#The Story Engine Deck

[daniellethamasa]

Weekend Writer: April 2024 Prompts

Hey all, Sam here. It’s the start of a new month, and that means it’s time for more Weekend Writer prompts! As I mentioned in a previous post, I am making some changes to how this blog series works, mostly because I was spending so much time prepping and writing these weekly posts and it left me so drained. I absolutely loved writing all the writing posts and doing the writing craft book deep…

[darknightwolves]

Episode 139: Things To Get Your Reader/Writer Friend This Holiday | Creative Writing Club

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EH_fGLUHOuM https://open.spotify.com/episode/4nvuUnmgTIZHueTiZfFk4X?si=e63cf494cde04ce2 With the holiday season coming up just around the corner and most definitely people still choosing to shop last minute even with entire stores and more at their fingertips, there is still one major underlying issue at hand that may be the reason that some people choose to…

[mephestopheles]

I need to promote something for a moment. A little over a year ago I found The Story Engine Deck, I missed the Kickstarter, but I found it when the creator, a fellow Canadian was donating proceeds to Ukraine. So I bought the pdf version of the deck and then bought the pdf version of the deck of worlds when that came out.

I love these decks so much.

They are amazing, they offer a lot of options for building stories and creating locations and plot hooks. And I like that the decks have been created by several writers, they've donated over 250 physical decks and 1700 pdf to print copies to educators and libraries and other community initiatives.

I found the Lore deck about 24 hours after the campaign launched and it's fully funded, it was fully funded in 4 hours. The stretch goals are amazing. The current deck available is now 300 cards before the expansion decks are added, they've been able to hire 6 guest writers, pledged to plant 3000 trees through Eden Reforestation.

And full transparency, this promotion is to get 500 shares in the last week to get an outtake deck. I've spent a lot of money between the pdfs I purchased the ink etc to print at home so I need to tell you seriously when I say I'm very much debating buying the physical decks of the two I don't have so I can have them all.

These things are so much fun to use and are greater for story generation and building plot hooks for ttrpgs, and character ideas and so so many more.

Check it out! This stuff is amazing

[amber-jinx]

We finally have something close to a Rachel Amber DLC 🔥🥹

Y'all have to check this out. The details are amazing!

No but if i see a blue haired girl with a beenie and a blond in plaid shirt driving by in a truck like the end there I'll prolly chase after them 😂

This is the development needed

Chap 2 Chap 3 here!

[worldanvil]

Janet interviewed the creator of the Story Engine Deck about when and how to create a crazy quilt of a fantasy world... and when and how to avoid it.

[linuxgamenews]

The Thaumaturge: Immerse Yourself in 1905 Warsaw with Polish Localization

The Thaumaturge the story-driven RPG game brings Polish to Linux and Steam Deck via Windows PC. Thanks to the creative talents of developer Fool's Theory. Available on Steam, GOG, and Humble Store with 84% Very Positive reviews. If the only Polish words you know are the famous swears, I’ve got some exciting news from Fool’s Theory and 11 bit studios. Starting now, you can enjoy The Thaumaturge with Polish voice-over. While this story-driven RPG takes you back to 1905 Warsaw, and now, it’s even deeper with its native language. Also playable on Steam Deck and Linux. Back in the early 20th century, Warsaw was under foreign control, and the Polish language was banned from schools and public life. But the Polish spirit never gave up, so the devs wanted to honor that by adding Polish voice-over. Fans have been asking for this since day one, and it’s finally here.

The Thaumaturge | Polish Dubbing Now Available

To also keep the Slavic vibe, the same actors who did the English voices recorded the Polish ones too. They’ve nailed the period vocabulary and expressions, making the game feel true to its 1905 Warsaw setting. Since playing with the Polish voice-over gives you a real sense of the time and place. The Thaumaturge is an isometric RPG packed with a gripping story, tough choices, and deep themes. Created by Fool’s Theory and published by 11 bit studios, it puts you in the shoes of Wiktor Szulski, a talented but troubled thaumaturge, exploring the intricate world of early 20th-century Warsaw.

What features you can look forward to:

Shape your story – Your choices matter. Decide your path and deal with the consequences.

Develop your character – Customize your thaumaturge to handle situations your way.

