When press types were given our logins for the Tabula Rasa closed beta, it came with a rather peculiar clause. Normally there’d be a line saying, “Say a single thing about this game and we’ll tie you by your balls to a lamppost”. Tabula Rasa leaves things slightly more vague.

By accepting our online NDA, you are also agreeing to the following rules for press:

* The Non-Disclosure Agreement is in effect; while you may talk about your experiences in the game, please do not publish your own screen shots or talk about specific aspects of the game. Since we’re in beta, we are continually fine-tuning the game so something specific you report on may actually be changed before launch…

So here are my experiences playing Tabula Rasa, in no way violating the NDA:

When I first started playing I was feeling quite sleepy, but not tired enough to think about going to bed early or anything. I had just got over a bit of a chesty cold, and so was still coughing quite a lot. It was getting dark outside, and I wondered where the cat was.

Character created, I went outside to get the cat in. Once he was inside and I’d given him his tea, I sat back down to carry on playing. After a while I felt an itch in my nose, which was swiftly dealt with by a quick scratch. I put on an episode of This American Life to listen to in the background as I played. It was about prison life, and featured an interesting story about a man who was incorrectly charged with murder, and the decades he spent inside.

Having levelled up, the phone rang. It was my friend Jo, and we arranged to meet for coffee that Thursday. Soon after I had a bit of a coughing fit, but it didn’t last long. I thought about getting a coffee, but in the end chose to have a glass of milk instead. After another couple of hours of this, I decided it was bedtime, so logged out of the game.

Keep checking back to RPS for any other exclusive beta experiences.