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Everyone who ends up in the Hub materializes with a phone, either on their person (in a pocket, in a bag, whatever) or at their feet. The phones are pretty hard to lose-- even if you make an effort to ditch it somewhere, it will inevitably find you within about a day. The city's robots have quite a bit of fun returning lost property, it seems.

It's strange that you'd want to ditch your phone anyway. It's pretty handy!

Communications

Phone have voice, video chat, and texting features. (And yes, there is a keyboard for those with problems using a touch-screen to type.)

With a little mucking around with the back-end, you can encrypt communications, and if one end of a real-time conversation is secure than the other end is as well. It takes some know-how with computer code and some time for trial and error, and every so often a firmware update gets pushed through the network that kills encryptions-- they will need to be replaced by the truly security-dedicated once or twice a month.

Really paranoid types might notice that the phones are still communicating some kind of usage data to a central database. There's a disclaimer buried in the EULA that says non-identifying user data is transmitted... but that's an awful lot of data being sent if the central database is really just concerned with usage stats and crash reports.

Apps

These are smartphones, of course they have apps.

Weather gives the forecast for the week, though it's not very accurate beyond giving a general idea of what the temps might look like and if there might be precipitation. The specific daily/hourly forecasts in the app tend to be hilariously off-base. And every once in a while the app just freaks out and predicts crazy things like asteroids or a high of 60000 degrees Fahrenheit.

Mail is an e-mail app to let you transfer messages and files between phones. It's a good idea to check it on the regular-- the inbox tends to fill up pretty quickly with spam otherwise. Unless you are in the market for natural male enhancement on the cheap from Canada...

Photos lets you take pictures and store them on the phone. There is a limited amount of storage space.

Music plays music. Books is an ereader app. Alas, apparently the cell network here just isn't up to streaming video, because there are no streaming video service apps. Your phone doesn't start off with any multimedia, but the mall sure is full of places with a really bizarre mishmash of creative works, like a hundred shopping malls from around the multiverse dropped their catalogs on the place.

House is your house remote control app. It contains your electronic keys (you just have your phone out and select unlock to get in!) and the command interface for your home's assigned maintenance bots, thermostat, etc. It also has contact information for your current roommate, because that sort of thing is important.

CityPass is your combined citizen ID and bank account. The bank account comes pre-loaded with about $45,000 USD and it never seems to deplete no matter how much you spent on frilly lingerie at the mall. It never increases either, so if you want to acquire something crazy like a stretch limousine, you might have to go in on the purchase with a few neighbors. The citizen ID card lets you access the city's public transit system, including Metrorail, and is needed if you ever collect other important documents like medical records.

AirCart is a grocery app. If you happen upon one of those nifty billboard convenience stores, you can use the app to shop for groceries by scanning items. Your purchases will then be delivered to your door. Alas, it doesn't let you order from home-- maybe the city was having a problem with recluses never leaving or something.

Characters with the right tech background who learn the phone's OS can conceivably write apps and add to the total.

Hacking

The phones rely on a city-wide wifi network with a cell tower backup for the handful of areas lacking hotspots. While most homes have individual secured wifi hotspots, most public wifi is just that. Public. That means that phones can be hacked from afar, especially if they are using the cell network or are using an unsecured wireless network.

While people practiced with encryption can secure their messages from casual hack attempts, and the phones themselves come with a pretty darn good firewall and regular security updating, an experienced hacker could conceivably break into a phone. It requires knowledge of that phone's exact IP address-- hacking from afar takes a good deal of old-fashioned legwork to figure out what public wifi the mark uses and what their address on the network is-- and you have to actually succeed at the attempt to sneak past the phone's on-board security.

As such, hackers should comment to the HACKING thread below with the following information:

Character name/canon in the subject header.

Background: A brief description of the character's skill area-- someone who is a hacker with counter-espionage experience would probably be better at this than someone who primarily accesses other people's data through worms. The numbers you pick to represent your skills should be in line with this background.

Hacking skill: Give a number between 1-10 to roughly represent how often the character succeeds at hacking attempts in their canon, 10 being 100% success, 1 being 10%.

Hacking resistance: Number between 1-10, representing how often the character manages to repel hacking attempts in their canon.

Wild factors: If there are circumstances that would give a character a bonus (or penalty!) to the above stats if faced with a hacker from outside their canon source, note here.

Care and Feeding of Your Phone

On second thought... your phone is a little weird.

Aside from the glitches in the apps, the phone never seems to need charging, either. It does have a data cable in case you want to synch it with a larger computer in your home, but the battery never reads anything other than 100% all of the time. Mechanically inclined characters who attempt to take apart their phones will find that it's densely packed with circuit boards and it.. doesn't seem to have a power source. Anywhere. Where a battery might inhabit a normal phone is just a glass something or other. Maybe it's a future battery... but when you hook the glass up to something else, nothing happens. (It makes a very pretty suncatcher, though.)

You can lose your phone. It's a phone and doesn't have limbs. The robots will eventually track you down and return it-- they seem to have been programmed to prioritize that, and even people who move around the city a lot will eventually be intercepted by a helpful goonie-bot. The weird thing? When you check your formerly-lost phone you find texts you never sent or history for calls you never made. When you go to access the details-- the message or the entry for the contact you called-- the phone spits out gibberish and crashes. When it reboots, the communications you never sent are gone.