Unique turn-based combat – Use a mix of human skills and psychic powers from your salutors to take down enemies.

Influence others – Manipulate characters to bend them to your will.

Master salutors – Harness their unique abilities to explore and conquer.

Explore 1905 Warsaw – Dive into a well-researched historic setting where crime and luxury coexist. Meet real historical figures and see how they fit into your adventure.

Built on Unreal Engine 5, The Thaumaturge looks stunning and detailed. Plus, you will also see that it's Steam Deck Verified and also playable on Linux via Windows PC. To celebrate the Polish voice-over patch, there’s also a 25% discount on Steam right now. Dropping the price to $26.24 USD / £22.12 / 26,24€. It's also available on both GOG and Humble Store at regular price. Get ready for an epic story-driven RPG game taking place in a unique period in history, now with an authentic Polish touch.

[creativeprompts]

Prompt: There is a metropolis known colloquially as the city where no rain falls due to its towering skyscrapers and protective field that protects the city from the acid rain. In this metropolis, there is a tree, the last remnant of a sacred druidic site. This site, the last remaining pure link to the before times, is now the hiding place of a piece of tech that could end the world. Due to a data leak, it's only a matter of time before this tech is found.

This is an example of a simple microsetting from the Deck of Worlds deck from Story Engine. You pull 1 each of a Region (main terrain type), Landmark (geographical sites and points of interest), Namesake (what people call this place other than its true name or what its true name means), Origin (significant events in the areas past), Attribute (highlights present-day features of the area and its people), and Advent (introduce events that may change the area's future).

[mightymur]

[ISBW] Deck of Worlds: Unleashing Creativity in Fiction

S20 Ep19: In Which Mur Explores the Deck of Worlds and Story Engine “You know, if you use the word ‘modified,’ you can get away with anything.”– Mur Transcript (This post went live for supporters on July 1, 2024. If you want early, ad-free, and sometimes expanded episodes, support at Patreon or Substack!) Hey, are you lost? Check out the video! Join Mur Lafferty as she dives into a live-streamed…

[sporadic-maunderings]

There is a road that's built from bone, from what none alive knows, 'tis ruined now, the bones near-dust, you can follow if you look close.

A cabin lurks at the road's end, its logs do not look right, more bones, some say, and look away, avoiding the grisly sight.

The cabin has a colossal mirror, its surface shiny and bright, and every time you look in it, you nearly die of fright.

It shows you things that cannot be, From future and from past, And when you turn around to leave, Those things will come to pass.

Variations in Bone and Glass (Urban Legend)

Some say the road only appears on moonless nights; others say the moon must be full and gleaming bright in the sky. Both versions agree, though, that the road is nearly impossible to see, and that you might find yourself walking on it without realizing it.

There is supposed to be a cabin at the end of the road (which is reported as anywhere from half-a-mile to ten-miles in length), possibly made of bone, or possibly of some very pale wood that resembles bone. On entering the cabin, a room familiar to the pilgrim will appear, but in a ruined state. Most commonly people report seeing their childhood bedroom, but classrooms, church sanctuaries, and suchlike, are also common. Somewhere in this room will be a very large mirror, whether or not the original room had such a mirror, so large that it inevitably draws the viewers' gaze.

At first, the mirror will reflect the room back as it is, but then the view will change. Sometimes it is a modification of a scene that took place in the original room. Sometimes it is something from a different location entirely. Either way, the stories agree that if you watch for long, whatever you see in the mirror will come true, usually to your detriment.

[madame-vera]

Yay! I got the Deck of Worlds and it's so much. I can't wait to try the story and lore boxes. So excited for them.

But first, my first World's attempt using the cards on the top.

I have the Hissing Spires, a grassland named after the hissing sound of the wind through the rows of spires. They're known for their seasonal great floods that cover the plains, a dangerous but beautiful sight as it reflects the skies above. They also have unique carnivorous plants like eating the mosquitoes and other bugs drawn by the floods.

The unique expansive spires and low grasslands were caused by a series of epic storms which wore down the mountains. It's a historic natural sight with no settlements (largely due to the flooding).

