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sharedspace2015-11-27 04:00 pm
ourspace) wrote in sharedspace2015-11-27 04:00 pm
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TDM I: The Silent Towns
 welcome. This is the first test drive meme for openspace! We hope to be a plot-driven, space-fantasy, pan-fandom game, with a day-to-day focus on player-run plots and a metaplot about the nature of creative energy.arrival. You appear in a city square. The buildings around you are retro-futuristic, all chrome and curves. The dust beneath your feet is red, the sky is pink and dotted with pastel clouds, the sun is slightly smaller than normal, and two misshapen moons hang low in the sky. The air is breathable, the weather temperate. A moment later, there’s a strange sensation, like a pair of warm, slender arms settling over your shoulders in a draping hug. If you try to turn and look for the source of those arms, however, you'll find that you're momentarily unable to move. It sounds like a voice whispering in your ear, but it's still impossible to turn and look. A beat after that, you know what your five tasks are, even though some of them may sound preposterous. The warm arms on your shoulder vanish, and you can move again. And you’ll notice, for the first time, that there are other people in the square with you: other new arrivals. So, will you do as you’re told, or find your own way? tasks. Choose five tasks from this list for your character. (Or RNG, if you prefer.) These are the tasks your character was assigned by the unseen voice. Characters know which tasks they have, but no one has the complete list of tasks, and no one will know what tasks anyone else has unless a character chooses to share. It’s up to your character whether they complete their tasks by charm, bribery, trickery, force, wit, or a mix of all of these. Or whether they ignore them entirely. The overall goal of the tasks is just to prompt both cooperative and hostile interaction, like icebreaker bingo meets capture the flag meets Lord of the Flies. There will be no IC reward for completing any of the tasks-- though characters are free to assume that there is (the aforementioned "wish"). However there is an OOC a reward for participation. More on that below. The tasks are as follows: 1. Save the princess setting. As your character tries to fulfill tasks or thwart others (or do nothing...) they may end up exploring. Here’s what they’ll find. The City, Generally Most of the city resembles an idyllic 1960s urban center, though all done in curving chrome and brilliant bubbling glass. Oh, and it’s abandoned. There aren’t even any animals. The streets are deserted, and every interior surface is covered in a thick veil of red dust. There’s no evidence of a disaster, or a hurried evacuation, or even an instant disappearance. Clothes are hung, beds are made, dishes are stacked away. Really, it looks as though everyone tidied up, went on vacation en masse, and never came back. The city is bisected east to west by a large, placid canal spanned by several elegantly arching bridges. The city is densely built, but the local parks have started to overgrow their bounds, so the city is dotted with masses of red-tinged, unkempt vegetation. It must be summer or fall here, because the bushes and trees are heavy with edible fruits. The Palace At the north of the city is a palace, a graceful, shining cluster of four minarets. The palace had a low wall, once, but the wall has been swallowed up by an enormous bramble, with thorns as long as an arm and roses the same rusty color as the sky. The palace grounds are overgrown, but thankfully less thorny. The minarets are filled with the usual palace things: kitchens and ballrooms, stables and treasure rooms, bedrooms and war rooms. The library is filled with books in a language that no one will be able to read; the armories are stocked with everything from swords to crossbows to revolvers to rayguns, though, mysteriously, nothing more technologically advanced than modern-day technology is functioning, and none of the futuristic technology can be rehabilitated. The largest room, located in the northernmost minaret, is the throne room, a great arching room that draws the eye to the red-gold throne. The throne is empty, of course. The Temple To the very south of the city is the temple, a red-stone pyramid whose rustic materials and sharp lines stand in sharp contrast to the chrome-and-curves of the rest of the city. The temple, too, is filled with everything you’d expect from a temple: work spaces, spaces for worship, spaces for rest, even a weapons cache almost as well-stocked and diverse as the palace’s – although again, anything more futuristic than modern-day technology is dead and cannot be repaired. Parts of the temple are opulently decorated with gold and jewels, others are spartan. In a humble room at the very top of the pyramid is a single wooden altar, upon which rests a simple wooden chalice. Outside the City Walls Several miles east of the city lies a smoking volcano, belching a slender but constant ribbon of soot into the pink sky. The land to the north, east, and south of the city is reddish-brown. Most of it looks like it was farmland once; there are picket fences and empty farmhouses and barns, mostly clustered around the banks of the canal. But the fields and orchards are overgrown now, and the dirt roads are being overtaken by restless vegetation. It will go on forever like this, no matter how far you walk or run or fly. To the west, the canal flows into a salty indigo sea that stretches as far as you can see (or swim, or sail, if you manage to build a boat. It’s big). power nerfing. The arrival power nerfing is in place for all characters: all magical abilities are nerfed; any being larger than 20 meters is scaled down to 20 meters; the magical component of any magical weaponry is nerfed; any technology more advanced than 2015/2016 technology is nerfed. (Powers can be regained and weapons repowered in game! But for now, nerfed.) have fun! Reserves open on December 18 and applications open December 23rd (for reserved characters) and December 24th (for unreserved characters). We hope you'll come back to apply! Additionally, because of the game’s meta-premise, your characters will not remember this TDM when they arrive in the game. They may remember it several months into the game as part of a planned event, if you choose. However, you can convert activity in the TDM into "solar quartz," which allows characters to gain or regain abilities in-game. For every 500 words written by you or 15 comments posted by you, your character will receive one piece of quartz upon arrival in the game. (Maximum trade-in, three pieces per character.) |
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