You can break your phone. You can scatter the bits around. It'll still find you within 24 hours, all backed up like nothing happened, albeit with the same weird junk data.

You can't really escape the phones. It's probably a good thing they're low-maintenance then.

Player Plots:

Fill out the form and post as a comment. Make sure the subject header is "Player Plot". Please reserve this for "big boom" type events that would have an effect on the game's environment. We don't need to approve every little thing, trust me. (But when in doubt, please post.)

Characters mainly involved: Self explanatory.
Open to Game-Wide Involvement?: Y/N?
Time Estimate: When would you like to start this/how long do you expect it to run?
Plot Description: A synopsis of what you’d like to happen - please give as much detail as you can so we have a clear understanding of what you’d like to do.
Questions for the Mods: Do you have any questions about what’s workable? Do you need any assistance from the NPCs? Anything else the mods can do?
Anything else: Any other notes you have.

NPC Request:

If you need to page a particular named NPC into a thread, please fill out and post the form below. Make sure to put NPC Request in the subject header. We will get back to you ASAP.

You can't just die and get better like nothing happened.

If you want to die in-game, make sure you have the consent of the character playing your killer if this is not a murderer-less crime. Killing can be upsetting, especially for protag types and especially for protag types who didn't mean it. If you want to die to NPC monsters or whatever, go for it.

A dead character stays dead for seven days, and then respawns in the Hub in the condition they were in when they first arrived, down to lint in their pockets, minus a few little... problems.

Characters who die will experience a death penalty lasting for seven days. It seems the universe doesn't like having to respawn you.

Penalties include physical or mental effects and escalate as the number of deaths a character accrues goes. Your character will divorce more and more from reality or become more and more monstrous and out-of-control the more times they bite it and have to be respawned. There are a lot of potential death penalties, too many to exhaustively list here, but there are three broad types.

Monstrous penalties are what they look like on the tin. As your character racks up deaths, they start to slowly resemble and then behave like a twisted beast of chaos and shadows. It starts subtly at first-- an aversion to light here, a craving for the living force of a sentient being there-- and then starts to escalate. Soon your fingers are twisting into claws and you desperately crave flesh to the point you can't eat anything else... then you start phasing through walls and feel an uncontrollable urge to stalk the people you love...

And worst of all, if you are really allergic to living, you seem to spend more and more of your time as a monster...

Break penalties start off innocuous, or at least humorously. To put it in the briefest of terms, you start to see people as popular AU or fanfic trope versions of themselves-- the coffee shop, the swim team, the werewolf pack. Problem is, the more often you die, the more you start to see people as their AU selves, until it starts to effect even those closest to you. It's really quite terrifying if you think about it:

Your memory and perception of people just ends up a little off. You could swear that the battle cyborg you occasionally trade information with is actually a professional tennis player. That the quiet girl in the library is actually a raging alpha-female on the prowl for someone to join her wolf pack. They might correct you, but you can't quite shake the feeling for a few days...

And then the people you're friends with start to seem off too, as your deaths start to mount. Why was your friend carrying a sword? They run a coffee shop! And then it starts to spread to your closest companions... And then it starts to seem like everything is some chaotic jumble of what you think you know about people and what they actually are, and no two people even seem to be from the same kind of twisted reality anymore...

Glitch penalties are the most common for people to experience, particularly if they don't really rack up the death counts. Most of them have to do with messing up one's interaction with reality-- senses, speech, or occasionally vivid hallucinations about the way the world works that have psychosomatic effects. If you hallucinate that the floor is lava? You feel a burn even if you aren't injured. You could start regularly tasting sounds or be constrained to always speak in heroic couplets. (Unless your name is Etrigan. Then you have to speak like a normal mortal. Shudder.) You could lose your vision and have to echolocate or use scans.. or lose your form of perceiving the world and gain sight. It's all rather disorienting, as if the world didn't quite reboot you right when you came back from the dead...

Glitches don't really escalate. Soon enough someone will end up either on the path of becoming a monster or on the path of seeming to break entirely from reality.

And reminder... anyone who is dead in canon and comes back for the game will have one death already added to their register. So if they die again? It's gonna be a bit more interesting...

Comment below if your character is going to die. Include the name, username, and date of death. We will issue a reminder of when you character respawns and the death penalty involved.

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Characters start off assigned to a two (sometimes three) bedroom apartment/condo with a roommate chosen by the computers at City Hall. After arrival, characters can opt to apply for other living arrangements (heaven knows there's space) but it will take 4-5 days for City Hall to fully process a relocation application and issue new credentials to match the new address. Sorry, guys, you're gonna be stuck with your random roomie for a few days. Additionally, sorry loners, but you're still going to be stuck with somebody as a roommate because the system will not issue housing credentials for people to live alone. City Hall claims it's for safety purposes since it isn't like there are proper emergency responders anymore. Of course, just because you're listed as living at a particular location doesn't mean you have to be in residence...

Current housing assignments are as follows:

[lol nobody yet]

If you would like to change your housing assignment, comment below using the form.

Creepy things that go bump in the night are one thing, but we like things OOC to go as smoothly as possible. To that end, please fill out the forms below and post in the comments.

Player Permissions

First, add a comment with your blanket permissions as a player, with your name in the comment's subject heading.

