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That idea sounds good to me Baron.

[Saturday March, 19th]

  Can you write about yourselves?  Maybe some incident that happened in your lives?  If you aren't going with subject matter, then writing about "you" is another option.

  Deadline hereby extended to Saturday March, 19th

  Two days!  Was the subject matter to open ended?

  Should I extend the deadline?

  The deadline is looming experts and wannabe-experts...Show off your expertise!

[Best Plot]

  Outside of being involved with developing games, many of us also have our specific interests or hobbies.  It could be an academic interest, serious or trivial, and so maybe you read a lot about that particular subject; for me that would be human evolution and World War II.  Or perhaps you partake in a semi-occasional obscure hobby, some type of (preferably unique) sport, some or all aspects of your profession, traveling, etc...What subject matter do you know about that most other people don't, that you find endlessly interesting?  Write a story that shows off this knowledge!  Maybe your reader will come away with a newfound curiosity or interest.

  If you don't know jack outside of computer games OR have a skillset suited for story adaptation...Well then you should at least be qualified to write about YOU, so write about something that happened in your life.




We will vote on:  Best Plot, Atmosphere, Word-Choice/Style, Grasp of Subject Matter, and Enthusiasm for Subject Matter

There should be trophies...The deadline is Thursday, March 17th.

  Fun game all-around guys!  I'll cook up a new writing competition in a day or two.

[Characters]

Ministry of Characters: Mandle for John Smith.
Ministry of Plot: Baron's story has a basic, but entertaining and fun storyline.
Ministry of Atmosphere: Baron had me on the edge of my seat wondering if Teresa Palmer would win the RPG Society Presidency, and I guess rule in absentia?
Ministry of Background World: Baron's story perfectly recreates the world of a bunch of sweaty D&D dudes living in a grandmothers basement.
Ministry of Word Choice/Style: Baron for bringing the goods like:  "Edwin smiled, revealing a transcontinental railroad's worth of steel bracing in his teeth."  That's alot of mouth metal.

  This looks awesome!  As a both fan of the original and things that are great in general, I'll be getting a copy on Steam.

1. Jim Reed
2. Scavenger

Lots of good entries this round to choose from, much more than the previous SJ which had e-tumbleweeds blowing through it...Should do an attractive male villains next SJ comp.

[->]

Dr. Henry Thomas III, former councilman and mayor of his hometown, watched his opponent's press conference on a big-screen television at the head of the ornate conference room.  Dr. Thomas studied the man like a hawk would eyeball prey.  He looked for every mannerism and brow crease, and listened for changes in his adversary's inflection and overall manner of speaking.  The words almost didn't matter, as Henry knew the man's stance on each issue and how he would articulate them to potential voters.  Henry silently watched as his newfound arch-nemesis, Silcox Remington II, draped himself in an American flag while holding a huge King James edition of the Bible in his right hand and an equally oversized Remington 10-gauge shotgun in his left.  His opponent then led the assembled crowd at the televised press conference in prayer.

Henry turned toward his small team of advisors, who were currently cowering at the other end of the long mahogany conference table, and barked, “Have you super-geniuses figured out how to beat this guy?  In the Deep South, how does one compete with an injured war veteran and former Christian missionary that can trace his family lineage back to legendary gun inventors?”  Dr. Thomas set his large Muniemaker cigar down in a gold-inlaid ashtray and continued, “I don't know where you boneheads hail from or what kind of regional politics you are used to dealing with, but this is Freepatriotsville!  I need to win the governorship HERE, and I need people who understand how to reach the voters HERE!”

In the year 2020, the state of Mississippi split into two.  The bottom half was called Freepatriotsville and became home to the ultra-hardcore conservatives.   The top half of the former state was where everyone else moved to, and was officially known as Missipeaqua - though their neighbors to the south refer to it as “Misseshippy”.

