Writing Prompt: Using Rory's Story Cubes

In my former writing group, one of our members revealed a potentially interesting tool for storytelling: Rory’s Story Cubes. It’s basically a pack of nine dice with pictograms on them. I managed to find a pack of these at a Barnes and Noble store; the package advertises these dice as a pocket-sized story generator with infinite possibilities. It’s probably designed with children in mind, as an interactive tool or game to inspire their young imaginations and develop some basic plotting skills. However, these dice can be valuable for people of all ages.

There are no real right or wrong ways to use or interpret these dice. The package describes that these dice can be used as a party game ice-breaker, a problem-solving tool, for creative inspiration (which would be my chief motivator for getting these), for enhancing speaking and listening skills, for use as a mental workout, and for literacy development. The package offers the suggested playing techniques: 

1. Roll all 9 cubes and look at the face-up images. Pick an image that will be the starting point for your story. Beginning with “Once upon a time…”, make up a story that somehow links together all 9 face-up images.
2. Think up a title or theme for a story (for example, the beach, or my fantastic vacation, or dream). Then roll all 9 cubes and try to tell a story that relates back to the title or theme. 
3. Divide the cubes evenly among multiple players (it’s okay if some get more than others). Starting with one player and continuing in a circle, take turns rolling the cubes and adding to the story based on the face-up images. Stop after all 9 cubes have been rolled, or continue rolling for additional rounds.

Today, I rolled these suckers and came up with the following images.

Yikes, what can I make out of this?

My thinking is…

1. The Earth, or the world, a globe: maybe the characters are in space and seeing Earth from afar. Or maybe the world is in danger. Or maybe the story is set in international locations. Maybe there’s an environmental message to emphasize.

2. A man parachuting: could be a literal interpretation, a man parachuting to the ground. Or parasailing. Could be thematic as well, such as a man who “needs to come back down to Earth.”

3. A house: could be a literal setting. Could also be a thematic interpretation of home. Maybe the characters are trying to find their way home. Home is where the heart is. You get the idea.

4. A bridge: could be a literal setting. Would be an awesome place for an epic fight (like the Battle of Stirling or something). Could also be thematic, if you consider that bridges can be figuratively built between characters or places. Maybe bridges can be built across cultures, internationally, or even extraterrestrially.

5. A magnifying glass: the first thought is that of a mystery, or “whodunit” type of a story, with a detective finding clues. You could make this into a mystery story that way. Or, maybe it’s a literal plot device, or a way of saying that something is being scrutinized in great detail.

6. A letter: maybe a letter plays into the story somehow. Or it could be just a message in general. Maybe the characters are couriers.

7. A fountain: could be a literal setting. Could refer to the mythology of the Fountain of Youth; by extension, the search for everlasting youth could be the actual plot.

8. Lightning bolt: maybe plasmic energy, electricity, or lightning, plays into the story somehow. Or, in a manner like Zeus, maybe the characters are super-powered.

9. Sheep: could be literal, or maybe it alludes to a rural setting. Or, it could reference people acting like sheep.

This might seem like an odd mix of stuff, but some ideas blend together pretty easily here. The lightning bolt and sheep has me thinking about the relationships between super-humans and normal people (in which super-humans are like gods, and everybody else are like sheep), a theme which I’ve already been exploring in another story I started. In light of that, the lightning bolt and fountain could go hand-in-hand, if you consider that the fountain could be a literal or figurative source of power. Seeing the Earth juxtapose to the parachuting man immediately brings to mind a man literally falling to Earth. Chances are that you see something totally different out of these dice. The fact that the dice has me thinking about some basic connections, potential plotlines, and possible themes, is enough to get started on something.

With some additional thought and planning, I came up with the following story. I’ve put a little number next to certain things to correlate with the numbered bullets above, so you can see what dice images have been included in the text.

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                 “Jason, what are you doing?” Kayla frantically shouted on the radio.

                 Looking back, Jason regarded the space station Olympus:  it was an expansive sprawl of metal modules and solar panels, stretching out into space for over a kilometer.  Sunlight glinted across the station’s surface, giving off harsh glares against his helmet.  Slowly, the station seemed to move further and further away from him; in reality, the station was still, and Jason was the one moving, thousands of miles per hour across the Earth’s exosphere.

                Facing forward again, Jason beheld the Earth¹; it was an expanse of immense blue water and green continents before him.  At his angle and trajectory, he was in an uncontrollable freefall to the planet’s surface².  However, he knew that he would never reach the actual surface; upon reaching the atmosphere, the friction would incinerate his body and obliterate him.

                Kayla reached the same conclusion, and her voice continued to plead in Jason’s helmet, “What are you thinking? Why are you doing this?”

                “You got my message⁶, right? Then you know what I’m doing and why,” Jason calmly asserted.

                “But why like this? There could have been other ways to do this, you don’t have to kill yourself!”

                “At this point, it’s not just a matter of practicality.  It’s become a matter of principle.  I’m sure General Bannon is watching and listening right now, and understands.”