Character Permissions

Second, reply to your player permissions comment with the following character-specific permissions for each character that you play. In the subject heading of this comment, make sure to put down the character's name and the canon they are from.

Misc Permissions

If your character has some kind of power that tends to effect the game as a whole (psychics, hackers, vampires, etc), please put a comment in the MISC PERMISSIONS thread that links to your character's specific permissions. Once again, put the character's name and their canon up in the subject heading. Even if your character has a specific permissions page, make sure to fill out the general form.

[Nobody yet lol]

To add your character to the big list, copy the form below and paste it in a comment with your character's fandom in the subject line.Fill out everything on the form in ALLCAPS.

Your Mod crew is:

Kat

tehkittykat
tehkittykat@gmail.com

Lead mod, game/event planning, site wrangling.

Phoenix

lostangelssong
lostangelssong@gmail.com

Application mod, site wrangling.

You can contact the mods via plurk at

tempestmods

For non-urgent matters, you can also drop a comment below.

☸ Hiatus

Need a break? Fill out the form below.

If you are on hiatus for two weeks or more, you will be excused from AC checks that month.

If you are on a hiatus over the AC period, you have two options-- you can either post early (there will be a relevant early AC thread in each post) or you can have a friend do it for you.

☸ Drop

Leaving? Sadness. Use the form below to make it official.

Communities

tempest_fugit - Network

tempest_logs - Logs

tempestooc - OOC

Administrative

Rules
FAQ
Reserves
Application
Taken Characters
Permissions
Player Directory [Locked]
Calendar
Hiatus/Drop
Modbother

Setting/Gameplay

Geography/Locations
Bestiary
Housing
Phones
Deaths
Player Plot/NPC Request

☸ The Setting

You find yourself in a futuristic city, deserted by all but a bunch of robots maintaining order and keeping the lights on. As time goes on, you notice that this place is probably on Earth even if all the constellations are wrong. The days are about 24 hours long, there's only one moon tidally locked to the planet, and seasons happen with about the same regularity that you've come to expect of Earth.

It's weird here. All your citizenship information is stored in your phone-- your ID, your bank account (And how weird is it that you have one of those? You just appeared out of nowhere!), even control of the robots that maintain your home. You don't have to work-- the amount of money in your account is enough for you to buy a brand new car if you wanted, and it never seems to go down.

Your housing is taken care of too-- you've been assigned a place with a roommate, and the address and any keys to enter the location are already in your phone. If you don't like it? There's plenty of room available, both single-family and apartment-style living to suit most tastes. All the mayor seems to care about is that people aren't living alone, for safety's sake.

It's weird. If it weren't so empty here, it'd probably be paradise-- a future world with no need to struggle for the basics and all kinds of leisure open to play with. But the problem is.. where are all the other people?

If that wasn't bad enough? You can't leave, either. The mayor is very sorry about this, but there’s some kind of weird anomaly on the outskirts of town, manifesting as a shimmery field that gives your character a headache if they look at it too long. If they try to walk through this barrier field, they will black out under a feeling of intense vertigo, senses scrambled until they are tasting blue and a jackhammer noise feels fuzzy, and then regain consciousness on the other side of the map. Characters who started out walking south will be on the north side of town, walking east gets leads you to the west side of town.. like being trapped in a bad video game. Trying to use fancy teleporting devices or psychic powers to leave the area or to look beyond its borders leads to the same screaming black vertigo effect. It’s like the whole place is surrounded by something very, very wrong.

The mayor is trying to work on a fix, and in the meantime he'll try to make you as comfortable as he can during your stay.

☸ Key Locations

The Hub (1)

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Everyone's arrival point Located roughly in the center of town, the Hub consists of a huge collection of stand-up, single-person pods like something a cartoon mad scientist would have laying around. They are actually single-person teleporter units, or they would be if anything was working. Your character (unless they are just too big) will appear in one of the pods upon arrival or upon respawning after death. The pods are not locked and will open automatically after about thirty seconds, though it's still not a fun experience for the claustrophobic.

On the floor below is an arrangement that looks very reminiscent of the transporter room from Star Trek-- these in better days were cargo teleporters. Very large characters will arrive here.

The rest of the Hub complex, aside from the floors of teleporters, resembles any large transit center. There are waiting areas, automated areas for procuring food and drink (though, alas, nothing specialized to non-Earthlike metabolisms), and even a gift shop that sells random touristy kitsch. The general area is well-lit and screams future with its tasteful appointment, track lighting, and touchscreens everywhere. There are directories available scattered through the complex that provide directions out of the building and to various points of interest around the city-- though for some reason the computer thinks you're in a large city at home if you simply ask "where am I?"

Allbright Memorial Hospital (2)

This facility has the capability of treating most human-like characters with no problem... if there were qualified physicians to supervise the robots. As it is, all the robots are programmed for basic first aid for human-types, though anything beyond stitches is a little beyond them and the stitches are likely to be crooked.

The robots could probably be programmed for non-humans, but it would take a programmer of sufficient skill and a doctor to input the proper medical protocols. As it is, the robots are designed to help, so they'll try to execute their programming anyway. Even if their help really, really doesn't help at all.

