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 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.

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...

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

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.

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

Voting for Devilstrand. It takes a quadrum or even longer to grow so it you are going to mess with it outside you have to plant it early. It is a very useful product for making clothes for trade or wear.

As far as construction I vote Option C as we are still in heavy recruitment mode. Option E would be a close second to replace the bows with guns.

He was more focused on cleaning up all the blood at the time, but I certainly don't plan to dig at them any time soon. I honestly had missed them in my initial survey of where to build or I may have built further away.

Unfortunately I grabbed the Prepare Carefully mod but not the Character Editor. I may have to see if it is stable to do an 'in progress' add of that mod. I'm not worried about relationships, I was just a little surprised that they were friendly enough for that already.

As if following the directives of some hidden collective of manipulators, the pawns got to work, building ample bedrooms for themselves, as well as a sizeable warehouse. While they did so, Larimar went to work destroying the useless ancient wreckage still laying around.

As everyone was working on either clearing trees, planting rice or constructing the shelter and beds, there were was a little bit of idle chatter, the most peculiar about potentially training worms to work the garden for them. This may have led to some misplaced expectations by someone, as RK tried the weirdest pickup line to exist in the far flung future.

Not surprisingly Fresh shut him down. While his feelings were a little hurt, his natural optimism seemed to help stave off the worst impact from it. The guys picked one mostly finished room, while Fresh took the other for the first night.

The next few days pass in a blur of activity. Just out of the natural flow of things, everyone kind of falls into a staggered pattern that somewhat minimizes conversation, but maximized productivity. The rice garden is planted, the bedrooms and warehouse finished and a workroom is started on. Alot of trees are cleared. Even when keeping busy, thoughts of writing and storygames are still on their minds. RK and Anthraxus have an extended conversation about them. Larimar finished destroying the last of the ancient junk.

It was on the dawn of the fourth day that the monolith itself began to writhe and twist. An ominous feeling of dread crept over everyone. Everyone quickly made observations and calculations. Given the rate of change, assuming it stayed constant, whatever was happening will reach it's conclusion in only a few days. No one knows what that will be, but everyone knows deep down that is can't be good. It is in making these observations that they realize another oddity about the monolith. While they could plan to build something, if those plans encroached too closely on the area around the monolith they just would not be acted upon. Regardless of priority or intention, no one will undertake the task. Something else always seems more important.

See the video!

Not knowing what was coming next, the group decided to adopt a name. The choice was obvious. The harder decision was what to call the colony itself. It was settled that the faction would be the "Forum of Cystia" and the colony would be the "Thunderdome" after an ancient form of literary combat that had been a core of Cystian law and conflict resolution since time immemorial.

Finally the last of the roofing was completed over everything but the workroom. Larimar had spent the last day or so just idly wandering around, but driven by hunger he killed a megasloth just south of the camp. As Anthraxus worked to move the megasloth into storage for butchering, he caught a glimpse of an ancient limestone wall set into the mountainside. A sphincter puckering feeling of doom settled over him. There was no way to know what it was, but Anthraxus knew an ancient and terrible threat lay behind those plain stone bricks.

Exciting things all over. What mod gave you the penguin head for Sent and which name file are you adding people too for the autonaming?

Bang Bus rename option - Bussy McBusface? The Stego? Cystian Block?

Stego Names - Bus, Blade, Bumpy, Larimar, Apex, Kimmeridgian

Vote: Option A - We already have the bus, might as well use it.

I just got my first featured comment since the start of the contest. Obviously splitting my focus is helping fight my undiagnosed ADHD and letting me be productive across multiple fronts.

It would be very funny if there was a late game issue (once some more advanced recreation options become available) of a Polybius/Rimworld type game that is very fun and relaxing but completely addictive.