let's set d o w n some (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
groundrules) wrote2021-06-25 08:34 pm
groundrules) wrote2021-06-25 08:34 pm
frequently asked questions
A selection of questions likely to pop up on first read. You can add yours below — but please do your best to keep it to broader-interest questions, rather than granular ones that are very specific to your character/canon.
What kind of game is this, really?
Bottom line, you are looking at a primarily horror mystery against a fantasy backdrop. Sprinkle political elements in, now and then. Think Diablo II on dwrp steroids. Each Arc location will have a different vibe and level of technological access. Events themselves won't have write-ups past PG-15, but you're welcome to explore whatever kind of content you want, provided you don't break the playground and you remember to label & warn appropriately.
But, more detail?
Your character's summoned in by undead lords looking to weaponise them in a conflict to seize a long-suffering, increasingly conquered word. An elusive allied (?) Merchant whisks your character east, where decayed beacons could return them home. Prepare to earn your access, coin and right to breathe in various beacon Arcs, while unearthing the larger mystery of how Akhuras' undead population came to thrive. Continue our heart-warming habit of leaving (nearly) every Arc site worse than you found it. Alternatively, the SETTING!
How demanding will participation be?
Genuinely up to you. Ideally, you would try to engage with the plot some of the time in some capacity, but you aren't expected to interact with every single plot aspect out there.
And the game duration?
Is not set in stone, but currently has two Arcs left to go through, with an estimated finish around January-February 2024. This depends a fair deal on the progress of plot developments!
ADMIN | ACTIVITY & POSTING
What are the main game hubs?
•
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
eastbound: for all your network posting needs•
westwhere: individual & event logs•
lostcompass: out-of-character (OOC) communication and plottingWhat’s the monthly activity check (AC) like?
The mod will try to use tags to follow player activity over the month and only request activity proof submissions of players between the 1st and 5th of the ensuing month, when that evidence isn't easily found on game communities. Activity requirements can be met with one of the following options:
- • 10 text comments over at most two threads (defined as tag rounds; a 15-part response is enviable, but that still only counts as one)
• OR 5 log comments over at most two threads
• OR 1 open-to-all network post
• OR 1 open log top level
Ideally, this activity should be started in the activity month, though exceptions can apply.
Three notes:
i. Staying in the game is not the same as staying involved; higher AC is generally advisable for players who want to take lead on plots.
ii. Game mates can flag chronic absentees to mod attention, if patterns develop. Mod action can also be taken if a pattern of consistently only making minimum activity for several months is observed.
iii. At this time, threads done in individual character inboxes are accepted for activity checks, but you shouldn't repeatedly meet AC with just inbox threads, or with threads done exclusively with canonmates.
You are not expected to produce AC samples for a month when you were HIATUSED for at least two weeks. Characters are waived from AC requirements during the month when they were accepted in the game.
What happens if you fail your activity check?
You can claim a 'strike' and make another attempt the following month. Alternatively, the character is removed from gameplay.
You can only take one hiatus or activity strike within a three-month period. That said, you can always get in touch if there are extenuating circumstances that impacted your activity — we've all been there!
When are application cycles?
Controversially, there’s no strict pattern. We want to add new characters when they can fit into the plot narrative. Currently, apps are permanently open, and individual plot entrances are figured out with the mod.
What kind of characters can be applied?
All that and more, on our applications page!
Are there any caps in place?
Right now, we're working with a cap of 55 players in game. This does not apply to returning players. You can find out how many players we currently have in game at the start of a cycle on our applications page.
What's the deal with post / community tags?
Please use warning tags to top off your own cuts and warnings and help label sensitive content. Character tags are also available for posts you’ve made or responded to, and using them helps with your activity check.
GAMEPLAY MECHANICS
So there’s a network, texting-style system?
Sort of. Yes. While making the game log-exclusive would be more realistic to the fantasy vibe, a lot of players enjoy the option of fast, casual tagging, so each Arc will feature some kind of mechanism to allow it. Once they have their own money (ha!), characters can also purchase translation-thralled devices, seals, inks and paper to send expedited letters.
