# The Makers’ Trial

Four to twelve makers, one theme, a plot each over the cloud sea. Build until the time runs out. Then everyone tours every build and kindles one to five lights for it, and the **Verdict** ranks them.

## How to get in

- **From the title menu:** press **Custom games**, then **Makers’ Trial**. Its line says how many are waiting.
- **The lobby.** A trial waits until 3 players are in. Then a countdown of 45 seconds starts, shorter with every player who joins, down to 10, and a full trial starts at once. **Fill with Echoes** starts it now: alone, one press does it; with others, more than half must press it, and the button shows the count. **Echoes**, the land’s memory of the wanderers who came before, take the empty seats. An Echo carries a hollow rune before its name. Echoes take plots until there are four makers, build from small plans and judge fairly. A trial holds up to twelve players.
- Your character in a trial is the one you play in the Riven Lands, with your name and your look. Your bag stays at home.

## The building

- **The theme** shows for six seconds before the building: “A Firstfolk workshop”, “The night of the Riving”, “A bridge across the rift” and many more.
- **Your plot** is the meadow inside the skystone rim, 15 blocks a side and 24 high. Nothing builds past its rim or in another maker’s plot.
- **Every block is yours to use:** you fly, blocks never run out, and the bag (`E`) holds every block in the game. Seven minutes on the clock (a server may run five to ten).
- Arriving after the start, you take a free plot while the first part of the building lasts.

## How a trial runs

| Part | How long | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| The gathering | Until 3 makers, then up to 45 seconds | Makers arrive and take plots. Twelve start it at once, or Fill with Echoes; Echoes fill to four when it begins. |
| The theme | 6 seconds | The theme shows over the grounds and stays at the top of the screen. |
| The building | 7 minutes | Everyone builds in their own plot. The clock turns orange in the last minute. |
| The Viewing | 15 seconds a build | Every build with 12 blocks or more, in turn. Kindle one to five lights for each. |
| The Verdict | About a minute | Every build’s place and score, your Embers, then Play again or Leave. |

## Building in seven minutes

- **Start with the shape.** Raise the outline of the whole build in the first two minutes in one cheap block, then dress it: a tower’s height and a hall’s roof line read from the Viewing’s spot long before any detail does.
- **The Viewing looks down from the front.** Everyone stands high before your plot’s south edge, so the face toward them and the roof carry the build; the back is rarely seen.
- **Light and colour.** Lanterns, glass and a few colours of wool set a build apart from a meadow of grey. Echoes judge size and variety; players judge the theme.
- **Use the whole height.** A plot is 24 blocks high, and the tallest builds catch the eye first.

## The themes

Each trial draws one theme, never the same one twice running on a server. They come from the world’s own story: its makers, its Keepers and the night it broke.

- **A Firstfolk workshop**
- **The night of the Riving**
- **A Keeper's temple**
- **A watchtower over the cloud sea**
- **A hall round a Homefire**
- **The Titan's resting place**
- **A bridge across the rift**
- **A shrine to the Crystal**
- **A wanderer's camp**
- **A lighthouse for lost travellers**
- **The Rime Sovereign's throne**
- **A ruin the jungle took back**
- **A forge under the volcano**
- **A Firstfolk skyship**
- **A market at the edge of the world**
- **The gate to a hidden land**
- **A chain-binder's tower**
- **A house the Wrights built**
- **The last Homefire**
- **A garden in the wastes**

## The Viewing

![The Viewing: an Echo’s timber hall in its plot, its maker’s name at the bottom and five lights to kindle for it, four lit gold.](https://riventale.world/ui/whatsnew/trial-viewing.webp)

*Five lights for every build.*

- **Every build in turn,** 15 seconds each, everyone watching from the same spot before it. A plot with fewer than 12 blocks is left out.
- **Kindle a light for this build:** one to five, with the keys `1` to `5` or a tap. You may change your mind while the build is shown. Your own build gets none from you.
- **Echoes judge too,** by how big and varied a build is. Their lights count half.
- **Report** a build that shouldn’t stand with the flag beside the lights (Hate, Safety or Other). Moderators see it with its plot and theme, and can clear it from the trial.

## The Verdict

![The Verdict: the theme, every maker’s place and score in lights, your line with the builds you judged and the Embers you won.](https://riventale.world/ui/whatsnew/trial-verdict.webp)

*The Verdict.*

- **A build’s score** is the average of its lights with one 3 counted in, so a single 5 is not a perfect score and two 5s beat one.
- **Ties** go to more fives, then more votes, then more blocks.
- **Embers:** 24, 16 and 12 for the top three, 8 for any other build shown, and one more for each build you judged, up to 6. Half when no other real player built. At most 90 a day from trials.
- **For your bag** in the Riven Lands: the top three carry back four Lanterns, the winner a Wanestone as well, on two trials a day.

More ways to play with others: [Playing together](https://riventale.world/guides/playing-with-friends/). Courses of leaps: [Riftways](https://riventale.world/guides/riftways/).

Next: [The story](https://riventale.world/guides/lore/). All sections: [the guides](https://riventale.world/guides/).

Play now: https://riventale.world/play/