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This cruise is great! You’ve never had as much fun or drank as many vodka tonics as you did last night during the limbo party. You even hooked up with someone (although let’s face it; they were a little round for your tastes) last night!

You wake up on what you think is your bed but is actually a soft pile of old, dirty bedding. As you groggily begin to get your vision back – maybe that 14th drink the bartender made for you, lovingly coined “The Atomic Bomb”, was a bit too much – you see your suitcase and a note pinned to it:

To you, our most esteemed guest,

We regret to inform you that we had to leave you on this deserted island after your actions last night. You really shouldn’t have attempted to sleep with our life preservers, nor should you have jumped behind the bar and started screaming “Atomic Bomb” and begin pouring random alcohol into your mouth. We will be keeping the money we found in your wallet to help pay for life preservation therapy and to replace all fourteen bottles of alcohol you consumed…without paying.

The rest of your belongings are in your suitcase as well as some water and some rations – we’re not monsters, we just hate you.  We were going to see if there was anything of value in there to help beyond the five-dollar bill we found on you, but decided against it. The sheets are yours to keep; we found you on them with the life preserver and, after seeing the multitude of disgusting stains on them, as well as you crying while you cradled the raft and told it you’ve never slept with anyone better, we decided to let you keep them. We would have had to burn them anyway.

The ship will be making its return voyage in one year and will stop to pick you up. If you’re dead, we will bury what remains of you and forget this ever happened. If not, and you’ve cleaned up your act, we will take you home.

Good luck!

“Wow, what a nice letter! I must have made so great an impression they are making me their ambassador to this island!” you say aloud, to no one in particular. As you begin to gather your suitcase and attempt to roll it in the sand, you have no clue that you may be alone.

As you continue exploring you come upon some mysterious, ancient ruins. Upon further inspection it’s nothing more than an old dilapidated house, but still, shelter!! You could probably throw a really kick-ass party when you finally find some natives!

As you continue to inspect the house, you realize that someone really wealthy must have owned it. While falling apart now, the house must have at one point been incredible. You look outside the nearest window and see, much to your surprise, a small power station that looks like it is still pumping electricity into the house! After confirming your suspicions by flicking on a light-switch or two and seeing light flood what was left of the house, you continue your adventure.

You find a doorway leading downstairs into a basement and decide, after wondering for only a second where the door has gone, to go and investigate. Once you descend the set of stairs that sound like babies crying, you find yourself in an almost empty room. What greets you is a table and a small note attached to it. As you begin to feel incredibly popular (two people left you love notes!) you read:

To whom this may concern,

I’m sorry that I died before you got here. I promise it wasn’t my fault. It seems I got a little too carried away with the power this island holds and thought it would be cool to see who would win in a fight between a bear and a land shark. Seems the experiment went awry though, and now both creatures have teamed up to hunt me. The bear fashioned a harpoon out of some twigs and coconuts, and is riding the shark like a mighty steed. I’ve hidden in this basement, but I don’t know how much longer I have left. They’ve begun eating the house, and I pray that they do not take out the power. SHIT! SHIT! I THINK THEY’RE TRYING TO EAT THE DOOR! Ok…composure…calm…

Look, this island here is magical. If you got stranded here like I did, know that you can wish for something to exist and it will. Food, water, shark repellent, bear spray, you name it. I wished for a lot of things though… dirty, unimaginable things that I feel uncomfortable writing down. Right now I’m wishing for a shotgun, but nothing is happening. It’s possible the island is losing its magic and you may only be able to wish for a certain number of things. Good luck, and don’t make the same mistakes I did.

-Ed

You suddenly think that this year will be the best of your life.

So here’s where you come in. You are the stranded person and suddenly have a year to entertain yourself by wishing for anything. But, there are rules to the challenge:

  • You only get 10 items
  • The rations they gave you will only last 3 months.
  • There may or may not still be a bear riding a shark with a harpoon who has a taste for human blood and can eat through walls and doors.
  • You have electricity, but no fuel.
  • You can not leave the island in any way (summoning a boat or a teleporter produces nothing)
  • Of those 10 items, at least one has to be video-game related.

In less than 500 words, describe your year. You can be as inventive as you’d like to be and anything, as long as it doesn’t go against the rules, can be wished for as part of your 10 items. Post the articles with the tag Write Your Own Adventure by Friday, May 14th and start the article with your 10 items as a list. After it's all said and done, I'll spotlight the articles in one big post.

For a better example, look at my post here!