Hear ye, hear ye! The Kingdom of Cystia wishes it to be known that a new service has appeared in the form of the most Noble and Admirable Order of The Reviewers. This Review Club will be a volunteer force providing reviews on request to all of Cystia’s fine citizens. The details are listed below and all are welcome and encouraged to use this group to request reviews for their stories – this will make feedback available within a reasonable timeframe to those who want it. Special thanks to those fearless scholars who join The Review Club! THE REVIEW CLUB
OVERVIEW The Review Club is a group of volunteer Reviewers who read and review story-games on request. Reviewers pledge to complete a requested review within 4 weeks of assignment to a decent standard and can have up to 3 active requests at a time. Each Writer can have 1 active review request at a time. REVIEWERS 1: Anyone can join The Review Club. 2: Reviewers can leave and rejoin at any time, as long as they have no outstanding Reviews unfinished. 3: Reviewers who volunteer to join The Review Club pledge to read and review any assigned reviews within 28 days. 4: The reviews must be of “a reasonable standard” (no single word or single sentence reviews!). 5: Each Reviewer may have up to 3 active review requests at a time, though only one of these can be for a 6-8 length story. 6: Reviewers receive additional points for each review completed in this way: Level 0: 0 Completed Reviews (Peasant) Level 1: 1 Completed Review – 1 Extra Point per review (Serf) Level 2: 2 Completed Reviews – 2 Extra Points per review (Farmer) Level 3: 5 Completed Reviews – 3 Extra Points per review (Craftsman / Craftswoman) Level 4: 10 Completed Reviews – 4 Extra Points per review (Merchant) Level 5: 20 Completed Reviews – 5 Extra Points per review (Knight) Level 6: 50 Completed Reviews – 6 Extra Points per review (Lady / Lord) Level 7: 100 Completed Reviews – 7 Extra Points per review (Prince / Princess) Level 8: 200 Completed Reviews – 8 Extra Points per review (King / Queen) Level 9: 500 Completed Reviews – 9 Extra Points per review (Emperor / Empress) Level 10: 1,000 Completed Reviews (basically all the stories on the site) – 10 Extra Points per review (God / Goddess) 7: Reviewers who fail to complete a review within 28 days without good reason will receive a strike. Three strikes lead to permanent expulsion from The Review Club. One Strike can be erased by completing 10 assigned Reviews. 8: If no Reviews are assigned to a Reviewer in a four-week period the Admins will assign them a review. 9: Reviews are assigned to a specific Reviewer by request or made available to any Reviewers. 10: Only one 6-8 length story can be assigned to a reviewer at a time, unless the reviewer feels they can handle two.
WRITERS 1: Anyone can request a Review for one of their stories or another person's story, though they can only have one active request at a time. If they request a specific reviewer for someone else's story that Reviewer has the right to refuse. 2: Writers can ask for a specific Reviewer or any available reviewer. 3: Writers cannot ask for a specific Reviewer to keep reviewing the same story but they can ask for a specific Reviewer to review different stories. 4: Writers who request a Reviewer who already has three review requests can join that Reviewer’s Waiting List. 5: Writers cannot request reviews of deliberately impossible stories. Doing so will put them on a Banned list so they cannot request Reviews in the future. 6: If a Writer thinks a Review is especially poor (single words or sentence), they can appeal to an Admin and request a Strike for the Reviewer. 7: Obviously Writers can't request that they review their own stories! ADMINS 1: Admins will monitor the Review Club, award bonus points and help to manage it generally. 