Metrorail Station (3)

The trains still run on time, thanks to being automated monorails... but after a pleasant ride, you just end up back at the station no matter what you do. It's not a bad train ride. You get to spend an hour in a quiet, gently rocking vehicle with comfortable seats (for public transit anyway). Looking out the windows isn't recommended-- but if you really want to ride the train, comment in the relevant thread and we'll give you a synopsis of what your character gets to see. (It should be noted that characters who ride the train too often see their CityPass app deny them access to the station for a while. Hmmmmm.)

The station is notable for being equipped with one of those fancy QR-code based convenience stores in addition to the usual newsstand, weird vending machines, and noodle cart. Download the grocery app to your phone and snap pictures of what you want, and it will be waiting for you at home. Take a train ride to nowhere and then enjoy your ramen when you get back!

Community Center (4)

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Located in a patch of wooded park, this facility is a combination public bath (onsen-style) and normal gym/community fitness center. There are areas for most sports, including an ice rink for skating and hockey and a gym that can host basketball or roller derby. Sports equipment is available on loan if you forget your own, though the mettaurs who maintain the locker rooms get awfully testy if you try to make off with center equipment.

While there are marked guy and gal bathing areas, none of the robots are programmed to care who is where.

City Hall (5)

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While nobody can remember what the city is called, it does have an ultramodern city hall. This is where the mayor holes up with the robot control system most of the time-- while he can be spotted around the building, he seems to prefer staying locked in his offices. As a result, access to the central computer system is prohibited.

While the place is mostly empty clerical offices, there are a few points of interest. The roof is actually a garden, typically planted with a mixture of ornamentals (mostly flowers) and edible herbs. The second floor hosts an automated cafe that serves very nice sandwiches and coffee-based drinks. There are also several large conference rooms designed to hold government meetings and a medium-sized auditorium for larger gatherings that could probably be co-opted pretty easily for plays or movie nights.

Starlight Mall (6)

It's a mall. It sprawls across approximately four city blocks and has four floors of shops. The food court has a carousel in it.

Some mall-only military-spec robots patrol the area, looking for shoplifters. They will attempt to tackle a thief and steal back the item being stolen, but they can be outrun pretty easily and it's not like the bank balance on your phone ever seems to decrease... or increase for that matter.

Needful Things (7)

Leland has his own fantastic junk shop in a less-pristine area of the city, far away from the Starlight Mall. It's like every cliche of an eccentric antiques dealer's shop that you can find.. but you can also find just about anything there among the piles and piles of stuff.

One wrinkle: Leland prefers to trade in kind rather than for the meaningless money-- he has apparently been collecting stuff for a long time, and he'd rather not see his work frivolously go to waste. If you can't trade him something, he'll gladly take a future favor instead. Sure, the more desperately-needed or difficult to source the object, the greater the favor, but come on. He's not running a charity here.

He also has a large collection of Stephen King books. Which you are free to sit and read, but not allowed to take out of the store. It doesn't count as trading. The man just really likes Stephen King. So letting patrons read his books just means that Leland will have someone to talk about his collection with.

Cathedral (8)

Like the city itself, the name of the cathedral is lost. All the relevant signage has been broken, gouged, or otherwise rendered illegible. It's definitely not an old building, though, as even a cursory search through would show that modern conveniences like electricity, heat, water, and wifi are all present. The cathedral itself appears to be multi-denominational, and in the same couple of blocks in the city there are other houses of worship as well. It appears that whatever else this place was, it was pretty darn diverse. There's even a storefront Chuch of the SubGenius!

Riverview Apartments (9)

The first housing block that the mayor opened for the habitation of newcomers. It's a high-rise apartment building, like most in the city, and it features two and three bedroom luxury apartments. There are very nice views of the river, though those who are a little bit weaker of stomach might prefer the other side of the building since the river also offers a pretty good view of the anomaly too.

The building is thankfully in excellent repair, and there are a gym, pool, and small bar/grill on the first couple of floors.

You are not alone. Here is a sampling of the fun things you might run into... or might run into you.

☸ The Bots

Mettaurs

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Mettaurs come in a variety of functions and styles-- the one pictured above is the basic form. Not pictured are the met’s manipulator arms (which appear as slim silver tentacles). Mettaurs’ helmets are very sturdy and pretty much impervious to energy-based attack, though if a physical attack knocks them over they are very vulnerable. You probably don’t want to attack one, though-- mettaurs are the basic construction, maintenance, and housekeeping robot for all but large industrial-scale jobs. Most apartments have a mettaur or two installed to handle the basic chores, and anyone with sufficient experience with code can get into a mettaur’s programming and use them as minions. (Within reason-- the city’s security does respond when too many mettaurs drop off the network at once.)

Bugs

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There is a wide variety of bug robots creeping and fluttering around. They are all small enough to be held in a normal humanoid hand, and do a lot of the cleanup and pest management around the city. Most are modeled after beetles, as above, but there are also mantis, ant, and dragonfly-like models. They are fairly difficult to reprogram because most of their code is hard-wired in the factory, though they are also pretty dumb and can be incited to swarm by large or dangerous messes.

Decorative Models

There is a small population of robots modeled after animals-- mostly birds and cat-sized critters that can’t decide if they’re raccoons or bunnies. They don’t have a particular function, serving as decoration or, in the case of the fuzzies, companion animals. Beacons for the fuzzy-bots can be found in most supply areas, though you will have to catch your own fuzzy yourself.

Military/Security Models

Too many to illustrate-- check out the link.

