Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/04/17/it-came-from-schenectady.html
…
You are friends with a traveler with secret past, and you are working to repair that old, broken spaceship before the ship explodes.
You run a blog/website together with a couple of co-contributors, but you never bother to read each other’s posts. After a series of redundant posts, the experimental AI that is supposed to act as a sub-editor flips and deceides to kill all humans.
After a frustrating search through my library’s new books section for some science fiction (Not wanted: zombies, sexy vampires, Tolkien imitators, TV/movie spinoffs, Rowling clones) I went home and in a fit of fury came up with
Fantasy Quest Mad Libs… and you play it thusly
Volume One of the (NAME OF REGION or REALM OF MAGICAL KNOWLEDGE) tetralogy.
Naive young (MALE or FEMALE NAME), who has lived all (HIS/HER) life with a family of (TITLE OF AGRICULTURAL OR CRAFT OCCUPATION)s, discovers that (HE/SHE) is the last descendant of (TITLE OF NOBILITY) (REGAL-SOUNDING NAME) and is the heir to (NAME OF REGION or REALM OF MAGICAL KNOWLEDGE).
Helped in (HIS/HER) quest by a down-at-the-heels (MEDIEVAL MILITARY SPECIALTY) and a wise but sometimes hard to understand (TYPE OF MAGICAL BEING), (HE/SHE) seeks to retrieve (HIS/HER) family’s greatest relic, the (MEDIEVAL WEAPON) of (MADE UP NAME) and master its powers.
Only then can (HE/SHE) attempt to overthrow the (UNFLATTERING ADJECTIVE) (TITLE OF NOBILITY) (REGAL-SOUNDING NAME) who has usurped (HIS/HER) birthright, and restore (FLATTERING NOUN) and (FLATTERING NOUN) to the land of (NAME OF REGION or REALM OF MAGICAL KNOWLEDGE).
I suppose you have to pay a licensing fee to use the one that generates political news articles.
I find this one much more fun:
Plotto, then?
Though Plotto almost pre-dates SciFi, and doesn’t directly include it I think. You have to modify a Western into Sci-Fi or fantasy.
“You are friends with a talking fireplace, and you are working to solve this ancient puzzle before the creatures consume you”
There is an episode of Doctor Who which has basically this plot. It’s the one with Marie Antoinette in it.
These aren’t “plots.”
These are story concepts, or maybe “premises.”
The plot is the series of events necessary to resolve the conflict in the story.
LOL Your Golden Pussy Is Not Enough
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.