Anyone else think this is weird timing?!

I find it highly suspicious that Otherworlds has suddenly decided the technology levels are appropriate to wrap up everything like this. And, coincidentally, free up vast amounts of resources despite there having been no new breakthroughs in decades. Everyone knows they’re losing money ever since the new gen uplinks released. I bet they didn’t even test the transfers before going ahead with it.

>Post 1, Anonymous, 19:44, 2383-02-15

They’ve been testing their transfer system for longer than you’ve been alive.

Mods, please lock this duplicate thread. (Not that stupid conspiracy theories belong here anyway.)

>Post 2, User8101, 20:02, 2383-02-15

Yeah, sure. Make excuses for them all you want. I’ll just say, I wouldn’t want to be the one who has to tell the families if something goes wrong. Heck, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere *close* to Otherworlds and this debacle.

And I don’t care what anyone says, I’m uploading warm or not at all.

>Post 3, Anonymous, 20:07, 2383-02-15

Not everyone has a choice, moron. Would you really rather die? I may not be completely on board with the whole uploading thing in general, but I definitely have that box checked in my will.

>Post 4, JustAnotherGuy993, 20:20, 2383-02-15

Please keep your discussion of this announcement to the official reaction thread.

>Post 5, ADMIN, 20:25, 2383-02-15

Thread locked and archived.

Book 1

Trickster's Luck

She panicked, gasping for air, trying to scramble free of the crushing weight . . . not weighing her down.

She couldn’t feel her lungs screaming, couldn’t feel the pressure against her body, couldn’t remember why she felt such intense existential terror. She felt no pain nor even slight discomfort. That helped to calm her brief panic. She was stable, not in danger, just a little hazy.

Though she also didn’t notice herself breathing, felt none of the ordinary indicators of a healthy body.

And, upon further reflection, she didn't seem to even have a body. She vaguely imagined that fact ought to concern her more than it did.

Once her attention left her lack of physical self, she became aware of a white blur which stood out among the not-white nothing that surrounded her. She focused on it and the blur immediately sharpened and clarified.

Welcome, Maya! If you are reading this message, then you survived the transition process and should now be in full command of your new and improved self! Please remain calm. Do you require a system administrator to offer reassurance?

“Huh."

Maya stared at the message a long moment, trying to assess herself. Yes, that was her name. It fit comfortably and felt right, accompanied by vague memories which, while indistinct, all added up to cementing the name as fact. And her mental state . . . uncertain, but nothing which made her think 'requires reassurance'.

"I don't think so, no?”

After a moment, the message was replaced by another.

As a permanent inhabitant of the Otherworlds database, you are entitled to certain perks. These vary from world to world, usually in the form of additional character stats or resources. You may also return here at any time to initiate communication with an administrator should the need for support or mental re-evaluation arise. In the meantime, enjoy yourself in any of the available worlds!

Admins. Character. Stats. Otherworlds. Maya was beginning to get a vague sense of what was going on. This was some sort of game. Just . . . way too weird, and real.

Please select an available world to create your character.

The text disappeared, the nothingness beyond replaced with darkness. Where she'd formerly been surrounded by nothing, now she stood - or didn't stand, as she still seemed to have no body - amid the vivid blackness of deep space. Galaxies spinning around galaxies; stars and nebulae and black holes; worlds and ships and stations; lonely planets and planets that shone with artificial lights, worlds with one moon or worlds with dozens; solid water or ice, deserts or forests or chasms glowing with magma; gaseous and solid; every sort of world she’d ever seen or imagined and then some, spread out before her like an endless ribbon.

“Uhhh . . . That one?” Maya pointed at random, toward a purpleish nebula near the center that caught her notice. The fact that she had no fingers to point with didn't prevent the action from accomplishing its intended purpose.

The view shifted closer, and she again pointed at random. And again, until she could see numbers hovering above each of the thousands of worlds, then nearer still so she could see each world individually. Most were greyed out. She waved her not-hand instinctively to swipe the view to the side, and to her slight surprise it worked exactly as she’d intended.

Worlds and numbers flickered by. 7409. 8165. Nearly all of the planets not greyed out looked uninviting. A solid water world. A post-apocalyptic wasteland, complete with ruined cities. Deserts. So many deserts. Why was that such a common planet type?

An earth-like planet flickered from grey to not-grey just before she scrolled past, and she selected it eagerly.

World 9352: 1/250 character slots available. Create character here?

“Yes please!”

The galaxies and planets disappeared, replaced with a new message in a simpler style and nothing more. The flat emptiness felt strange after hovering so recently amid a virtual universe.

Welcome player 9352-113-7! Please input a username. Unavailable names can be seen here*. Warning: this is a family-friendly world and the use of profanity will result in a forced rename.