Scientists fear that the Great Storm is coming again due to a natural phenomenon seeming to hide the stars beyond sight. Now they must determine if their fears are true and what to do afterwards. Surviving the worst case scenario vs determining whatever's actually going on if it's unrelated.

I love this 💕

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Red Lobster was killed by private equity, not Endless Shrimp

For the rest of May, my bestselling solarpunk utopian novel THE LOST CAUSE (2023) is available as a $2.99, DRM-free ebook!

A decade ago, a hedge fund had an improbable viral comedy hit: a 294-page slide deck explaining why Olive Garden was going out of business, blaming the failure on too many breadsticks and insufficiently salted pasta-water:

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/940944/000092189514002031/ex991dfan14a06297125_091114.pdf

Everyone loved this story. As David Dayen wrote for Salon, it let readers "mock that silly chain restaurant they remember from their childhoods in the suburbs" and laugh at "the silly hedge fund that took the time to write the world’s worst review":

https://www.salon.com/2014/09/17/the_real_olive_garden_scandal_why_greedy_hedge_funders_suddenly_care_so_much_about_breadsticks/

But – as Dayen wrote at the time, the hedge fund that produced that slide deck, Starboard Value, was not motivated by dissatisfaction with bread-sticks. They were "activist investors" (finspeak for "rapacious assholes") with a giant stake in Darden Restaurants, Olive Garden's parent company. They wanted Darden to liquidate all of Olive Garden's real-estate holdings and declare a one-off dividend that would net investors a billion dollars, while literally yanking the floor out from beneath Olive Garden, converting it from owner to tenant, subject to rent-shocks and other nasty surprises.

They wanted to asset-strip the company, in other words ("asset strip" is what they call it in hedge-fund land; the mafia calls it a "bust-out," famous to anyone who watched the twenty-third episode of The Sopranos):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bust_Out

Starboard didn't have enough money to force the sale, but they had recently engineered the CEO's ouster. The giant slide-deck making fun of Olive Garden's food was just a PR campaign to help it sell the bust-out by creating a narrative that they were being activists* to save this badly managed disaster of a restaurant chain.

*assholes

Starboard was bent on eviscerating Darden like a couple of entrail-maddened dogs in an elk carcass:

https://web.archive.org/web/20051220005944/http://alumni.media.mit.edu/~solan/dogsinelk/

They had forced Darden to sell off another of its holdings, Red Lobster, to a hedge-fund called Golden Gate Capital. Golden Gate flogged all of Red Lobster's real estate holdings for $2.1 billion the same day, then pissed it all away on dividends to its shareholders, including Starboard. The new landlords, a Real Estate Investment Trust, proceeded to charge so much for rent on those buildings Red Lobster just flogged that the company's net earnings immediately dropped by half.

Dayen ends his piece with these prophetic words:

Olive Garden and Red Lobster may not be destinations for hipster Internet journalists, and they have seen revenue declines amid stagnant middle-class wages and increased competition. But they are still profitable businesses. Thousands of Americans work there. Why should they be bled dry by predatory investors in the name of “shareholder value”? What of the value of worker productivity instead of the financial engineers?

Flash forward a decade. Today, Dayen is editor-in-chief of The American Prospect, one of the best sources of news about private equity looting in the world. Writing for the Prospect, Luke Goldstein picks up Dayen's story, ten years on:

https://prospect.org/economy/2024-05-22-raiding-red-lobster/

It's not pretty. Ten years of being bled out on rents and flipped from one hedge fund to another has killed Red Lobster. It just shuttered 50 restaurants and declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Ten years hasn't changed much; the same kind of snark that was deployed at the news of Olive Garden's imminent demise is now being hurled at Red Lobster.

Instead of dunking on free bread-sticks, Red Lobster's grave-dancers are jeering at "Endless Shrimp," a promotional deal that works exactly how it sounds like it would work. Endless Shrimp cost the chain $11m.

Which raises a question: why did Red Lobster make this money-losing offer? Are they just good-hearted slobs? Can't they do math?

Or, you know, was it another hedge-fund, bust-out scam?

Here's a hint. The supplier who provided Red Lobster with all that shrimp is Thai Union. Thai Union also owns Red Lobster. They bought the chain from Golden Gate Capital, last seen in 2014, holding a flash-sale on all of Red Lobster's buildings, pocketing billions, and cutting Red Lobster's earnings in half.