Military-spec robots are generally humanoid in shape so as to be able to handle equipment originally designed for humans to enter human environments. That said, they’re also generally heavily armored, and often have claws instead of hands. They generally speak in prerecorded sound bytes, though they show evidence of intelligence and strategic thinking. If a bunch of truly uber characters are fighting, for example, they will move to cordon off the area rather than go on suicidal charges to stop the fight.

Generally, these robots keep the peace by quelling any large disturbances. They are programmed to respond primarily to fighting, though if there is a big throwdown going on they are known to wait for backup before proceeding.

Reserves are currently OPEN.

Want to play somebody and scared someone else will app them first? Put in a reserve in the comments below by filling out the following handy form:

You may reserve characters anytime there is not an app round. Current reserves expire once the current app round ends.

Applications are currently OPEN.

☸ Player Information
Name: Any handle or username you want us to call you by.
OOC Journal: Your personal journal, if applicable. Please make sure to list the same one you used to place your reserve, if applicable.
Are you over 18?: Thanks to death and violence and mind-screw and sexy times, this is an over-18 game. Sorry, kids.
Preferred Contact Method(s): However you would prefer we get ahold of you if needed.
Other characters currently played here: If this is your first application here, please put "N/A" in this field.

☸ Character Information
Name: Your character's full name in Western order.
Canon: If applying for an original character, please put "original" in this field (with the associated fandom, if a fandom OC).
OU, AU, OC?: If applying for an AU version of the character, please specify whether the AU is player created (OAU) or CR-based (CR AU). If applying for an original character, clarify whether or not they qualify as a fandom OC. Friendly reminder that any type of original character or AU character (player-created AU or CR AU) is going to be judged a bit more harshly than an OU character. OCs and AUs are hard, man.
Canon point: The point in your character's history from which you will be importing them.
Mayans or Hobos? Welcome to your first significant choice as a player! Choose wisely, because your decision for this character will affect their experience in the game! Applications with this section blank will be auto-rejected.

Setting: Please provide all information concerning your character's home world or original setting as it relates to them. You don’t need to write the whole wiki entry, but give enough information that someone canon-blind would have an idea what you are talking about. Links to pertinent wiki entries are all right in the case of fandom characters, but we would prefer this section to be written out.

If your character is an AU, please include information about how your AU setting differs from the canon setting. If your character is a CR AU, include information about the settings from previous games so people who have not played in them will understand the basic premise.

History: If applying for a fandom character, you may provide a link here as long as the information provided in that link is sufficient. If not, we will ask you to write an expanded history. Again, the good parts version is fine, but try to touch on major life events.

For any AU or OC characters, make sure to be thorough in this section. We will be looking to see how history and personality have interacted with each other to check that the character’s personality development is internally consistent and logical. This is particularly important for AU characters since changes in setting and history should have some impact on the character’s personality.

Personality: Try to cover all key aspects of your character's personality, including things like general beliefs, major relationships, and responses to major life events. It would be an awesome idea to explain how the character’s grown and changed over the course of events in their canon, particularly for OC and AU characters who depart from the basic model. Personality analysis should be at least 300 words.

Abilities/Weaknesses: Please detail whatever abilities and major weaknesses your character has in their original setting and how they might affect your character (or how they might use them). Abilities in this game are not nerfed, though you may be asked to notify mods/get permission before pulling out anything particularly game-breaky. Your character can bring any “soul-bonded” or carried, habitual gear with them-- make sure to detail anything that offers some kind of ability of advantage to your character. (So, for example, the Red Ranger is pretty likely to be carrying whatever gizmo they’re using to morph these days. Booster Gold would be likely to come in with his super-suit. These things will need details. A Gundam pilot, on the other hand, will not be coming in with his Gundam and doesn’t need to detail its capabilities.)

Animal companions (the Companion of a Herald of Valdemar, a fire-lizard belonging to a resident of Pern, Gary’s pokemon, Jon Snow’s dire wolf) can be included under the abilities section and brought along if they are 1) necessary for the continued mental functioning of the character, in which case the player needs to remember to actually play them or 2) are habitually carried around by/in contact with the character and have no developed individual personality. Herald Kerowyn could bring her Companion Sayvil because otherwise Kerowyn would be a complete mental wreck, but the player needs to remember to play both characters. Ash would not be able to bring Pikachu because Pikachu has a strong, developed personality, but he could bring another of his pokemon with him. (Someone could, however, apply to play Pikachu.)

Network sample: An example post to the Network of at least 100 words, or up to three bracket-threads with 15 comments by your character in another setting such as dear_mun or memes.

Log sample: An example prose post of at least 300 words, or a linked prose thread with 10 comments by your character in another setting.

☸ Player Information
Name: Any handle or username you want us to call you by.
OOC Journal: Your personal journal, if applicable. Please make sure to list the same one you used to place your reserve, if applicable.
Are you over 18?: Thanks to death and violence and mind-screw and sexy times, this is an over-18 game. Sorry, kids.
Preferred Contact Method(s): However you would prefer we get ahold of you if needed.
Other characters currently played here: If this is your first application here, please put "N/A" in this field.