                At this point, General Bannon’s voice gruffly interrupted, “I understand just fine, you worthless sack of s**t! You can’t expect me to sit here and watch as you take Project Bethesda away from me and burn it all up in the atmosphere!”

                “What can you do, general?” Jason taunted. “If I destroyed the research notes on Olympus, then you would have had leverage over me.  Out here, I am untouchable.  My destiny is in my hands.”

                “Bull! If I really wanted to, I’ll turn the photon collector on you, and fry you like an ant underneath a magnifying glass⁵!”

                “Go ahead, general.  If you burn me up now, the research will be destroyed all the same.  Your only chance now is to physically collect me with a shuttle craft, but there’s not enough time for you to launch a craft and catch me before I reach the atmosphere.”

                “I don’t know what’s worse:  you taking off with the research materials, or you getting the better of me.  I ought to fry you just as a matter of principle!”

                “I win either way, general.”

                “Maybe for now, but when it’s all over, you know what people will say about you? They’ll say that you’re a criminal! Because you are robbing all of us of our future, and I’m going to make sure that everybody knows that you stole critical research materials and destroyed them! You’re nothing but a selfish punk!”

                “You’d really release all this to the public?” Jason challenged. “The true nature of Project Bethesda? Would you really tell people about the anti-matter pool⁷,  and the way it can alter the human body to make it last longer and become indestructible⁸? Would you tell the press about your plan to engineer space-faring supersoldiers, who would rule the planet from Olympus, and rule over everybody else as if they were just sheep⁹? You call that a future?”

                “Son, what I’m trying to build here is a bridge⁴,” General Bannon calmly explained. “Our future depends on becoming stronger.  We might even have to leave the weak behind to do so.  That’s just the way things are.  We need Bethesda, because the Earth is becoming more hostile all the time.  You know just as well as I do that, with all the carbon dioxide and methane in the air, the planet only has a few hundred years of sustainable life left in it! We need to give our gene pool a boost!”

                “At what point do we mutate, and become something inhuman?”

                “Son, I’m talking about evolving into something better than human! We could be gods!”

                “General, I take it you’re not a god-fearing man.  I am, and without me, there’s no telling what kind of damage your carelessness would have caused.  I have a moral obligation to go through with this.  I figure, this is the only way to make you understand that Project Bethesda was always a bad idea.  I’m also making sure that all this knowledge will never be rediscovered again.”

                “You think you’re some kind of martyr?” General Bannon mocked. “I’ll make sure you’re remembered as a strung-out nobody who died in a stupid space walk accident! I can make the project work again, but nobody can bring you back from the dead! Goodbye, Dr. Levitt.”

                Silence followed.  Jason watched the Earth grow bigger in front of him; he could feel the gentle tug of the planet’s gravity, subtly pulling him closer to the world’s blue mass.  He was still miles away from imminent death, but he started to panic, when he realized that he would accelerate.  His breathing became shallow, and his heart rate spiked.

                On the radio, Jason heard Kayla speak again, “I know you’re right about doing this, but you should have talked to me first! We could have rigged something up together.  We could have burned the research notes in the fusion core.  We could have sent an escape pod to the Earth, and let it burn up.  You didn’t have to eject yourself into space!”

                “I had to make sure,” Jason firmly said. “I had to take it all with me, and let it burn up with me.”

                “Do you have the sample with you too? You could inject it! All that power of Bethesda could allow you to survive the fall!”

                The notion had occurred to Jason repeatedly; a sample of capsulated anti-matter particles could render him invincible enough to withstand the friction of reentry.  It could even ensure his survival after landing, even on a hard ground.  He envisioned his body burning through the sky, streaking into the ground, where he’d leave a massive crater, but walk away unscathed.

                Unconsciously, Jason’s hand crept toward the satchel strapped to his suit, where Project Bethesda’s notes and samples were stored.  Watching the Earth growing bigger and bigger, he was deeply considering succumbing to the notion.  Fear crept through his gut with each passing second, knowing that his death was imminent.

                Instead, Jason restrained his hand, and he told Kayla, “It’s a tempting thought, but I can’t.  You know I can’t let this project survive in any way, shape, or form.”

                He heard her reply in a broken voice, “I know.”

                Jason was aware of his acceleration through the Earth’s exosphere.  His suit started to flutter, and he felt a stronger tug from the planet’s gravity.  As he continued to speed up, he said, “For what it’s worth, I enjoyed working on Olympus, and I loved working with you and the team.  I like to think of you and everybody else as my friends.”

                “No, we were more like a family,” Kayla sobbed.

                “It made me feel at home³.  Thank you for everything.”

                Seconds later, Jason was freefalling faster and faster.  Upon hitting the planet’s deeper atmosphere, the air rubbed harshly against his suit.  It became warmer and warmer, until it was uncomfortably hot.  Flames erupted around him, burning through Jason’s suit and satchel.  Miles above the Earth, Dr. Jason Levitt perished; from the space station Olympus, his passing was observed, and it appeared like a brief fiery flash of light against the planet’s blue curvature.