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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 sequentially to available Reviewers.
10: Only one 6-8 length story can be assigned to a reviewer at a time.
 

WRITERS

1: Anyone can request a Review for one of their stories, though they can only have one active request at a time.
2: Writers can ask for a specific Reviewer or Any, in which case it will be sequentially assigned to an 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 they have written.
4: Writers who request a Reviewer who already has three review requests can join that Reviewer’s Waiting List.
5: Writers cannot provide 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.

ADMINS

1: Admins will monitor the Review Club, assign requested Reviews to Reviewers 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.

MEMBERS OF THE REVIEW CLUB:

Anthraxus Joined: 19 Jan 26, Reviews Completed: 0, Level: 0 (Peasant), Strikes: 0.
Assigned Reviews:
Completed Reviews:
Waiting List:

Beefhotpot Joined: 19 Jan 26, Reviews Completed: 0, Level: 0 (Peasant), Strikes: 0.
Assigned Reviews:
Completed Reviews:
Waiting List:

Benholman44 Joined: 19 Jan 26, Reviews Completed: 0, Level: 0 (Peasant), Strikes: 0.
Assigned Reviews: These Shackled Souls by Mystic (7/8 length, Deadline: 19 Feb 26)
Completed Reviews:
Waiting List:

Cat2002116 Joined: 19 Jan 26, Reviews Completed: 0, Level: 0 (Peasant), Strikes: 0.
Assigned Reviews:
Completed Reviews:
Waiting List:

CavusRex Joined: 19 Jan 26, Reviews Completed: 0, Level: 0 (Peasant), Strikes: 0.
Assigned Reviews: True Life by ninjapitka (5/8 length, Deadline: 19 Feb 26)
Completed Reviews:
Waiting List:

Clayfinger Joined: 19 Jan 26, Reviews Completed: 1, Level: 1 (Serf), Strikes: 0.
Assigned Reviews:
Completed Reviews: Sir Osis by Cricket (22 Jan 2026)
Waiting List:

Fabrikant Joined: 19 Jan 26, Reviews Completed: 0, Level: 0 (Peasant), Strikes: 0.
Assigned Reviews: Fake It Till You Make It by RyboiTheLegend (6/8 length, Deadline: 19 Feb 26)
Completed Reviews:
Waiting List:

Gryphon Joined: 19 Jan 26, Reviews Completed: 0, Level: 0 (Peasant), Strikes: 0.
Assigned Reviews: Rainbow-1 by Fabrikant (7/8 length, Deadline: 19 Feb 26)
Completed Reviews:
Waiting List:

Hetero_Malk Joined: 19 Jan 26, Reviews Completed: 0, Level: 0 (Peasant), Strikes: 0.
Assigned Reviews:
Completed Reviews:
Waiting List:

Liminal Joined: 19 Jan 26, Reviews Completed: 0, Level: 0 (Peasant), Strikes: 0.
Assigned Reviews: Ignis and Aero by Clayfinger (4/8 length, Deadline: 18 Feb 26)
Completed Reviews:
Waiting List:

MiltonManThing Joined: 19 Jan 26, Reviews Completed: 0, Level: 0 (Peasant), Strikes: 0.
Assigned Reviews: Elvis At The Beauty Contest by poison_mara (3/8 length, Deadline: 19 Feb 26)
Completed Reviews:
Waiting List:

Mousecore Joined: 19 Jan 26, Reviews Completed: 0, Level: 0 (Peasant), Strikes: 0.
Assigned Reviews:
Completed Reviews:
Waiting List:

Mystic_Warrior Joined: 19 Jan 26, Reviews Completed: 0, Level: 0 (Peasant), Strikes: 0.
Assigned Reviews: Climbing Beyond The Clouds by Will11 (3/8 length, Deadline: 16 Feb 26)
Completed Reviews:
Waiting List:

RKrallonor Joined: 19 Jan 26, Reviews Completed: 0, Level: 0 (Peasant), Strikes: 0.
Assigned Reviews: A night in Dark Chicago by Anthraxus (4/8 length, Deadline: 17 Feb 26)
Completed Reviews:
Waiting List:

UnescapableDeath Joined: 19 Jan 26, Reviews Completed: 0, Level: 0 (Peasant), Strikes: 0.
Assigned Reviews:
Completed Reviews:
Waiting List:

Will11 Joined: 19 Jan 26, Reviews Completed: 2, Level: 2 (Farmer), Strikes: 0.
Assigned Reviews:
Completed Reviews: Gay and Depressed in Prison (22 Jan 26), When The Music's Over (23 Jan 26)
Waiting List:
 

And locked :)

If I were to join this club and someone were to request me to review a story whose contents I subjectively disliked, would I still be obligated to complete the review or would I have the option to decline?

I am afraid you would have to review it but you can enthusiastically record your dislike and explain your contemptuous but heartfelt disdain towards the author and all their work in your review :)

Hmm... a fair compromise I suppose. I'd like to join then. :]

Fantastic, welcome aboard! Don't forget, if the workload is overwhelming you can leave or pause at any time :D (just try not to leave any outstanding review requests).