☸ Character Information
Name: Your character's full name in Western order.
Canon: If applying for an original character, please put "original" in this field (with the associated fandom, if a fandom OC).
OU, AU, OC?: If applying for an AU version of the character, please specify whether the AU is player created (OAU) or CR-based (CR AU). If applying for an original character, clarify whether or not they qualify as a fandom OC. Friendly reminder that any type of original character or AU character (player-created AU or CR AU) is going to be judged a bit more harshly than an OU character. OCs and AUs are hard, man.
Canon point: The point in your character's history from which you will be importing them.
Mayans or Hobos? Welcome to your first significant choice as a player! Choose wisely, because your decision for this character will affect their experience in the game! Applications with this section blank will be auto-rejected.

Setting: Please provide all information concerning your character's home world or original setting as it relates to them. You don’t need to write the whole wiki entry, but give enough information that someone canon-blind would have an idea what you are talking about. Links to pertinent wiki entries are all right in the case of fandom characters, but we would prefer this section to be written out.

If your character is an AU, please include information about how your AU setting differs from the canon setting. If your character is a CR AU, include information about the settings from previous games so people who have not played in them will understand the basic premise.

History: If applying for a fandom character, you may provide a link here as long as the information provided in that link is sufficient. If not, we will ask you to write an expanded history. Again, the good parts version is fine, but try to touch on major life events.

For any AU or OC characters, make sure to be thorough in this section. We will be looking to see how history and personality have interacted with each other to check that the character’s personality development is internally consistent and logical. This is particularly important for AU characters since changes in setting and history should have some impact on the character’s personality.

Personality: Try to cover all key aspects of your character's personality, including things like general beliefs, major relationships, and responses to major life events. It would be an awesome idea to explain how the character’s grown and changed over the course of events in their canon, particularly for OC and AU characters who depart from the basic model. Personality analysis should be at least 300 words.

Abilities/Weaknesses: Please detail whatever abilities and major weaknesses your character has in their original setting and how they might affect your character (or how they might use them). Abilities in this game are not nerfed, though you may be asked to notify mods/get permission before pulling out anything particularly game-breaky. Your character can bring any “soul-bonded” or carried, habitual gear with them-- make sure to detail anything that offers some kind of ability of advantage to your character. (So, for example, the Red Ranger is pretty likely to be carrying whatever gizmo they’re using to morph these days. Booster Gold would be likely to come in with his super-suit. These things will need details. A Gundam pilot, on the other hand, will not be coming in with his Gundam and doesn’t need to detail its capabilities.)

Animal companions (the Companion of a Herald of Valdemar, a fire-lizard belonging to a resident of Pern, Gary’s pokemon, Jon Snow’s dire wolf) can be included under the abilities section and brought along if they are 1) necessary for the continued mental functioning of the character, in which case the player needs to remember to actually play them or 2) are habitually carried around by/in contact with the character and have no developed individual personality. Herald Kerowyn could bring her Companion Sayvil because otherwise Kerowyn would be a complete mental wreck, but the player needs to remember to play both characters. Ash would not be able to bring Pikachu because Pikachu has a strong, developed personality, but he could bring another of his pokemon with him. (Someone could, however, apply to play Pikachu.)

Network sample: An example post to the Network of at least 100 words, or up to three bracket-threads with 15 comments by your character in another setting such as dear_mun or memes.

Log sample: An example prose post of at least 300 words, or a linked prose thread with 10 comments by your character in another setting.

There are many like them, but these rules are ours.

1. Observe the golden rule when dealing with your fellow players.

This is a prentendy fun-time game. Don’t be assholes to each other. People who are assholes will be asked impolitely to leave.

2. Observe the “common sense” rules of good roleplaying when in character.

Do not godmode (control another character’s actions without permission), infomod (have your character know things that they should have no IC way of knowing), or power-play/twink (always be battling for your character to be the strongest... srsly guys this isn’t DBZ).

3. IC does not equal OOC

Pulling this one out there in case rule #1 doesn’t sink in. Try not to have problems with your sense of reality, guys. Just because someone is playing a magnificent bastard doesn’t mean they actually are one.

4. In character actions will have in character consequences.

Aaaand here’s the extra emphasis to rule #2. Don’t whine at the mods if your character does something and every other character is pissed off at them. We are also strongly against retcons as this tends to have a ripple effect on everyone else’s understanding of what the hell is going on. Plan ahead some if you think a particular interaction might cause trouble you don’t want for a character and get in contact with the other character’s mun.

5. Do not taunt happy fun mods.

This is an 18+ game and y’all are theoretically adults. While the mods are here to make adjudications and supervise negotiations, the base expectation is that y’all can actually open your metaphorical mouths and communicate with each other. Try direct communication before you drag stuff before the mods kthx.

6. This is an 18+ game.

Damn kids get off the lawn.

7. Know and communicate your squicks as this game might delve into some crazy territory. On the flip side, be a good RPer and warn content.

Event participation is generally optional. While the squick-factor will vary from campaign to campaign, we are not trying to have anybody have a panic attack at their monitor. Mod-driven events will mention possible squicks in the OOC information prior to event starts.

If you are starting a log or network post that goes into territory that you know is generally offensive, triggery, or just NSFW, make use of the cut tag and the warnings label to let people know that there is content there they may want to skip. Also use warnings/cut tags for spoilers since there is no waiting period for people from new canons to join the game, and not everyone wants to be spoiled either.

8. Pay attention to and respond to Activity Check to remain in the game.

This game relies on an active player base to work, and there are character limits. In order to keep things fair to people wanting to app in and ensure that the game is active enough to work, there’s a certain minimum expectation of activity: your character must have twenty comments in some combination of two threads to meet activity for the month. (No, you may not thread with yourself.)

