TEST DRIVE: JUNE

[simpathis]

— TEST DRIVE: JUNE —

Welcome to empatheias' test drive meme. This test drive is to help interested players test their characters in the game's environment. We've included a few prompts that incorporate specific elements of the game, though you'll find all of them have a lot of leeway for players to get as creative as necessary. Before diving in, here are a few things we'd like to remind everyone about the game in general:

• Date reminders. Reserves open Monday, May 25th and Applications open Monday, June 1st.
  
  
• Emotions are key! Empatheias' premise focuses on how anyone's emotions can affect their environment, be it big or small. While not every emotion will cause a reaction, significant ones definitely will. How much effect a character will have will ultimately be up to you, the player. Also, while we're giving a lot of leeway for the test drive, keep in mind that there will be some limits in the actual game.
  
  
• Everyone has an amulet. All characters have a unique amulet that is specialized for them. It will contain all of their emotion drops and it serves as the network device. Remember, communication is telepathic. Otherwise, it works basically the same.
  
  
• Assume the character is already in the game. Because "OMG WHERE AM I IS THIS REAL LIFE" threads aren't going to be very helpful in this test drive! Plus those are going to happen in-game, anyway. So to make things easier, just assume that they've been around at least a week or so. Still learning the ropes, but not a complete "first day" experience.
  
  
• First or third person allowed. Your threads can be in either first or third, but we'd advise being flexible about it. Remember, these threads can also be used in your application for samples! Reminder: We only require one sample and it can be done in either format.
  
  
• IMPORTANT! We have made a change to our sample requirements, so look over the Applications page!

Now with that out of the way, here are some prompts you guys can work from!


PROMPTS

• Prompt A: How about giving the emotions a try? The following emotions will have more effect than usual: hope, despair, fear, and bravery.

• Prompt B: Refer to the Task Board and choose a task your character may be interested in taking up. For this prompt, you could have your character ask for help, already be in the middle of the job, or react to it in some way. Perhaps they were an unfortunate victim or want to create a job countering an existing one. You could even have a prompt making a job request.

• Prompt C: How about giving the amulets a go? Start a telepathic conversation and see how it works. Remember, the amulets are sending out the owner's thoughts so might want to be careful about how the stream of consciousness goes...

• Prompt D: The latest entry in the hot 'Forgefires' series is about to come out, and lines in front of bookstores are blocking the streets! How will you get to your destination when your path is full of frenzied cosplayers who don't dare move lest they lose their spot in line? You might want to be careful, too—some fans are getting into heated arguments about their favorite characters so things might start literally flying if left unchecked!

• Prompt E: Things have been getting a little gloomy lately, so a group of youths have designed the first ever Verens Rock-Paper-Scissors Tournament. Somehow you've won through the lower ranks, and are now a finalist. The state of the city is riding on you (or so they claim), so face your opponent and somehow manage to make this farce exciting enough to lift the moods of the spectators (mostly kids). Just be careful. If you do poorly, you might find a tomato or two thrown at you.

• Prompt F: Welcome to FEAR FACTOR! An exciting new brand of entertainment where contestants participate in various challenges that touch home to the most innate fears humans share. Lying in a pit of creepy crawlies; climb up high, precarious structures; go one-on-one with wild animals—can you handle it? Are you brave enough to go for the 1 million sylv prize? Or will fear cripple you and leave you with nothing!? Only one way to find out! Oh, and one more thing—your emotions will definitely effect everything, so if you're climbing up that rusty, half broken steel tower and it starts shaking, that's probably because you're scared out of your wits. Don't let it crumble!

• Prompt G: Make your own! It could include giant cheese wheels and/or bucket of nails.

For your threads, put the Character Name and the Canon in the subject line to help readily identify them. You're also welcome to use more than one prompt for respondents to choose from. If you have any questions or want to brush up on the game information, refer to the Game Information entry. Otherwise, tag around and have fun!

Comments

[plied_magic]

"I don't know if it has a name. It's just 'the world'. I'm from the duchy of Emelan, though."

Which isn't terribly helpful unless he's from somewhere on that continent.

[trustycrowbar]

He sure isn't from there! And she can tell this by the complete and total lack of recognition on his face. Nope. Zero. Nothing. He wasn't sure WHAT he was expecting, really.

"I'm from Earth, although I'm sure half the population here would say the same name and mean a different place." He cautions over the rim of his coffee cup with a dismissive wave of the other hand.

[plied_magic]

"Since it means the same thing as ground, I wouldn't be surprised," Sandry said. "I could try to sketch a map, and see if you recognize some of the coastlines, if you like."

[trustycrowbar]

"The problem with the nomenclature is that anything more accurate would be too complicated to remember." He snorts with a laugh. "You're not familiar with a Reinmann curvature tensor, are you?"

...Gordon. What'd you expect as an answer to that? Really? He coughs and shrugs.

"Sure, why not? It's worth a shot. I may just recognize it somehow... Let's go over here, out of the way of all the vikings." He says, waving her to a recently-vacated coffee house table and chairs.

[plied_magic]

"Not at all," Sandry said. She understood one word in three, but curvature didn't help her guess at what was curved or why.

She walked over to the table, and dug through the basket she carried. She had ink but wasn't sure of the paper. But she did find her colored yarn, and that would work. "Let's see." Using the yarn as lines, she sketched out continents and seas. While she was moving the skein of yarn in one hand, Gorden might notice that the yarn always seemed to fall exactly in the right shape, and even kinked up where sharper corners were needed. Or the fact that she always seemed to come to the end of a piece exactly where she needed it to be without having to cut thread for it.

"Do you recognize any of this?"

[trustycrowbar]

"Wh--" He starts to ask about the yarn, but is stopped into silence when she begins to draw the shoreline with it. This was one of those moments--and he's experienced a few of them--where the laws of physics weren't strictly broken, yet something still didn't sit quite right. Yarn shouldn't keep that shape that faithfully...

"It doesn't, it doesn't look famliiar... How're you doing that?" He can't help but ask.

[plied_magic]

Sandry stopped. "Thread magic," she said. She looked at him, trying to figure out if it bothered him. Spending so much time in Summersea where people knew who she was and that she was a mage meant that, while she tried to avoid powerful displays, people expected some magery. I know people aren't always comfortable with mages, but I've gotten used to it. I can try to find some paper, if you like."

[trustycrowbar]

He doesn't look like it bothers him. He glances up at her in surprise when the word "magic" leaves her lips, then he seems all the more intent on eyeing the thread, going as far as to hazard nudging part of the shoreline to see if it springs back into place.

"Fascinating... err, no, that's not necessary." He adds to her offer to revert to old-fashioned paper and pencil.

[plied_magic]

Since Sandry hadn't been paying attention, the thread was just thread, albeit stiffer than it should be without some kind of starch. But it could be moved. "I enjoy it." she grinned. "It's very handy."

[trustycrowbar]

"Can everyone in your world do this?" He realizes he's giving away the fact that he and no one in HIS world can't, but curiosity is overriding everything.

[plied_magic]

Sandry shook her head. "Most people aren't mages. And most mages work in different ways than I do. One mage in four or five is an ambient mage: most mages have to learn how to manipulate magic with runes and symbols. I've met a few other thread mages. My teacher, and her current student. And other sorts of ambient mages. They can be associated with other crafts or natural things like plants or the weather."