riverview: may test drive meme

[riverviewmod]

riverview test drive meme

Welcome to Riverview's test drive meme! Feel free to dip your toes in on the test drive meme to try out your character in the setting, play out a mission, and get samples for your application at the same time!

● Reserves are currently OPEN.
● Applications open on June 1st.
● Providing all parties are amenable, threads on the test drive meme can count as game canon, as the plot in the prompts presented is game canon.
● TDM threads do not count for Activity Check, but they do count for Activity Bonus Points, so long as all characters involved are accepted into the game.
● Threading on the TDM is intended for prospective new characters, so top-levels should only be posted by players of these characters. Since the events in the TDM are considered game canon, characters currently in the game are free to use the TDM prompts for logs and posts on the regular communities.

Feel free to use the prompts below or create your own scenario. The setting is built to be flexible, so feel free to make things up as you go.

information resources
premise ● arrival ● setting ● ask a question ● calendar ● navigation

prompt i: search & rescue

Following rumors about a magical healing spring deep in the jungle, a group of intrepid explorers ventured out to verify whether it existed or not. After finding the spring inside an ancient temple overrun with tree roots and flora, they brought samples back and discovered that the spring did, in fact, have healing properties. Just like the rumors said.

Until the authorities decided what to do with this information, no actions were to be taken, nor information revealed to the public at large. Unfortunately, the news leaked and spread to the alternative science communities as well as the top minds at Gramarye Magic Research. With interest piqued, several more unauthorized expeditions set out beyond the fence in search of the spring. And once the information leaked beyond these scientists and scholars? Everyday citizens also launched their own excursions into the jungle, many bringing ailing family members or friends along for the ride.

This month the mission is to deploy teams of skilled citizens into the jungle to rescue some of the less fortunate, unsuccessful parties. Some of these people will be trapped or set upon by monsters, unable to move forward to the spring or back to the safety of the city. Others have simply run out of supplies and need the teams to restock them so they can continue their trek. And some groups have managed to reach the spring and collect their own samples of the spring water, only to find themselves struggling to return to the city before the samples lose efficacy. Feel free to create your own party to rescue, and get a team together to do so!

prompt ii: death from above

Normally, living inside the Inhabited City is a pretty safe bet. You can go day to day without running into a monster or risking any kind of danger requiring a fight. Generally, the tall, laser-fenced walls keep out anything particularly dangerous.

The problem with walls? They only go so high.

While usually assault from airborne monsters isn't a problem that's on the map, there's a few weeks during late spring where a swarm of flying monsters not unlike feathery pterodactyls are migrating back to another part of the moon. They're only in the area for a couple of weeks, but during that time, residents can expect occasional attacks by swooping monsters if they should see easy prey. Usually, a good sturdy dark-colored umbrella is enough to keep them from seeing a potential victim or meal, but sometimes the attacks still happen. So the Perimeter Guard sends extra details, calling in all the reserves, to patrol the city and keep an eye out for citizens in distress. There's also a general call for anyone who's experienced at fighting to help protect their fellow citizens. Whether your character is being attacked or protecting someone else, be prepared - these monsters are quick and have very sharp teeth.

prompt iii: homesick bazaar

Over the past couple of weeks, the portal has seemed really fixated on food. Almost every time the portal changes location, new bundles of food are near the entrance, ripe for the Perimeter Guard Orientation Team to pick up and drag through. As a result, the Orientation Team has set up a free bazaar outside City Hall. The Bazaar lasts from the 20th until the 31st of May, and is completely free, featuring tables and booths laden with food taken from the other side of the portal. Many of these foods will be familiar to characters in the City, whether it's that special brand they're totally addicted to or a plate of grandma's family recipe.

Everything at the Bazaar is totally free, and anyone joining in on the feast is encouraged to share (read: gently not allowed to leave until they do) and to tell stories about the origin of the foods from their own home. It's a multidimensional foodie's paradise!

prompt iv: prijata pregaming

Prijata is a holiday in Riverview celebrating platonic love - essentially, it's a celebration of friendship, geared at showing appreciation for existing friends and finding new ones. While I won't spoil the rest of the prompts for the introductory mingle, one of the main staples of Prijata is gift giving, and the Government of Riverview gets into the spirit of it by giving small gifts to everyone who's arrived since the last Prijata.

This prompt can be used to give a quick idea of what your character is into so other characters or players can suggest gifts to be given them (or to give them) if they are accepted! More information can be found in the Prijata Pregaming modpost.

prompt v: friendr/network

Whether your character is posting up a silly word game to distract people from the dangerous mission going on, trying to get hold of a friend, or putting out feelers for people to go out into the fray with, the network is going strong.

Alternately, an offer for a free app is popping up on new arrivals' devices - Friendr is a friend-finder and/or dating app. If characters choose to install it, they will fill out a short bio and parameters for what they're looking for, upload a snap of themselves, and then proceed to browse for matches. This is a typical swipe-left-or-right type app.

Code to post your character's bio is in the textbox below, or you can just do a text version of the information in the app. An example of how it looks can be found here.

