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.

The Premise

Something has gone terribly wrong in Far Far Away, the land where all fairy tales take place. Happily ever afters are being re-written, true loves are separated, clever tricksters are no longer quite as bright as they used to be.

You know that something is wrong. It happened to you, too. And now you want to fix it.

Characters

Your character should be a classic fairy tale/folk tale character. Think Grimm, Perrault and Andersen, not Disney. I will be pretty strict about this so feel free to PM me before submitting your character concept. In addition, something should have gone wrong in your particular tale (Cinderella may have never gone to the ball, Sleeping Beauty might still be asleep, etc.)

I’m a huge fan of taking fairy tale motifs and twisting them, so have fun with that. In this fairy tale, princesses are quite capable of saving themselves, thank you very much. :-)

Well known characters may get assets peculiar to that character (for example: Jack might get magic beans).

I’ve given you some starter ideas but feel free to create your own cards.

I’ve set the speed to one scene per week, but am happy to go faster.

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.

Down on your luck? Bored with your humdrum life? In need of an escape?

There is an answer: join one of our caravans and head out west! A whole new life awaits you, rife with promise and opportunity. You just have to get there first.

Ah, but even that can be an adventure. It’s all in how you look at things.

Do battle with rare and interesting diseases! Ford rivers once thought impossible to cross! Hunt your own food, like true adventurers, or face food spoilage and famine with a smile! Face off against bandits or wild beasts and send them home bleeding!

So if your present existence is dull or uncomfortable, this could be for you. Just try not to end up another badly carved grave marker by the side of the trail…

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!

Welcome to Storium 103! Don’t worry, this is not a class in a series, but just another beginner game. 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.

This is a beginners game

Across time and space, across dimensions and that misty interface between fiction and reality are scattered a hundred million white cubes. No-one knows where they came from, or how they got their special power. The cubes are made of purest, smoothest white marble, and - no bigger than the palm of a human hand - for the most part, they tend not to attract very much attention, dismissed as part of the environment. But every so often, by accident or design, a curious soul might pick one up for closer examination.

What happens next to the person who picks up a cube is the night of their lives. The cube is a portal to a point outside of time around which has been built an ineffably cool bar and nightspot called “Anatole’s”. “Anatole’s“ has been designed as a place where characters from all walks of life can stumble in, order any drink their heart desires and chew the fat with the other patrons, before returning to their everyday life. Where else might you exchange poetry with a cyborg assassin, arm-wrestle a dead president and fall in love with a sentient paramecium… all in one amazing night! “Anatole’s” doesn’t accept money - drinks can be purchased for tall tales and inventive ideas. Once in a while, eponymous owner & barkeep Anatole will call “Time!”, close the tab, and drinkers are expected to pay their bill by sharing stories of their lives.

The bar caters for all languages and exists in a state of temporal grace - no weapons will fire (although that’s not to say the odd fight doesn’t break out - fists & cudgels still work just fine). And somehow the decor shifts to suit the current clientele.

Characters can arrive & leave of their own free will (or until Anatole throws them out!) There are no rules at “Anatole’s“ except civility… and an unspoken agreement not to upset Germ. No-one knows exactly who the hooded figure really is nor where she came from, except that she’s occupied the end stool for the bar for more than five millennia…

The year is 2489. Mankind has developed poorly-explained FTL technology and taken to the stars, discovering a whole galaxy of adventure, riches and opportunity… and alien races who want to keep all of that for themselves.

Just like the oceans of Earth, the celestial sea is a playground for all manner of different vessels. Traders, passenger liners, private yachts, drifters, scavengers… and pirates. Your ship, the Crimson Dawn, fits squarely in the last category.

Why you’re here is your own business. Pirates aren’t much for prying. Maybe you’ve fallen on hard times. Maybe you’re looking for adventure. Maybe you’ve got something to prove. Whatever it is, you’ve got your reasons.

But there are pirates and there are pirates. The crew of the Crimson Dawn are scoundrels and thieves, liars and occasional murderers, but there are those in the dark expanse of space who are far, far worse than you. So, ply your wicked little trade, but watch your back, lest you fall afoul of the fearsome Shadow Chancellor…