What happens if characters hit the bucket?
Shame on you for wasting a perfectly decent pail. Characters can be revived at the first plot-given opportunity, meaning you should be prepared to off your precioussss without an immediate resurrection date. Factor the possibility of a two-week time-out in your plans. Revivals will take place if and when necromancers, scientists or magical artifacts can be procured — and paid for. Characters are encouraged to stock up for their resurrection fund.
Can characters get canon updates?
In theory, yes. In practice, there will be infrequent opportunities to undertake canon updates: for one to take place, characters will have to effectively arrive in their worlds through one of the many ancient beacons, then return from a different timepoint.
When and how can characters engage with NPCs?
You're always welcome to hit up the NPC inbox for text-style thread or quick action ones. Just remember that NPC interactions will reflect into the broader plot.
WORLD, PLOT & INVOLVEMENT
What are 'Arcs'?
Honest answer: jargon. An Arc encompasses all the mission assignments and plot points that can be covered at a given location, before characters ollie on to the next. Dubious maps will be supplied for each new destination.
Do we have a say in the next kind of playground our noble (???) heroes visit?
Sure, players can give their feedback to choose the next Arc destination. The variety of these locations will typically result from plot movements in previous Arcs (ex: characters might have to head south to an island, if they've just set the north on fire and commandeered a boat.) It will also be possible to return to previously travelled Arc locations... unless they really were set on fire.
What's the general technology level of this world?
Variable. It will become gradually apparent to characters that Akhuras locations that have been suppressed by undead overlords for extended periods of time have regressed technologically, or had their technology partially or completely eroded. Local tech levels will fall anywhere between the 1200s and 1900s, depending on the region. Some tech might go slightly futuristic, in niche instances.
Soooooooo, I’ve got a plot in mind.
YES. Thank you! The only guidelines are to try to not break the world & In Character Actions = In Character Consequences. If you’re planning something that will affect the entire game, pitch your plot in one of the main plotting posts or on the PLAYER PLOT page, and we’ll figure out a way to make it happen. Otherwise, if you’re just plotting something small-scale, go for it without checking in.
And interacting with plot in the main events?
The point of Eastbound was to keep the game interactive, and give players the chance to toss around and organise ideas within the skeleton frame of the supplied world and events. Character votes and decisions are critical in figuring out the mystery of the day and shaping the course of the 'big-picture' plot. Likewise, players can volunteer ideas during (and outside of) events.
I really don't like the current plot.
Drop by the MOD CONTACT POST and leave your $0.02 whenever you think an event is lacklustre or dragging on. If enough people do so, we can axe it, switch it up or cut it short.
What are 'plot rolls' then?
An umbrella term for side quests and plot developments that arise from a character's previous participation. Sometimes they will be mod-issued because of a character's match to a quest that could further a plot, other times they'll be immediate plot-bearing consequences of what characters did previously. Plot rolls that players haven't signed up for are optional. You can also request a plot roll, but please try to carry these custom plot opportunities through!
Money seems to be a big deal in this game?
Life sucks that way, don’t it. It’s not just coin, but resources — since Eastbound relies on getting characters physically to another location, constantly procuring the supplies to ensure that will be an ongoing hustle.
There was talk of a caravan, where’s the caravan, what’s the seating like in the carava —
The mode of transportation differs depending on the Arc, the destination, the party's budget and whatever characters have blown up recently!
→ NAVIGATION MENU
Re: OTHER QUESTIONS
And if they are bringing something they are holding if it is arguably alive, but not appable, can they bring it with them?
What about magical hammerspace?
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As of now I have two kids in the TDM. Karla and Skuld. Both of them have magical hammer space. Karla has far more hammer space than Skuld. Karla's world is based on Jewels for magic, the darker the more powerful. And the more Powerful the more their magical hammer space can carry. And Karla is one of the Darkest characters. She carries a lot with her on the regular. Like the poisons she needs to survive, the herbs and other materials she needs for other poisons and healing tonics. Weapons. Changes of clothes. Food and water - it is said in canon that there is one character who will rip into them if he ever finds that they didn't have certain basics with them. She also carries a lot of (alcoholic) drinks, because her friends make drinks, and because as dark as she is, she has trouble getting drunk even when she wants to. But it amuses her to drink people under the table.