2: Admins, at their discretion, can request reviews on behalf of other writers, which can be accepted by any reviewer who wishes to take them on. ACTIVE MEMBERS OF THE REVIEW CLUB: 3iguy Joined: 27 Feb 26, Reviews Completed: 0, Level: 0 (Peasant), Strikes: 0. Assigned Reviews: Fey Light by Fluxion (6/8 length, Deadline: 30 Mar 26) Completed Reviews: Waiting List: Anthraxus Joined: 19 Jan 26, Reviews Completed: 1, Level: 1 (Serf), Strikes: 0. Assigned Reviews: These Shackled Souls by Mystic_Warrior (7/8 length, Deadline: 20 Mar 26) Completed Reviews: By the Light of Day (19 Feb 26) Waiting List: Beefhotpot Joined: 19 Jan 26, Reviews Completed: 0, Level: 0 (Peasant), Strikes: 1 (Blood in the King's Court by Orange deadline 2 Mar 26, Struck 3 Mar 26). Assigned Reviews: Completed Reviews: Waiting List: Benholman44 Joined: 19 Jan 26, Reviews Completed: 1, Level: 1 (Serf), Strikes: 1 (1/10). Assigned Reviews: Blood in the King's Court by Orange (6/8 length, Deadline: 31 Mar 26) Completed Reviews: The Fury of the Forest (3 Mar 26) Waiting List: Cat2002116 Joined: 19 Jan 26, Reviews Completed: 3, Level: 2 (Farmer), Strikes: 0. Assigned Reviews: Dark Night by Ogre11 (5/8 length, Deadline: 19 Mar 26), Equator City by JohnX (6/8 length, Deadline: 23 Mar 26), End of the World as You Know It by DBNB (5/8 length, Deadline: 23 Mar 26) Completed Reviews: The Lost Emperor (18 Feb 26), One Day's Adventure (20 Feb 26), Error: Name Not Found (22 Feb 26) Waiting List: CavusRex Joined: 19 Jan 26, Reviews Completed: 3, Level: 2 (Farmer), Strikes: 0. Assigned Reviews: The Drunk Explorer Inn by Ogre11 (6/8 length, Deadline: 16 Mar 26) Completed Reviews: True Life (25 Jan 26), The Laconia Incident (16 Feb 26), Betarune (2 Mar 26) Waiting List: Clayfinger Joined: 19 Jan 26, Reviews Completed: 4, Level: 2 (Farmer), Strikes: 0. Assigned Reviews: Sabrina by MadHattersDaughter (5/8 length, Deadline: 26 Mar 26) Completed Reviews: Sir Osis (22 Jan 26), Avarga (29 Jan 26), By the Light of Day (18 Feb 26), A City Lost (18 Feb 26) Waiting List: Fabrikant Joined: 19 Jan 26, Reviews Completed: 6, Level: 3 (Merchant), Strikes: 0. Assigned Reviews: You're A Lizard Harry by Liminal (2/8 length, Deadline: 23 Mar 26), Wrath of the Edomite by Petros (5/8 length, Deadline: 2 Apr 26) Completed Reviews: Fake It Till You Make It (25 Jan 26), Of dreams and deamons by Clayfinger (3 Feb 26), Yet Another World-Ending Scenario (11 Feb 26), G-H-O-S-T (18 Feb 26), Polaris (2 Mar 26), El Paso (6 Mar 26) Waiting List: Hetero_Malk Joined: 19 Jan 26, Reviews Completed: 0, Level: 0 (Peasant), Strikes: 1. Assigned Reviews: Completed Reviews: Waiting List: Liminal Joined: 19 Jan 26, Reviews Completed: 3, Level: 2 (Farmer), Strikes: 0. Assigned Reviews: The Cult by Ogre11 (5/8 length, Deadline 16 Mar 26) Completed Reviews: Ignis and Aero (29 Jan 26), Don't Get Distracted (4 Mar 26), G-H-O-S-T (4 Mar 26) Waiting List: MadHattersDaughter Joined: 14 Feb 26, Reviews Completed: 1, Level: 1 (Serf), Strikes: 0. Assigned Reviews: Emperor's Fireworks by PerforatedPenguin (4/8 length, Deadline: 28 Mar 26) Completed Reviews: Constellaris Court (19 Feb 26) Waiting List: MiltonManThing Joined: 19 Jan 26, Reviews Completed: 1, Level: 1 (Serf), Strikes: 0. Assigned Reviews: Bestest Friend Jane by TheNewIAP (6/8 length, Deadline: 12 Mar 26) Completed Reviews: Phoenix Whip (11 Feb 26) Waiting List: Mousecore Joined: 19 Jan 26, Reviews Completed: 3, Level: 2 (Farmer), Strikes: 0. Assigned Reviews: Bright Days by Chris113022 (3/8 length, Deadline: 7 Mar 26) Completed Reviews: Lasso of Time (27 Jan 26), Altair-III: Search and Rescue (6 Feb 26), A Bird in a Cage (4 Mar 26) Waiting List: Mystic_Warrior Joined: 19 Jan 26, Reviews Completed: 1, Level: 1 (Serf), Strikes: 0. Assigned Reviews: Before the Pattern Breaks (2/8 length, Deadline 12 Mar 26), Soul Thief by MadHattersDaughter (5/8 length, Deadline: 31 Mar 26), Fleeing the Forest by Benholman44 (4/8 length, Deadline: 31 Mar 26) Completed Reviews: Climbing Beyond The Clouds (12 Feb 26) Waiting List: RKrallonor Joined: 19 Jan 26, Reviews Completed: 1, Level: 1 (Serf), Strikes: 1. Assigned Reviews: DRIVE by Wizzycat (4/8 length, Deadline: 17 Mar 26), Life In The Fast Lane by Chris113022 (3/8 length, Deadline: 26 Mar 26), Where the Clouds Want to Go by StoryTurtle (6/8 length, Deadline: 30 Mar 26) Completed Reviews: A night in Dark Chicago (17 Feb 26) Waiting List: UnescapableDeath Joined: 19 Jan 26, Reviews Completed: 3, Level: 2 (Farmer), Strikes: 0. Assigned Reviews: Death Song by EndMaster (6/8 length, Deadline: 20 Mar 26) Completed Reviews: As Ink (19 Feb 26), Legend of the Folklore Fish (20 Feb 26), Necromancer (4 Mar 26) Waiting List: Will11 Joined: 19 Jan 26, Reviews Completed: 5, Level: 3 (Merchant), Strikes: 0. Assigned Reviews: The Duke of Winslow by Darius_Conwright (7/8 length, Deadline: 19 Mar 26), Durwood Mansion (6/8 length, Deadline: 19 Mar 26), When Rock Meets Watermelon by goodnight_a (5/8 length, Deadline: 2 Apr 26) Completed Reviews: Gay and Depressed in Prison (22 Jan 26), When The Music's Over (23 Jan 26), Broken Bonds (5 Feb 26), Chivalry (12 Feb 26), In Moonlit Waters (4 Mar 26) Waiting List:
Huh. I thought I was a member of the Review Club, but I am not on the list...?
Well, I suppose I'll join. Need to read more
This looks awesome! I would like to join! ^^
I'll join. Why not?
I will probably regret this in the future, but I'd love to join this if possible!
That reminds me, Writers may also request reviews from the ever growing pool of Reviewers! As per the instructions, you may specify an individual or leave it open so one of the reviewers could take on the request.
I would be honored to join this Club, if you will have me.
Thanks for having me! Since this is the review club, I will go ahead and answer the question in your review on Fleeing the Forest, can rabbits kill owls?
Technically, yes. Anything can kill anything. If you've ever seen videos of a deer fucking up people with its legs, you'll know that herbivores can in fact be vicious as hell when they think they're being threatened. Rabbits will usually prefer to run and hide at all times, but between their sharp teeth and their strong legs and big feet, there is a reason why birds like to grab rabbits when they are out in the open: when you put a rabbit in a corner or threaten its' young, that rabbit will fight you with suicidal fury. Fight or flight applies to prey as well.
There is footage I watched when I was doing research on rabbits where a golden eagle (again, a big, powerful EAGLE) swooping down on a kit only for a rabbit to come bursting out of the grass and ram into it like the kool aid man through a wall. Soon as that eagle hit dirt, it raised its head and began to get up (presumably to take flight) only to have its head kicked so hard it stayed down. (later examination of the eagle by the videotapers, which were apparently nature photographers, confirmed it was unconscious and called a park ranger). But yes, birds do get killed by rabbits. Aside from the chance of broken necks or head injuries, you have you ever been bitten by a rabbit? Sharp and painful, isn't it? Imagine that rabbit being half or two/thirds your size and attempting to bite your throat with teeth that are as big as your foreleg. That's how a bird feels. Now again, birds are not stupid. They know this. Which is why they absolutely will not corner a rabbit unless they are starving, and they will not go for a baby rabbit until they have checked to make sure the adult watching it is too far away to get to the kit in time.
Now, could an owl be killed by rabbits? That would be a lot more difficult, as rabbits have difficulty seeing in the dark (dawn and dusk is where their eyes excel), whereas owls are nighttime predators and move silently. So could a rabbit by itself kill a owl? Likely not. Could a group of them gang up on one if it was desperate enough to attack a group (owls prefer lone prey unless they're starving)? Yes, they could, although they'd be much more likely to make a break for the nearest burrow if possible. Which would lead to most of them surviving whereas one would likely get grabbed.
In short, yes that scene was within the realm of possibility, but the scene where the owl actually gets Hops is what would be the most likely outcome in a real life nature scene. Luckily it's a fictional story :)
If not enough members submit requests, I'm threatening to force someone to read a 100k storygame in 4 weeks :)
Which one are you thinking?
If you're offering, whichever one you want to read works. I mainly didn't want to scare off new recruits with novel length stories in the first week lol. Edit: if you want to kill two birds with one stone, These Shackled Souls and Constellaris Court would count towards MHD's Reading Contest.
Dare we to dream that we are not most people?
