.

Yahoo!

He could be called WhizzyCat.

I always thought the wiz meant something else...

Wizard. It means wizard. Anyways, I got just over a measly 500 words done today. Well, it's 3 am but I'll count it as today.

In my head it will always be a cat taking a wiz

I made a new google docs today.

Not tomorrow?

I know, it’s unlike me, but I also wrote today.

Nice! Your prompt also sounds pretty interesting(rebuilding after war).

I thought about wanting to write today.

Keeping punching small holes in that needed word count. You'll tear it off in no time.

Brief Survey for all contest participants

Out of the 12 categories available(Fantasy, Grimdark Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Modern, Horror, Love and Dating, Mystery/Thriller, Family Friendly, Historical, Puzzles/Games, Edutainment, and Fan fiction), which category are you guys writing in?

I'm curious to see which category is the most popular this contest. I'm guessing it's going to be fantasy or grim dark fantasy. I also think fan fiction and puzzles/games will be the least popular, but with the others, I have no idea.

So please reply to this post with the category you're planning on submitting under. I'll update it as I get responses.

Hopefully all 34 of the contestants respond to this survey, as that will give me the best data. Here's what we got so far:

10 responses so far, with Fantasy currently in the lead and Sci-Fi is in 2nd place.

Fantasy:4
Grimdark Fantasy:1
Sci-Fi:3
Modern:0
Horror:0
Love and Dating:0
Mystery/Thriller:1
Family Friendly:0
Historical:1
Puzzles/Games:0
Edutainment:0
Fan Fiction:0

Fantasy

Nice!

Fantasy.

It's like the default around here. My protagonist is a kobold to atone for past mistakes.

That's going to be interesting, a kobold in a cooking contest.

Kobold cooking hot dogs.

Delicious!

Sci-Fi, although I am having to actively fight turning it into a Fan Fic as well. I am pretty sure it will qualify as Family Friendly as well.

It sounds like it's mainly a sci-fi story that happens to be family friendly as well, but I think I'll put you for Sci Fi

Thanks for responding y'all! I'm not surprised that Fantasy is in the lead so far. Interested to see what other people say, hope we get everyone!

I should have put mine first: Historical

Mystery/Thriller

Could also be put into horror but I want to lean more into the mystery/investigatory elements 

Just like Encaged, then? That story could have gone either way too. Thanks for responding!

Less depraved, I hope, but yes! This one is more.. eldritch horror or supernatural thriller. Depends on the route taken of course lol

Fantasy. Third in my series, because the prompt fits.

Oh nice, I'm really enjoying the series! I hope Arthur kills Thorne once and for all, defeating him for good.

Things are now slightly over-complicated due to running an rpg also set in this world, so.... (In this third story, Elrond is the player character).

Grimdark fantasy.

Grimdark fantasy in combination with the 2 suns, that's going to be good!

Only if you like pain. So far it's more Game of Thrones grimdark than Dark Souls grimdark, in terms of the type and quantity of magic. But since it does have two suns, and a hot desert setting, I figured I might as well have a corrupt Pharaoh who thinks he's a god, mummies as royal servants, and an oppressed people forced into giving away a one of their own to be a slave or human sacrifice every now and again. So yeah, there will be an Egyptian flavor. I don't think I've seen a storygame here go that route, so it should be fun to write. Also a female protagonist. Fight the patriarchy!

Ok, this sounds awesome! There's so many elements to this, and it sounds really cool! I can't wait to check it out. Don't hold back on the grim dark, it's an endmaster contest after all.

Funnily enough, I heard the 2 suns and automatically thought it would be sci-fi with the weird weather conditions, but this idea seems like a really good twist on it.

Mine is a weird mix of Fanfiction (because of the Arthurian Legend bent), Fantasy and Historical

That sounds really cool! It sounds like Fantasy, so I'll put you down for Fantasy unless you decide it's more suitable for a different category.

You can put it in whichever category you like. I did put in all three because the storygame really is going to be a pretty equal mix of all three genres.

Huh, thought I responded the other day but must have forgotten to actually hit post.  

My story will obviously be mainly under sci-fi since it is a post apocalyptic setting. Although I have been toying with the idea of adding some fantasy elements also. Those 2 genres have some overlap anyway.

 

Oh yeah, that certainly is sci-fi. Your prompt sounds pretty cool and I'm excited to see what you do with it!

Probably Sci-fi

Nice! Sounds like sci-fi is doing pretty well this time!

I'm going tofocus on finishing my in progress story first. But Endmaster will probably hate what I have in mind for my actual contest game.