#dramatic tales

[charnel-grounds]

The Mutineers; or, The Devil and the Dice & The Death-Light; or, The Treasure Seeker. A Romance of Intense Interest. Illustrations for two supernatural stories in the Dramatic Tales series. (J. Duncomb, n.d. c. 1817).

[hollyhockash]

Quest: Time to Mourn (25/35 XP) (Dramatic Tales 5/5)

Aspect 5/Shepherd 3/Knight 4/Bindings 5/Emptiness 1

Paradox Space isn't a good place. It's not a fair place. You can win the battle, but you're fated to lose the war. And, I mean, you know that. It's hit very close to home quite recently.

You have to go on, because tomorrow is another day. But maybe you can take a bit of time to mourn, first.

Time to Mourn (35)

Major goals: The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:

you launch a server into the Ring (or, if that's impossible/inappropriate/not in your setting, distribute some other kind of charity that you will never see the effects of);

you contact someone you haven't talked to in a very long time;

Someone tries to win you over to “the other side” — they take on the role of parent, mentor, older sibling, or romantic interest, and try to persuade you that what you think of as loyalty or purpose is just you clinging to things that hurt you; that they want to offer you a safer, better home.

You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 15 XP.

Quest flavor: 1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP for this quest when you:

play with a bit of clay or putty in your hands

hang-glide or skydive

go to sleep with nothing but the open sky over you

reminisce about your childhood

eat French onion soup with crusty bread

write poetry

do something repetitive and let your mind wander

You can combine this with an XP action, but you’re not required to.

Time to Mourn (Simplified) (25)

Major goals: The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:

you formally declare that you are taking A Break;

you finally decide that you will call yourself "friends", "lovers", etc. with someone - you'll risk tying your fate to theirs.

You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 10 XP.

Quest flavor: 1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP for this quest when you:

dig idly in the dirt/ground with a stick

write poetry

watch Land Familiars, butterflies, or other small flying things

make pastries from scratch

You can combine this with an XP action, but you’re not required to.

[hollyhockash]

Quest: Fighting Back (35/45 XP) (Dramatic Tales 4/5)

Aspect 4/Shepherd 4/Knight 3/5/Bindings 3/4/Emptiness 4

This is the story of something someone else has been talking about intruding into your session, and you having to fight it back. Maybe it's something to do with the Angels or the Others - a Speaker or Singer bashing open the session boundary and coming in to try and screw everything up. Maybe it involves some sort of PK cult, like the Azurites. Maybe someone has declared a clade feud (a blood feud, except based on an extended network of troll relationships) against you, and one of their quadrants ended up in a session with you. Maybe it's a viral bug in Sburb that spreads through the data stored inside affected Players, and a group of said Players has just landed in your session in a valiant but futile attempt to outrun the bug.

Just because you're usually separated from other Replayers by the Interstitial Void doesn't mean that you're completely isolated from their problems.

Fighting Back (45)

Major goals: The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:

the threat strikes at someone very close to you

your weapon breaks during a fight, and you don't have a backup weapon (and are thus forced to use 1/2bladekind or whatever to whack your way out)

you figure out where the "core" of the threat is - where you can strike to bring it down

you think that you've taken care of the threat, but it resurges

You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 20 XP.

Quest flavor: 1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP for this quest when you:

discuss the threat on a chatroom

seek advice from your ancestors, the dead of the dream-bubbles, or some similar group

tie back your hair and roll up your sleeves

say "Here goes nothing" and then do something desperate and/or decisive

run across something that's crumbling behind you

whack something with a big mallet several times (i.e. a chisel; a tent-stake)

catch your breath, leaning against a wall carved with mystical symbols

very nearly fall off a cliff

You can combine this with an XP action, but you’re not required to.

Fighting Back (Simplified) (35)

Major goals: The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:

you watch helplessly through a long-distance communication, scrying mirror, etc. as someone else gets defeated/consumed by the threat;

someone forcibly wakes up your dreamself, making your wakingself go to sleep abruptly (most likely in the middle of danger!);

you execute an untested and highly dangerous Gamebreaking maneuver because it might just save your life.

You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 15 XP.

Quest flavor: 1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP for this quest when you:

double-book yourself accidentally (i.e. promising two different people that you'd meet them at the same time, and then having to figure out how to explain that)

pose as a team because shit just got real

go on a shopping or alchemization spree

tie back your hair and roll up your sleeves

say "Here goes nothing" and then do something desperate and/or decisive

wipe oil, blood, etc. off your weapon

You can combine this with an XP action, but you’re not required to.

[hollyhockash]

Quest: The Blogosphere (25/35 XP) (Dramatic Tales 3/5)

Aspect 3/Shepherd 5/Knight 3/Bindings 5

Note that this is a rerun of "Your Social Burdens (Blogosphere Ver.)".

