- SLUMBER PARTY: Name a time you accidentally screwed up in a way that could potentially affect a lot of people, and then what steps you took to cover it up while you also (or had help) desperately trying to fix it (so that it looked like you never screwed up in the first place, and what’s more – there were a lot of rules/guardrails/lines you had to adhere to in order to maintain the facade.
- LUMPY TRUNKS: Name a time you had to go on a quest/job/mission but your host/boss/tour-guide in the unknown territory was incompetent, lacked self-awareness, lacked social/political awareness, or is a pariah in their own lands, or is generally a HTHF (Hard-to-Help-Friend). Tell me about how they created obstacles and problems the entire trip, basically sabotaging you, but you overcame it and still got the McGuffin.
- JAIL BAND: Name a time you were imprisoned/trapped/involuntarily-stuck somewhere (maybe a job assigned to you, or you got partnered with a team, or whatever), and while it sucked at first, you made friends with your fellow prisoners, and in talking to them, you led them working together to get out, and even got petty vengeance on your warden.
- JIGGLER: Name a time you impulsively took on a responsibility (new pet, new relationship, new hobby) because you thought it would be fun and you didn’t think of all the consequences that would come with it, you didn’t fully realize what you were getting yourself into until it was too late, and how did you eventually fixed it? Did you get out of it, did you drop it, did you return it, did you “accidentally lose it”, did you find it a new home?
- RICARDIO: Name a time a new rival showed up in your life, unexpectedly at an event, and this rival is impressing/seducing your crush/spouse/child/best-friend/boss/someone-important-to-you, so you act all crazy and out-of-character, and then when none of those things work, you start following/stalking/staking-out this rival, and you find out they’re not who everone thinks they are, they’re actually even better (or actually worse), and you’re proven right/wrong, and now you have to confront that.
- ZOMBIE BIZ: Name a time you got someone overeager to help you take care of something that’s inconvenient or annoying to you, and it’s great at first because you’re actually making progress and getting new gains, and this whole annoying part of your life is gone, but then, because you’re no longer doing this “boring routine” thing you used to do, there are unexpected consequences, and now your dependence on this ally is a problem, worse, they start or offer to help out in other areas of your life, and you need to break free. How did you eventually give up this “free help”?
- ENCHRIDION: Name a time you had to do/get X, and all the obstacles were “Not as They Seem” NATS forcing you to question all your beliefs/values/worldview.
- FINNICORN: Name a time when you have TWO+ important people in your life, both needing your time/energy/resources, but you only have enough for one, so you try to get them together because you think a two-for-one approach actually works in my brain, but really, it just ends up being awkward as fuck. But then – something happpens that makes them best friends forever, and now you feel abandoned by these two. How did it turn out? Was there a new equilibrium, or you ended up the third wheel, or?
- BOOM BOOM: Name a time you had to deal with a malcontent (MCNT and nothing you did was right, or made them happy, or caused more problems (according to them), or the method was wrong. What was your breaking point when you finally said “no” and stopped helping them?
- WIZARD: Name a time when you got sucked into a reward system (with vanity metrics) with the promise of this nebulous, abstract ultimate reward (something everyone wants, like power, wealth, fame, looks, whatever), so you keep doing it and levelling up, and everything feels so right, until you get a peek behind the curtain (or finally come to your senses), and you realize how big of a scam (or a lifelong commitment with a exhorbitantly high cost where you sacrifice all the good things life has to offer). How did you get out?
- EVICTED: Name a time you got kicked out of your own home/work/comfort-zone/routine by a intimidating force (basically a bully), and you had to go on the run and/or find a new home, but nothing seems to fit, everything is wrong, until you finally do find a new home that’s potentially better, and you’re happy only for the bully to show up again, and you realize you just have to fight the bully. And you do. And the bully finally shows you respect for standing up for yourself.