And as the fourth he rode in on a pale horse, ready to fulfill his grim duty.

It's not that bad! But thanks and welcome :D

Well it was more in reference to being the 4th to arrive in the same way as a certain horsemen from that one obscure book nobody read does.

Don't worry the duty won't be grim to me, quite the opposite actually ;-)

I'll join

Fantastic, welcome :D

Huh. I thought I was a member of the Review Club, but I am not on the list...?

You are now :D

Well, I suppose I'll join. Need to read more 

This looks awesome! I would like to join! ^^ 

I'll join. Why not?

I'd love to join! Sign me up!

Lol, just realized I'm already in! Sweet! In that case, ignore my earlier message, it was a bit superfluous. I'd also like to make a request for a story review. Any members here, could you review "The Book of Vanishing Tales" by Cameron, if you haven't already done so. It's an older story that I think is really cool, and I've been meaning to write a review for, so hopefully I'll get some accountability by reviewing it alongside another accomplished reviewer :)

I'm sure there will be other requests, so don't feel any pressure to accept this one! Also, sorry to Gryphon in advance, I know you already reviewed this one, but I'm sure there will be another request that will be just as cool.

Reviewer: Any(except Gryph since he already wrote a marvelous review for this story :) )

Hey RK, thanks for the request for the story review :D Unfortunately writers can only request reviews for their own stories (though it's typically generous of you to request someone else's story get reviewed!) otherwise site members can be sending reviewers all over the site to review the most difficult and challenging stories they can find. Of course people can respond to your request by reading The Book of Vanishing Tales if they want to privately. If you want someone to read your story (I know I've been meaning to read it for a while) feel free to request any or a specific reviewer to review it :D

Oh that’s a really good point. Honestly, that makes sense. In that case, I’ll be on the lookout for any requests. You should totally do a request for Tales of Erenel!

Thanks for letting me know!

I’ll request that you review my story, Gay and Depressed in Prison. You can do it any time, I’m interested to see what you think!

Don't worry, I'll update the Original Post to help people keep track of their review requests. Haha, I'm sure I'll request someone review Tales of Erenel in the future, just used up my current review request. Thanks, I'll get on that ASAP :)

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'll happily lend my services for this guild.

I would be honored to join this Club, if you will have me.

I would like to sign up.

I will also join.

I would love to join! Sounds fun!

Wow, a massive welcome and thanks to Malk, Beefhotpot, Ben, Unescapable Death, Mouse, Milton, Fabrikant, Anthraxus and Liminal! It’s really wonderful to see such a great turnout! :D Now that The Review Club has so many members, we need something for them to do: feel free to request reviews for one of your stories, whether you are a review club member or not, and you can request it from a specific member of the Review Club or from any (I’ll randomly assign it alphabetically to a free reviewer). There are a lot of great reviewers here who have kindly volunteered to provide feedback on request.

I’ll get the ball rolling (and provide an example) by asking that Mystic review my story Climbing Beyond The Clouds. So, I make this request on 19 Jan and she has 4 weeks to finish it so her deadline is 16 Feb. As a writer this is my one available review request and it fills up one of her three active review request slots until she completes it and she still has room for two more, including one 6/8+ length story (mine is only 3/8). If she completes it, she will go up 1 level to the honourable, if humble, rank of Serfdom and get 1 bonus point on top of the one she gets anyway for reviewing it.

Just a reminder, any site member can request a review from any member of the Review Club but only for one of their own stories and can only have one active review request at a time. Also, if you want to be nice requesting people review one of your stories that is also in MHD's Most Needy Storygames Contest will also help people in that competition progress there as well as here (for the record, Liminal, UnescapableDeath, Avo, Beefhotpot, MrAce, RK, Mystic, Will, Clay, Cavus, Cat, Mouse, TypedRooster, Swagdog, Ben, QoH and VeeR are all also in MHD's competition).

I will keep track of all review requests in the Original Post and update it every day or two so look there if you need up-to-date info on your or other club members reviews as well as other details.

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 :)

Wow, you really did your research for Fleeing the Forest :D We don't tend to imagine rabbits as natural-born killers (except the one in Monty Python and the Holy Grail) but I suppose they can be as tough as any wild animal. I've never been bitten by a rabbit but I know someone who has and he confirmed that rabbits can be surprisingly savage :) I can envisage a scenario where a gang of vicious blood-thirsty rabbits, all coked up on mutated lettuce and nerves on edge from living in a burrow filled with a continually screaming horde of one hundred hungry babies, could go to town and really f*ck up an owl if they got lucky.

I found your story was surprisingly enjoyable for a bunny tale (though longer than an actual bunny tail :) ), which are not usually my thing, and does make me want to read Watership Down when I have time. It was fun exploring the different options and you should request someone to review it :D

Run awaaaaayyy!!!!

Yes but could a hundred unarmed men defeat a gorilla?

Oh good. For a moment I thought you were stealing reviewers from me ;~)

No, dw, these 2 things should compliment each other and also help get reviews for submissions to End's writing competition once people start publishing their stories :)

If anyone would like to request reviews on their storygames, please do so here! We got 14 reviewers waiting in the wings!

