For those new to Storium, this is a beginner game (players/writers with no or limited previous game activity.). We will focus on learning how to use Storium. Each Scene will have Challenges that are designed to help you learn different aspects of the awesome Storium Universe and we will complete about 2 scenes for this Storium game (a shortened story for a beginning game).

The story revolves around a cohort of cadets at a training academy.

It is your first day at DAO Academy located in the Catskill Mountains in New York State, USA. You are a rookie recruit for the DAO. The Department of Abnormal Occurrences (DAO) is a worldwide organization dedicated to dealing with strange situations. DAO Agents operate in a world filled with metas (non-baselines), mystical, magical, aliens, humans (baselines) and more all trying to find a place in this crazy world. You are on your way to becoming a DAO Agent. You just have to survive your basic training at the Academy.

The Academy is set in the extended DAO universe. Examples of other games in the same universe include DAO Season 1, DAO Season 2, and DAO: Vault 13. There is also a DAO Wiki

Don’t be daunted by the extensive history. Each game is a self contained story. No previous knowledge is required.

The world DAO Academy is set in is similar to ours. Though there is a fantasy twist. In this world, the supernatural and the fantastic exist. Aliens have visited. Fey toy with mortals. Scientist fiddle with the very fabric of space and time.

The average denizen of Earth had no idea there were magical and meta mixed in. It was the DAO’s mission to help contain the meta/magical world. This was easy when Metas and magic was “hidden”, existing on the fringes and edges of society. But times change and more are aware now of Metas and this makes the DAO’s job a lot more complicated. The world is in a time of transition.

This is set in the storyworld of Department of Abnormal Occurrences created by @Twisted_Gnome - thanks TG for letting us play in the DAO sandbox

Coming soon to a TV near you: Monster of the Week! Follow a group of heroes as they travel the country, investigating horrible mysteries and fighting the creatures that exist under the bed and in the closet. They may be an unlikely group, but can their friendship survive the mission? Or will the mission be thrown by their incompatability? Find out on Monster of the Week!

In this game you will play as a group of monster investigators to the tune of Supernatural, X-Files, and Buffy. Some of the writing styles will even reference cuts and other such TV references.

In the process of playing this game you will get an overview of how Storium works. In the full course you will learn:

-How to make a character
-How the various types of cards work, including neutral cards
-How challenges work, including special rules a narrator might add to challenges
-How to strategize and work challenges using the game and card rules of Storium
-How to ignore the game and let this be a collaborative writing experience.

Beginners be warned: Many Beginner games are more “drop in, drop out” allowing for you to get your feet wet and see if Storium is for you. While those games are good and have their place, I generally design mine to have a more direct story and a thought process to teach the players.

If you do not want to stick around for a full game, this may not be the game for you.

The Village by the Sea is too beautiful not to fall in love with, too magnetic to be anything but a tourist trap. Over the decades, the struggling colony became a town of wealth and industry. Now, Easterbrook College pulls in more out of town students to its vaunted halls than locals. The descendants of the Founding families seek to maintain the picturesque reputation, the “small town charm,” and the quiet obedience to the weight of custom. But underneath, the Village struggles with itself and the secrets contained within it. Its growth into a bustling community of size conceals a horrible truth: it was built on the darkest magic imaginable.

It is the Bubbles Festival - a week long festival steeped in tradition as the first Festival was held 200 years ago. Many are drawn to this festival and this year’s event is extra special as it is the bicentennial and the town council wants it to be a celebration no one will ever forget, even if it becomes something no one will want to remember.

Welcome to Ancient Bubbles. This is a basic, beginners’ game (for Storium Players just starting and with very few games under their belts) where people can come learn the ropes of working with the card mechanics, hosts, narrators, and other players . This will be a short story (2 - 3 scenes) designed to give you a “taste” of what Storium has to offer.

Each player will create a character. Your Nature card sets your basic place/character type. Your Strengths and Weaknesses should be personality traits. And the Subplot should be your set character goal for completing your character’s personal arc within the story.