<center><blockquote style="width: 220px; margin: 0; padding: 0px; background-image: url('http://i42.tinypic.com/2uf53s4.jpg'); font-size: 12px; font-family: verdana; border-radius: 20px; text-align: center;"><div style="padding: 10px 0 0 0; text-align: center;font-size: 25px; font-weight: 900; font-style: italic; color: #528887; text-shadow: -2px 2px 2px rgba(150, 150, 150, 1);">F<span style="font-size: 16px;">RIENDR</span></div> <center><img src="ICON URL HERE" style="border-radius: 50%; width: 70px; height: 70px; box-shadow:-3px 3px 2px 0px rgba(82, 136, 135, .75);"></center> <center><div style="width: 210px; background-color: #528887; color: #fff; padding: 5px; font-size: 14px;">Name of Character</div></center> <center><div style="width: 210px; background-color: #528887; color: #fff; padding: 5px; font-size: 11px; text-align: left;"><b><small>AGE:</small></b> ## <b><small>INTERESTED IN:</small></b> Male/Female/Any <b><small>SEEKING:</small></b> Type(s) of Relationship(s) <b><small>ABOUT ME:</small></b> Blurb goes here, can be as long or short as you wish.</div></center><br> </blockquote></center>
Many thanks to mistojen for coding this especially for Riverview!

prompt vi: wildcard

Choose your own adventure and do something else in the setting!

navigation
[river market image is by Tyler Edlin]

Comments

[wronganswer]

[ She folds her arms and leans back in her chair. ]

Neurology doesn't bend.

[dendarii]

Then don't bend the neurology. Change the conditions you use it under.

[wronganswer]

How's that working out so far?

[ She asks because she already knows the answer; she'd felt it. ]

[dendarii]

[ Miles knows it too, but he's not giving up on this. ]

It got me this far. I shouldn't have made it to where I was, by all accounts.

[wronganswer]

Me, too.

[ It's not a challenge, just an equitable answer. Failing so many times... Anderson knows she's a terrible Judge. She's never contested that. She's determined to make a difference anyway, no matter how much it isolates her, how much she is distrusted for being psychic, hated for being a mutant. ]

I'm just saying... [ A pause. In a quiet tone, ] It's not all you are.

[dendarii]

[ Ah. That gets through to him a bit better; he straightens, meeting her eyes curiously. ]

How so?

[wronganswer]

[ A tiny smile. She likes seeing she had an effect, and her sense of humor is a little teasing. ]

You're questioning the telepath who was just in your head? There's more there than that.

[dendarii]

I meant you.

[wronganswer]

[ Oh, well, none of this is a secret. It's all common knowledge at home, or on her official record. Her good humor fades into nonchalance, affected so many times before it's become almost real. ]

When I said I'm a borderline pass, I mean I'm a fail who was pushed through because they want to use my abilities. Most people in my situation die violent and starving at the edge of the Cursed Earth. I grew up in a slum.

I'm too human to be a Judge, and too mutant to be a human.

But I don't care. They can use me if they want. This is what I've always wanted to do. Those people in the slums-- they don't deserve that.

[ She falls silent. It's a heavy situation to explain, one she's not sure she fully can. That's the best she can do. There's an earnestness to her, and a tenacity, that is impossible to suppress no matter how impassive she tries to be. ]

[dendarii]

[ There's a flicker of understanding anyway - sympathy, of wanting desperately to serve in any way possible. To force the world to accept you even a little in the face of horrible prejudice ... Miles just has the advantage of being a lord to help smooth his path. No slum childhood here. ]

It seems you've already bent reality yourself.

[wronganswer]

[ It's not like she'd be jealous-- things are the way they are. Anderson doesn't waste any time pitying herself when she has real work to do. At least, she always does at home. ]

If you want to think of it that way. I just want to do this job.

[dendarii]

As I wanted to do mine. More than anything else in the world.

[wronganswer]

When I thought I deserved the fail, I turned in my own badge.

[ That's the fundamental difference: when Anderson breaks the rules, she expects appropriate punishment, doesn't even try to weasel out of it. ]

I'm not above the law.

[dendarii]

Laws don't often serve the weak, I've found.

[wronganswer]

[ No argument on that one. But-- ]

They don't serve anyone if we don't follow them. And if I break it, I accept the consequences.

[ Anderson definitely breaks the law from time to time, with full understanding and acceptance of the fallout. ]

[dendarii]

Mm, maybe. Better to change the whole system though.

[wronganswer]

Go ahead.

You're still stuck where you are. [ She consciously lets up on the tension-- ] Right now... that's here.

[dendarii]

[ Right, stuck here. He hasn't decided how he feels about that. ]

Right. Nothing I can do about home from here.

[wronganswer]

Tell me about it, [ she sighs. ]

You feel uprooted... [ Her brow furrows. ] My whole frame of reference isn't right. [ She wishes she could root through someone's head until she's adequately absorbed it, gotten up to be up and north to be north instead of everything wildly veering in unexpected directions just when she thinks she has a grasp on something. ]

[dendarii]

[ Here he focuses in on her again, curious. ]

What is your normal frame of reference? Other than passing absolute judgement.

[wronganswer]

[ Slowly, ] Mega-City One is a megalopolis stretching most of the eastern seaboard of what used to be the United States. Over twelve thousand serious crimes are reported a day. Between it and Mega-City Two on the west coast, it's only irradiated wasteland.

What remains of humanity is packed in tight, with nowhere else to go. It's complete chaos. Judges are the only thing that create order.

[dendarii]

[ His horror would be palpable even without telepathy. ]

Dear god. Worse than Barrayar then.

[wronganswer]

[ Thankfully she's turned it off by now. Anderson has a complicated mix of feelings for Mega-City One, but horror is definitely one of them. Just probably not as much so as someone from another place, who doesn't expect it as normal existence. ]

It's what there is, [ she says simply. ] Weakness there gets you killed. It's... obviously not like that here.

[ This whole conversation would've been patently impossible at home, not only in content but in tenor. ]

[dendarii]

[ Miles nods slowly at that. ]

So it seems. Not so dissimilar from Barrayar either, just worse.

[wronganswer]

But you don't seem to be having trouble adjusting here.