Red Lobster rose to success – 700 restaurants nationwide at its peak – by combining no-frills dining with powerful buying power, which it used to force discounts from seafood suppliers. In response, the seafood industry consolidated through a wave of mergers, turning into a cozy cartel that could resist the buyer power of Red Lobster and other major customers.

This was facilitated by conservation efforts that limited the total volume of biomass that fishers were allowed to extract, and allocated quotas to existing companies and individual fishermen. The costs of complying with this "catch management" system were high, punishingly so for small independents, bearably so for large conglomerates.

Competition from overseas fisheries drove consolidation further, as countries in the global south were blocked from implementing their own conservation efforts. US fisheries merged further, seeking economies of scale that would let them compete, largely by shafting fishermen and other suppliers. Today's Alaskan crab fishery is dominated by a four-company cartel; in the Pacific Northwest, most fish goes through a single intermediary, Pacific Seafood.

These dominant actors entered into illegal collusive arrangements with one another to rig their markets and further immiserate their suppliers, who filed antitrust suits accusing the companies of operating a monopsony (a market with a powerful buyer, akin to a monopoly, which is a market with a powerful seller):

https://www.classaction.org/news/pacific-seafood-under-fire-for-allegedly-fixing-prices-paid-to-dungeness-crabbers-in-pacific-northwest

Golden Gate bought Red Lobster in the midst of these fish wars, promising to right its ship. As Goldstein points out, that's the same promise they made when they bought Payless shoes, just before they destroyed the company and flogged it off to Alden Capital, the hedge fund that bought and destroyed dozens of America's most beloved newspapers:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/16/sociopathic-monsters/#all-the-news-thats-fit-to-print

Under Golden Gate's management, Red Lobster saw its staffing levels slashed, so diners endured longer wait times to be seated and served. Then, in 2020, they sold the company to Thai Union, the company's largest supplier (a transaction Goldstein likens to a Walmart buyout of Procter and Gamble).

Thai Union continued to bleed Red Lobster, imposing more cuts and loading it up with more debts financed by yet another private equity giant, Fortress Investment Group. That brings us to today, with Thai Union having moved a gigantic amount of its own product through a failing, debt-loaded subsidiary, even as it lobbies for deregulation of American fisheries, which would let it and its lobbying partners drain American waters of the last of its depleted fish stocks.

Dayen's 2020 must-read book Monopolized describes the way that monopolies proliferate, using the US health care industry as a case-study:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/29/fractal-bullshit/#dayenu

After deregulation allowed the pharma sector to consolidate, it acquired pricing power of hospitals, who found themselves gouged to the edge of bankruptcy on drug prices. Hospitals then merged into regional monopolies, which allowed them to resist pharma pricing power – and gouge health insurance companies, who saw the price of routine care explode. So the insurance companies gobbled each other up, too, leaving most of us with two or fewer choices for health insurance – even as insurance prices skyrocketed, and our benefits shrank.

Today, Americans pay more for worse healthcare, which is delivered by health workers who get paid less and work under worse conditions. That's because, lacking a regulator to consolidate patients' interests, and strong unions to consolidate workers' interests, patients and workers are easy pickings for those consolidated links in the health supply-chain.

That's a pretty good model for understanding what's happened to Red Lobster: monopoly power and monopsony power begat more monopolies and monoposonies in the supply chain. Everything that hasn't consolidated is defenseless: diners, restaurant workers, fishermen, and the environment. We're all fucked.

Decent, no-frills family restaurant are good. Great, even. I'm not the world's greatest fan of chain restaurants, but I'm also comfortably middle-class and not struggling to afford to give my family a nice night out at a place with good food, friendly staff and reasonable prices. These places are easy pickings for looters because the people who patronize them have little power in our society – and because those of us with more power are easily tricked into sneering at these places' failures as a kind of comeuppance that's all that's due to tacky joints that serve the working class.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/23/spineless/#invertebrates

[daniellethamasa]

Weekend Writer: March 2024 Prompt Share

Hey all, Sam here. On occasion, time really feels like it flies. Somehow we are already at the end of another month…which per my new schedule with these Weekend Writer posts means that we are at another prompt sharing post. Basically, in each month, on the first Friday I will use various creativity generators to come up with a number of options to hopefully spark our interest and get us…