One of the advisors glanced from the television to Henry and offered, “We could do a NASCAR tie-in…or even better, how about at the next rally you whip out a red, white, and blue colored gun with a bald eagle-head shaped barrel that shoots small rolled up copies of the Bible?  You could fire it off into a crowd at your next…” and was cut off by Henry who exclaimed, “OUT!  All of you knuckleheads clear out of the war room.”  The team dejectedly filed out and passed by a small man in tailored suit with a fancy bowtie, who came in and sat down at the table across from Henry.  The man cracked his neck and said, “Dr. Thomas, it is not too late to remake you as a candidate since it is so early in the race and you are a relative unknown.  I will put you further to the right than Governor Remington, and the constituency of Freepatriotsville will be eating out of your hand.”  Henry played with the oversized American flag pin on his lapel and adjusted his matching (and of course oversized) American flag cufflinks while appearing to mull this over, and then replied, “Only Attila the Hun is further to the right.”  The well-coifed stranger smiled, and Henry noticed he was expertly twirling ben wa balls in his right hand that had the Chinese characters “孫子” written on them.  The bowtied man said, “I'm a purveyor of high level strategy with specialties in the promotion of anti-intellectual propaganda, fact obfuscation, hyperbolic rhetoric, and fearmongering tactics who strongly believes in the end justifying the means.  I can turn you into something that would make Attila the Hun look like a beardy hipster listening to the Scissor Sisters on vinyl at an artisan coffee shop.”  Henry nodded and asked, “What's your name?” and the bowtied man replied, “Niccolo, but friends and close business associates call me Bernard…I've done work on the left â€" both the anti-vaxxers and the original Truther stuff was my handiwork â€"  but as you'll see firsthand:  I, along with my staff of PolitBrosâ,,¢ consultants, do our best work on the extreme right-hand side of the isle.  Let's get started Dr. Thomas.”  Bernard pressed a few buttons on a remote control, and a PowerPoint presentation came up on the big-screen television cutting off Silcox Remington II just as he began the “intellectuals and their high fallutin' science” portion of his speech.

Bernard said, “You'll excuse the lack of fancy graphics in this presentation Dr. Thomas, as I'm a man of letters.”

Smear Campaign… -> Compromising digital photos have been gathered and are ready for distribution to the media.  Some will prove especially damning; refer to filenames “ButtStuff.jpg”, “GapesOfWrath.jpg”, and “Tijuana_Snowcone.jpg” as examples. -> Remington's longtime mistress, a former intern, is prepared to come forward and tell all at the moment of our choosing in return for our covering her plastic surgery expenses.  She has already strategically placed rumors in various circles throughout Washington. -> It was believed that a second cousin on Remington's mother's side might be gay.  This of course would be a gold mine if proven true, and so an operative was sent to follow and observe.  The cousin was seen leaving a Cher concert which would support the theory, but then he was also dressed in un-stylish and ill-fitting clothing which is of course in direct conflict with our clichéd understanding of gay people.  More research will be conducted. -> Inside sources tell us that Remington is soon to be endorsed by a former child star named “Honey Boo Boo”.  When that happens, we'll counteract the “Boo Boo bump” by reminding the voting public that she is Honey Boo Boo. -> Hitler analogies. -> We've tracked down a small handful of the people that Remington supposedly converted during his time as a Christian missionary, and none of them have led a Christian lifestyle.  Sure they are productive and charitable members of their societies, and basically each is a credit to humanity in their own way as a direct result of Remington's assistance, but they all now identify as “agnostic” and so his work can be spun as a complete and total failure. -> Remington's war record will come under scrutiny by a group of fellow soldiers who served in his unit.  The official line is that he earned his bronze star by single-handedly capturing an enemy entrenchment while it was being bombarded.   This group will say that he earned it for scrubbing the top brass's bathroom after it suffered a different kind of bombardment.  Remington actually served bravely and honorably, but of course the truth doesn't matter when you can cast doubt via repetition in the mainstream news media and televised attack advertisements shot in black-and-white and scored with gloomy music. ________________________________ PolitBrosâ,,¢ Consulting - Copyright 2028

Henry didn't like tainting war records, but he chuckled at the idea of using scandalous photos and secretly hoped that none of his sordid personal life would leak out.  He asked Bernard, “Will my doctorate hurt me?  Remington might try to paint me as an academic or an elitist yuppie.”  Bernard shook his head and said, “You have an honorary doctorate in kinesiology…Which is a fancy way of saying that a university you donated a lot of money to thinks you can teach a gym class.  So the academic label wouldn't stick.  We know you are an elitist fancy-pants, but we can redirect that back on Remington as he comes from a wealthy, aristocratic family.  Really neither of you should start a ‘most humble beginnings' contest, but whatever their camp does to attack your champagne background can be counteracted by a strong ground game of you â€" a man of the people â€" visiting mom-and-pop shops.  You don't have to actually care about Earl and Flo's struggles in the business world, but we can make it look like you do in front of the camera.”