This is when your establishment as A Person Who Runs A Blog results in your getting involved in shenanigans. Maybe you've been half-pushed into helping run some sort of Internet social event - a giveaway, or a contest, or something such. Maybe you're getting a sudden uprising of arguments in your comments after you posted something contentious. Maybe someone more important linked your blog (for whatever reason). In any of these cases, you have to think more carefully about your words than you usually do, because you're suddenly aware of just how large your readership is.

When you finish this post, along with the other rewards, you're liable to get mentioned in the campaign's MOTDs once or twice after.

The Blogosphere (35 XP)

Major goals: The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:

a huge argument breaks out in your blog comments while you're not there to moderate it;

someone refers to you as a prominent name in the field you're blogging in and you're torn on how to respond to them or whether to even acknowledge this at all;

you devote a large amount of time to overhauling/redesigning your blog (themes, navigation, going back and tagging things, etc.)

You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 15 XP.

Quest flavor: 1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP for this quest when you:

are approached to promote some project you've never heard of

are randomly contacted by someone who's a fan of yours, but that you've never heard of (...possibly with fanwork!)

kvetch good-naturedly about how all these people know about you all of a sudden

educate people about the topic your blog is on

do something silly or embarrassing for the purposes of posting the results on the blog ("I do it so you won't have to!")

rush to get a blog post done before a (probably self-imposed) deadline

realize you should not have posted something only after hitting Post

You can combine this with an XP action, but you’re not required to.

The Blogosphere (Simplified) (25 XP)

Major goals: The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:

you have to issue an apology and/or retraction for something you posted on your blog;

your blog's fame results in you suddenly getting an offer you can't refuse randomly dropped on your lap (someone important wants to write a guest post, you're offered advanced copies of your favorite author's work to review for them, you're approached to be a "celebrity judge"...)

You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 10 XP.

Quest flavor: 1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP for this quest when you:

sift through a full inbox

educate people about the topic your blog is on

engage in improptu journalism because nobody else will

do something silly or embarrassing for the purposes of posting the results on the blog ("I do it so you won't have to!")

You can combine this with an XP action, but you’re not required to.

[hollyhockash]

Quest: In the Strangest of Places (25/45 XP) (Dramatic Tales 2/5)

Aspect 2/Shepherd 2/Knight 1/Bindings 2/Emptiness 2

You make a Strange Friend, from somewhere you usually don't go.

Heavily modified because, in the vast majority of cases, the strange friend you make is not in your session. If they are, you can use An Unlikely Friendship from Glass Maker's Dragon, but I don't expect that to happen.

In the Strangest of Places (45)

Major goals: The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:

you figure out who the Strange Friend is on this arc;

the Strange Friend casually mentions what they think is an unimportant detail, but for you it makes all the pieces fall into place;

the Strange Friend shows you a piece of art (including music, writing, and so on) that is precious to them;

you're forced to rethink a big part of something you've been working on because of a critical problem the Strange Friend pointed out.

You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 20 XP.

Quest flavor: 1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP for this quest when you:

spend time with someone who might become the Strange Friend, if you haven't picked one

stay up too late talking to someone

use a telepresence robot, or have your Strange Friend use one

discuss a topic you are passionate about with the Strange Friend

find a serious conflict of interest between you and the Strange Friend

introduce the Strange Friend to an element of your culture ("This is called a rickroll.")

pick apart a problem you or the Strange Friend might be having

rapid-fire brainstorm in the general direction of someone else who doesn't understand most of what you're saying

You can combine this with an XP action, but you’re not required to.

In the Strangest of Places (Simplified) (25)

Major goals: The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:

the Strange Friend betrays some duty out of loyalty to you;

your certainty is shaken by something the Strange Friend says.

You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 10 XP. (You'll need to identify the person who's your Strange Friend before you can do that, though!)

Quest flavor: 1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP for this quest when you:

spend time with someone who might become the Strange Friend, if you haven't picked one

stay up too late talking to someone

shake yourself out of a reverie and have to figure out what the conversation's about midstream

exchange recipes or food (usually alimentator files) with your Strange Friend

spit-take

You can combine this with an XP action, but you’re not required to.

[hollyhockash]

Quest: Neurosis (20+/35 XP) (Dramatic Tales 1/5)

Aspect 1/Shepherd 1/Knight 2/Bindings 1/Emptiness 3

There's something about you that you think is wrong, or broken, or holding everything back, or irredeemably tainted. I mean, maybe it's "in your head", but... that doesn't make it any less difficult to get past, does it?

Neurosis (35)

Major goals: The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:

you tell the story of an event that made you the way you are now;

your neurosis turns out to be a lot more common than you thought it was and/or you find out that someone you look up to has the same feelings;

you let someone comfort you.

You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 15 XP.

Quest flavor: 1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP for this quest when you:

type out something that would confess what's really going on... and then backspace it, and type something else

think about why you haven't given up yet, despite everything

lie down, with something heavy pressing down on your chest (whether real or imagined)

dry-swallow pills

recount a nightmare/Psychoruins/scary daydream

take something apart, clean out the insides, and put it back together

You can combine this with an XP action, but you’re not required to.

