The CEO of a toy company has come to us, demanding we create the story for the next card game craze for kids.
Can we appease his greed?
Let’s find out and write it together!
During the last stream, a subscribers requested that we write a story that could be turned into a card game.
Watch a short version of the stream here or scroll down for what we wrote.
Chat came up with a bunch of awesome ideas for trading card game (TCG) stories, like the Twitch Streaming TCG, the Periodic Table of Elements TCG, or even Growing Mold: The TCG!
But in the end, the one they voted for was: Being an author, the card game.
Here’s what we wrote:
“And that’s the match, folks!” came the announcer’s voice. “The winner is the legendary wordsmith, Bricks Mayson.”
Bricks stood up from the battle-table, the other three wordsmiths hanging their heads in defeat. He shot out his hands to the cheering audience surrounding them, the winning cards from his Hero’s Journey deck spilling from his fingers to the floor.
Alyssa Doria smiled as she watched the scene on her phone, walking home from middle school. Like everyone else, she was a huge fan of Bricks and bought all of his books, each based on his Hero’s Journey wins. Even her first starter deck, Brick’s Writer’s Blocks, was inspired by his international championship victory last year when he’d clutched out the win by countering his final opponent’s attempt to publish with the Controversial Content card. Alyssa loved doing the same when she played with her friends, watching the light in their eyes go out as she stole the win from them.
Before and after a game of Hero’s Journey, Alyssa was always eager to help her friends — build decks, find combos, trade for new cards too. But during the game, she was a maniac, satisfied with nothing less than total conquest of her opponents, earning her the nickname Alyssander the Great.
As Alyssa neared home, she turned off the Hero’s Journey stream on her phone. She didn’t want her dad catching her watching it. Mortimer was an old-fashioned writer, someone who hated how all the bestsellers nowadays were just Hero’s Journey matches brought to life. He even wrote with pen and ink, on paper!
“That’s the secret to crafting a truly powerful story,” Dad would tell her all the time as he scribbled away, smiling. “Make it your own. You’ll never be a world-class storyteller if all you do is mimic others.”
What exactly he was scribbling away writing all the time, Alyssa had no idea. She’d rather lie on her bed, earbuds in, listening to Bricks play as she whittled away at her own story on her phone. Someday she’d publish it. Maybe then she could afford the new deck that would come out from Bricks’s recent victory.
When Alyssa arrived home though, something was off. The front door to her and Dad’s squat little one story was hanging open, and there was a car in the driveway she didn’t recognize. It looked expensive, with a glossy black finish and tinted windows.
Trying not to panic, Alyssa dashed inside, right into the living room.
Then, she panicked.
“Well, well, well,” came a slimy voice. “Looks like we get a little Two-fer McDoofer.”
It was a man in a blood-red suit and matching fedora hat, with two goons on his side. He held a wad of papers in his hand as Dad lay on the carpet, his hands up in surrender.
“Alyssa!” Dad cried. “Run! Get away.”
“Not so fast,” the red-suit man snarled. He held out his hand. “Your phone. Now. Hand it over.”
Alyssa froze in place as the man snatched the phone from her and swiped through it.
“Ah, a fan of Hero’s Journey, I see,” he said. “Oh, and lookee here. You even have a little budding story of your own too.“
One of the goons giggled. “I can’t believe it, boss. You get the manuscript of the legendary Mortar Doria and a free phone.”
The other goon grinned. “This is our best heist ever.”
“Legendary Mortar Doria?” Alyssa asked, not having any idea what they were talking about. “You have the wrong guy. Dad’s name is Mortimer.”
The three crooks laughed out loud.
“Oh yeah?” red-suit asked, nudging Dad on the floor with his shoe. “Is that what this guy told you?”
“He’s Bricks Mayson’s old rival, from back in the day,” one of the goons said. “And now we got his book. We’re gonna be rich!”
Alyssa looked over to Dad, for any sign of anger or protest, but there was none. He just lay there, sad and defeated. Alyssa didn’t know if what these thieves were saying was true, but she did know one thing. They had the only copy of her Dad’s book, and it was up to her to save it!
With the speed of an elite wordsmith, she unzipped her backpack, reached in, and ripped out her Hero’s Journey deck, brandishing it at the three crooks.
“I challenge you to a write-off!” she said. “For my dad’s book.”
“Alyssa, no!” Dad shouted, but red-suit was already cackling. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a Hero’s Journey deck of his own, and the two goons did the same.
“You got yourself a Dealie McWheelie, kiddo,” he said, tossing her the phone back. “But! Here’s the catch. You win, you get daddy’s book back. We win, we get your little book too. And any other books you ever write.”
“Alyssa!” Dad cried again, but she shoved out a hand to silence him.
“Let’s write.”
The four of them sat at the living room table, Alyssa versus the three thieves. The three of them chortled as they shuffled their decks, knowing that they had the advantage. Usually Hero’s Journey games were free-for-alls, where each player was trying to win. But here, it was everyone against Alyssa.
“Standard rules,” red-suit cackled. “First to get published wins. If your word count hits zero, you’re out.”
“I know how to play,” Alyssa said. She slammed her deck on the table, ready to go. “Reveal your starting motivations.”
Her three opponents slid a single card from their deck in front of them and flipped it over. As expected, each of their motivations was “Writing for Money.” It gave them a starting bonus of 10,000 words, a hefty advantage, but they could burn out easily.
Alyssa reached for her own motivation card, the usual “For the Love of the Craft” from her Bricks starter deck, but as soon as her fingers touched it, Dad’s hand clasped around hers. She looked up at him as he smiled down at her.
