As I'm sure everyone has noticed by now, I love gaming nostalgia and especially games from the '90s. I also like to do giveaways during big sales and GOG just started one, so here we go :D I wanted to shake up the formula this time, so I'm just sort of winging it as far as instructions / "rules" go...no idea how this will turn out!

The keys I will be giving away are on GOG and will all be older PC games. Anyone who participates will receive a key. And I will ensure you do not receive a game already in your collection as it stands on Completionator :D

So for this giveaway, I'm going to start a story in just a minute. It's going to be a very generic story introduction and that's because A) I'm not a writer and B) I want it to be generic because that's where YOU come in! After this initial post, anyone that would like to participate can do so by simply advancing the story. I would recommend keeping your posts somewhat short since multiple people might be posting at the same time. We'll deal with that if and when it occurs (parallel universes!?!)

Anyways, just move the story along. I'll post at different times to keep things moving forward (no, I do not have any preconceived story arcs or anything) and at different times, GOG keys may be given (think of them as loot...so you might wanna "create" a character or something to make it easier on me to incorporate...)

TLDR; Write some fiction and let's see where it goes...hopefully somewhere! This thing will run until we're bored with it or I run out of GOG keys, whichever comes first! Here we go!

NOTE Let's try to enclose any story advancements in bold / italics, so wrap your text in three asterisks, please!

The party of adventurers descended the stairs into the first level of the dungeon, not knowing what horrors lie before them. As they reached the bottom, a shadowy figure appeared before them in the distance.

Sweeet this is a great idea.

The party, unsure what is before them, prepares for battle. A sloshing sound can be heard as the shadowy figure approaches. They're all shocked however as it steps into the light...

P.S. can we keep participating in this just to participate? or is this a one post only thread?

Good question! Yes, you can keep participating :D Maybe give others a chance to respond, but if there isn't any movement in the story, feel free to move it along!

and Fat Albert appears holding a 64 oz "Big Gulp" and yells out "Hey Hey Hey!" He slurps his soda down to the bottom of the cup. Frustrated that his soda is gone, an uncontrollable rage comes over him and he pulls out a battle ax and starts swinging it at the party of adventurers...

Her immersion ruined, an exasperated Lisa pinched the bridge of her nose and lamented "C'mon Ralphie, we let you run a game tonight because you kept bugging us for the chance. Take it seriously would you, or we cut this short and go back to Dwayne as GM." Before the others gathered at the table could chime in, they were interrupted by the doorbell...

A startled Lisa did a quick, reflex-driven headcount of everyone in the room, but realized there were five people present, herself included, which constituted their full group. As the group sat in a confused state as to why someone would be at the door, Lisa finally spoke up and said "Well, I guess I'll go check to see who it is, since it's my house and all." She confidently strode out of the room and ascended the basement stairs. Once out of sight, her demeanor changed slightly as she tried to make sense of this unexpected turn of events. Before she could rationalize the situation, the doorbell rang three times in succession, each one seemingly louder than the last. Her head turned towards the corner, around which the front door stood waiting...

the pizza guy! But... Lisa didn't order a pizza. Who could have done this? The pizza guy announced that the pizza had already been paid for, gave it to Lisa and left. Lisa brought the pizza in and opened the box only to discover

...a handwritten note with the number "1652" on it. And in another universe, a GOG key for Lands of Lore 1+2 flies out of the box and finds its way to some mysterious entity known as "boffo97". Lisa furrows her brow as she cycles through possible explanations for the number on the note. "Maybe it's an address?", she whispers out loud. She placed the box on the kitchen table and pulled the note out. Still puzzled from all of this, she wrestled with whether she should inform the rest of the group or if she should continue investigating this mystery on her own.

"Hey, don't bogart all the pizza!" Ralphie complained as he made his way over. Lisa, still unsure of what to make of all this, stood there confused as Ralphie proceeded to snatch the mysterious note from her hands. Giving it a once over, Ralphie frowned then crumpled the note and proceeded to stuff it in his mouth, chewing furiously. "Nahooey elph wahheh ahee eezah, aigh?" the words were nearly incomprehensible as they exited Ralphie's mouth, obfuscated by the soggy wad of masticated paper. Brief nervous glances from those still sitting at the table were all that met Lisa's questioning gaze, as if no one wanted to acknowledge what was happening. It dawned on her then, this wasn't your run of the mill social awkwardness. They were afraid of him.

As if on cue, Ralphie grabbed her by the shoulders and she was turned to look at him head on. His eyes were narrowed, looking at her intently as he chewed vigorously, causing bits of spittle and paper to speckle Lisa's bewildered face. He repeated his question, "Aigh?"

sorry if it's a bit longer than desired. I got on a weird path and wanted to follow it through, lol

oh boy! I killed it.

When Lisa returned to the table, she tried to talk to the rest of them about the mysterious note. Everyone seemed to immediately steer the conversation in another direction. She realized the rest of them knew something. Something they obviously didn't want her to know. And she sensed it may have something to do with Ralphie.

* Lisa turned to Ralphie to ask him about the note, but Ralphie was gone. Lisa and the group were confused as no one saw or heard him leave.

Looking in his chair, Lisa discovered a folded note. She unfolded it and opened it.

"1651" *

(not sure why the triple asterisk markup isn't working. It did before.)

This looks like fun.
Ralphie stormed back into the room with a mysterious device in his hands. It had many demonic markings on it like pentagrams and Cthulhu stuff. With a Bellow he exclaimed "If a serious game is what you want then experience the power of my REALITYOBSCURIFUNATUR. If you die in game you die in real life HAHAHAHA.

As the group was seemingly frozen in time, a flurry of GOG keys find their out of the REALITYOBSCURIFUNATUR and sped towards various entities in another realm:

• dhobo - Unreal Tournament 2004: Editor's Choice Edition
• Drymonema - Total Annihilation: Commander Pack
• SockmonZ - Medal of Honor: Allied Assault War Chest
• tarzanslam - Rayman 2