forgottentales_ooc | Test Drive: September 2019

Test Drive: September 2019—

§ instructions.

Welcome to the Test Drive for Forgotten Tales! This is to help interested players test out their characters in the game's setting and see if the essence they have chosen will actually work in game play. There are a number of prompts that try to touch on the kinds of settings and scenarios the characters may encounter. So here are a few things to keep in mind while on the test drive:

Feel free to use the current Workshop for help if you need it! Both the Workshop and the Test Drive are required for Registration.
Participating on the Test Drive does not guarantee a spot on either Claims or Registration.
Check the Character Roster and Essence List to see if your choices are not already taken.
Include Character Name and Canon in the subject line, and note somewhere within the toplevel your character's essence. It can be in the subject line if you already know what it is (so ex; Character | Canon | Essence). Side note: You are free to try more than one essence if you're on the fence. Just make sure to note which one you're using for that particular prompt.
Players are free to assume their characters have been informed of the very basics so you can skip all that if you'd like.
Only the "In the Index" prompts of the Test Drive can be carried over in its entirety, but you can alter the story based ones as "stage play" settings within the Index if you wish to carry over that interaction as well.
Don't forget to refer to the Game Info for how the mechanics work.
Registration will open October 1. Claims will open September 24.

Most of all, have fun! Feel free to invite those you may think would be interested to participate in the test drive.

§ prompts.

¶ I. In the Index. When not out adventuring or playing character roles in stories, the Aspects will have some downtime within the Index, the central hub of the Realm of Stories. Here they can explore the city, read up on other stories, socialize with fellow would-be heroes, learn more about the essence, or even just do nothing at all. Any threads and CR made with "Index" prompts can be carried over into the game.

A. Out in the City. Life in the Index can range from the mundane to the extraordinary depending on which area one travels to. Because it is a hodgepodge of many different stories from numerous cultures, one can never be sure what they may encounter even on an average run for groceries.
1. Phantom Troll Booth. It's common knowledge that trolls enjoy their bridges and asking for unwary travelers (or in this case, average pedestrians) to pay some kind "toll" to pass over. Of course that's less of a necessity within the city itself, but there are some who like to prank people and others find bridges outside to continue their somewhat lucrative "business." There is one troll in particular, however, who has taken their "occupation" a bit far. Instead of paying to use a bridge, he offers a magical blue phone booth to instantly send a person to their desired destination. All for the "modest" fee of ten gold coins. However, instead of sending them to that location, everyone winds up in a random farmer's pig sty. Yeugh! Will a character be a victim or chase after this devious troll?
2. Do You Know the Mutton Man? After a day or so, everyone will have heard of "Jerry the Mutton Man" and that reputation is not favorable. For whatever reason, this young hooligan is pitching out freshly made mutton and chucking it at random people on the streets while shouting, "MUTTON, FRESH MUTTON!!" before laughing and running away. It gets worse when other brats decide to join in the "Mutton" campaign. Someone better take care of this before some of the more "carnivorous" residents of the Index decide to take matters into their own hands (or paws). After all, what a waste of good mutton!
3. Katamari Dagoosey. Old MacDonald’s golden goose has gotten loose, and while the bird is gorgeous to look, it IS a goose. And when golden geese are stressed out, they make EVERYTHING they bowl over stick to them. By the time it reaches the Index, the goose is surrounded by a story-tall conglomerate of unfortunate people, scenery, and even the odd cow. The only solution is to roll the ball through the town back to old MacDonald’s farm, where the land has an anti-sticking spell. Rolling and steering a ball THIS big, though, might be a two-person job.
B. Essence Practice. Suddenly inheriting the abilities of another person while losing most of your own at the same time can be quite jarring. Picking a place to test out these newfound powers or even going to the Library to read up on the essence's story may help glean some clues as to what they can do.
C. Try Out the Journal. The journals are unique to this world and the sole source of communication for everyone. Feel free to give it a try, either by sending a random message out or even a doodle.

¶ II. London Bridge is Falling Down. A classic nursery rhyme with rather dark roots, the Aspects will find themselves facing the bridge in a strange, chaotic state of constantly breaking apart and crumbling. Only the ends appear to remain stable, but that could change at any second.
There are no real roles here, so they are tasked with eliminating the Erasers trying to tear the bridge—and thus the rhyme itself—and stabilize the environment. Just mind the weather. For a lot of the time it will be raining, but there will be occasional patches of sun.

