The collaborative storytelling website Let’s Tell A Tale! has always had to contend with the challenges of a niche and somewhat transient user base. But in its decade of scrappy existence, the community of committed writers had grown to include a collection of loyal long-time players. Many came for the creative outlet the site provided, willing to deal with the occasional opinionated co-author and waves of spam from call girls in Southeast Asia because, well, writing with others was fun.
The founder of LTAT!, Esteban Cowl, had also been an optimistic and encouraging presence. With his small but dedicated team of moderators, they did their best to control advertisers and aggressive players, and provide regular updates regarding improvements to the site to reassure users that, even if no internet powerhouse, this passion project was a priority to them.
For years, the LTAT! site existed in a state of balance, and users were generally happy. Nothing can ever be perfect, of course, but the variety of writing games available and variety of sincere players was such that the experience for most is positive.
But then, one day, the unthinkable happened: Mole People from Thalassa attempted to take over the Earth, causing all of humanity to unite together to overcome this invading foe. There was no free time to write during this interstellar war, as everyone’s focus was on saving their planet. It took three grueling years, but in the end, mankind triumphed. Now able to relax once more, they returned to their computers and to LTAT!…but the community was not what it once was.
Where once were a plethora of stories to collaborate on now a simple scarce few. Even the players, apart from the long-time loyal, had become minimal. But most notable of all was the absence of Esteban Cowl; he had gone quiet and allowed the spammers to take over the forums like an unchecked Wild West.
A quick look on LinkedIn clarified that Esteban Cowl was not a casualty of the recent planetary war. But while this was reassuring, the LinkedIn page also revealed he had moved on to work on other tech endeavors - essentially leaving LTAT! to the wayside.
You and your fellow players are devoted users on LTAT!. The last thing you want is for the site to completely go dormant. While you’ve never met each other in person, you have formed a pact to together fly to Saint Francis, California, and seek out Esteban Cowl, hopeful that you can sway him back to his creative start-up before he is completely lost to new projects.
Will your team be able to find your beloved website’s absent founding father? Will you be able to revive LTAT!? Or has the time come for everyone to accept collaborative writing online will never be as it once was?
Find out in…
THE SEARCH FOR ESTEBAN COWL
Hosted and narrated by:
Rhino Time (rhinotime)
Started 02/15/25.
Scenes played: 0
License: Community License
