Here is the official landing page for my current ongoing story TAKE OUT.
TAKE OUT is a story written as a screenplay (roughly) with a few creative quirks. It’s the backstory for one of my current Tabletop characters (my Starfinder Endiffian Operative, JD).
WARNINGS
While TAKE OUT leans into dark humour, it is 18+ for the following reasons…
CONTENT WARNING: SWEARING, SMOKING, ALCOHOL, VIOLENCE & SEXUAL CONTENT.
TRIGGER WARNING: KIDNAPPING, UNREALITY, BODY HORROR, ORGANISED CRIME, IDEATION.
By continuing on you agree that you’re a mature enough reader to handle these themes. I’m not libel for anything this point on.
For those who would still like to READ but are WORRIED about WHEN these above instances happen, warnings will be written up at the beginning of each Episode, specific to that episode.
ARCHIVE
If you want to jump straight into the action, look no further! Here’s where the story is at:
- EPISODE 1: DINE ‘N DASH
- EPISODE 2: GREENHORN (COMING SOON)
READING A SCRIPT
Scripts are FUN to WRITE, maybe I’m biased though, because a lot of my comics-making career is spent formatting and drafting scripts that never see the light of day (since they get turned into comics). I thought it’d be fun to try and use THIS STEP as the final medium & vessel to tell a story!
I know not everyone is VERSED in reading them so here’s a few little acronyms that might be confusing to start:
- INT. — interior
- EXT. — exterior
- SFX — ‘sound effect’
- TOD — time of day
- OS — off screen
- NAR — narrating
New SCENES were set up with the scene #, whether it takes place idoors or outdoors, location and what time of day it takes place. Easy context clues.
Some things are stated in CAPS (mostly NAMES of prominent characters with dialogue but I also added LOCATIONs for flavour). BOLD is for emphasis in action. ITALICS for emphasis in dialogue. This isn’t a script thing, scripts usually UNDERLINE for emphasis but bold & italics fit my website’s aesthetic better.
Dialogue looks a little funny so here’s a breakdown:
NAME OF CHARACTER SPEAKING (offscreen/narrating)
(flavouring the tone of speech)
Hi I’m the character’s dialogue! <<Hi I’m the character’s dialogue who is speaking in another language outside of the MC’s native tongue.>>
That’s all there is to it! But if there’s anything i missed find me around on socials or come get my ass in my emails and I’ll add a bit more. This isn’t the Official or Professional way to write a screenplay. I’ve definitely flavoured it a little more to make it interesting to read by adding more prose to the action elements!
DISCLAIMERS
TAKE OUT is a story about one of my tabletop characters, specifically in PAIZO’s world of STARFINDER. It’s a REALLY FUN world to play in both in TTRPG and storytelling now. Here’s a little breakdown of the things I kept The Same and what I Changed for artistic license & just because my particular tabletop group homebrewed some of the aesthetics for a funnier romp!
THE BREAKDOWN
NAMES OF LOCATIONS
ABSALOM STATION — This is the Space Station that occupies the Golarion’s space in the Pact World System (Paizo’s earth-ish equivalent). The BIG DIFFERENCE is ABSALOM STATION in this story is less ‘5 mile diameter’ in the original game and more, ‘several large cities (one city per ‘layer’ of the station) mushed into a big city-sandwich. We’re looking at a much bigger populace, so the likelihood of running into non-human alien is higher!
(Names of ABSALOM’s LAYERS were also borrowed: THE EYE, DOWNLOW, THE SPARKS, THE CONDUIT (aka PIPETOWN) but individual locations: THE SPOT, WcDEE’s, BEAN THERE GONE TOMORROW, were made up by me & our campaign members!)
EOX — JD’s home planet is NOT where ENDIFFIAN (their species) comes from because at the time of creating them I didn’t actually have that lore! So originally JD is from EOX just because it’s a planet of Undead Dudes and it’s a running joke with me & my partner that all of my PCs have something to do with EOX… probably because I’m just a Goth Guy at heart.
NAMES OF SPECIES
ENDIFFIAN — Shape-shifting aliens with grey skin. That’s all I originally had to work off of when I was creating JD so the ‘falling apart into ribbons’ aesthetic was my own creative spin. The fact that JD struggles with nailing Humans is also just a character flaw of their’s for added spice because they grew up on EOX.
GNOLL — If you play most big TTRPGs these guys are just big scary anthropomorphize hyena! There’s a LOT of these guys in JD’s story because Frankie’s here and that’s her whole-ass family. They’re part of the like 6% of ‘other’ species found on the station.
VESK — The titular Big Lizard Alien. Folks I’ve played alongside generally flavour their lizard aliens based on existing lizards with a more colourful sci-fi-flair. I haven’t settled on a design for Tango but rest assured she’s a colourful gal.
HUMANS — LOL.
ORC — We also know them, we love them. In STARFINDER they’ve got blue skin!
KASATHA — Four-armed masked alien.
PATRA — Catboys & gorls & enbies in between.
LASHUNTA — Kinda like humans with antennae & pinker skin.
ANDROID — Robit people. These guy’s have circuit-looking designs along their skin!
The aesthetic world-logic in this campaign our group agreed on was akin to a lot of Crunchier 80s sci fi with cartridges and very mechanical triggers and machinery. Hence, the inclusion of locations like diners and fighting pits.
ENDORSEMENTS
Please check out STARFINDER‘s lore. It’s just fun. It’s a dense game but man does it have really fun bones to work with!
LIKEWISE. Whatever lore was made up (esp given Endiffian) that you want to splice onto your own PCs feel free to borrow. Just pls don’t use my PC as your own <3