The Game
Zubenelgenubi promises the player (Camiggdo) that she will not attack her. However, she is looking evasive and might be lying. The player responds by answering Zubi’s question about Koopie, but the player has not completed her response; she is just now deciding which of Koopie's three auragons (red, green, or blue) to reveal. She does this by clicking on the selected icon.
Your goal in this game is to become the next spiritual leader — called ‘the Siboot’ — for the civilization of the planet Lamina. You do this by prevailing in “dream combat” that takes place in telepathic dreams at night. Success in dream combat hinges on your ability to guess what your opponents will do, and that requires you to apply social intuition. Can you see through the social facade they present and figure out what they really feel about you? Who is lying and who is telling the truth? It’s in their faces and their behaviors. Can you see it?
The heart of the game lies in the conversations you have with the other characters. You can gossip about others to learn how they feel about each other. You can trade information about other characters’ strengths and weaknesses in dream combat. You can cajole, plead, and threaten. You can accuse others of lying, and you can lie yourself.
Every day, you will encounter other characters in unique circumstances. How you react to these encounters will influence the attitudes of other people toward you. Each such encounter requires judicious consideration on your part.
Each night, you go to sleep and enter Dreamspace. As you float through this void, you may encounter the spirits of other acolytes. When this happens, you shield yourself in one of the auragons you possess. There are three kinds of auragons: red, representing power or strength; green, representing truth or honesty; and blue, representing goodness or virtue. Your auragon clashes with your opponent’s auragon and one or both of the auragons are destroyed in the process.
Over the course of several nights, auragons are destroyed. Any acolyte who has no auragons left is eliminated. When all but one acolyte have been eliminated, the remaining acolyte is declared the Siboot.
This game is radically different from anything you have ever played. A cursory overview might suggest that it is similar to some conversational games you have seen before, but the gameplay is much deeper and more emotionally nuanced than anything up to now.
It offers a very different kind of entertainment, too, something much more like the entertainment in a movie — only this is interactive!
