A Kickstarter we like: Storium!

Storium is a platform for online storytelling, and it looks very interesting indeed.

It’s open to asynchronous/play-by-post games, and really the Kickstarter page does a fantastic job of explaining things itself – and other people are writing about it too, such as Helen Barker.  There are two good videos on that page, one of them under “The Game” heading.

If that’s not enough for you, look at the worlds which have been unlocked during the Kickstarter.  I was hard-pressed to limit my selection of examples to five!

Shoshana Kessock: THE RISING – Being dead can’t hold you down in this urban fantasy game about life after the afterlife.  The gates of the underworld are open and it’s time to make a run for your second chance.  Find a body, find a purpose, and find your way home.

Ursula Vernon: WEIRD FRUIT – A village of brave rodents face down carnivorous vegetables, explore ruined jungle temples and confront other dangers in this playful world.

Andrea Phillips: THE DARING ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN LUCY SMOKEHEART – A swashbuckling adventure for the young at heart, with daring pirates, carnivorous mermaids, socialist lizard-people, and ruthless anachronism!

Saladin Ahmed: A THOUSAND NIGHTS AND A NIGHT – The rich cultural history of the Arabian Nights blended with the great pulp traditions of Fairbanks and Harryhausen.  Sail the seas, explore teeming cities, and cross ghoul-haunted deserts.

Richard Dansky: SQUATCHTOWN – Walk the mean streets of a city where Bigfoot’s not a legend and private eyes might be nine feet tall.  Take a walk on the real wild side where big heat meets big feet, and human and sasquatch worlds collide.

So that’s a taster.  The other big cool element of this is how transparent the entire platform is designed to be: people who buy subscriptions ($25 annually post-Kickstarter, $20 currently) will be able to create their own worlds.  And, if they want, attach prices to them – and the majority of profits go back to the creators.

That’s just glorious.  We recommend checking it out.

– Kev.

Episode Twenty Nine – Ancient Greek Steam Automatons

Ancient Greek Steam Automatons

The Colossus of Rhodes is just one of a number of enormous crew-served Mecha, built to fight the other Mediterranean powers.
Greco-Roban wrestling between Greek Letter Houses at University
An ancient clockwork intelligence guides a team of crime-fighters in the modern era
Time Agents try to correct changes to the timeline caused by anomalous events, such as Ancient Greek Steam Automatons, before they re-write history

Here are some links to stuff we nattered about

Episode Twenty Eight – Apocalypse Engine

Apocalypse Engine

A drunk maintenance crew wake up to find themselves the only ones left aboard a colossal crew-served fighting machine run amok.
Guerrilla Journalists sneak aboard a top secret mega-weapon.
Engineers trying to defuse a nuclear test stuck in mid-explosion find themselves on a dream quest which may, or may not, involve fusion imps.
Well, the device has gone wrong & ended the world as we know it; How do we shut it down?
The last hope for humanity may lie aboard a massive train, making it’s way around the world.
Everyone gives the convoy whatever they want, so long as they keep moving & get out of the area quickly. Why? Because they have an Apocalypse Engine.
Weaponised Calypso Music.
This cruise liner contains all that’s left of post-apocalyptic humanity.

Here are some links to stuff we nattered about

A Kickstarter We Like

Hi Folks,
The fine folks at 64Oz Games have a Kickstarter that will help people play games. Most games are designed with vision in mind when the player might not be designed that way. 64Oz Games want to make Print On Demand Sleeves that will fix that. Since we like the idea that anyone should have access to fun things, we thought you might like to support this.

Please check it out.

 

Episode Twenty Seven – Novel Genre Cross-Over, Possibly Accidental

Novel Genre Cross-Over, possibly accidental

What happens when the characters from a novel accidentally wander into a novel from a completely different genre?
If they get lost out there, stuck between the pages, how do the characters left behind repair their own story without a major character?
What happens when a highly-competent heist crew steal the out-of-context problem that is a Lovecraftian artifact?

Here are some links to stuff we nattered about

Episode Twenty Six – Spectral Dance Maneuvers

Spectral Dance Maneuvers

Citizen Detectives Attending Upper-Class Ball To Apprehend Notorious Gentleman-Thief, “The Spectre”!
Investigators Observing Echoes Of The Past In Efforts To Decipher Strange Incident At Grand Ball!
Negotiations With Spirit World Predicted To Ensure Peaceful Year To Come!
Modern-Day Communication System Reliant Upon “Ghost Wires” Between Graveyards & Ley-Line Conjunctions!
Diplomats Baffled As To Why Our Alien Neighbours Are Leaving – Unable To Decipher “Danger; Spectral Dance Maneuvers” Message!

Here are some links to stuff we nattered about

Episode Twenty Five – Papa Legba’s Gumbo Hut

Papa Legba's Gumbo Hut

Craig: Papa Legba’s Gumbo Hut offers Authentic Gumbo AND contact with the Loa!! – Ask about Franchise Opportunities Today!
Tonya: Where do the spirits of those possessed by the Loa GO while they’re not at home? A diner on the corner of the road beyond the veil, of course.
Ben: After the Singularity, pervasive nonotechnology may as well BE Magic for all the sense it makes, but for the right people, Vodou turns out to be a good model for interfacing with it.
Kev: In the Grim Future of the Franchise Wars, heavily-branded Corporate Behemoths do battle for Dominance, uncaring of the Parasite Eateries riding on them, and oblivious to Humanity, who mostly try to stay out of their way & gather leftovers.

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The Big Red Couch Super Bonus Mega Listener Ideas Show

We’ve had a number of Listener ideas over the last few months, and they built up to the point that we couldn’t really tack them onto episodes here & there, so we’ve recorded our longest episode yet, just to get through them all.
Many thanks to our Audient for their fantastic ideas.

Here are some links to stuff we nattered about

Episode Twenty Four – Don’t Go To A Street Naked, Don’t Go To L Street Dressed Like a Train

Don't go to A Street naked, don't go to L Street dressed like a train

Tonya builds a game around the experience of dreaming, with players as elements of the dream, Craig dispenses advice for navigating massive urban societal dissolution, Ben presents the City as an Out-Of-Context alien environment, and Kev explains a dreamscape where arbitrary rules accumilate & build upon each other.

Here are some links to stuff we nattered about

Episode Twenty Three – State Fair

State Fair

Kevin takes us to the Development Conference for the early Universe, Craig imagines Winter Festivals where the atmosphere falls as rain, and also considers Citizenship in a vastly less united U.S.A., Tonya proposes a world where Our State Fair Is The Best State Fair, Or I’ll Cut You, and Gulo T. brings us the Trade & Exchange of Emotional States.

Here are some links to stuff we nattered about