[theferalcollection]

Story-A-Day Challenge (30/30)

I have been telling myself a story everyday for the past month using the Story Engine Deck by Peter Chiykowski to beat writer’s block. Today’s prompts were pulled from the military scifi and fairy tales boosters. A grunt (Agent) wants to extract resources from (Engine) an occupied (Aspect) asteroid (Anchor), but a past atrocity will come to light (Conflict). A pacifist (Agent) wants to seal…

[hfepro]

started playing with my Deck of Worlds from Story Engine Deck today. creativity is my forte, but it's nice to have some tools to help me focus a project.

i've built a syrupy taiga with the frost and fables expansion.

i look forward to the arrival of my story engine box!

[violetflowerswrites]

I Hate Motorcycles

Pairing: Jason Todd x GN Reader

Summary: The Red Hood saves you from a bank robbery gone wrong, and reveals that your best friend, Jason Todd, is back from the dead.

Word Count: 1.7k

Disclaimer: bank robbery, weapons (guns, gas, knives, mace, taser), minor injuries with mention of blood, mentions of kidnapping and stalking, reader swears like a sailor, loss and grief, attempted murder, angst, consensual kiss.

A/N: I’ve been reading Batman comics and the BatFam has just wrecked my heart! I wrote this in like an hour because I kept thinking about the emotional whiplash that is losing Jason and his unexpected comeback. I’m not an expert on DC comics and I’m not sticking to any specific storyline. Just a lil Drabble for fun. Enjoy!

“Are you fuckin kidding me?” You muttered under your breath as broken glass, screams of terror, and angry shouts crackled across the bank.

The one day you decided to beg for a loan from the city’s stingiest bank, it gets robbed.

Fan-fuckin-tastic.

Multiple assailants in ski masks shouted the usual—“hands up or we’ll shoot!”, “put the money in the bag!”, so on and so forth.

You could practically taste the caked on dirt of the discolored carpet as you pressed your face down, splayed out on your stomach with your hands up in surrender.

Carefully, your eyes trailed across the foyer, wondering if you could just casually dip a hand into your pocket and pull out your switchblade, or mace, or taser.

This was Gotham after all.

Everyone has to be prepared for the worst.

But, no such luck. There were 8 armed men with machine guns.

Huh. That seemed like overkill.

Unfortunately, you didn’t have time to process that thought when a bright green gas started to waft through the glass building.

Then, the unmistakable sound of giggling.

What the fuck?

On instinct, you army crawled towards the nearest broken window, desperate for fresh air. In the chaos of over fifty hostages suddenly caught up in raucous laughter, you managed to hold your breath and pull yourself up to the windowsill.

Immediately cutting your hands to a bloody mess.

Biting in a swear of pain, you persevered, hauling your body across the shards until you fell in a heap on the sidewalk outside.

Your breath came in dizzying gulps, but nevertheless, your gaze blurred as the exposure to the gas was rendering you unconscious.

Just before your eyelids shut, you heard an incredibly loud revving of an engine.

And saw a blurry red streak of a motorcycle sailing through the broken window and into the bank behind you.

Your last coherent thought was:

I fucking hate motorcycles.

…

The story of why you hated motorcycles was a simple, although tragic one.

Your father was a mechanic, a brilliant one, but poor. You grew up helping in the garage as much as you could, trying to make ends meet.

Then, your father started to take on jobs for vehicles that weren’t…normal.

Decked out motorcycle-turned-gliders, cars that could transform into boats, that sort of thing.

Soon enough, you weren’t so poor, but your father still kept up the appearance of just being another struggling business in the great city of Gotham.

You knew better than to ask questions.

Until one day, a boy came. He asked for a motorcycle in special colors—red and yellow and a hint of green.

By then it was obvious to you that your father—and by extension, you— were fixing up vehicles for none other than Batman and Robin.

The vigilantes, the crime-fighting heroes of your city.

It was inevitable that the two of you, being practically the same age, would strike a close friendship. If he wasn’t busy fighting who-knows-what in the dark alleys of Gotham, Robin would come over and spend hours with you working on his bike.

