Welcome to Reference II, one of two ORPGSoc Society Games for Summer 2026, the other being New Game Plus. The full schedule for Reference II can be found here.

Reference II is a game that intends to explore innovation, value and identity. Characters will be the first to fully experience a brand new technology, as well as the excitement and dangers that come with it. What can be learned, what value do In-Story experiences have, and are the people the characters become in Stories a reflection of their true selves?

If you're new to Society Games, then a good place to start is the Society Game Wikis page, which walks through how to navigate this Wiki.

For information on accessibility, including how to change the Wiki theme to 'Readable', please see Accessibility.

If you're new to online games, then you may find it helpful to read the Introduction to Discord Games page. Conventions and Discord bots that are specific to Reference II are explained in the Discord in Reference II page.

Sessions in Reference II will run biweekly and consist of two parts: an Uptime which takes place over Discord, followed by a Downtime, where characters will be able to interact through emails. Each session will conclude with a GM-written Epilogue, which replace the traditional Turnsheet used in other Society Games. To understand what Uptimes, Downtimes and Epilogues will look like in Reference II, see the Uptimes and Sessions and Downtimes and Turnsheets pages.

To get an idea of the game's tone and central themes, see Style and Tone. Some sensitive themes are expected to occur within Reference II, while others are not permitted to occur at all. To play in Reference II, you must have read our Conduct and Acceptable Themes Policy.

To learn more about the game's setting, there are four pages in this wiki:

• The Bookworm explains more about the Bookworm – the machine used to experience Stories.
• Stories explains how Stories are experienced by characters.
• The Alusia Foundation explains more about the place where the Bookworm is kept and characters will be spending all Uptimes and Downtimes.
• The World explains more about the setting of the world of Reference II and may be used to help create a character and their backstory.

For more information about Player Characters in Reference II and how to create your own character, please see Character Creation. An example of the types of characters you can create if you want to explore certain themes can be found in Character Inspiration.

In order to play in Reference II, you will need to fill in the Ballot Form by 19:00 on Monday 6th July to express your interest in playing. If you ballot Reference II, you will then need to create a character by 12:00 on Friday 10th July. For more information on how to ballot and create a character, please see the Ballot section below and the Character Creation page.

Reference II is also looking for Crew members. More information on what crewing entails and how to apply to crew can be found here.

You will also need to have read both the ORPGSoc Conduct and Acceptable Themes Policy and the Reference II Conduct and Acceptable Themes Policy.

Further, we ask that everyone involved in Reference II (whether as a player, crew member or GM), becomes a member of the Oxford Role-Playing Games Society if they are not one already. If you are not already a member, contact the treasurer Heather by Discord DM (@queenbluedragon) or email to learn more about how to join the society. Note that you may join the Character Creation session without becoming a member.

All Reference II players must be 16 years or older to play. Most players will be between the ages of 18 and 30. If you are under 18 years of age, you must disclose this to the GM team for safeguarding reasons.

So that the GMs can maintain a manageable workload during Reference II, we will be imposing a limit of 18 players for the game. In the event that there are more people than this who want to play in Reference II, we will need to run a Ballot to allocate the available spaces.

We will be conducting this Ballot jointly with New Game Plus, so that as many people as possible can play in one of the two games. You will be able to state which, if either, of the two games you would rather play in. If you did express a preference, you will also be able to state whether this is the only game you would be interested in playing, or whether you would be willing to play the other game instead of playing neither game. Balloting will be done in the following priority groups:

1. People who have never played a Society Game before.
2. People who have played a Society Game before.

There is also an option on the Ballot form to opt out of balloting if the game is oversubscribed and join the GM team, which will expand the available places for other people. As a GM, you will be responsible for helping write and run Stories in uptime, writing Epilogues and advocating for a select number of players.

Results will be released on the Discord servers for ORPGSoc, New Game Plus and Reference II. If you do not have access to these, please let us know so we can send you the results by email. After this, if there are any places remaining, anyone who did not participate in balloting for any reason will be able to claim them at the GM teams' discretion and on a first-come, first-served basis.

The balloting will be run using this code developed by Rory A, with config.py modified to reflect the options available to these games. If you have questions about the process for this Ballot, reach out to the GM Team and we will do our best to answer.

The Ballot form can be found here. The deadline for completing the Ballot form is 19:00 on Monday 6th July.

Balloting to Crew will be run separately to this Ballot. More information on balloting to Crew can be found here.