Please note - this is an ALL Ages Storium, which means you will want to watch language and adult themes when posting (please keep your posts PG to PG-13).

Have questions? Come talk to me in the Open Lobby!

Shanties, treasure and adventure on the high seas… could a pirate’s life be for you?

If you’re contemplating this exciting career change, the “good” ship Scourge of the Seas is recruiting now! Captain Jolly Roger and his crew will show you the ropes in this new in-depth on the job training course. Become the fearsome marauder you were born to be! Unlock your diabolical potential today, scurvy dogs!

Midvale University is a moderately prestigious academic institution in the city of Midvale, population roughly one hundred thousand. Midvale is less than an hour from the beach for fun in the summer and the mountains for skiing in the winter, a beautiful place for students to spend their undergraduate years.

MU offers a wide variety of academic programs and extracurricular activities, drawing students with a wide variety of backgrounds and interests. It’s the start of a new school year, and that means a new class of freshmen trying to find their way.

The game is set at a fictional university in a fictional American city in the modern day. There will be no supernatural elements or action-heavy adventures. Player characters will be incoming freshmen starting their first year at MU. This will likely be a mostly comedic, lighthearted story, though characters can go in almost any given direction. Think of any given college-focused comedy, or webcomics like ‘Dumbing of Age’.

This story will be steered by the characters. There is no great overarching plot planned. It could become a zany comedy of wacky college adventures, a drama, or even a romance. It’ll all be up to what direction people want to take things in.

This is a Storium for beginners game. No experience whatsoever is necessary with the Storium format. The focus will be more on learning the format and enjoying individual scenes rather than a grand overarching plotline. People are welcome to hop in or drop out at any time, though I will be trying to cap the total number of participants at a reasonable number.

Please feel free to ask any questions about Storium or the game while participating. This is specifically a game for people who want to jump in and learn the ropes.

Diverse characters welcome, the game is LGBT friendly.

Though wacky college hijinks are to be expected, this is not an 18+ game. Please avoid graphic depictions of violence or sexual activity so that the game can be enjoyed by a wide audience.

A number of nature, strength, weakness, and subplot cards have been provided. Feel free to use them, but also feel free to create your own cards from scratch if you’d prefer.

This is a clone of a previous Storium for Beginners. Plot points will repeat, especially early on. Avoid reading prior iterations if you want to be surprised.

For two hundred years, the village of Draythel has stood alone on its little island.

Though it is isolated from the rest of the world—save for the ferry that runs twice a day in summer and once in winter—most of the people who live there don’t care. They like their little town just the way it is. Those who don’t… well, they leave.

It happens. Village life isn’t for everyone.

Over the years, a number of people have departed Draythel for pastures new across the narrow sea, and most of them have never looked back. But now, on the eve of the much-feted two hundred year anniversary, a few of these deserters stand at the waterfront, waiting for the ferry to take them back to their former home.

Only to find, when they arrive, that everyone has disappeared…

This Game For Beginners is OPEN TO TWO NEW PLAYERS following retirals. They must be a paladin and warrior. I’ll take the first two beginners who apply, so please don’t double up. Do read the story so far (there isn’t much as the game is very early on!) and take a look at the other active characters and think about how to contrast their personalities. Everything else you need to know is in the game info. Your character will first appear at the Green Dragon Tavern, so you need a reason to be there, which we can work out together. Thanks - and welcome!

 
The Head Librarian pulled her glasses off to pinch the bridge of her nose.

“So what we know so far is that a few months ago a mage performed a ritual at Boneyard Pass, out in the Grey Mountain foothills, that had some… unfortunate side-effects.

“Not to put too fine a point on it, we’ve been having… dragon returns.”

“Dragon attacks?”

The librarian clearly considered this to be an interruption of her flow, her brow furrowing just a little. “No. Well, that is to say, not exactly. They’re… repeats. A ghostly dragon appears and plays out the precise attacks of yesteryear. The direction of flight, the damage, all identical.”