There is hope in this world.
With that reminder, time for me to review one of End's stories again.
I mean, I've read the entire harry potter series in about a week, and I think that's close to 400k(?), so I'm not too worried about that threat.
Who the heck takes 4 weeks to read a 100k game?
Well yeah a review can take for EVER. FOREVER.
Tbf the real challenge is writing a 100k game in 4 weeks.
I request for you to assign me a 100k storygame I have not yet read and reviewed appropriately. And by appropriately, I mean a review that is longer and more detailed than the contents of this reply.
I'll assign you These Shackled Souls, so the deadline should be 19th February.
Thank you!
You know what, I'll just pretend you've been assigned the story and update the leaderboard accordingly.
Done. I’ll review “Elvis at the Beauty Contest” "Phoenix Whip."
@Will11
Finished my review of Phoenix Whip.
I'm willing to read The Lost Emperor. I've read two out of these five :)
I'm happy to take One Day's Adventure as well.
Did this one a few days ago
Was the deadline not, like, yesterday?
I'd like to request anyone that wants to to review Ryboi's "Fake it 'till you make it" story in the fantasy section.
I thought Will specified the max was 3. Unless I'm stupid and remember wrong :P
I've already rated As Ink, but it would be nice to finally write a proper review for it! I'll take it
Might as well submit an open request for Name Not Found while I'm here
I'll take Error: Name Not Found too.
I've been meaning to read Blood in the King's Court so I'll take that one! ^^
Am I not busier?
Most likely, yes; However, keep in mind that this is only their third post, they've only existed for two days, and they're already entered into two major things.
If this is an open request to review Legend of the Folklore Fish, I'll take it
The bobby mess was funny and the other one might have been a misclick though admittedly I haven't been in the best of moods this week (Sick bleh). I have weird taste for example I find "Fragrant Flower Blooms with Diginity" to be a boring slog but on the other hand I unironically enjoy "Rent a Girlfriend".
I'm confused - is there another list for MHD's contest? Because on the one I'm using, two of the Camp Massacre storygames are still on it.
To hear is to obey.
Finally finished a review (better late than never, right?). I'll take Constellaris Court the first story because it's only 3k words and in MHD's contest too.
The Leaderboard
The Review Club seems to be slowing down a bit, so I hope this manages to motivate some of you! Congratulations to Will and Fabrikant for having the most reviews so far. I'll update the Leaderboard on a monthly-ish basis.
Welcome to the club!
As requested, I shall request that Will review In Moonlit Waters.
Thank you, MHD! I'm so glad you loved it. The law book and glossary are normal links disguised as images because the inventory clashed with the background (lots of hours were wasted and it made me hate items). Not to give away any spoilers but some of your suggestions might be implemented in the sequel :)
I'll take Dark Night.
I saw it. That was a kind review, thank you. Whoever is in charge, give this individual their due!
Just posted my review for The Lost Emperor.
Finally finished the review of As Ink, @Will11
Lol, I also just realized that I took 2 storygames of length 6-8. Onto reviewing the second one!
I'm certainly glad I decided to work on both at once. I'm done with the Legend of the Folklore Fish. It was surprisingly short, though, even with the two perspectives. Are there any open requests?
I'll do so, thanks for the suggestion! I have read a good chunk of Eternal within two days, so I don't think it'll be too much trouble, lol.
@Will11 I've finished the review of Necromancer; Onto Death Song!
Lol, I think my review of Legend of the Folklore Fish was more in-depth than this, but okay.
I might go back and redo it with more detail later. I didn't really have any major glaring gripes tbh, it was just a really "meh" story that probably went on slightly too long. It did get better over time, though, so that counterbalances the length, imho.
Edit: I also didn't have any major praise for it either, tbf. Looking back, I probably could have been more thorough and kinder to it, but what's done is done. I'm trying to do better with Death Song.
Just reviewed One Day's Adventure @Will11.
I feel really bad saying it, but The Lost Emperor took me much longer to get through, unfortunately.
Oh...just reviewed Error: Name Not Found too.
(I don't know if it's better to tag you or not, but I seem to recall reading a post where you said to tag, so...@Will11).
Oh, I meant I would have been done with those three reviews earlier if The Lost Emperor hadn't taken me longer to read. Hopefully, that makes more sense.
I'll take Equator City. And End of the World as You Know it.
Can I take The Fury of the Forest? I've got some free time right now.
Fuck it I'll go ahead and do it anyways. I'm bored.
EDIT: finished it. I do hope that this counts as my first valid review since it was offered and nobody else accepted it
I'll take Blood in the King's Court
It goes without saying but I accept this request!
