Week 2 Session: The unreliable-narrator workshop

Writing three item descriptions for an original boss, each one testimony from a narrator the death mechanic has already made unreliable

1 March 2027

Before the session#

Sketch (a paragraph is enough) one original boss: what it was before it became a boss, and what specifically it lost or misunderstood in becoming one.

In the session#

Write three item descriptions belonging to that boss — a weapon, a piece of armour, a ring or trinket — each one testimony rather than a stat block. The workshop constraint: the narrator telling us about the item has to be unreliable for a reason your world supplies, the way hollowing supplies Dark Souls’ reason. “Cryptic” alone is not the assignment; cryptic-because- this-specific-character-can-no-longer-trust-their-own-memory is.

We read a few aloud and the room tries to reconstruct what actually happened to the boss from the three descriptions alone — if they can reconstruct it too easily, the descriptions were plot summary, not testimony.

Afterwards#

Keep this boss. Week 5’s Boss Blueprint workshop builds it into a full two-phase encounter, and a boss whose belongings already have a voice is most of the narrative work done early.