Worldbuilding Compendium

"Hauntings are on the rise. You’ve been hired by a mysterious company claiming that not only are ghosts real, but increasingly unrestful - to ensure that the dead pass on peacefully by speaking at their funerals. 

Which is strange- the job application did mention customer support and complaint resolutions, but strangely enough ghosts weren’t actually mentioned. Ah well."

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1resS4AGv4Bbc-lwUQYb0ESOgArVAIVtS/view?usp=sharing

https://www.inklewriter.com/stories/124568

This is an idea I worked on as part of a Games Narrative Mentorship, detailing some of the gameplay info and a sample of potential gameplay structures. You can read the condensed details and play the sample at the links above.

Joining in with Scriptember & Talktober, I both submitted short scripts to the various prompts and recorded mine and others'. You can listen to all my entries Here, and/or check out my scripts at the link below.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1cae7lWzhbblKYgy2UhU5riFcRiLiHI8y?usp=drive_link

This is an extract from a fantasy TTRPG, where players are recruited to perform parts of the script whilst tempering the audience and trying to impress the children who created this play. It's purposefully written in a childish manner, depicting a fictional tale.

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Lord Alabaster's Boot- The Ospran Orphanage version

An...interesting retelling of the classical tale of Lord Alabaster's Boot, a mythical moral tale of the legendary Lord Alabaster and the cost of vengeance.

Characters-

N- Narrator

A- Lord Alabaster

S- Lord Alabaster's servant

B- Lord Alabaster's Brother

E- Lord Alabaster's Ex

Non-speaking characters:

The Tree

The Wind

Narrator: Lend your ears as we tell the tale of Lord Alabaster’s boot!

Lord Alabaster:  HARK! It woudst appear I have forsooth misplacen my shoe, henceforth! We must find it before overlong!

Servant: Wait milord, have you considered someone mayhaps have done a theft?

Alabaster: A Theft? Nay, what are you, an idiot? Unless… couldst it be a demonic plot from my evil brother who stole my girlfriend that one time?

Servant: It couldst I spose…

Alabaster: WELL THEN I MUSDT RIIIIIDE FOR HIS CASTLE!

Narrator:...and so he rode and rode and rode and rode like a true hero, his boot missing from his foot the entiiiiire time. Gods what a hero he is.

[Narrator leaves stage left immediately. Tree Enters, and wind moves slightly to signify scene change]

Lord Alabaster: YOU FIEND BROTHER, first my buxomous lady and now my boot?! What hadst thou to say for thineself?!

Brother: Muahahaha, I shall not let your great manliness go unquestioned any longer! We will fight now!

[Lord Alabaster's Brother is immediately impaled]

Lord Alabaster: HAHA I got you! Now give me back my stuff you ass!

Ex: No, please, not like this… my love…

Lord Alabaster: YOUR LOVE? Ew nevermind imma take my boot and be gone!

[Narrator, appearing back on the stage with unnerving speed]

Narrator: With that he took the boot having defeated his foe evermore leaving his lover to mourn.

Ex: I will find them, set upon them a curse forever.

Lord Alabaster: I’m sorry I wasn’t as good at fighting as him, he’s just the best...

Ex: Lo I thought thoust was dead! Rest now love, the curse is done.

Narrator: ..and with that they died the end.

*staggered applause*

The gods that saved the world we know, put into risk by those deemed unworthy of their power but sought to wield it. The veil tethered yet thinned and weakened by the claws that so clung to it, the influence of the deities and demons of the world grew to its most poignant since circum l’orai. The world is just now beginning to learn of this shift, the wider consequences and sudden end to the circum l’astrul still a mystery to many who live. 

The gods once looked down on those they aided with a shield on one arm and a hand on their heart. 

One must be sacrificed so as to rest a hand upon the blade once sworn to protect them.

Written for a personal music project, heavily inspired by the story of Orpheus & Eurydice and the double edged sword of escapism. You can listen to the song here.

Bitten by the feeling that nothing's gone right

Succumbing to the numbness of the dreams that come at night

The venom clings to the reality I so long to leave behind

Blood rushes me and only to the vivid depths of mind

Further further til my soul pushes through

My corporeal shell lingers in this hell to stay with you

And though I miss you I can hear your mournful lyre

My mind and heart feel lighter and burn brighter than my pyre

Leave me floating in this peace

Don't look back don't come and try to rescue me

I'll embrace this fantasy alone until your end

My tears shall not revive me and my heartaches they can't mend

No bargain struck will pull me from this trance

Spirit stronger than the bones once compromising existance

My rejuvenated soul sings out to you from afar

The door back to harsh reality left ajar

Inevitable destiny lies in wait

Only a long blink away from visiting fantastic fate

For I can only soak in this realm for so long

Before I'm brought back to life by your alluring...

A snippet of a document outlining character details and lines for a branching narrative project

Gimmick Rundown

Gimmick is a shapeshifter tiefling whose chief goal is weaving chaos- chaotic evil beyond any doubt. She ensures she finds herself in positions of power and plays along just enough to maintain those positions and use them to her own benefit. Now a member of an elite council (whose meetings she frequently flunks), she’s had dealings in smuggling, trafficking and covert weapons dealings in the world; her current successful project has been the ‘recruitment’ and spreading of lycanthropes that do her bidding, ultimately using the affliction as a scapegoat for the purpose behind it. 