Is there anyway I can ask for a review of Fleeing the Forest from you? I know you have two deadlines and a review to get on, so if you are willing to accept I would ask that you please take care of MHD's review and your irl obligations before fulfilling mine.
I could put it on my waiting list (assuming that's how it works?) to review right after MHD's story. Oh, right, the deadlines, I better log off before I get more distracted.
Yes, please. I do believe it goes on your waiting list only if you have three active review requests. Since you only have one on there, it would go on your active review list, which would make the deadline March 30, 2026. Best of luck with your projects!
Question: what happens when we complete a review that's not on the assigned list? I'm still gonna get orange's storygame before St. Patty's Day but I took a break from writing my contest entry to do a quick review of SU's new Dino game for the contest.
I'm pretty sure that's just being a normal CYStian lol. It defeats the purpose of the club (and creates more work for Will) if we were to get points for every few paragraphs review of stories we choose to read.
To be fair, we're not all going to write Mystic/Darius level reviews. Even Mystic's article on reviews acknowledge that a couple of paragraphs are perfectly serviceable.
I think Daiki was busted for using AI reviews though.
Doubt it. From what I understand, he took all the other featured reviews and ran them into an AI to generate a newer review that was basically a mashup of all the real ones.
Oh sorry. I meant "who is daiki?"
Why did you have to bring me into this? You're misconstruing my words. The article said, "Before I begin, I’ll preface with this: any comment, including short ones, are valued by authors and the community. Some writers are so starved for feedback that any modicum of effort is appreciated. But if you’re looking to earn those gold stars, commendations and the glorious ‘Avon’ title, then this is the guide for you." Basically, short reviews are fine (especially back when we had more of a review drought in past years, which is what this article had in mind), but don't expect to get them featured and more importantly, don't expect anyone to give you a prize for it. Maybe the recent events regarding what makes a storygame commendable are still on my mind, but another thing I don't like is when a person writes a review declaring a story to be good or bad, yet have barely read through it/ only skimmed through. Of course mods usually read a story for themselves before deciding whether to commend it, but overly negative reviews for no reason (and overly positive ones as well) could give potential readers a false impression of the game, whether that's thinking it's better than it is and having their expectations unmet, or worse than it is and staying clear. This is especially true when a story doesn't have many reviews at first. Though I guess it would be clear to the author when a review doesn't tackle the key parts of their game and sticks to what can be found on the first few pages. Of course skimming would always be a problem and I suppose if I had to choose, writing a comment partway through a game, especially a challenging one, would be a good way to give an author feedback even if the reader hasn't completed the full story. But personally I feel readers ought to be honest about if they skimmed parts so the author can work on making those sections more engaging.
And I can understand not being rewarded. Commendations aren't exactly just handed out for anything (or at least, they're not supposed to be) and are generally for comments that are lengthy, detailed, well-rounded, cover parts of the story that other commentators haven't or cover them from a different angle. I don't see anywhere in the conversation where I mentioned rewards. I never mention commendations, gold stars, or the "of Avon" title. Simply that a comment can be serviceable, as in of use, with a couple of paragraphs. Which is why, yes, when I mentioned your article, I was referring to the first part of the paragraph you referenced. Because I thought Will's requirements for a review in the original posting he made were specifically:
"Reviewers pledge to complete a requested review within 4 weeks of assignment to a decent standard and can have up to 3 active requests at a time." I was trying to point out that a review that offers well-rounded feedback such as positives and negatives, game errors such as SPAG or loops, ect. would be considered decent or serviceable.
Mizal made a comment about people skimming or bragging about ratings bombing as an extracurricular (which would in itself indicate the lack of reward). I responded by trying to point out that a review that is a couple paragraphs long isn't exactly skimming or ratings bombing. I'm sure the part of my comment where I threw shade at SO is probably where the ratings bombing comment came from, but that was honestly just meant to troll SO for making comments that had nothing to do with the story. SU still would have gotten a four regardless, since while his story was good for a beginner (better than my own first story) it still didn't really click for me or have any type of deeper plot line, character engagement, ect. Even the world building felt like a dime store Jurassic park. But the effort put into it and the original idea of having a content streamer be the MC was definitely something I had to give credit to (and those two positives are things I mentioned in my game review, which carried a mix of both positive and negative feedback).
And yeah, I agree that a reader should be honest about if they didn't read the full story, which is why in my reviews I tend to explicitly state which branches I read and if I can't go farther into the story because it doesn't hold my interest, then I tend to say that.