On Guns… Remington's Position:   Ignores the “well regulated” part of the 2nd Amendment and believes that everyone â€" crazy, criminal, terrorist, or otherwise â€" should be able to legally purchase a firearm and fetishizes the idea of owning a gun.  Also ignores the opposition's call for background checks, and pretends that they instead want to take everyone's guns away from them since it's an easier argument to handle. Our Strategy:   Legalize bazookas, missiles, tanks and basically all weapons platforms up to nuclear armaments and institute state-wide ordinance that every man, woman, and child must open carry a firearm.  Also, men and women of age would be allowed to legally marry their favorite gun. ________________________________ PolitBrosâ,,¢ Consulting â€" Copyright 2028

Henry said, “I know we are just appeasing the tastes of low-information simpleton voters, but I genuinely love the idea of open carrying a rocket launcher that is also my wife.”  Bernard replied, “We've tested this in Freepatriotsville door-to-door polls, and the small handful of pollsters who didn't die from gunshot wounds report that this is a key issue for the state.  We also had a group go encampment-to-encampment to survey the various militias in the state, but none of those pollsters returned.”

Jingoistic Patriotism and Nationalism… Remington's Position:   The United States is the greatest country in the World in every single aspect, and there is nothing to be gained from contact with non-Americans and their “lesser” countries. Our Strategy:   Create propaganda for Freepatriotsville and set it against the rest of the World, including other states.  These people don't like nuance or complex solutions to problems so we'll create a boogeyman, in this case basically everyone outside of Freepatriotsville, and blame them for all the problems.  Also, world geography will be removed from school curriculums. ________________________________ PolitBrosâ,,¢ Consulting â€" Copyright 2028

Harry asked, “Bernard, what about the rebel flag?”  Bernard replied, “You can use it, but you would create a more impactful overall “us versus them” scenario using fresh Freepatriotsville propaganda and tailoring to the specific fears of the voters.”

The Environment… Remington's Position:   The government should repeal every environmental regulation, even basic ones such as the Clean Water Act and the Fishery Conservation and Management act, in order to allow business to flourish without any impediments. Our Strategy:   Our stance is that every square foot of clean air and water is wasted business potential.  All businesses, regardless of their industry or place in the supply chain, will be required to emit pollutants into the air and dispose of liquid toxins into the nearest body of water.  Laws on hunting and fishing seasons will be abolished, and further enhanced so that a hunter, who kills the last animal of a particular species in a given ecosystem, gets a cash reward equivalent to how cool of a gun they used to make the killshot. ________________________________ PolitBrosâ,,¢ Consulting â€" Copyright 2028

Henry squinted at the current slide and said, “So the state will eventually end up a barely habitable, scorched earth that is barren of all wildlife?”  Bernard chuckled and said, “Who cares?  You will be in power.”

Religion… Remington's Position:   Despite freedom of religion, the only religion that matters is Christianity and it is always under attack regardless of whether or not it is really under attack. Our Strategy:   Propagate the usual Christianity is under constant attack line and go a step further by promising a governmental transition to Christian theocracy, plus mandatory prayer, along with a dash of “the gays, abortionists, and/or other religions are taking over” paranoia.  Also, create a strawman argument that portrays homosexuals as wanting to force everyone â€" straight or otherwise â€" to be gay married. ________________________________ PolitBrosâ,,¢ Consulting â€" Copyright 2028