And he was such an asshole. A demanding, violent, arrogant jerk of a kid who wanted his motorcycle to be as deadly, dangerous, and fast as possible.

You, being an incredible mechanic like your father before you, took it as a personal affront to your pride. You constantly fueled each other, challenging each other to do better, be better.

And together, you were a formidable pair.

Until the Joker came.

And he was gone.

Batman lost his Robin, and your family soon lost its main source of business.

That’s why you were at the bank, trying to get a loan to cover the mortgage of your garage.

For years, you cursed Batman and his vigilante crew, blaming them for getting your best friend killed.

But, just as much, you blamed yourself. If only you hadn’t given him such a formidable vehicle, or hadn’t goaded him into fighting as violently as he did.

Maybe he wouldn’t have died.

So now, every motorcycle was a heart-stabbing reminder of him, and your failure to protect someone you loved.

…

You awoke to the feeling of someone placing a helmet on your head and lifting you up.

Firm hands wrapped your arms around a thick midsection, as your legs straddled a motorcycle.

Shit.

Someone was kidnapping you.

Before you could react, the wheels squealed and you peeled off into the rain-slicked streets of Gotham. Fear coursed through your now ice-cold veins and you shut your eyes, holding on for dear life as the rider pushed the vehicle ever faster.

After what felt like an eternity, you both finally stopped and you cracked open an eyelid to see a shocking sight.

Your garage.

Whoever took you knew where you lived.

Fucking hell.

This was worse than you thought.

Gathering your wits, you whipped out a knife in one hand and a taser in the other.

“Who the fuck are you?!” You screamed at your kidnapper. “How do you know where I live?”

“Ah—shit—this looks bad. Look, I’m sorry, I’m not trying to scare you—“ the man wore a red metallic mask, his voice altered by some kind of technology. He sounded more like a robot than a man.

“Yeah? Well you’re doing a piss-poor job of it. You got 3 seconds to explain yourself!” You lowered your stance, clearly ready to attack whoever this leather-clad stalker was.

”You got hit with laughing gas at the bank. It’s the Joker, he’s back, and I just couldn’t stand by while you were in danger. I couldn’t stand watching you from afar anymore.” The man stumbled through an explanation, backing up until his legs bumped into the motorcycle.

In a quick glance, you looked at the vehicle and immediately recognized it as one of yours. It was tricked out with fatter tires, a different front windshield cover, and red and black paint, but the engine, the shape of the body, that was undeniably your engineering.

It was Robin’s bike.

You rushed up to him, closing the distance and pressing the blade of the knife to the gap of skin between his black Kevlar turtleneck and his mask. Your other hand pressed the taser into an exposed seam between the armored protection on his side.

“Where the fuck did you get this bike?” Your voice dropped dangerously low, your tone seething with murderous anger.

In that moment, Jason could see in your gaze just how deeply the pain of loss ran through you. You were a mechanical genius, a competitive, intelligent, shit-talking inventor. But you weren’t a fighter. And you definitely weren’t a killer.

But, Jason knew that if he didn’t tell you the truth, you would have murdered him in cold blood on the steps of your home, without a single ounce of regret.

“Take off my mask.” He whispered, his Adam’s apple bobbing against the blade of the knife.

Your eyes narrowed with suspicion. “Why?”

“You need to know who I am.” He replied cryptically.

Jason could see the gears turning in your head as you realized that this mask-wearing fucker could be working with the Batman.

And good ol’ Bats wouldn’t waste a perfectly good bike, even if it belonged to his Robin, whom he treated like a son.

A now dead son.

Jason held his breath for a beat more as you considered his words, but curiosity got the better of you and you complied.

You eased up on the knife to use your finger to pull the mask off his chin, and it fell to the floor with a sharp clatter.

A second later, your knife and taser fell to the floor as well.

“Fuck.”

The single syllable popped out of your jaw-dropped mouth as you stumbled back as if Jason had shoved you.

It was him.

That unmistakable sheepish look of taking things just a little bit too far on his handsome face. A face now aged and scarred a bit, and a shock of white hair attached to his forehead.

“It’s me. I’m back.” He shyly smiled at you, shrugging his shoulders as if he didn’t just come back from the fucking dead.