A. Falling Down, Falling Down. There are numerous reasons for the bridge breaking apart, from the Erasers physically attacking it to the ground itself shaking from constant earthquakes to the pitch black water rising up to slam into the brittle stones. But what's even more pressing is the fact that there are people trying to cross through. Apparently the bridge is actually a functioning one and it's the only way the people who live within this rhyme can leave. While the knights of the Index are valiantly trying their best, many of these people need help trying to cross over and fending off the attacking Erasers.
B. Build It Up with Iron Bars, Gold, and Silver. Although stone and wood is available, the key materials they need to use in rebuilding the bridge are iron, gold, and silver. There are plenty of iron bars scattered around to grab and try to fit into place, but the gold and silver have to be found underwater. As to how these all fit, there are workers on the scene who will do that for them, but for the most part they look like puzzle pieces with the bridge's original "outline" just barely visible. Find the place and stick it in.
C. My Fair Lady. In the middle of it all, there are sightings of an eerie, ghostly woman dressed in white that appears at random spots of the bridge. From the distance she looks harmless and some believe her to a kind of faerie queen... But in reality, the "lady" is a fearsome wight and will attack all who come near. Those who use their abilities from their Essences will be able to do more damage than just plain weapons.

¶ III. Scene Snippets. The following prompts are various scenes styled similarly to those designed for the campaigns. Two characters are randomly assigned a role and must "act out" the scene. It can be assumed they are given the basics, but they are free to act however they wish. There is no real script or set direction, and they will have full access to their Essence abilities. Roles are not gender limited, so go wild. You are also free to create your own scenes or play within the general setting of the provided stories, even if they are not specified. Everything here is just a "guideline" and characters can act and behave however they would if dumped into the setting.

A. Anansi Wins the World's Stories. The Aspects are dropped in the middle of a thick rainforest to help recreate one of the Storyteller's favorites: how Anansi the Spider—trickster hero of the Ashanti people—won the world's stories from the sky god Nyame. In order to do so, they have to recreate a few of the spiders' impossible tasks: one Aspect will play Anansi, while their partner will either double team with them to make the task a bit less impossible, or play as Anansi's hapless opponent.
1. Rope a Dope. Anansi's first task is capturing the gigantic but vain Onini the Python. Anansi and Onini need to argue over whether the snake is shorter or longer than a fallen palm tree before Onini allows himself to be measured, giving Anansi an opportunity to tie him to the branch "to keep him straight." Hopefully the web shooters in Anansi's costume won't gum up... or accidentally tie up the wrong target...
2. Cat's in the Cradle. Here the Aspects will team up as the spider god in order to catch Osebo the Leopard, who thanks to the Story Eater's doing has been transformed into a VERY large, VERY feral Blot monster. The tricksters will have to work fast to build a pit trap lined with spider silk netting for the beast… and someone MIGHT need to serve as bait… Once Osebo falls into the pit, however, all the Aspects need to do is volley insults at it in order to make it thrash and tangle itself even more. That webbing should hold just fine, right?
3. Hey! Listen! Anansi's last opponent is very different from the rest. While Onini and Osebo rely on their physical might, Mmoatia the Fairy is small but armed with a hair trigger temper and the power to turn invisible. BUT instead of a weakness for yam paste and good manners, this Blot of Mmoatia is attracted to lost travelers, doing her best to "guide" them back to her lair with her dulcet voice. While one Aspect plays Anansi and tries to guide their partner through the jungle, the other one will play Anansi's "puppet" and do their best to follow Anansi and disobey Mmoatia enough that the fairy will get mad and dive at them. What the fairy DOESN'T know is that the puppet's costume will also include a nice, sticky layer of gum paste, and if all goes right the fairy will tar baby herself to the puppet. Careful, though, she has a pretty good right hook.
B. Create Your Own! No need to limit to what we provide. If there's a particular story, scene, or even setting that you think would be fun, go for it! You can even use the story your character's essence is from. Other options are any of the scenes and settings from our previous campaigns and side stories.

¶ IV. Mix it up. This is the "wildcard" prompt. Feel free to take any of these prompts and make them more of your own, or pull from an entirely different story. As mentioned you're free to use any of our previous stories or other events. Just have fun with it!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[I. A-2]

[He hears it before it happens - and even if he didn't, his reflexes were still fair. Dodging aside, he blinks when a chunk of mutton flies past him, his eyes darting back to the individual that almost struck him.]

[... It's a child? Why would they do that?]

[He doesn't even get the chance to ask before they take off at a sprint, cackling. But now that he's been made aware, it seems like he's not the only victim of almost mutton-clobbery.]

