Help! I Have A Crush On My Rival!?: The Afterpost

(See the previous prompt here.)

 The Afterpost

So, that was my journal for the CARTA game Help! I Have a Crush On My Rival?! by Dice Problems.  While I was enjoying the game and seeing where the story would go, I do think it ended at about the right time.  Due to the nature of the game prompts, it was likely that the characters would continue to go through the “friend/enemy” cycle, which would not only become boring but also difficult to fit naturally into the story I was telling.

This most interesting aspect of the game is how much it ended up parallelling a typical Hallmark movie script.  I made no secret right from the beginning that I expected to fall back on a lot of rom-com, Hallmark tropes. However, because of the randomness of the prompts, I had little idea how or when they would fit in.  Now that it’s done, it appears that they fit in rather well.  A girl returns to her hometown because of a family need, often medical, after leaving for a promising future  (honestly, I didn’t even recognize I had included this trope until after I was done); girl meets the boy with whom she previously experienced animosity; boy and girl soften toward each other through time spent together; a big misunderstanding (usually by the boy) that threatens the relationship; an interrupted kiss; the boy and girl admitting their feelings for each other and kiss right before the movie ends abruptly mere seconds or minutes later. Yep. I wrote a Hallmark script.

Is this the end of Lance and Gwen’s story, at least as far as my involvement goes?  I’m not entirely sure that I’m ready to leave them behind . . . for several reasons. For starters, I like writing about all the characters in this story.  Also, I had a few ideas that I did not get to explore, and I wouldn’t mind having the chance to share them with my readers.  Finally, continuing their story could give me an opportunity to explore and share my faith from the perspective of someone who is not a Christian, but is motivated to learn more about what that means. 

If I do continue with Lance and Gwen’s story, I’m not sure what form it would take.  Possibly I could use another journaling game, however, I feel I would want more control over events than random prompt draws would be able to provide.  I’ve seen some romance and relationship based TTRPG systems.  I’ve never had a desire to look at one of those, but perhaps they may work.  Most likely, however, I’ll just write straight fiction and post it in some form or manner. Which, if any, method I chose, that’s for the future.

One final thing to note before I move on, I included an easter egg in this game that so far has not been publicly mentioned by any reader. It’s not hidden, meaning it’s out in the open throughout the entire story and, somewhere just after the midway point, had a strong signpost.  I’ll keep quiet a little bit longer, just to see if anyone mentions it.

Now it’s time to look forward to what’s next for Teviko604.  Next month marks a year since I last posted for my Tunnels & Trolls Cyenannore campaign.  Getting back to that story is well overdue, and my immediate focus is to get another few chapters done.  More long term plans, however, are to build up this blog to be more than just a place where I post my stories.  For starters, I am working with someone to help develop a logo to spice up the place a bit.  Next, I am planning a series of articles to help with the impossible answer to the question, “How do you play an RPG Solo?” Those will lead up to a video series I’ve been thinking about for a while that will help explore that question even further.  Except for my campaign, all of this will take weeks or months to put together. It’s an ambitious goal, but if it all goes well, I see it potentially being very rewarding.

As always, thanks for reading.
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Jer. 29:11

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