An uncontrollable wave of rage washed over you and you recovered, your hands quickly forming fists which rain all over his chest.

“Fuck you! Fuck you, Jason! You fucking died! You have no fucking right to be here right now! You fucker!” Raw screams of grief and disbelief wrenched out of your body, as sound unrecognizable to you since the first days that you lost him.

Thought you lost him, forever.

“I know, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” Jason hugged you tightly as if he never wanted to let you go again. You didn’t realize that tears were streaming down your blotchy cheeks and were now soaking through the bullet proof vest on his chest.

“How? How are you here?” You spluttered through heaving lungs, trying your best not to break down into sobs.

“I’ll explain everything, I promise.” He ran a soothing, warm palm down your back. “But, there’s something I need to say, something I regretted not telling you before I died. And I’ve been thinking about it every day since I came back.”

His gaze down at you was soft, and you can see tears pricking the corners of his blue eyes.

“Say it, you fucking asshole.” You punch him one more time in the shoulder, but Jason could tell your heart wasn’t in that one.

With the gentlest smile you’ve ever seen from him, he opens his mouth and says:

“I love you.”

Your eyes widened in shock as those three words hit your ears, and your heart.

You didn’t realize you’d been waiting to hear that for years.

And you thought you never would.

Jason cupped your chin and lifted it to his, pressing his lips to yours and—fucking hell.

It felt like coming home.

…

[linuxgamenews]

Section 13: Experience the Next Evolution in Action Roguelite Shooters

Section 13 story driven action roguelite shooter game gets a launch window for Linux and Steam Deck via Windows PC. Ocean Drive Studio, Inc. has really outdone themselves this time. Available Verified via Steam Early Access with Positive reviews. Ocean Drive Studio is eager to share the exciting news about their upcoming launch for Section 13. A story driven action roguelite shooter that's heading to Linux and Steam Deck (verified) via Windows PC in early 2025. If you’ve heard of Blackout Protocol from its Early Access days, this is the next evolution. The title has undergone a major overhaul, thanks to player feedback. So now it’s back, better than ever. Want a sneak peek? You can try out the new demo (Unreal Engine 5) on Linux or Steam Deck via Proton. Section 13 used to be a co-op strategic roguelite shooter, but it also now has a solid solo campaign with a gripping story. You’re in the boots of an S2P agent, sent on a mission to infiltrate the eerie Section 13 research facility. Since this place is crawling with dangerous experiments gone wrong. So it’s up to you to blast your way through, uncover the dark secrets hidden within, and make it out alive.

Section 13 - Official Announce Trailer

Key Features You’ll Like:

Action-Packed Combat: Get ready for some serious top-down shooting action. The title is a bullet-fest with a variety of enemies to take down using an arsenal of unique weapons.

Four Unique Characters: You can pick from four different S2P agents, since each brings their own set of skills and a backstory that adds depth to your adventure.

Tons of Weapons: The game offers 13 guns, 6 throwables, and 9 melee weapons to unlock and master. And that's just the start—more weapons will be added later.

Challenging Levels: Section 13 throws you into 12 intense levels filled with tough enemies and even tougher bosses. Every level has a design that keeps you sharp.

Upgrade Your Character: Build up your character’s strength with permanent currency. You’ll also unlock new weapons and improve your gear with session-based upgrades, giving you an edge in every run.

Procedurally Generated Levels: No two play throughs are the same, thanks to the title’s random level layouts. Every time you dive back in, you’ll face new challenges.

Solo or Co-Op: Whether you’re a lone wolf or prefer teaming up with friends, it has something for you. The flexible gameplay lets you choose how you want to experience it.

A Story That Pulls You In: The story isn’t just tacked on—it’s also a big part of what makes Section 13 special. The storytelling is immersive, with voice acting that draws you into the dark and mysterious world of the game.

Available with a Discount:

So, if this sounds like your kind of story driven action roguelite shooter, head over to Steam and check out the demo. Section 13 is shaping up to be a blast, and you won't want to miss out on the action. Playable on Linux and Steam Deck via Proton with Windows PC. Also priced at $9.74 USD / £8.24 / 9,59€ with the 25% discount.