“Maya . . . Starborn.”

That name is available! Loading character creation . . . .

She waited as the weird nothingness returned, briefly considering that she might be dreaming. But, no, not quite. She was thinking too clearly, experiencing too fully.

Whatever came next was taking too long to load. She felt glimpses of memory, brief flashes of discomfort, of panic, of despair. She didn’t want to think about it, wanted to push it to the side and think about anything else, but the empty nothingness surrounding her refused to provide a proper distraction.

"Come on, Maya. You can do this. What's something happy? Something enjoyable? Something besides pain and fear?"

She couldn’t remember anything else clearly. Then, slowly, something came to her. A brush of remembered sensation, sending a sudden thrill through her.

"Wind? Yes. Wind."

She loved wind. Wind was awe-inspiring, dangerous and full of potential at the same time. She loved to close her eyes and lean into the wind, arms spread, hair flying behind her, imagining that any moment she could lift off the ground and fly away . . .

Character creation loaded. As a permanent player, you gain a random stat bonus. +5 Luck.

The indistinct memory fled as her surroundings lit up with sliders and buttons and menus. Character creation options more detailed than anything she’d ever seen. She wasn't sure why she knew that, couldn't remember actually seeing any other character creation screens, but it was familiar and decidedly above-average. She knew that much.

Maya stared for a moment at the slowly revolving character on display, then started tapping options and clicking pop-up queries as fast as she could think.

There were eight main stats, each of which started at 8, and eight races which gained a variety of different bonuses and penalties. She ignored the stat window for the time being, slowly examining each of the races first.

Elves were, well, elves. Pointed ears, with options for going up, out, or back. Horns if you wanted them. She played for several minutes with the hair style and length sliders before moving on. Elves were listed with 'Affinities: Magical, Mental' and a huge list with bonus or penalty to nearly every attribute.

Maya skipped past them for now, they were a fairly standard fantasy option.

Felinis, unsurprisingly, were fantasy-typical humanoid cat people. Two legs, tail, claws, fur, twitching kitty ears. Adaptive, Physical; +2 momentum, +3 agility. Maya hovered her mind over momentum. That wasn’t a stat she was familiar with from any games she’d played or read about in the past. And checked agility for good measure, though it turned out to be basically what she'd expect.

Momentum: increases movement speed by 5% and stamina by 2. This attribute also governs chaining bonuses.

Agility: increases stamina by 2, stealth and movement speed by 2%

She did love movement speed. Making a mental note to come back to Felinis if nothing else suited her, she clicked on the next option down.

Harpy: Magical, Physical; +3 momentum, +2 intelligence. The birdlike feathered arms disappointed her when it became obvious they didn’t allow flight, but she spent several minutes playing with the generator. The options for customizing the head and body feathers were incredibly detailed. The face defaulted to fierce and almost hawk-like, but could be altered to nearly anything she could want.

Maya looked over human - Adaptive, Mental; +1 intelligence, +2 attunement, +2 agility - but only briefly. She did hover on the unfamiliar stat, again, curious.

Attunement: increases energy by 3 and awareness by 3%.

Apparently this game used a non-standard set of stats. She shrugged. If the level of customization in the character creator held true as an example of the rest of the game’s freedom, she didn’t mind at all.

Lizardine was the next race on the list. ‘Aquatic/Physical’, with bonuses of 3 to sturdiness and 2 to control.

Sturdiness: increases health by 5 and stamina by 1.

Control: increases stamina by 3. Determines ability switching penalties.

Visually, they were the standard lizardman race. Bipedal and tailed like the Felinis, but standing tall rather than crouching. Built wide and sturdy by default, with scaled skin and horned brow, they seemed oddly regal for something that looked like it crawled out of a swamp.

Merla came next, and Maya nearly clicked select right then. An adapted mer, with thin pointed feet and wide sweeping fins. The tail split just enough to allow walking on land, trailing behind in elegant sweeping curves. Crested head, scaled body, gills, and arm fins completed the look. Defaulting to deep blue with vibrant red patterning, she was immediately reminded of a betta fish. But about a hundred times cooler.

She couldn’t be hasty, she reminded herself. Merla were penalized 1 attunement, gaining +2 to sturdiness, focus, and flexibility. She glanced back at the stat page, concentrating on focus, then will and energy.

Focus: increases energy and will by 2.

Will is penalized when outnumbered, inside a damaging negative AoE, within enemy-aligned areas, etc. It can also be required by certain spells. Will gains a bonus to recovery when surrounded by allies, inside a positive AoE, within friendly-aligned territory, etc.

Energy is used to fuel mental or emotional skills and magic abilities.

