Work In Progress is a game about magic, hope and creativity. Players are Muses: narrative entities that exist in the mind of a struggling author, Jo, seeking to rekindle their literary career and break through encroaching Writer's Block. Muses will trek out across the surreal Dreamscape in search of rich seams of ideas up in them thar hills, plan heists and interventions into existing literary works, and shape Jo's Magnum Opus according to their own designs.

We aim to give Work In Progress a bright and optimistic tone. Even as the known world the players inhabit is beginning to close in and fall apart, they have the power to reshape it, break new ground and turn the tide. As such, while the backdrop is one of impending peril and threat, the potential for players to transform the world around them for the better - to be heroes, and to create stories as they see fit - will be in the foreground.

This tone of optimism, mystery and wonder will be tempered in places by questions of bittersweet victory, sacrifice and creative struggle. Aspiring writers are told, to create a masterpiece of fiction, that they must 'kill their darlings' - but what does that mean for the Muse who has to take up the knife to actually do the dirty deed?

That said, we also expect this game to have a theme of humour and levity throughout. While not a comedy game, player characters wield hyper-stylised plot devices, symbolic archetypes, and cheesy clichés as their tools of their trade - it will, as such, hopefully feel fun to play a Muse.

The Muses and their world are formed from inspirations in Jo's life. Thus, Spindle looks very much like a sleepy motorway town, with small streets and run down, cramped shopfronts, though the insides of these buildings may be much more extravagant - it all depends on what they are used for. There will occasionally be landscapes and buildings that clash with this small town, as factions have built up their own identity in this world. Muses themselves are a colourful cast of characters that can be anything from an inspiration from a book to a parody of an experience, person or character in Jo's life growing up. Cowboys, detectives and superhero based Muses exist, as well as subtler re-imaginations of emotions like Jo's heartbreak in high school, or how they feel about cats. Despite these initial inspirations, Muses are shaped by their world and who they interact with, forming complex characters based off simple beginnings.

Work In Progress is meant to take a satirical and lovable tone to all stories and characters represented. Amidst the dense emotional moments, relationships and high concept intellectualism of the Dreamscape, there lies a silliness in how these elements are interpreted and used. Curiosity is also a large part of the Work In Progress world, whether it be through exploration or wondering just how high you can get on the social ladder. Muses are beings attracted by the “What if?”, however players choose to interpret that.

While there are no concrete naming conventions within Dream, Muses tend to give themselves a name that embodies their Ideal and personality. Names can be in any structure, but tend to sound dramatic, thought-provoking or catchy: something that invokes a sense of the character's branding and something an announcer may introduce before one steps out onto a red carpet.

We have written Work In Progress to cater to a wide range of playstyles and approaches, all of which will be equally valid, rewarding, and full of peril and opportunity. Exploration, investigation and unravelling mysteries will represent a large part of the game, but Dream is also a place of larger-than-life characters, politicking and social intrigue, where emotions and stories are literally what make the world go round.

In order to direct you towards the kind of game you are interested, check out the Faction pages, each of which has a section indicating some of the playstyle elements that might interest you, whether that’s exploration of the world, intrigue and social maneuvering, or ill-advised experimentation with the metaphysical underpinnings of the setting. We don’t want you to feel restricted by this, and, naturally, there’s always more than meets the eye, but if something is particularly interesting to you this should point you in the right direction.

We aim for there to be a mix of Player versus Environment and Player versus Player content, with more PvE material at first. When characters clash, their disagreements will largely be over competing visions of the world and the stories produced by Jo rather than attempts to murder each other, meaning that character death - while possible - is less common. We intend to ensure that losing in these conflicts is just as interesting as winning, and is never a 'dead end'. If your character does end up dying or becoming unplayable, we'll let you know in good time so that you have plenty of time to create a new character. We'll ensure that you aren't at a disadvantage for entering the game late!

The game has been inspired by a number of sources. These include but are certainly not limited to:

• The Thursday Next series (book series)
• Inside Out (film)
• The Astral Realms sourcebook of Mage: The Awakening (tabletop RPG setting)
• The works of William Shakespeare (plays)
• Deadwood (TV series)
• Sunless Skies (video game)
• Previous Society Games, including Ultimate Monster Battle Arena, Maleficarum and Tempest
• Welcome to Night Vale (podcast)
• The Maltese Falcon (book)
• The Fifth Element (film)
• Homestuck (webcomic)
• Yu-Gi-Oh! (card game)
• Wreck-It Ralph (film)
• Inception (film)
• Psychonauts (video game)
• Namesake (webcomic)
• Inkheart (film)
• Monsters, Inc. (film)

Work In Progress takes place in a world of stories, including some gathered from popular and historical literature. As described above, we envisage that interacting with characters from literature - scheming to save King Duncan from the assassination plots of Macbeth and his wife, or running a heist to retrieve the One Ring or other macguffins from The Lord of the Rings. While this will only form part of the game as a whole, it does raise a few questions.

• Do you have to know all this fiction? What happens if I don’t know all about the Collected Works of Shakespeare?

In short, no, you absolutely don't need to know all this at all. Players might interact with characters from various real life works of fiction, or visit their stories, but we’re focusing on player agency and protagonism, not running a mini English Literature exam! We are aiming to make something that is fun for people who are familiar with some of the source material touched on, but without giving them an unfair advantage, and that is interesting and rewarding to play regardless of your knowledge of any work that people encounter.

• What about problematic or upsetting issues in fiction?

Much of literature contains themes that are difficult, upsetting or rooted in prejudice, in ways that go against the Conduct and Themes Policy that Work In Progress runs under. Portrayals of mental health issues in Macbeth or antisemitism in The Merchant of Venice are not acceptable, for example. Rather than ignore all the works that include this content in their entirety - almost all real-world literature, written in a prejudice-filled society, would deal with these themes - we will carefully ensure that these issues do not occur in play (either during sessions or turnsheets). While this does mean downplaying these elements, we feel that this is the best way of running a game that is safe and welcoming to anyone. If you feel concerned about aspects of this, please feel free to email us.

• What scope of stories are you looking to include? What about _____?

We’re keen to include a wide range of stories and works of literature in Work In Progress, but are limited by our own reading habits and backgrounds. If you're particularly keen for us to include something then we're happy to listen to suggestions, but we can't guarantee that we'll include it.