[Doesn't look like there's only one kid throwing meat either. That's unfortunate, and a waste of food. He might as well do something about it; those fools didn't know what trouble they could get in otherwise.]

[I. A-3]

[He's again questioning why he agreed to help this 'Story Teller' when he sees the giant ball. There's people, there are buildings, one odd cow, and aggravating honking coming from the center of it all albeit muffled. He takes a moment to stand and watch it, taking note in the fact it wasn't really rolling anywhere now.]

[It did, at some point, move, but cautiously approaching, there seemed to be someone holding it - no, attempting to push it. They had it stopped at least, but what would they do with it at this point? Did it belong somewhere? Maybe whoever was attempting to move it or just hold it in place would feel him staring.]

[II. A]

[It's the only bridge he could see. While puzzling, if it's the only 'safe' passage across the river infested with Eraser, he could understand the issue. However, he doesn't really escort people - only tell them to hurry while he does what he knows best: fight.]

[It doesn't even matter if the Erasers were in the water; the moment he caught sight of one, he was after it. If someone required two people to help them across the bridge, it might be a good idea to stop him before he dove back in for the next monster.]

[II. B]

[It didn't seem like everyone was jumping at the chance to dive into the river and gather the needed materials to repair the bridge. Considering though they'd just driven off Erasers mere moment's ago could reasonably explain that however; and if they were to come back, fighting while carrying iron, silver, or gold wouldn't be for the inexperienced.]

[If someone else wanted to parse out puzzling the bridge back together, he didn't mind going into the water and gathering what they needed. Saved him the trouble of having to stop. If any specific metal was needed, they would have to tell him; otherwise, he was bringing back the first one he saw and leaving it on the shore.]

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[OOC: When tagging, put in the subject line which essence in order to test that one. It's likely powers won't actually be used, but if at some point he mentions, then I can answer.]

[Hunk also feels like this is a huge waste of food! He notices Oswald nearly get hit, and heads over to him.]

Nice dodge; you okay? And, uh, any ideas as to why they're doing this?

[Looking to the one speaking to him (... bear ears), he shakes his head. Checking his horns briefly, no, he didn't get any mutton caught on them.]

They are fortunate many have proven not to be feral beasts despite nature. 'tis only a matter of time before such encounter occurs.

Wait... I'm not sure I followed that. What do you mean, feral beasts?

You are some manner of animal essence too, are you not? I find myself bound to my temper lest I may have transformed and attacked. There could be those spurred by hunger though undesired.

Oh! The bear ears... Right.

[He's starting to get used to them, it's weird.]

Well, my essence is actually a teddy bear. You know, like a toy? So I'm not sure that counts. But yours sounds like it must be a lot more, you know, animal. Also kind of scary.

... A bear as a toy?

[He has no idea what that means.]

Yes. There was no name to it, but it was referred to as 'Beast' in the Library.

[This might be harder to explain than he'd expected.]

Not a real bear. A stuffed bear- well, wait, no. Not like a real bear that was stuffed. Ew.

A teddy bear is kind of like ragdoll, but in the shape of a bear.

[A sigh. He's bad at explaining things that aren't related to engineering or food.]

Oh, uh, like Beauty and the Beast?

... I have never seen nor heard of such 'ragdoll'.

[He had understood stuffed bear, but that had been more for the other kingdoms. When there had been other kingdoms.]

Yes, that was the title of the book.

Huh. Okay, well do you know what a doll is? A ragdoll is just a doll made entirely of fabric.

But man, that's a pretty intense essence to have. How are you doing with that?

... Perhaps? I cannot be sure.

I have experienced worse.

Oh... I'm sorry to hear you have.

[There's a raised brow and then head shake.]

'Twas no fault of your own. You had no way of knowing either.

I mean, sure, sure. But still...

Well, at least things aren't too bad here, for the most part?

[He makes no comment. Another day he might explain, but it's weird having people be sympathetic.]

[But at the questioning comment, he nods.]

I expected deceit and being brought into war again.

I mean, I guess it's kind of a war? Sometimes we're fighting erasers, and stuff...

[And then he realizes that's probably not a helpful thing to say. Besides...]

But it's a lot, uh, better than the last war I was in.

Yes... It remains peaceful enough that a child could consider going around and...

[Speak of the devil, just a short distance away from them, someone else gets struck by meat.]

[Hunk flinches a bit as he sees it happen.]

Man, really, that's just rude, and such a waste of food.

Test Drive: September 2019

Oswald | Odin Sphere Leifthrasir | Beast or Hades

I. A-2, Beast

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