Maya added merla to her mental shortlist, then continued to the next option.

Sprite: Absorptive, Mental; -2 sturdiness, -2 momentum, +3 attunement, +3 control, +3 flexibility. She hovered her thoughts over flexibility until its description showed up.

Flexibility: increases energy by 1 and stealth by 5%. Decreases cooldown time for all skills.

The sprite had an obviously insectoid visual inspiration, with its thin limbs and exoskeleton. Dragonfly wings too small to lift it from the ground spread out behind it, shimmering beautifully. She spent several minutes adjusting the wings - they had a lot of options for shape, size, patterns, etc.

Maya really, really hoped there was a way to earn flying abilities in this game. Sprite looked like a great choice for a magic-user. She liked the sound of the faster casting and skill switching options provided by the flexibility-control combo, and it had a nice attunement bonus as well. Who cared about sturdiness and momentum?

The last option was Vampire, ‘Absorptive/Physical’, -2 sturdiness, +3 agility, 2 focus and 2 control.

Focus: increases energy and will by 2

Maya wasn’t sure she wanted to rely on being a physical class. She was at her best well away from any enemies, and for that . . .

She sighed and looked back at elf. -1 to agility, momentum, and control. +2 to attunement, inteligence, flexibility, and focus. Statistically, it made the most sense. If she wanted to be a spellcaster . . . generic elf was probably the best option.

But this was an unknown game, a new frontier. And they had too many awesome non-standard options for her to settle for the same old thing. She could optimize later.

Harpy was beautiful, feathered and fierce. Merla were sleek and elegant. Sprites had those beautiful wings and pretty good stats. How could she choose between them? Maya went back over each of them, pleased to see that her modifcications remained.

She coloured the harpy in black and silver, giving her a white-feathered chest and bands of purple along the wings with a matching feathered crest. ‘Magical/Physical’ was an odd description for the race, but they sure looked great. And those wings! Maya wanted wings.

Then merla. She replaced the red with teal and added different shades of blues and greens. Tweaked the shape of the fins, streamlining them into half-heart shapes that flowed smoothly around the character. The face remained fishlike and inhuman. She added a finned crest lined with golden bioluminescent dots, and found it much improved the look.

Sprite. Harder to make beautiful, with the insectoid features so prominent, but not impossible. This one she coloured pure white, with blue-purple dragonfly wings and deep blue eyes. The eyes were huge in proportion to the head, making it look almost childlike.

That was the problem. They were all beautiful. Maya couldn't choose between them.

“I don’t suppose the game lets us have multiple characters?”

Current character slots available for user 9352-113-7 on World 9352: 0/1 (1 in use). More can be unlocked in-game.

"Can I at least save these character designs for later?”

Character designer slots used: 1/12 (1 in use.)

"Wonderful. Um, save Sprite, Harpy, and Merla to character designer?"

Character designer slots used: 3/12 (1 in use.)

Good enough. She selected the harpy and hit continue.

Please correct the incomplete portions of character creation before continuing.

Two sections glowed with gold highlights.

Body:

Male (+1 stu, foc)

Female (+1 con, flx)

Androgynous (+1 att, agi)

Size:

Small (+1 agi, con)

Average (+1 foc, flx)

Large (+1 stu, mom)

She would normally default to female, but she didn't really have any need for control and flexibility. And as she'd be playing a non-human anyway, she didn't care about body shape. She chose Androgynous. Attunement and agility seemed better suited to a mage than sturdiness and focus. Though she did want some focus, so she chose Average as her size. Will seemed likely to be important. As the only unfamiliar expendable stat, and her lowest, she didn't want to short herself there.

There were no attribute points to assign at level 1, but she'd received enough starting bonuses from the character creation choices she’d made that it didn’t really sting.

This time when she selected continue the interfaces faded away and her new world appeared around her.

Maya Starborn Average Androgynous Harpy Level: 1 Affinities: Magical Physical Tier: 1 Class: None Total Base Items Modifiers Sturdiness: 8 8 0 0 Momentum: 11 8 0 3 Agility: 9 8 0 1 Control: 8 8 0 0 Attunement: 9 8 0 1 Focus: 9 8 0 1 Intelligence: 10 8 0 2 Flexibility: 9 8 0 1 Luck: 5 5 - 0 Unassigned: 0 Health: 45 of 45 Will: 18 of 18 Stamina: 72 of 72 Energy: 74 of 74 Speed: 77% Switch penalty: -52%, 10.2 secs Stealth: 78% Chain bonus: +3% Awareness: 63% Cooldown: 95.5% Max abilities: 3 Item Name Slot Stu Mom Agi Con Att Foc Int Flx Newcomer's Tunic Body Newcomer's Leggings Legs