Also from Von Ray’s recent TPRS workshop, his German demo sheltered (i.e. limited) vocabulary so well that it focused on 3 verbs (e.g. is, has, wants) of those top 5 (+ likes & goes). I’ve always been uncomfortable with the idea of a Day 1 cold opening story, though many skilled TPRS teachers find it to be the most engaging way to start the year, so this script might just be what I was looking for! With no need for any character to travel to the standard 3 locations, the questions and details concern one or two parallel characters—an essential Storyasking skill to begin building.

The conflict to resolve in Von’s story was “is in jail, because doesn’t have.” Here’s the plot outline:

• there’s a character
• character is in jail because s/he doesn’t have something
• parallel character is somewhere, but not in jail
• character’s mother is in the hospital, and has what the character doesn’t have
• character laments (e.g. “Ooh noo, mother! I’m in jail! I’m in jail because…I want…”)
• mother laments (e.g. “Ooh, [character], I’m in the hospital because I’m sick…”)
• character says s/he wants what the mother has
• mother says that it’s not her problem (lol!)
• parallel character(s) has/have what the character wants
• parallel character(s) may, or may not give the character what s/he wants
• story resolves, or doesn’t

If a parallel character gives the item to the main character, add “gives,” or the command “have!” if your language can do that, limiting the verbs to just “is, has, wants,” and “says.”