This week, we shall celebrate the conclusion of Thunderdome’s 7th year with the ancient Japanese tradition of GACHA!

If you’ve held a smartphone in your hand sometime over the past decade, you’ve likely run into a Gacha game. These games are designed to entice players with mysterious unlockable content in the hopes that they will go rooting through their parent's wallets, dig out their credit card, and drive their family to destitution all to procure a virtual sword!

It’s a jolly good time, for one and all!

Sound like too much? Well, great, then all you have to do is post that you’re in and write a story, that’s at longest 777 words. The prompt for this week is Luck. Loose, and up for interpretation as you see fit. Write a story about a character down on it, or overflowing with it. Write a story that explores the consequences of the belief in it all together, or just name your protag’s dog Luck. Whatever, go nuts. Winners and HM’s shall be rewarded!

Still here? Good, now the fun begins!

As you’ll note in the post below this one, I, along with the help of Kaishai, have personally stuffed 100 capsules with bonus words! You will PAY FOR THESE EXTRA WORDS… by incorporating the various flash rules found within each capsule. The number of bonus words have been randomized, because of course they have, and are somewhere between 25 and 200 per capsule! The capsules, generally, are not terribly difficult or specific. Some may be, but GACHA is all about MASS APPEAL. And besides, it’ll be plenty difficult to incorporate a multitude of capsules in one story. But, definitely go for it!

• Central Character Condition: A flash rule that will define something about a major player in your story..
• Setting: Where’s your story happening?
• Genre: A popular classification for your story
• Song: A song to inspire your story! Most of these have a chance of being somewhat known. Only a few are deep/obscure judge cuts. Some of these songs we love, some of them we hate, but all should help inspire a story.
• RFT: Random Fuckin’ Thing

Each entrant may pick up to one capsule from each category.


BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!

Strewn about the selection of 100 capsules are :sparkles: 30 FREEMIUM DIAMOND CAPSULES!!!! :sparkles:

These INCREDIBLY RARE capsules are loaded up with BONUS PRIZES!!!!!!!

What are they loaded up with? Well, the answer is predetermined, but you won’t find out, and claim the prize UNTIL YOU SUBMIT YOUR STORY!!!!!

Submitting a story that incorporates the prompt that won you the diamond capsule will unlock your diamond capsule! We will be super fucking lenient about prompt inclusion in this aspect. We just need to barely see it.

Opening a diamond capsule will be glorious. You will become the envy of all of your friends with your new prizes. Prizes include, but are not limited to….

• AMAZON GIFT CERTIFICATES!!
• IN DEPTH CRITS OF STORIES OF YOUR CHOOSING!!
• SOMETHING AWFUL GIFT CERTIFICATES!!
• DONATIONS TO CHARITIES OF YOUR CHOICE!!
• AND MORE

But, you’ll only be able to open your diamond capsule if you submit.

SO DON’T FAIL, YOU GOOBER.

Failure might mean flushing a DIAMOND FUCKING CAPSULE DOWN THE THUNDER TOILET.

Again, entrants may select up to five capsules, one from each category. Entrants may select one at a time, or all five at once. You could win up to FIVE DIAMOND CAPSULES HOLY SHIT!

So, in summary. When you select a capsule, the following happens…

Choose a Capsule by Picking the category and the number. Example RFT:8, or Genre:20
You get your flash rule
You get your bonus words
If there were any SUPER DIAMOND CAPSULES in the capsule, you get those as well, but they remain sealed until you submit your story.
All of the capsules have been filled and locked. To ensure this, all of the judges have access to the spreadsheet and can see that all capsules and drawings shall be done fairly.


Now go, and remember, the prompt is LUCK