Henry shook his head, looked at Bernard, and said, “As a closet atheist, I hate praying.  It feels too much like begging…Look, I know about the Christian Coalition and the history behind using religion to get votes.  It's a blueprint to control people and can be used as an avenue to bypass critical thinking, but it somehow feels more dastardly than the other tactics.”  Bernard replied, “Publicly admitting your atheism would be political suicide, so don't do that.  Listen, the evangelical vote is the low hanging fruit.  Promise to keep churches tax free and grease a few palms â€" or psalms pun intended â€" and you are golden.  The preachers and priests will either directly or indirectly influence their flocks on Sunday or via voter guides.  Publicly, all you have to do is shoehorn God into a few speeches and figuratively (and sometimes literally) wave a Bible.  This is like pandering 101.  And while not all religious people are science deniers, there are a large enough percentage of them in the state for you to be wary…So artfully dodge any questions related to evolution or the greenhouse effect.  Don't outright deny, even if Remington does, just create a cloud of suspicion…So for evolution go with something like “chimpanzees share 98 percent DNA with humans because of the vast geneticist conspiracy“ or “the fossil record was tainted by all those crooked anthropologists who are on the take for Big Geology” or “human skin tones are different because God or something.”

Government Conspiracies… Remington's Position:   Anything bad somehow involving a group of people that aren't hardcore conservatives must be a conspiracy. Our Strategy:   The conspiracies themselves are a conspiracy.  Any entity made up of large groups of people must be a conspiracy, and if questioned or challenged for evidence then we must counter with vague responses like “follow the money” or “that's what they want you to believe” while nodding your head like they should understand. ________________________________ PolitBrosâ,,¢ Consulting â€" Copyright 2028

Henry queried, “What about potentially harmful conspiracies like Jade Helm?”  Bernard replied, “Doesn't concern us.  What really matters is that if they wear a tinfoil hat, then you can get them to vote for you by weaving their ridiculous theories into your platform and feeding into their paranoia.  This is great “us versus them” divider, which in-turn can be a voter unifier for you.”

Campaign Logo… Remington's Logo:   An American flag. Our Strategy:   We need to go further to the right…This campaign, and Freepatriotsville as a whole, is in the market for an obscenely nationalistic symbol to rally behind.  So here is a bald eagle outfitted with shoulder mounted hunting rifles wearing a tri-corner hat holding a copy of the Constitution and an etching of the Ten Commandments while flying in front of a giant flag. _______________________________ PolitBrosâ,,¢ Consulting â€" Copyright 2028

Bernard‘s presentation was abruptly interrupted by Dr. Henry Thomas III, who said “Alright, I get the idea.  Let's go win this Bowtie.”

Six months later…

“Hi, I'm Chet Jackson with Liberty News!” said Chet Jackson of the leading local television news channel in Freepatriotsville.  His assignment was to interview voters at the largest voting precinct in the state.  Chet told the cameraman to “kill the feed” and shook his head to clear the ringing in his ears.  He had arrived earlier in the day, when the banjos were still blasting the Freepatriotsville national anthem at 150 decibels.  While his ears rang, his eyes were still adjusting from camouflage overload which he guessed must be cousin to being snow-blind.

Chet and his camerman walked over to a couple near an M200 voting machine and said, “Hello Freepatriotsville voters!  Which candidate are you guys voting for?”  An old man wearing a trucker hat that advised the reader to “Git ‘Er Done!” stepped up to Chet's microphone and said, “I'm for whoever is most against socialism!”  Chet replied, “So I take it you're not on Medicare?”  The man replied, “Oh uhhh…I mean, I'm for whoever will drop a nuclear weapon on those heathens in the Middle East!”  Chet asked, “So you don't mind killing the roughly 12 million Christians who also reside there?”  The old man's shoulders sagged and replied, “Scratch that, I'm for whoever won't take my guns!”  Chet sighed and countered, “Then technically you're for every candidate, unless you're crazy or a felon…Anyway, thank you sir.”  Chet Williams muttered to himself about getting the worst assignments while smiling at a morbidly obese woman who was wearing a desert camouflage hat, forest camouflage dress, and bright pink crocs.  She also had a large AR-15 strapped to her back.  The lowest ranking reporter at Liberty News watched a sea of armed overweight men and women converge on the array of M200 voting machines.  He stopped a small girl that was passing by, put a hand on her shoulder and leaned down, and said, “Hello there young suffragette, who would you vote for today if you were of age?  I'm sorry to say that there are currently no ballot measures for free toys.”  The kid tilted her head to the side, sneered, and warned, “You aren't getting my gun mister!” and patted a small pistol holstered on her belt.  Chet frowned and backed away surprised, and then bumped into a man carrying so many guns that he was visibly weighted down and had trouble seeing through all the barrels in his face.  Another man nearby nervously eyed Chet while clutching a handful of guns to his chest.  The reporter motioned for his cameraman to follow, and they both walked over to a less crowded area.