This could be ten comments on a network post and ten in a log.

An open network post that gets two separate threads of ten comments each.

Two log posts that you commented on ten times each.

A network post that had five comments and another with fifteen.

You get the picture. While there is not going to be a hard-and-fast rule of “you must comment to X different people each activity check except the third one in May” or any of that nonsense, the mods also reserve the right to pull you aside if a particular character is barely making AC and only ever threads with one or two other characters to do it-- we want to make sure that people’s characters are being played.

Players who do not respond at all to activity check will have their characters booted from the game at the end of the check period. Players who are on hiatus for more than two weeks and characters who are in their first month of play will be exempt from activity check. Players who are just having an off month have the option of taking a save for one or more characters, but they will be required to demonstrate double AC (forty comments spread over four threads) in the following month or be dropped.

Players who have considerable problems making AC may be barred from apping in additional characters until their activity stabilizes.

See the Hiatus/Drop page for more specific details, including what to do if your hiatus covers the AC period.

9. Save the drama for your llama.

The mods have better things to do than deal with wank. Don’t be bringing it to our doorstep or we will be very, very cross with you. On a related note, the mods also have better things to do with their lives than monitor every corner of the DWRP verse to see who is saying what about who. We’re just gonna leave it at this: Players who are inveterate shit-stirrers OOC will be asked impolitely to leave.

☸ Basic FAQ

So what kind of game is this again?

This is a jamjar-style journal game with a metaplot set to run in fixed “campaigns” of 18 months. At the end of the campaign period, the game’s metaplot and setting will change depending on what happened during the previous campaign. Yes, this means player decisions will have a large impact on the setting and future plot. (Basically, the game is journal-based in format but tabletop in spirit.)

Currently, the game is a science fiction game with mystery and horror elements.

What kind of characters can play?

Anybody fictional can play here-- canon fandom characters, AU characters, characters who have been through another game, original characters. Nobody from real life, please, although fictionalized versions of a real person, such as President Lincoln in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter are welcome.

A single player can have up to four characters in the game, though they may not app more than one character at a time. (So it would take four months to work up to having a full compliment in-game.) This is because our AC is on the high end and we want to make sure nobody gets overburdened trying to make activity.

Friendly reminder that OC and AU applications will be checked more harshly for internal consistency in characterization and detail in world building, as befits the fact that AU and OC characters are actually pretty hard to pull off well. Check the Applications Page for more details.

As for doubles of a character, we will allow up to three instances of the same character, and each instance of the character must be unique through some kind of AU shenanigans. (No, a simple gender-switch AU is not sufficient. Don’t even ask.) We realize that some canons come with AU timelines built in, but canon AU duplicates still count against the duplicate limit. This limit also includes any clones of particular characters that were created in canon and do not develop into distinct individuals.

For example: Player A wants to play James Tiberius Kirk from just after Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Captain Kirk from the 2009 Star Trek reboot ‘verse is already in the game. There is also a James Tiberius Kirk from an AU of 2009’s Star Trek in which he was raised by Christopher Pike and met Spock when they were both teenagers. Player A may totally apply to play Captain Kirk, Shatner version, but that means there’s no more room for James Tiberius Kirk in the game.

Do all characters from a particular canon have to be from the same timeline/universe to count as canon characters?

In case the above answer didn’t clue you in: no. For example:

Star Trek IV Captain Kirk would be considered canon for ST: TOS.

Star Trek Into Darkness Captain Kirk would be considered canon for ST: Reboot.

As above, though, the game is limited to only three iterations of a particular character, regardless of canon or AU status.

What if my character has some kind of twin/external mind/mindlinked whatever?

Headfriends will be handled on a case-by-case basis. Friendly reminder that if two players have characters that function as a unit it will get really awkward really fast if one player starts having OOC difficulties and they have to leave the game. Choose your pup wisely.

Help help I’m dead!

That’s not a question.

Apping in a character who is post-death in their canon is perfectly fine! They will be able to manifest in the setting without incurring a death penalty... but their resurrection to join the game will go on that character’s death count for the purpose of figuring future death penalties.

Can I play more than one character from the same canon?

Muncest is strictly prohibited. A player will not be able to play two closely-related characters from the same canon, and apping multiple characters from the same canon is thus strictly frowned upon. Go. Make new friends outside of your canons.

So are we sitting atop the fourth wall?

Let’s not rampantly break the fourth wall, guys. It’s inevitable that some characters will exist as fictional stories for other characters. Clark Kent’s player will naturally want to have Clark making noises only dogs can hear if he runs into the actual Grey Ghost in-game.. but unless a particular fiction franchise is explicitly in existence in your character’s universe, don’t break the fourth wall on people’s characters.

See also each player’s entry on the Permissions Post, because some players are more comfortable with the thought of their characters getting fourthwalled than others.

Players have to be at least 18... what about characters?

Due to the horror nature of parts of the game, please use common sense and don’t apply for anyone who is so young as to be pretty much dependent on others for their care. The mods also request and require that you do not involve children under the age of consent in anything sexual. Seriously guys don’t be squicky. Ewwwwww.

What happens to very large characters?

If you play a very large character (say, taller than 10 feet or so) you have two options.

