[welcome challenger to Castle Defense!]
Sean had been staring at the screen for ten minutes as he processed the impossible situation. It’s not everyday he gets transported to a strange location with a familiar screen there to give him instructions.
“How do I leave? Let me leave.”
[welcome challenger to Castle Defense! Start tutorial?]
The floating screen instead of answering, made the plain white words bold on the blue screen.
“Fine, yes.”
[Brief description: Castle Defense is a game made by God—as you know him—to entertain his angels while they are off conquering new worlds. Starting back a hundred and two years ago, at the game's inception, God selected a thousand people to take the tutorial and has done so annually since then. The winners of the tutorial are then allowed to live out the rest of their days on the main Castle Defense server.]
“Wait am I dead,” he asked after reading through the prompt. The prompt didn’t answer and instead flashed the same message again as it did the last time he asked.
“I don’t want to play your Stupid game!”
The message for the brief description popped a third time which annoyed him to no end.
He ran his hands through his hair and started pacing.
“Show me what’s next.”
[Game mechanics: The main components of Castle defense are troops, normal subjects, buildings, trade, battle, reward system, and victory outcomes.]
[Troops are subjects that specialize in battle. Troops can be earned by convincing wanderers, conquering other lands or through the reward system. Troops also have the ability to evolve if conditions necessary are met.]
[Normal subjects are non combatants. They make up the bulk of a ruler's population and help to generate resources such as food, labor, crafts and works, population growth, cultural influence, and taxes. Subjects also have the ability to evolve if conditions necessary are met.]
[buildings are the physical structures necessary in any society. They are made by a builder using their knowledge. New buildings beyond basic structures can only be made by buying blueprints from caravans or earning the through reward system.]
[Trade happens between the population and designated system caravans that come once every month.]
[Battle is the most important aspect of Castle Defense. Battles can be entered into through four different ways. 1. Monster waves which come once a week for the entirety of tutorial 2. Random monster encounters out in the wild 3. Rouge lords out in the wilds 4. Player versus player battles over resources and cores.]
[Reward system is in place to commend players for achieving notable feats. The rewards can be anything from resources to troops that the system thinks will help players. Rewards can be earned by winning battles, collecting resources, expanding population, discovering new things, developing specialized troops or subjects, and conquering lands.]
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[Victory outcomes are necessary to count the tutorial as completed for a player. Only one of three must be met. 1. Reach a population total of one thousand. 2. Own four player cores 3. Be within the top 5% of wealth of those in the tutorial. Those who reach none of the three victory outcomes will cease to exist. Tutorial will occur over a one year time period.]
The influx of screens and information made Sean’s head spin. The floating blue box was transparent, he could see through them to the trees behind, but the sheer number was like looking through water in the pool.
Sean took time to adjust and began to read each pop-up one by one. They added a lot of questions but they did answer some, the main one being the fact he was in a game. The fact that he may cease to exist though made everything even more unbelievable.
“When does the game start? Who are the other players… wait, no answers. Next, I guess.”
[Choose subjects to finish character creation. 300 points available to spend]
[Peasant: 1 point
Laborer: 1 point
Peasant family(4): 4 point
Blacksmith: 10 point
Stonemason: 10 point
Carpenter: 10 point
Butcher: 10 point
Tanner: 10 point
Builder: 10 point
Weaver: 10 point
Priest: 10 point
Huntsman:10
Doctor: 10
Tamer: 10
Basic warrior: 25
Basic archer: 25
Esquire: 100
Failed Mage: 100
Basic Knight: 250
Basic Mage: 250
Basic explorer: 250]
“I’m actually crazy. I’m literally going insane. This is what working at McDavids does to a person.”
Sean layed down on the ground and closed his eyes to escape the blue screens. He laughed aloud too. The situation, while not comical, made for such an incomprehensible scenario. He couldn’t help but laugh.
When he opened his eyes back up the screens were still there.
[Choose subjects to finish character creation. 300 points available to spend]
“What if I kill myself what happens to your stupid game then? Will your angels be entertained then.” There was a hint of bitterness in his voice. “No answer for that huh? Just show me the cost lists again.”
The subject cost got listed in front of his eyes again. They didn’t have descriptions, so whatever he did choose he’d have to be confident in based on names alone.
He’d never played any strategy or base builder games unless you counted like board games. And board games were nowhere near as complex.
“Well I probably need magic.”
Since he hadn’t chosen magic with his primary class, Sean wanted to make sure he had some access to magic. Magic was important; magic was always important in every game. He’d been in denial that everything wasn’t a dream when he’d chosen his class otherwise he would’ve thought more on the choice to pick a ranger.
“My first pick is a failed mage.”
[100 points allocated. 200 points left.]
Failed mage was the obvious choice since he didn’t want to waste all of his points on the 250 point one. The failed mage gives at least a little access to magic.
Next he picked a few craftspeople who would be vital to operations. One doctor in case people are sick, one carpenter to create woodworks, one blacksmith to do metal work like make armor and swords, and one builder could direct any construction effort. It all amounted to forty points.
[140 points allocated. 160 points left.]
Sean spent the rest of the money on troop units—four warriors and two huntsmen— and ten peasant families. Peasants would be necessary labor who probably knew how to farm and forage for food.
He chose families over individual peasants because it sounded more pleasant, like a real village. What kind of village only has men?
[Character creation completed. Year long tutorial period begins in ten minutes. One month amnesty between players initiated.]