Category: Gaming

Image from Christmas Stock Images: http://christmasstockimages.com/free/ideas_concepts/slides/dice_throw.htm

  I'm a gamer, and you'll often find me playing video board and tabletop role playing games. Especially if the latter is story and character heavy. Aside from being social in the case of board and tabletop RPGs, I also find that the games I enjoy are story heavy, and at their best they're akin to an interactive novel or movie. I also find tabletop role playing games with other people to be an amazing source of inspiration. As a player, I'm participating in someone else's story, someone else's creative process. I'm also interacting with other players who are creating and developing their characters down lines that I would normally not go. And I find it a shame that games are often ephemeral, experienced in the moment when the dice are rolled and people are together and then they're gone: a small, intimate and personal story known by about five or six people, only to be recalled in memories. So I storify them. In this section of my website you'll find stories from the games I've played in and written about. They're free for the reading, often very first drafty, and sometimes they won't go any further, given that the games the stories were based on have finished. Maybe I'll come back, change names and situations and take these stories into print. Maybe I won't. But for now, they're here. Please enjoy them.

Ongoing Storified Games:

Mass-Effect_200 Stories from AngelArts' Mass Effect Collision Campaign. This campaign is being played on Roll20 and game sessions are viewable on YouTube
Anama_200 Stories from Eike Germann's Anima campaign. This campaign is being played fortnightly at The Melbourne Boardgamer and RPG Group's Thursday CBD meetups. Feel free to come along and find your own game. The game sessions are not being posted online.

Mass Effect Collision Chapter 29: The Halls of the Dead

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.” – Albert Einstein. When the door slammed behind Arkara, she jumped, and immediate turned on the light on her omni tool, dimly lighting up the mounds inside the room, and the absence of her companions. The light was wan, and flickered, casting more shadows than …

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Mass Effect Collision Chapter 28: Blood Ties

“The law is only a defense against those who agree to be bound by it.” – Thane Krios   Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Somewhere in the distance, liquid was falling off something and hitting the ground. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. It was a regularly irregular sound that came from somewhere up ahead in the emptiness …

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Mass Effect Collision Chapter 27: The Canyon

“We’ve all got the power in our hands to kill, but most people are afraid to use it. The ones who aren’t afraid, control life itself.” – Richard Ramirez, AKA The Night Stalker. Human serial killer. “Are you sure this is okay? We can’t be seen?” Cicepia asked nervously as she stared at the small …

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Mass Effect Collision Chapter 26: PTSAnar

“Reality is just a crutch for those who can’t deal with drugs,” – Robin Williams “What happened to Anar?” Sync asked as the unmarked white van pulled away. It wasn’t exactly an ambulance, but it was an unmarked police van with a medical kit and basic supplies. He’d never been in a Turian squad car …

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Mass Effect Collision Chapter 25: Parenting

“In a universe made out of energy, everything is entangled; everything is one” – Bruce Lipton She was standing in a house at the top of carpeted stairs, the top of the open banister just at eye level. “Grandma…Grandma where are you?” It was Talia’s voice, and it was coming from her. Talia looked down …

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Mass Effect Collision Chapter 24: The problem with Elcor

“So the good news: I know where your daughter is, Cicepia. The bad news is I think your father in law just rushed into a factory full of reapers.” “I’m sorry, I heard good news and then I heard good news.” – Cicepia Altus speaking to Elia’solor nar Ashru on Invictus. Before the final push …

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Mass Effect Collision Chapter 23: The Factory

“Your time is precious. Spend it wisely and with those who care for you.” – Justicar Samara To Elias, factories looked the same the universe over. There was something about factories that made all races tend towards the utilitarian. Actually, to be honest he’d only ever seen about four of the galactic races’ industrial architecture, …

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Mass Effect Collision Chapter 22: McTurian’s

“DexToC, It’s easy as 1-2-3, As simple as do re mi, DexToC, 1-2-3 Food for you and me, yeah.” – Elia’Solar vas Rannoch (Blue Universe) Invictus was dry—at least, it was dry in the capital city Shastinasio, which was located in the drier north of the planet, far away from the infamous jungle. Or at …

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Mass Effect Collision Chapter 21: Leaving Tuchanka

“01001000 01000101 01001100 01010000,” – Hannibal, Rogue VI on Luna, 2183 CE. After being decommissioned, Hannibal went on to become the core intelligence behind the Enhanced Defense Intelligence, now known as EDI. They were sitting in the lounge, Elias with a small robotic spider on his hand and Arkara with a bottle of beer. “Want …

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Mass Effect Collision Chapter 20: Friends of the Galaxy

“Science never solves a problem without creating ten more,” – George Bernard Shaw. Padok Wiks led them back through the main garden and up the large, central stairs that Arkara remembered from her last visit. They led up to the…the…how much of her memory was actually hers, she wondered. How much of it was am …

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