Neurosis (Simplified) (20+)

This is an orange or green anytime flipcard quest, with the usual wording on the card and so on. See pages 96 and 99 of the corebook for rules on the green and orange versions respectively, but I'm going to assume you've seen stuff like this before, so let's move on.

Orange flipcard examples:

[I'm an expert at this! / I'm such a fraud.]

[I have everything under control. / It's only a matter of time until it all explodes.]

[Friends forever! / You're going to leave me like the others did, aren't you?]

Green flipcard examples:

[Lost in grayness / Something to live for]

[I can't do anything to change things. / Helping with the little things can still make a difference.]

These don't correpsond to any arcs in particular, since I haven't actually written the arcs yet! In the final version in The Age of Replayer Networks I might or might not fix that.

[hollyhockash]

Arc Notes: The Dramatic Tales of Cecelia Favreau (Dramatic Tales 0.5/5)

And here are the arc notes for "Dramatic Tales"!

Aspect

Neurosis

In the Strangest of Places

The Blogosphere

Fighting Back

Time to Mourn

The Aspect arc follows the order of "Literary Medal-Bait" closely and thus plays very similarly to it. But I'll explain anyway:

You begin kind of blocked off, stymied from further growth by the fact that you have insecurities and such that you have to take care of. Then you find a strange friend that shows you a new perspective on the world. Taking this new perspective on the world into account, you run your blog, and things get... stranger, and stranger.

You might then wind up fighting against a strange threat from deep in Paradox Space. Should you continue after that, quest 5 clears out some time and space for you to properly process what happened.

Shepherd

Neurosis

In the Strangest of Places

Time to Mourn

Fighting Back

The Blogosphere

The other arc structure that I wanted to make sure worked well was the Shepherd arc, because the character I'm making that needs this quest set is going to be on at least some Shepherd arcs.

Your ordinary life is kind of troubled and neurotic... and then it is interrupted by the fact that a new community or group has come onto the scene. There, you find a strange friend. With this newfound help, you manage to let yourself properly mourn for your losses rather than sit on them awkwardly.

Should you choose, you may then proceed to fight back against a strange, larger-than-life threat; and if you'd like, you then settle down with your blog and do some cool stuff on it.

Knight

In the Strangest of Places

Neurosis

The Blogosphere or Fighting Back

Time to Mourn

Fighting Back

There is something you want to be; and your Strange Friend is showing you the path to get there. But you have some mental blocks that you need to understand and address before you become the person you want to become.

Quest 3 has some choices: you can use either The Blogosphere or Fighting Back. Perhaps you're taking your place on the Internet, and the process of doing so is strange and stressful and full of anon hate. Or perhaps you have to forge your new role out of piles of dead timeclones and desperate gambles.

Maybe you have to come to terms with yourself, and the things you didn't or couldn't do. And maybe, after that, you have to finish becoming the person you want to be: by standing up to a threat that's come to you through the Furthest Ring.

Bindings

Neurosis

In the Strangest of Places

Fighting Back

Fighting Back

The Blogosphere or Time to Mourn

While this quest set isn't exactly complete, it's close enough that you should probably be able to fill it in around the sides.

You begin by examining, and worrying about, the ways you've been marked by doing the things that you do. (If this is your first Bindings arc, you should replace Quest 1 with something else.) Then you help a Strange Friend learn how your world works. After that...

Well, the thing about quests 3 and 4 is that Fighting Back can be the first or second of them, but not both. If you take Fighting Back in quest 3, you then have to expand your scope in quest 4 (possibly taking a bigger quest about changing the world to prevent the thing from happening again). If, instead, you want to use it for quest 4, quest 3 will be something rather smaller in scale. I don't have specific recommendations here, unfortunately, but if it comes up in play you should have an idea of what to do.

Quest 5 either means that you've somehow established yourself as The Owner of a Blog, or that you're going to need to take some time to sift through the wreckage of your life.

Emptiness

Time to Mourn

In the Strangest of Places

Neurosis

Fighting Back

???

I wanted to at least sketch out a partial Emptiness arc for this quest set: RV Chuubo's is a setting shot through with silver in general, and as such Emptiness stories are often told there.

It isn't quite complete, but if you need a Quest 5, you should be able to find something to use there.

[disastridf]

someone needs to write a horror movie about a heating unit that kills people

Our heater tried to kill us last night. I woke up a few times and was so hot I couldn't breathe, but I figured I was just hot because I'm about to start my period. I had turned the heater down to 70 before we went to bed.

I woke up again at 3, pouring sweat. I flopped over and faced Adam. He opened his eyes. I said, 'I'm so hot," and he said, "I am too!", so I checked the thermostat and it was set to 45, and the house temperature was 90!! We turned it off and it wouldn't stop running. I thought we were going to die.  It just kept going and going and I couldn't breathe. I thought we were going to have to flip the breaker, but it finally stopped. We've left it off since then.

I know I didn't set the thermostat to 45, and if I did, it would have made the heater stop running, not heat the house to 90.