The Tipsy Taxi* Tales
a collaborative worldbuilding project
Welcome to The Tipsy Taxi!
*The Tipsy Taxi does not endorse drinking and driving. All on-call drivers are required to surrender their keys upon admittance. Keys will not be returned to obviously intoxicated patrons. The Tipsy Taxi is not responsible for missed shifts or DUI/DWI charges.
The Tipsy Taxi is THE place to be if you drive a taxi, limo, rideshare vehicle, or private car in the greater NYC area. Located in Edgewater, NJ, it’s close enough to the city that you’re never out of your clients’ reach, but far enough away that you can pound some coffee (or catch some zs) for the duration of the ferry ride if you’ve got a late shift.
But perhaps the best part of the Tipsy Taxi is the community. Everyone inside has a story, and if you play your cards right, they just might be willing to tell you. But stay alert—there’s always more going on in NYC than meets the eye.
Writers, you can scroll down for entry specifications.
STORIES WILL BE LISTED HERE! CHECK BACK SOON FOR NEW ENTRIES!
For Writers: You’re Invited!
Your character is a driver for the rich and famous—or the impoverished and unknown—in the Big Apple. While there’s a time and a place for professional discretion when discussing one’s clientele, sometimes things just… slip out. Stories get swapped, right? You’re trying to one-up your buddy or catch the eye of that cutie at the other end of the bar. It happens.
But if you’re paying attention—or if you’re willing to cover a shift for a drunk patron who can’t make theirs—you might start to… notice things. Ask questions. Uncover secrets that many would rather keep hidden. Puzzle pieces start to fit together, and once you see it, you can’t unsee it. Things are happening in New York City. Most people just don’t have the vantage point to catch on.
These are the Tipsy Taxi Tales.
Your driver’s experiences can be mundane or extraordinary, natural or supernatural, heroic, hilarious, or heinous. The story they tell can be whispered fearfully or shouted across the bar, intentionally understated or wildly exaggerated. What are their favorite conspiracy theories about their clients? Who’s taking mysterious trips to the other side of the city? What calls are made and what gossip is swapped in the back of a car when everyone forgets the driver can hear them? Who has a secret identity or a double life they’re trying to keep hidden? We’re not going for professional journalist coverage here, just stories that might get swapped over a drink (or three or four).
Here are some guidelines to help you get started:
The Location: The Tipsy Taxi, a dive bar (drive bar?) in the outskirts of NYC. Edgewater, NJ, to be specific. Accessing the big city requires a short (20-25 minute) ferry ride. Your story doesn’t have to be set exclusively in the bar, but your character should visit the bar for at least some portion of the story.
Common Characters:
Barry Canter, proprietor, bartender, and long-time NYC-area resident. Barry walks with a limp and runs a tight ship. If you’re in the Taxi, you’re family, and if you’re family, you act like it. Or else. Barry has been known to shun folks who didn’t treat his people right, and trust us, you don’t want to be on his bad side.
Nellie, a retired driver of mixed repute who chooses to spend most of her days (and nights) at the Taxi. She promises that your stories will end with her, and she’s tight-lipped when sober, but when the wine is flowing, so are her overly dramatized second-hand tales. Be careful what you tell her, and take everything she says with a grain of salt.
Arthur and Melinda Bartleby, generous middle-aged philanthropists who have settled in the suburbs and make it a point to be seen donating to charities and attending galas. They’re generally considered to be local heroes, and much of the area owes its success to them.
Mark and Eliza Graves, a twenty-something brother-sister duo who leave a bad taste in everyone’s mouths. Rumor has it that they’re involved with major criminal activity in the area, but no one has been able to pin down the specifics.
Scope and Atmosphere: Stories should be reasonable in scope (ie, no destroying major landmarks) and should be scaled such that the FBI won’t come calling when they hear what happened. Any theories concocted or connections made should require at least one piece of “insider info” to ensure that the police won’t be coming to the same conclusions any time soon.
Collaboration: You’re encouraged to build off of or utilize stories told by other writers—how does your character interact with them and the stories they’ve told? But please be attentive and don’t ret-con, overwrite, or otherwise modify details laid down by other storytellers.
Happy writing, and happy New Year!
Please tag
in your post or tag me on Notes if you’d like your story to be added to this anthology/compilation!Inspiration
I’ve watched a few of these collaborative worldbuilding projects unfold—between The Suff stories back in late 2023, The Chronicler’s The Blackwater Files, and
’s Penter Painters Holiday Haunts. After originally threw out the idea of this project, I couldn’t not take it and run with it, and I can’t wait to see what crazy escapades the Tipsy Taxi patrons have to share!
Sounds fun! What’s the timescale for contributing stories?
Ooh yay! I’ll have to do some brainstorming now that Beasts of the Field is wrapped. 😀