“That’s the secret to crafting a truly powerful story,” he said. “Make it your own. You’ll never be a world-class storyteller if all you do is mimic others.”
He slipped her a new motivation card, one that Alyssa had never seen before. “The Love of Friends and Family.” No starting word bonus, and no other bonuses that Alyssa could see at all. It seemed useless.
“Here,” he said softly. “Try this instead. It’s one of my… old ones.”
“But, Dad—”
“Just trust me,” he said, letting her go. “And trust in the muse of inspiration.”
Alyssa decided to roll with it. She revealed her motivation and the crooks all laughed.
“What a Dud McFlood motivation!” red-suit said. “This was already too easy.”
“Shut it,” Alyssa spat back at him. “Put your words where your cards are.”
As expected, each of the crooks started with a Prologue. An easy way to up their word count, by info-dumping right at the start. They were rushing to get to 100,000 words and take Alyssa down quickly. But she wasn’t going to be intimidated.
“I’ll start off by Setting the Scene and Tone,” she said, playing her first card. Red-suit snorted.
“A measly 1,000 words,” he said. “Here! Let’s inflate things with a Dream Sequence!”
“And a Flashback!” said his goon.
“And some Purple Prose!” said the other.
Already, each of them was over 35,000 words, a third of the way to victory. Alyssa was starting to feel the pressure, but she wasn’t going to give in. She had to stick to her slow and steady methods.
“I play Coffee Shop Ambience,” she said. “That gives me an extra 1,000 words every turn.”
“Well too bad for you,” red-suit hissed, “you’re not getting any more turns! Here, I play Ghostwriter!”
A bolt of fear struck Alyssa. Ghostwriter was a silly, casual card, letting several players combine their word counts together and publish. No one ever actually played it, because usually only one person wanted to win. But with Ghostwriter, several people could win at once — and one of them would lose.
“That’s Endy McFriendy for you pal,” red-suit said, laying the card on the table. “Now, if you don’t mind, hand over your little story and—”
“Rejected!” Alyssa said, slamming a card onto the table. “I counter with Middle Grade Literary Agent!”
The crooks gasped in shock. Their combined word count of 105,000 was far too large for a middle grade story, resulting in instant rejection. The game continued.
“I play Multiple POVs!” one of the goons said, doubling his word count immediately. An unnecessary addition to the story, but it definitely padded it out.
“I play Love Triangle!” the other said, immediately gaining a hefty word count, despite not adding anything to the substance of the story.
They were falling right into Alyssa’s trap.
“Too bad for you!” she said. “All of your extraneous words are headed straight down the gutter. I play two copies of Edit!”
Alyssa threw the cards on the table, targeting the two goons. Both of them might’ve had thick word counts, but it was all quantity over quality. The Edit card immediately took away all of their prologues and purple prose, reducing them to a few thousand words each.
“Boss!” the goons cried. “What do we do?”
Red-suit merely grinned and slowly played a single card from his hand onto the table.
“No worries, Boysies McWoysies,” he said. “I have the ultimate weapon. The Crippling Depression card.”
Everyone’s mouths fell open when they saw him play it. Crippling Depression was a super-ultra-rare card. Alyssa had never even seen it played before, only heard of its power.
It made a single player lose the game on the spot. And it was targeting Alyssa.
“Sorry pal, it’s Endy McFriendy again for you,” red-suit said.
Alyssa couldn’t do anything. She stared at the counters in her hand, tried to think of the cards in her deck that she could draw, but there was nothing to get her out of this situation.
“Hey,” came a whisper from Dad behind her. He nodded toward the other end of the table. “Be sure to read that entire card before you concede to it.”
Alyssa reached over the table and read the Crippling Depression card. Just like she’d thought, it made someone lose the game unless….
Unless….
“Their motivation is the Love of Friends and Family!” Alyssa read out loud, hope shining through her. She stood up and threw the useless Crippling Depression card back at red-suit, put her hand on top of her deck, and felt the muse of inspiration flowing through her fingers as she drew her card.
The most powerful card in the deck.
“I play Consistency!” Alyssa said, slamming it down on the table. “I gain 1,000 words for every single turn of the game that has happened, including yours. Bringing me up to—”
“No!” red-suit screamed, collapsing to his knees and tugging at his hair.
“—80,000 words! Enough to play Young Adult Imprint and get published!”
Red-suit glared at Alyssa and made a break for it. He ran through the living room, Dad’s book still in his hand.
“Sorry, Loser McDoozer!” he cackled. “But I’m taking this anyway and—”
Slam. Red-suit crashed into someone standing in the doorway, as tall and strong as a stack of bricks. Alyssa had to hold her heart back from popping out of her chest.
“Excuse me,” Bricks Mayson said, gently taking Dad’s book out of the hands of the frozen crook. “But were you about to not honor the outcome of a Hero’s Journey game, Jerry McBerry?”
“Absolutely not, sir!” red-suit cried. “We were just leaving, actually. Let’s hit the road, fellas!”
The two goons followed after Jerry McBerry back outside, leaving just Alyssa, Dad and the incredible Bricks Mayson alone. He held Dad’s book up and leafed through it, raising his eyebrows in surprise.
“This isn’t bad, Mortar,” he said. “You’ve come a long way since our wordsmithing days.”
“Dad,” Alyssa said, finally getting hold of herself. “Why is Bricks Mayson in our house?”
Dad sighed. “Get your cards ready, Alyssa. It’s quite the Hero’s Journey.”
If you want to join us and help write a story by trolling in chat, or share your own writing for feedback, then we’d love to have you join us on Twitch.
And you missed the stream, you can still watch them on the YouTube channel or watch the full stream reruns.
Hope to see you next time, friend!
Top images: Pakutaso