For Skuld her hammer space is more limited. Generally it is her hammer, her goggles (seriously, where does she keep pulling those from?!?!?!?), and... a seemingly endless supply of neoskuld bombs in her shirt. Again, this makes no logical sense and is never explained in canon, but she reaches into her shirt and pulls out a bomb that definitely shouldn't have fit in there.
As to what Skuld might have been holding onto that is alive but not appable... She has two robots she has made that are often with her. The main one is Banpei. He has a number of modes including moped mode. He is very much established as alive by Belldandy in canon (and everyone accepts this, because she's Belldandy), he has emotions. He's even in love. He can self modify... but he cannot speak, cannot write, no facial expressions and pretty much only Skuld can repair him. Which makes him not appable.
The one I'm pretty sure is a no, but I will ask about is Banpei's girlfriend. (Well, he wishes she was. She's.... bipolar on the topic.) Sigil is also a robot. She's more potentially appable though, because despite constantly getting broken and only being repairable by Skuld.... she can actually communicate independently. She very much talks. Mostly to complain about Banpei.
Also on the topic of these two individual characters, they both have specific health needs. Karla's can probably be handled via npcs who sell herbs. She needs a specific (bot non named in canon) poison mix that she'd need a supplier for until she can grow her own garden (if she can get seeds if she doesn't hammerspace have them with her). Skuld on the other hand...
She needs either ice cream or moon rock bracelets. Constantly since she'll have to be cut off from her connection to Yggdrasil. The moon bracelets last about a week to a month, depending on how much magic she uses. Ice cream lasts a little longer, but she can eat insane amounts of it. And... um... with ice cream she doesn't need things like sleep or other food. :D
Thank you, sorry this got so long. I just didn't want to get a yes and then get in trouble because I missed a point that would have made it a no. So I think I covered everything.
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You can have one of the robots, but not two — Sigil would not qualify.
Karla's problem sounds solvable in the way you referenced. Skuld sounds potentially too bound to the canon home world to be workable, at a first read.
I hope I got everything & there are the rest of the app guidelines in the app form, if that helps!
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With Skuld's ties to her world... she actually lost her connection to yggdrasil in the canon at one point. Which was when they discovered the moon rock bracelets. I could, if it would work with you, have her arrive with a few of them on - she totally would try putting a bunch on now that they're not needed with the plan to try something probably stupid because she's ticked at Urd, and wind up here instead) to help hold her off for a while, and then if she could get parts and ingredients have her build a portable solar powered ice cream maker and a recharger for the moon bracelets. (She's a genius inventor who unknowingly puts magic into her inventions. She also helped work on the machine that made and then later fixed the flaw with the moonrock bracelets, so she has the skills and knowledge. The question would be parts for the machines and milk and sugar and stuff for the ice cream.)
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I think something to consider with Skuld is how she will tackle her requirements during periods when the party is journeying — the gang has historically been on the road, on the move or infiltrating hostile spaces for extended periods and without much warning. So, the job becomes one of you figuring out how to accommodate a character who has some very specific heavy-equipment and ingredient needs when she is, purely as an example, suddenly three weeks in the desert, or thrown out of the palace where she's been hosted seamlessly so far. In that sense, given what you've mentioned so far, I wouldn't encourage Skuld purely because it sounds as if it might prove long-term unsustainable to source her machine and ice cream parts.
But it's definitely ultimately down to you and how you can creatively navigate these obstacles. All I need on my side is a good pitch.
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I agree with you on Skuld with that additional info. I have deleted her post from the TDM. I am also thinking that Karla may also be a poor choice, given how frequent travel seems like it would be. I have much to think about. Thank you very much!
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