Post 94: Story Cubes: Rolls 1 & 2

'Rory's Story Cubes: let your imagination roll wild!'

So, today for my blog I am going to show off a product I bought for those times when I run into a wall made up of writers'-blocks.  What it is, is a bag. A bag filled with 9 dice, with random illustrations on each side. I am going to roll them once or twice and try to come up with a story synopsis that encompasses, most if not all of them. 

Here we go:

Roll 1:

A dragon, a key, a moon, a scale, a castle, a smiling face, a key hole, a light bulb, and a hand.

The easiest way to do this will be to pair them up and make them connect to each other. 

The dragon and castle can be tied together to make fantasy story. The key and the keyhole can be put together as a quest, maybe the main character has inherited a key and must find what it goes to. The smiling face and light bulb can be put together with the scales as a way of symbolizing a bigger picture: a battle between good and evil that ends with the a brilliant idea that leads to good winning. The moon and hand could be put together as a way of having a supernatural, "creature of the night" kind of being that lends the main character a helping hand. 

If we put that all together:

Mathia was a country girl and an orphan. Her father was a knight, killed by a dragon when she was young, leaving her nothing but an obscure map and a key. Fifteen years later a knight who fought by her father's side shows up to pull her from her safe life in the country and back to the castle to help prevent an overthrow of the King. Along the way she learns about the creatures in the woods, the struggles of the people, and she begins to question whether the overthrow isn't in the best interest of the people. 

Roll 2:

An eye, arrows pointing in all directions, a cane, a dialogue bubble, a die, a magic wand, a plane, an L in a box, and a question mark. 

Starting the way we did before, by breaking it into pairs (and a trio):

The question mark, eye and arrows can be put together as a mystery that requires the main character to search in different places to find the answer. The cane and magic wand can be put together to make the main character or the antagonist a magician or other type of performer. The dialogue bubble and L in a box could be put together to be the antagonist's name starting with L and being interrogated in a jail cell or interrogation room. The die and the plane could be a trip to Las Vegas. 

If we put that all together:

Las Vegas has many performers, but there is only one Great Lovinski. He is a magician, and a talented one at that, but he finds himself in a lot of trouble when someone steals his signature disappearing act and uses it in a bank heist. He must now team up with a serious, magic-hating police officer on a trip across the country to track down his past assistants in hopes of finding out who sold out his act and who might be framing him. 

The dice are kind of obscure but, as you can see, they can create stories or, at least, get the creative gears turning. And I can take one or two, four or nine, any number of dice could work.