With the world currently facing a tear in the fabric separating the mortal realm and those of spirits, gods and who even knows what beyond it, Gimmick is proactively seeking to continue that tear and syphon some of those powers for herself. She is without a doubt the BBEG of this campaign, and one of the current biggest threats to multiple realms- and still finding time to enjoy inconveniencing others for entertainment on the side XD

At a glance she’s got a childlike glee, curiosity and wit that instantly alerts people to her chaotic disposition, yet simultaneously disarms them from her distinct and significant threat. She absolutely relishes in playing with her food, and the world is her oyster. To an onlooker it’d seem she has a lot of luck on her side rather than good judgement, but there’s rarely a time her ‘spontaneity’ doesn’t go without rhyme or reason. She is the embodiment of not being able to look away from a car crash- though one she planned, executed, and made look just enough like an accident for people to be simultaneously wary of her, but also not suspect she’d have done purposefully.

For the show, she’s definitely using the anonymity angle to her advantage. She wants to win for the performance and chaos of it all, but can’t help but to include a couple of details that’d allude to her identity- and more importantly, cause some shivers at the mere suspicion she’s waiting behind one of these doors. Overall flirtatious & playful but definitely manipulative and with an underlying threat that she’s loving every minute of.

What’s your guiltiest pleasure?

(The more serious side of Gimmick comes out for this question. Almost blazeé to start, getting more intimate, almost a whisper at the end - believable but ultimately manipulative)

Pft, There’s no such thing. Pleasure is pleasure, right? 

Do whatever makes you happy, and know that by doing it, you have lost all right to feel guilt. If you’re a sweet little baby who does feel bad about pursuing your passions? Some of the best things in life are naughty. I’ll be the first to prove it. Choose me, and maybe I’ll be yours? 

Which of the other finalists would you date and why?

(Cheeky)

Who’s to say I haven’t haha! Hmmm…

((For these takes, depending on the branching outcomes, I’ll select 2-3 of the options below to include)

(For the wildshaped/tabaxi/anthro characters- Feigning trying to be nice, almost mean girl vibe)

-Well, one of them looks like they were born in a barn- maybe literally. Smells it too, phew! I don’t mount on a first date, sorry baby. 

—--------------------------------------

(For the slightly more sensitive characters- Considers, openly pities them. Last line could suggest violence OR wanting to meet/hookup with the problem parents. Embrace the chaos with this one!) 

- This one here… I try not to be one who goes for the whole ‘mommy/daddy issues’ thing. I just feel too bad for them. Maybe I could go chat to your folks though, straighten them out for ya!

—--------------------------------------

(For the other evil leaning characters/ hotter ones XD- More flirtatious, intimate. Last line a gentle but ultimately VERY harsh put down, almost tutting them.)

-Now this one is interesting… beautiful, radiating a very sensual aura. Ohohoh the things we’d get up to… Shame they only really feel that way about themselves, hm?

—--------------------------------------

(For sweet characters/anyone else- Slight pity, but more so unwilling to even entertain the idea, this person’s nothing to her and barely worth even talking to them directly. Turns it back on the audience and teases them.)

-And you… oh it’s just a bit sad, isn’t it? I mean congratulations for getting this far through, but it makes me question everyone’s tastes just a little. Unless you’re trying to make me look better, teehee!

—----------------------------------------

(Fullest, most direct flirtation- riding the line on obsessive on the last line)

Saying that, I’m willing to give anyone a chance. Well, mostly anyone! I’m here for you.

People only suspect bards as sneaks and skulkers, dusting their knees in the muck for a penny, low as can be and whetting their swords with secrets. And while the secrets are yes so very cute and naive… that is not where the true power lies. We’ve all encountered tragedy, no? Well, I’ve tried to help on that front at least a teeny bit. But tragedy is common and eventually falls away to dust like the epitaphs we write on the behalf of those who cannot care and likely wouldn’t for the words we’d etch into their headstone, no no no that just. Shan’t. Do. 

Had I a mother she’d have told me ‘You can take bat shit and a book and craft them into a spell’ and I would argue it lacks the pizazz of reaching your hand into thin air, teasing a strand from the font of power and crooking it to your will. Now that? That leaves a lasting impression- sometimes literally. Same goes for stories. Little sammy falling down the well is an anecdote we’ve heard before, big deal who cares: but a story or a ballad? Makes us feel, makes us believe, takes our emotions and makes it powerful. Stories create a belief so strong any idle ears decide they’d decimate any who’d harm little sammy, tooth and claw until their hands get cut on broken bones and their nails are worn shorter than the poor child’s life. 

Those songs and tales live on and breed with us - Children will play hides and peeks while singing the song of poor sammy well dweller. mothers will use it to hush a bawling baby, and a heathen will find comfort humming it just before the noose catches them. and it only takes a single bard to begin that chain of events. For all we know Sammy’s been in that well half a century and even if anyone cared to look, there’d be nothing left to find. His song reanimated his corpse so that we all may relive that catharsis of death over and over and over. 

The best part? The story doesn’t even have to be true hahahah! But no, please, go ahead with your swords and little memorised scrolls. I fear not a fate that cannot truly be sealed for me for I will love on through my name and my deeds, and were I EVER to fall there would be thousands ready to claim blood in my name as my legacy.