She sighed, putting her glasses back on and rising from her desk, walking out from behind it and over to the bookshelves that lined her office.

“If only they were but apparitions. Unfortunately, the fire, the destruction, is all too real. The best that can be said is that those who remember what happened before can help prevent folk from being hurt.”

The librarian slipped her hands into the deep pockets of her robes, turning to survey the party.

“So. You’ll be wondering what you’ve been employed to do. Not to put too fine a point on it, I need you to go and speak to an expert at one of the attack sites, and figure out how to fix this.

“And then I want you to fix it.”
 

 
This story is continued from Beginnings: The Boneyard.
 

The Academy is one of the city’s great landmarks, as well as an institution famed far and wide for its role in providing a proper adventuring education. Locals already tend to ask those offering to help them if they were trained at the Academy, and this practice is slowly spreading across the neighbouring lands.

It’s pretty simple, really. If you want to make a living from adventure, the best place to start your storied career is with a training course at the Academy.

Success—and an increased life expectancy—will be yours!

Or that’s what the brochure says, anyway. Unfortunately, it fails to mention the jealous enemies of the Academy, or the institution’s less publicised exploits.

You are a student, come to the Academy to learn the adventurer’s trade, only to find yourself penned in as an unknown enemy assaults your training grounds.

You could not know the doom that would come upon you. But can you escape it?

You and your companions couldn’t believe your good fortune to snag a berth on the maiden voyage of the Zeppelin Express’s newest ship of the line — the Isembard. Lord Anthony St. John Wesselton, Chairman of Zeppelin Express and the seventeenth most powerful man in Britain, is on board himself to christen the launch of his latest aeronautical innovation. But alas, his poor wife, Lady Wesselton, undercut the pomp and ceremony by having the bad taste to turn up dead shortly after takeoff.

Welcome to Murder in the Clouds. This is a basic, beginners’ game (for Storium Players just starting and with very few games under their belts) where people can come learn the ropes of working with the card mechanics, hosts, narrators, and other players . This will be a short story designed to give you a “taste” of what Storium has to offer.

Each player will create a character. Your Nature card sets your basic place/character type. Your Strengths and Weaknesses should be personality traits. And the Subplot should be your set character goal for completing your character’s personal arc within the story.
personality unique

Please note - this is an ALL Ages Storium, which means you will want to watch language and adult themes when posting (please keep your posts PG to PG-13).

Have questions? Come talk to me in the Open Lobby!

This is a beginner game.

The small town of Akakios has always known peace–but with the rise of banditry in the area, it has found itself a target for raids in recent years. Now, though, things have become more serious–a local bandit lord has gathered an army, and intends to assault Akakios and take over. If he succeeds, he will make the town his seat of power and use it to strike out into the wider region.

Fortunate, then, that you–the citizens of Akakios and the wandering adventurers who have come at just the right time–are ready, willing, and able to fight.

“Defenders of Akakios” is a simple game taking place in a generic fantasy world. Characters can be any common fantasy race (Elves, Dwarves, Humans, Half-Orcs, etc.) and/or class (Commoner, Fighter, Wizard, Thief, Wizard, etc.). The story will tend towards combat/action situations, so for ease of use I recommend making characters who are able and willing to contribute to a fight in some way.

I have set this up to be able to complete in 3-4 scenes in order to teach some elements of the Storium systems to new players.

Though this is set up to run for a shorter time than other beginner games, standard beginner game rules apply. Come in, get the knowledge you need, and then if you’d like to leave and go on to other games, go on with my blessing.

That said, if you want to stay for the full thing, I think you’ll get the most benefit that way and have fun telling a little tale about saving a town from danger.

There’s something really special about the feeling of completing a game. :-)

I will accept 5 players for this game mostly on a first-come, first-serve basis. If you see that there are already 5 players in the application pool but would like to join the game, please message me to let me know of your interest. I will do my best to periodically start up additional versions of this game and get new players in, or to invite new players if players drop from this.