Option One: You can do the traditional shrinky-dink that a lot of games do and size your character down to 10-ish feet. This will let your character pretty much interact with the human-scale environment normally (minus having to watch heads).

Option Two: You leave your character the size they normally are, and then you have to play out all the problems and headaches involved in being a very large character in a human-scale world. You can probably be fit into a fire company building pretty easily, but it's going to be hard to socialize, for instance. This leaves your character completely un-nerfed, but it creates a challenge to roleplaying.

It's up to player discretion which option you take, but be sure to mention what you do with your ridiculously tall character in your app.

☸ Setting and Gameplay FAQ

Where are we, again?

Currently, we are in the empty city of… you know what? Nobody knows what it’s called. All the signage is blurred into incomprehensibility and none of the computers or robots can return a coherent answer if queried-- they just give back the biggest city in your character’s world of origin. We do know this: A river runs through it, and there are several places where natural geothermal springs have been made into impressive public baths. There are several parks and other green spaces, and the whole city has the charm of something old-world European, for those characters who would understand what that means, smushed together with gleaming, ultra high-tech automation and general technology. The climate is temperate, and the day/night cycle runs a typical Earth-like 24 hours for a location in the temperate zone.

Unfortunately, you can’t leave. There’s some kind of weird anomaly on the outskirts of where you’re staying, manifesting as a shimmery field that gives your character a headache if they look at it too long. If they try to walk through this barrier field, they will black out under a feeling of intense vertigo, senses scrambled until they are tasting blue and a jackhammer noise feels fuzzy, and then regain consciousness on the other side of the map. Characters who started out walking south will be on the north side of town, walking east gets leads you to the west side of town.. like being trapped in a bad video game. Trying to use fancy teleporting devices or psychic powers to leave the area or to look beyond its borders leads to the same screaming black vertigo effect. It’s like the whole place is surrounded by something very, very wrong.

For more detail on the setting, check out the relevant page.

So you mentioned a metaplot...

So we did.

The game runs on a set “campaign” schedule as discussed above, and each campaign by nature involves a rather detailed metaplot. The metaplot’s resolution depends greatly on character choices and interactions, both among themselves and with NPCs.

When can I pester the mods? How does time work in the game itself?

The mods are located in the Eastern Standard Time timezone, so game events and activities will run on EST (GMT -4). If you have a query that is SOOPER DOOPER IMPORTANT the best time of day to reach the mods is in the afternoon/evening.

Time in the game runs at 1:1 or real time, and the calendar date in the game and in real life will match up according to the dates on the postings. For example: A network post dated for September 19th will be assumed to take place entirely on September 19th, even if players tag into it on the 21st. Players are free to backdate or forward-date posts, but real-time is the default setting.

What about languages? Does everyone speak English?

Language difficulties are optional and completely at player discretion. The setting’s default is that everyone’s communicator can translate for characters that don’t normally speak a common language and create understandable text for those that don’t have an actual voice.

If your character deviates significantly from a humanoid body plan, please contact the mods so we can design your character’s communicator to accommodate them.

Communicators?

Yup! Everyone gets a sweet little brick of a smartphone as part of their newbie kit! The exact details of the make and model are up to you, but all communications devices are capable of providing video, audio, and text messages to the network. The communicators come with photo and calendar apps as well so that your character can keep track of appointments, and once your character is assigned housing they can also install a home remote control app that lets them do fun things like change the thermostat or tell the housecleaning robots to have your slippers at the door. Neat!

You can get full details on the phones at the Phones Page.

Will my character have all their powers and abilities?

Yes! Powers will not be nerfed for this game, but for some particularly game-breaky abilities the mods will ask that applicable player and mod permission be sought before breaking out the crazy abilities. Nobody wants to wake up one morning and find out that their favorite bagel place got destroyed out from under them without some OOC warning.

My character has a familiar/pet. Can they bring it?

Yes! Generally familiars are A-OK as long as they are either A: not given personality development to the point that they are clearly an independent character or B: are a fully developed character but are also necessary for the mental functioning of the player-character. (Although these cases will have to be handled on a case-by-case basis.) Please try to keep familiars and pets within reason, as this place is a human-sized and fairly futuristic location.

See the Applications Page for more details.

Help my character’s canon has a new sequel/issue/season!

You may canon-update your characters with mod approval. They will fall into a state of suspended animation/deep sleep for a week, in which they will experience the new canon events, and then wake up in-game with their memories of the game intact. Canon updating is completely optional and at player discretion. Just pop a comment in the canon update thread on the mod contact page and we'll get back to you.

Also, try to make sure you warn or cut for spoilers if your canon and/or canon update is still pretty new. :)

So earlier you mentioned dying...

Characters who die in-game will be dead for one week. They will still be able to do backtags, just won’t be able to do anything dated within the seven days of their death period. At the end of the seven days, they will reappear at the Hub suffering from a death penalty, the details of which will be given out when it is assigned. Death penalties won’t last for more than a week... at first. Penalties will escalate as deaths accrue.

Remember that characters who begin play from a canon point after a death will start with an extra death on their count to determine the severity of the penalty. See the Deaths Page for more details.

I have a plot idea!

Awesome! Player plots are totally welcome and encouraged to run alongside the metaplot! Contact the mods at the Player Plot Page and fill us in on the details so you can get your plot-thing approved.