The Practice War is a work of science fiction written by user Snowfire on the forum Sufficient Velocity. The Practice War is written in the format of Quest Fiction, being broken into turns with actions determined by the player (or quest) base selecting options provided by Snowfire (the Quest Master or QM). The results of these actions are determined by a series of dice rolls in combination with modifiers provided by attributes of the player character and other characters in the story. The results of these rolls and modifiers are then taken by the QM and used to write the results of these actions, which are then presented to the Questbase in story format.
The Story
The Practice War story takes place on a future earth where humanity’s adult population was decimated after losing a battle with an alien race known as the Shiplords. This attack appears to have been brought about by the discovery of science busting Secrets that allowed immense biological and genetic restructuring as well as faster than light travel that defied typical energy cost estimates. This catastrophic battle also resulted in a selection of humanity gaining access to a well of reality shaping power known as Practice.
Having discovered that the price paid to the Shiplords to preserve the lives of the rest of humanity was only the first payment of many they appear ready to collect; Humanity works to prepare for the return of the Shiplords hoping to be better able to defend its people again. Racing against time they work to build new warships, develop new sciences, and discover new Secrets to improve their odds before the Shiplords’ next fleet arrives.
The story follows the life of Amanda Hawk, a woman who has spent most of her life working to bring people together after the Shiplords tore so many families apart. It begins with a prologue of her life as a child and teen, and follows her through adulthood. This includes a few terms of presidency, a second battle with the shiplords, partial retirement to an academy to advance the sciences, and onwards.
Inspiration
The idea that has become the Practice War was born on a flight to Germany after having read the novel The Practice Effect by David Brinn. Having written a first draft of the opening of The Practice War Snowfire passed this draft to a friend Serafina to read. He credits Serafina’s support for allowing The Practice War as we know it to become something more than another outline in his drafts folder.
Another significant influence that led to the creation of The Practice War was the turn to Questing Fiction - More Specifically ‘Till My Last Breath by Poptart Prodigy. It caused his own story to evolve. “the…valour, I guess, the refusal to back down and die when the aliens came, wove into the story at a much deeper level than I’d planned.”
After this point and the end of the trip it was Serafina again who pushed for Snowfire to go ahead and take on the project and gave it a name. Which ultimately led to the launch of the quest The Practice War.
Quest Style
Until turn 17 The Practice war was run as a CK2-type quest. After that point, with the decision of the players to step down from the presidency, the quest mechanics have been split across 4 types of actions.
One important aspect of the quest is the limitation of Player Knowledge. In The Practice War players are not omniscient. The knowledge provided to the players with which to make their decisions goes no farther than what the main character would have access to.
Snowfire states in the first post:
As an original setting, there is a lot about the world of the Practice War that you won't know on entering. Although I have done my best to explain those things in-story and through the Compendium, there will always be questions that I have failed to answer or simply missed. If you have a question, and you cannot find the answer in the Compendium, please ask.
Equally however, there are things that humanity and the characters present within the quest do not know themselves. As such, whilst I will strive to answer questions fully, sometimes the full answer will be "You don't know, and you know nobody that does."
Future of the Quest
It has been announced that the Author intends to follow The Practice War with a sequel to be titled Secrets’ Crusade.