- THIEF CITY: Name a time when you went to a new community and you see that they’re all doing a weird routine/habit/hobby/practice/ritual, and it’s stipid and causes all these unintended side effects and problems and externalities (and the community would be better if only they stop doing this thing), but because everyone’s doing it, their world adopted to this stupid new way of doing things, and eventually, even your best friend (or people who stood by you in rebelling against this stupid new thing) is also doing it, and you feel betrayed, but you finally succumb and do the stupid thing just so you join this community. OR, you don’t succumb and you remain the outcast, or change-you-want-to-see, and you eventually convince one or two people to leave this community.
- WITCH GARDEN: Name a time where you or a friend had to do a very simple rituatlistic thing that maintains civility (apologize, thank you, acknowledgement), but refused, and the person who wants this basic civil thing has a lot more power than you thought, and now they’re bringing all that power to bear and being petty and making the person-who-refused’s life miserable, and yet the person-who-refused continues to suffer and not do this basic thing out of principle, won’t swallow their pride… UNTIL it hurts the people they love.
- NEPTR: Name a time you got so obsessed with getting back at someone that you designed a complex, overwrought solution that ends up sucking up all your time, energy, mental bandwidth, and maybe you even dig yourself into a financial hole, or use up social currency, or you lose perspective and neglect your other responsibilities… and the solution itself becomes a monster unto itself and now you have to deal with the monster you’ve created.
- FEAR OCEAN: Name a time a friend offered you help with a crippling fear you have, a problem you’re really anxious about, or something that you’ve been avoiding for years, decades, and your friend is helping with tiny steps, (or even drastic things you’ve never tried), but it’s too much, and you lash out at your friend and end up hurting them, to the point where you’re not overcoming your fear for yourself anymore, but because you’ve dragged your friend into this, you’re doing it for them now, and you push yourself to overcome this problem to mend your friendship.
- WEDDING BELLS: Name a time someone you didn’t trust and who has previously hurt you, or was your enemy/rival, shows up apologizing for all they’ve done, and claim they’ve reformed, repented, rehabilitated, and they’re asking for just “one small thing” so they can show you they’ve changed, so you cautiously accept this new behavior and personality, only to have them confess later during that “one small thing”, or you find out through other means they were lying to you to get at something else.
- DUNGEON: Name a time you were told not to go-to-X/do-X/get-X, but you did it anyway, and it’s a series of problems where you’re in-over-your-hear IOYH, and this situation you’re NOT supposed to be involved with in the first place gets worse and worse, until the person who told you not to get involved finally steps in and saves you. Maybe gloating. Maybe angry.
- MAGIC MAN: Name a time when someone powerful put you in a handicap (physical, financial, resources, mental, network, whatever), which made life difficult and everything you were able to do before is just hard now, forcing you to reconsider everything about your life and feeling bad about yourself, and eventually, you find others like you who also had something taken by this powerful force, and you commiserate and eventually you all just give up together in this morass of misery, until you get a reminder and catalyst to fight back and through past that breaking point, you even unite and band these aggrieved together and take on this powerful force.
- DONNY: Name a time you meddled in something because you thought you were helping, but you didn’t know the full picture, so when you stepped in with your “generosity” and “magnanimity”, you actually ruined the ecosystem or homeostasis of the situation, which allowed predators who were originally bounded/restricted to awake/arise and attack a prey that was originally protected (albeit in questionable ways), and now you either have to fix the damages, or reverse your changes, or deal with them.
- BURN FLU: Name a time you thought you were doing the right thing by following orders/routine/process where it involves hurting or punishing another party. But the person you’re arresting/punishing/catching shares their worldview of the entire system and now you’re questioning everything, and wondering if you’re the bad guy (which you could be), but also, the person you caught and then let go was also actually doing something bad too, causing destruction everywhere.
- BILLY: Name a time you met someone you looked up to, and they told you the “right way” to do things, so you try being different in order to impress this role model, and you keep trying this new method but it keeps blowing up in your face and nothing works and now everyone is blaming you for messing things up until eventually, you realize CONTEXT matters and you just need to be yourself and do what you need to do to fix problems.