Gloom: avante en garde

[idolpro]

[The old-fashioned writing desk in the center of the room carries several blank pieces of paper, a fine wooden pen, and a piece of parchment covered in writing. When you take a look, you find the following epigraph in a vibrant scrawl:]

Congratulations, future wordsmiths, and welcome to your first exercise in the creation of a true masterwork of tale-telling. This evening you'll be penning a terrific tragedy, starring the family of unsympathetic ne'er-do-wells provided to you.

Your goal? Why, to construct the best story your mind can conceive, of course - and make their lives as entertainingly miserable as possible before writing one of them directly into an early grave.

Comments

RULES

[idolpro]

[On the screen of your phone, you can find the rules:]

YOUR GOAL

Your task is to inflict as much suffering as possible on your family, by playing unfortunate events on them ranging from minor inconveniences to fatal experiences. Once any team plays a death card on a character, the game ends.

YOUR CARDS

Your hand consists of three cards. Each card contains an unfortunate event, assigned a number of points ranging from -10 to -30. The lower the point value, the more delightfully tragic the event. By playing a card on one of your family members, they will experience that misfortune and earn you points.

Some cards include an even more unfortunate death. While they earn no points, playing a death on a family member will not only end their life, but end the game. Hopefully you've brought your family's arcs to a satisfying climax by that point...

Each round, you may play up to two cards on your family. Cards may be piled on one family member, or played on different members as you see fit. You must play at least one card each round--you might find your own story has an unfortunate ending if you do not.

At the end of each round, you will be granted enough new cards to get your hand back up to three.

Once per game, you may swap out your cards for an entirely new hand.

YOUR STORYTELLING

Now, don't get too bogged down with talk of cards and points. At its heart, this game is about creating a compelling narrative.

Every time you play a card, you must narrate how the event comes to pass, under the STORYTELLING heading below. And of course the story must be a coherent narrative--if during round one, your family's patriarch is ravaged by raccoons while in round two they are lost at sea, your creative narrative skills must explain how that character got from the raccoon enclosure to the deck of the pirate ship that they sadly do not know how to steer.

Use your imagination and have fun with it! I certainly will.

YOUR VICTORY

The game will end after the first round in which a unit writes one of their family members to a fatal end via an unfortunate death card.

At that point, all of the negative points from all events played will be tallied. All you need to do is be one of the units with the lowest score, and you will be victorious!

Of course, any tale worth telling is about the journey, not just the destination. Victory will also go to one team for constructing the most enthralling tale.

YOUR FAMILY

[idolpro]

YOUR EVENTS

[idolpro]

ROUND 1

[idolpro]

Was frightened by fungus -20 There's nothing fun about fungus.

Was tickled by tentacles -10 It's a tale too ticklish to tell.

Was pestered by poltergeists -20 They're baaaaack!

You may swap out your hand: once

ROUND 2

[idolpro]

Was pestered by poltergeists -20 They're baaaaack!

Was betrayed by the butler -25 Oh, like you're surprised.

Was wounded by wasps -15 ...not to mention being bothered by bees and harried by hornets.

You may swap out your hand: once

ROUND 3

[idolpro]

Was menaced by mice -15 Perhaps the elephants know something we don't.

Was pierced by porcupines -15 Sometimes having too many points can be a dangerous thing.

Death: Was consumed from within What a way to waste away.

You may swap out your hand: once

ROUND 1

[idolpro]

CARDS PLAYED

[idolpro]

Re: CARDS PLAYED

[gigadevilbreaker]

-20 frightened by fungus on Pencils Pierre

-10 tickled by tentacles on Dark Lord

STORYTELLING

[idolpro]

DARK LORD

[gigadevilbreaker]

Okay, so: the demon lord Dark Lord rose through the ranks of Hell, conquering his rivals until the weaker demons all bowed down before his strength. He grew his power by taking the body parts of his enemies and fusing them t'his own, getting even stronger as he went.

But long ago, a hero had driven a sword forged outta their soul into his heart, and a shard broke off an infected him with weakness. Now he feels things, but if his demon citizens ever found out, they'd tear him apart in a second!

The shard's started poisoning his heart with feelings, and now those body parts are trying t'rebel.

So he's got tentacles, but they won't listen to him anymore. They're trying to fight back by tickling him, and undermining him when he's trying to threaten his slaves! It's bad.

PENCILS PIERRE

[purrrnicious]

And then the guy who eats books saw a giant mushroom and it fell on him or whatever.

OUTCOME

[idolpro]

DISCUSSION

[idolpro]

ROUND 2

[idolpro]

CARDS PLAYED

[idolpro]

STORYTELLING

[idolpro]

OUTCOME

[idolpro]

DISCUSSION

[idolpro]

ROUND 3

[idolpro]

CARDS PLAYED

[idolpro]

STORYTELLING

[idolpro]

OUTCOME

[idolpro]

DISCUSSION

[idolpro]

AND THEN

[idolpro]

[The paper on the old-fashioned writing desk rustles, faintly; the words written upon it begin to grow longer, as though an invisible hand is scrawling something new. It reads:]

Every truly great story has a great ending. And some of you, o wielders of the mighty pen, have brought yours to the inevitable conclusion. Bravo, to all of you who dared to write a character from the script.

Linger a while, as I weigh the merits of your wordsmithing. It won't be long.

[No sooner have the words finished appearing than the door to your room opens up, leading back to the lobby.]