Groups of people were loudly arguing with each other.  A tall man with a bushy handlebar moustache came over to Chet and said, “I'll tell you what's really going on here son!”  Chet replied, “And what's that sir?”  The man replied, “I saw Thomas and Remington in their debates, at least before the fistfights broke out, and…”  The man paused as he dug into his jeans pocket, retrieved a large chaw of Red Man tobacco, and placed it deep in the right corner of his mouth and then continued, “…and I don't cotton to either of them fellas.  This whole thing is a sham-” Chet was immediately distracted by a group of voters loudly booing poll workers in another section of the large room, and when he turned back the mustachioed man was gone.  Chet watched a few people duck out of the exits as the groups of people arguing became noticeably louder; some of whom now had their hands on personal sidearms holstered on their hip.  He nodded towards his cameraman and they went over to the head precinct official's office, and were waved inside.

The precinct official was sitting behind a desk with his head in his hands and moaning.  Chet did a neck slicing motion with his left hand, and his cameraman turned off the video feed and boom microphone.  The official looked up and said, “We created this monster.  Our binary political alignments are already far enough apart…Shove people the far left and you get a bunch of annoyingly politically correct artsy-fartsy whiner-hipsters lazing around a coffee shop, but continually push uneducated, low-information voters to the far right and over a period of time you can wind up with fascism, or even anarchy.  Thanks to the direct influence of Dr. Thomas and Governor Remington and people like them, the residents of Freepatriotsville are accusing all of us of being part of a vast local government conspiracy.“  The man then reached into a drawer and pulled out a pair of MAC-10 machine pistols, and set them on his desk.  He removed his bulky suit jack jacket to reveal a bulletproof ballistic vest.  Chet heard a loud crash and turned around; through the office window he could see a handful of people throwing chairs and another small group overturning a long metal table in attempts to use it as cover.  A wide-eyed Chet moved away from the window, turned back around, and stuttered, “Wait…Hold on…What the hell?”  The official sighed as he unfolded the shoulder stocks of his machine pistols, and added, “They think we are luring people to polling places to confiscate their guns, which will then be given to gay atheists who will use them to shoot fetuses in order to save the environment so that land will be ripe for a takeover by Arabs.  This is what our first world democracy has come-” and the remainder of his explanation was drowned out by the sounds of the first gunshots.

  Christmas Pole Position, awesome!  And thanks for putting up the source code, its hugely helpful!

  Awesomel entry, and great trophies!

  Reminds me a little of the original Bards Tale and Alternate Reality games.  I've never heard of an industry standard term for that style.

  Thanks for your hard work on keeping AGS going!  I agree with the above post, take a well-earned break if it helps prevent burn out.

I thought this was one of your better pieces, and my votes (had I been able to grant them) probably would have nudged the contest into a tie.

Azure voting as Sinitrena had would've resulted in a closer contest as well.  Anyway, good stuff all-around and congratulations Azure!

Speaking of "abandoned place", check this thread action out!

VOTE People.  You're not even required to explain your votes, just list a name per category.

  I vote for Misj.

[Sinitrena]

Best Character: Sinitrena for Djelbra
Best Plot: Sinitrena's took a while to get into, but good stuff once was I was hooked.
Best Atmosphere: Azure's house felt pretty desolate.
Best Style: A few typos, but lots of good turns of phrase in Sinitrena's tale.  I'm a sucker for using sounds for descriptions, like the door that had "clunk shut".  Also, there was lots of great descriptions of various things around the place like the mosaic.
Most Substantive: Sinitrena

  Healing is a huge feature addition.  There are lots of laughs and clever rhymes in Mite's take on Dennis.  The canon bit was my favorite.

[Sinitrena]

Best Protagonist: Sinitrena for "You"

Best Plot: Baron

Best Atmosphere: A point for Mandle's word reversing.

Best Writing Style: Sinitrena for clever wordplay that ultimately brings Christmas guilt rather than cheer.

Best Worldbuilding: Baron takes us back to the World of OSD.