Posts
A day late but not a dollar short! Here’s this week’s weekly world.
Here are the setting elements:
Setting: Space Colony
Tone: Swashbuckling
Things: Advanced Intelligence, Grudge
Tech Level: Low Magic
Place: River
And here are the plot elements:
Opposition: Warlord
Plot Action: Convince (Malignant) Advanced Intelligence
Plot Action: Duel (Healthy) Heist
Again, before you read further, I challenge you to take 10-20 minutes to develop these elements into a workable fictional setting and plot, and post your results in the comments below. After you’re done, you can come back and read my interpretation of these elements.
My Weekly World: Contact Station
In the distant future, an Earth space colony orbits the planet Jai’ju’bal where humans have discovered their first intergalactic neighbors. The Jai’juls are a primitive people. Their civilization is ancient, but a history of frequent warfare and natural disasters has prevented them from progressing beyond the iron age. Human scientists and diplomats prepare for first contact, having observed the Jai’buls for some time from a distance.
However, their plans for a peaceful introduction might be derailed when a xenoarcheologist decides to make an unapproved landing mission to Jai’ju’bal. His goal is to infiltrate an ancient temple built at the mouth of Jai’ju’bal’s largest river and steal valuable artifacts. Earth Force commanders discover the plot shortly after he leaves the space colony, and they dispatch a squad of daring space marines to intercept him before he can do any damage.
Things go awry when the presence of the humans in the ancient temple awakens an immortal alien warlord who had been imprisoned there. Lord Darkrul, a highly evolved Jai’jul mutant, possesses superior mental powers that the superstitious natives attribute to magic. Lord Darkrul begins again his campaign for world domination, seething with anger for the years he’s been imprisoned.
In an attempt to right their mistake, the human xenoarcheologist and space marines devise a plan to defeat the Jai’jul warlord. After evacuating the space colony, they convince Lord Darkul that a being of his power shouldn’t be content to rule from a terrestrial throne, but should rule from the heavens. They lure him to their space colony and then blow it up, destroying Darkul once and for all, and barely escaping in the process.
What do you think? Be sure to post your own take on the elements in the comments if you haven't already.
Labels: Instant Game, Weekly World, writing
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Hey, I just discovered your Weekly World articles today. I remember you talking about this idea, but I hadn't realized you had already started posting them on your blog. Anyway, it sounds like a lot of fun, but I'm having trouble understanding the setting and plot elements. I've been reading your stories to get a better idea, but maybe you could explain it to me sometime in more detail. This is a really neat idea and I'd like to try it sometime. :)
Heather said...
May 5, 2009 at 3:47 PM
I'll try to elaborate a bit here.
The setting this week is "Space Station", so the story should take place on a space station. My story wanders away from the space station quite a bit, but at least it plays an important part in the story.
The tone is "swashbuckling". This means daring characters and plenty of action. You can probably guess how this story would be completely different if the tone were "conspiracy" or "gothic", for example.
We have "Advanced Intelligence" and "Grudge" as things, so the story needs to include those two things. What exactly "Advanced Intelligence" means might be up for interpretation.
We have a tech level of "low magic". This is supposed to be the standard level of technology available in the setting. That seems to clash with the setting of "space station", unless it were a magically powered space station (why didn't I think of that earlier?), so you have to get a little creative with it. I did this by having two distinct civilizations involved, one with the space station and the other a primitive species.
The last setting element is the place "river", so there should be a river that plays a prominent role in the setting.
Now we have the plot elements. The first one is the opposition. In this case it's "warlord", so the major villain should be some kind of warlord.
The we have two plot actions. These are actions that are being taken or attempted, by the protagonists, the antagonists, or some third party. The middle word in parenthesis is just an adjective that gives a little more detail to the action.
That's about it. Hopefully that explains things a little better.
Catalyst said...
May 5, 2009 at 4:22 PM
Yeah, that does help some. I'll have to try it next time.
Mairead said...
June 6, 2009 at 5:17 PM