Open call to first taker to review my first storygame A night in Dark Chicago.

I’ll take this one. You’re a fantastic writer and I really need to read more of your stuff

Thanks RK. Deadline should be 2/17

Awesome, I'll record it on the OP :)

I'd like to contract Liminal to read Ignis and Aero. He mentioned that he was going to review my story games before, so a little extra motivation shouldn't hurt, right? XD

No problem :) I read that one last week actually, it's very good :D

Thanks! I'm looking to expand the Lumina universe with more story games but that's currently on hold because of the Prompt Contest.

You should definitely write more adventures involving Ignis and Aero, I thought the relationship between the two brothers was really well-written :D

Oh, thank goodness someone finally put a punishment on not doing this review, that's the only way I get things done. It's just sitting half unfinished in my google docs waiting for completion.

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.

I’m actually already working on Constellaris Court.

On one hand I see that as barely a challenge myself, but then I remember 100k words is most people's yearly reading capacity so could be fun to see that.

Dare we to dream that we are not most people?

I did read and review Rogues in 48 hours, and yes I got all the main endings.

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!

Kudos Ben for taking on a longer story :) That one is a really great read!

So we haven't been able to keep up with who all's involved in Mod-Sponsored Productivity Event #56, but Endmaster noticed some of you have been hard at work:



Thanks guys for all that you do!

LOL thanks for saving these for posterity.

Yeah, it's a choice :D Either we have things like this review club and MHD's competition encouraging quality reviews or we get stuff like this. People get out what they put in and you need to be the change you want to see. Or something like that :)

Ok, so I have reviewed RK's story Gay and Depressed in Prison (it's hilarious btw - check it out!) and this 1 review has transformed by social status in a positive way, elevating me from the common Peasantry to the heady social heights of Serfdom (i.e. Level 1). I also get a bonus point for that. Please do request another story or stories for me to read and request more reviews generally to get more quality feedback for everyone. This is a great chance to get people reading and reviewing the writing you have poured time, energy and creativity into.

Nicely done, Will! I hope it made you laugh, and yeah, I know it's not the best! But, I do have future plans for storygames that will hopefully be of a higher quality than G&D, and I can't wait to assign them to the fantastic reviewers here!

Just add more to Erenel and make the new horde of minions read it before they wander off and get distracted.

I am working on the third tale currently :D It should be out next month.

I don't remember that. It must not have happened :) And request noted.

Hm. In fairness I did say the story was "excellent", I didn't say I had read it :D I will this week though, probably tomorrow :)

I really loved Bright Days!

You guys should read Sir Osis.

If the author of Sir Osis requests a review someone can :)

Welp, I ended up reading it anyway since it seemed fun and I had no pending requests.

You know what, I'll just pretend you've been assigned the story and update the leaderboard accordingly. 

Thank you. I am glad you enjoyed it. :)

I'd like to request someone review Ninja's True Life, which hasn't had any new reviews but RK's for awhile now. It's one of his lesser read stories and not all that long, but it's one I really thought had a fascinatingly fucked up central character. (Edit: technically not the POV character though, brain blip)

It's been a while since I read anything like those so I wouldn't mind checking it out, but no idea if this counts as an official request due to not coming from the author and all. Special mod priviledge to give people actual work maybe?

Alright, I think we can accept that. Mods can make review requests on behalf of other writers because surely no mod would abuse their powers and find the 3 most difficult stories on the site and request that a particular member they do not like review them all, would they? :) The Review Club will have to have some flexibility or it's probably not going to work. If you want this one you can have it Cavus, I'll update the OP.

Maybe they can pick out stories, but can't choose who's supposed to review them? That would do as a safeguard from possible mod abuse.

Not that our kind, generous and very benevolent mods would ever even think about something so beneath them as user abuse.

I think that is an excellent idea :D

I'd also like Cavus to read everyrhing written by Mara and WIBN please...oh. Well never mind then.

I mean nothing stops me from taking a recommendation outside the review club, but I won't be going through entire libraries because someone finds my suffering entertaining.

Looks like things are going swimmingly here. We're slowly getting more reviews going.

Writers, there is still an untapped pool of talented reviewers that you can forcibly and involuntarily draft!

If you have a story you want to see more reviews on, assign them to any one of these fine CYStians:

Reviewers:

Milton
Anthraxus
BeefHotPot
Cat
Fabrikant
Gryphon
Malk
Mousecore
UD

I would like Milton to read one of Mara's stories.

Mara's stories are fun! I only read one so far, but I really liked "Elvis at the Beauty Contest"! It was cool!

Done. I’ll review “Elvis at the Beauty Contest.”

I would like to request @Gryphon to review Rainbow-1

Thanks RK! I'm keeping the OP updated and keeping an eye out generally but please post on this thread when you finish a review as well so I can update things and give you your bonus points quicker. :)

I'd like to request anyone that wants to to review Ryboi's "Fake it 'till you make it" story in the fantasy section.

Sounds good. Happy to take it.