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groundrules) wrote2021-01-08 03:30 pm
groundrules) wrote2021-01-08 03:30 pm
Entry tags:
applications
Eastbound is primarily an invite-only game — each existing player can currently invite up to one person per month, or get in touch about further invites. Existing players can hold two characters in game. A third character can be applied, if players can prove they have met activity requirements for two consecutive months with their existing two characters and have stayed engaged with the game. If you don't have an invite, somehow stumbled upon this neck of the woods, and you’d like to stay, drop the mod journal a line — we'll try to figure it out.
As of Oct. 1, cast/game caps are off. Please note, as of Dec. 1, Eastbound only has 3-4 months of gameplay left.
WHAT CHARACTERS CAN BE APPLIED?
YES: canon and original characters, if they have a solid and consistent personality and background. Characters brought in after they've died are a-okay. For characters taken from a time point just as they're in the process of dying, please read below on meeting medical requirements.
NO (at this time): real people, original characters set in a canon environment, characters from canons or canon instalments that have been released for less than one month, characters with imported development from other games (CRAU), alternate universe, or gender-swapped versions of canon characters.
Children or characters with very specific medical/magical/environment needs: appable, but please make a note of how your character will ICly meet their requirements and stay alive. Likewise, if you are applying for a character taken just as they're dying, provide a suggestion for how they can be kept alive on arrival (this might be easier in some app cycles than others). You can bend the world a little to make miracles happen (ex: a substitute for the medication your character needs to survive can be found for a high price at certain apothecaries, etc.)
Characters that were dropped or swept by activity checks: yes, but they’ll come back without their previous memories, if they are applied in by a different player.
APPLICATIONS CLOSED
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— As far as bringing Jon from Game of Thrones, but using A Song of Ice and Fire material to fill in show gaps — I'm all right with that for details that do not change plot or character relationships, but not for bigger elements. In other words, I'd be okay with GoT Jon having, let's say, an ASoIaF pepper allergy — but not with him having met a main character he only encounters in ASoIaF. In that vein, I'm happy for you to assume a closer affinity and relationship to Ghost, but not a full warg bond, which is only explored in the book. Would this work for you, or would it be a deal breaker?
— In that vein, since Game of Thrones / A Song of Ice and Fire loves its animal bonds: do you foresee bringing Jon in without Ghost could make it inconvenient to play him? Given the close canon relationship, I'd rather let Ghost come in than have a post-death Jon destabilised by his absence, provided Ghost isn't used as a significant power advantage.
no subject
TBH, while some mods have wanted to keep/use the warg bond (or at least allowed it), the extent of my use of it as a player over the last few years has been Jon maybe craving raw meat once or twice or thinking “gosh I’m so close to Ghost that sometimes I dream I’m him”: any more extensive version of it, like the time Bran used it to invade Jon’s dreams, would conflict with the show. So it’s good and necessary to draw whatever boundary you think is best on that entire subject.
That said….
2. While Ghost is always a “nice to have,” and while it would be IC for Jon to prefer to have him around and to find some relief in Ghost’s presence under the circumstances… I don’t think anyone playing from a 7x02 canon point can fairly argue that Show Jon is very psychologically dependent on him anymore. In many ways, he functions more as an external symbolic representation of Jon than as an animal companion Jon depends on for stability. Ghost often protects people who Jon would protect if he were there.
Early-canon Jon is a lonely, insecure kid who uses Ghost as a security blanket, but S7 Jon has functioned without Ghost in the past (during his time with the Wildlings and during his trip to Hardhome), and he’s coming from a pull point where he’s about to do nothing but function without Ghost for the greater part of a year. Ghost didn’t appear onscreen between 6x03 and 8x02 for budgetary reasons, but he is still assumed to be with Jon until Jon leaves Winterfell for Dragonstone. Jon doesn’t return for probably about six months, then is home for maybe six weeks or so, has a major identity crisis, and gives Ghost away. They’re reunited at Castle Black maybe 4-6 months after that. (The passage of time can be determined by travel logistics: the distance from Winterfell to White Harbor would be about two weeks of day travel on horseback, White Harbor to Dragonstone would be about two weeks by sea in good conditions, and so on.)
I’ve also never had issues playing him from this canon point without Ghost! Ghost mostly works as a bonus CR hook, something that helps other characters understand Jon a little better (he’s this guy who can seem intimidating but is actually kind, and Ghost is this huge red-eyed wolf who mostly acts like a well-trained dog), sometimes something for castmates to attach to, etc. So, tl;dr, knowing this kind of creature is a special exception on your part and it’d be dishonest for me to argue that he’s “needed,” however tempting, I’ve been prepared to have Jon come in without him. It is delightful to have him around, but it’s not easier or harder: I lose the CR hook if he isn’t, and a slightly more isolated Jon gets a few “I miss Ghost” moments in tags, but I also don’t have to figure out what a large companion animal is up to all the time.
Thanks!
ACCEPTED
Thank you for your application and notes!
ADMIN
NOTES
Sadly, Jon’s must first travel west, to help save others like him from the political games of magical citadel Taravast. The Merchant entrusts him with two keys: the first key must be handed over to party members Wrath and Wen Qing, with the following note: Seek the walls of Bonaccorso’s library. The second key, the Merchant says, is currently for safe-keeping.
Jon is supplied with some coin and arrangements for fresh swap horses at various points over his ten-day travel. He must ride furiously and discreetly. His travels will see him often encounter the retreating retinue of the Huntress and the Beastmaster, who recently stormed Taravast. They are followed by the wealth of the Beastmaster’s xenomorphic and blood-thirsting animalist creatures, all of which yet live. The Huntress is meanwhile escorted by undead and nightmares. They are heading east, unlikely to seek out diversions. Still, their beasts hunger, and the canyon-like passageways to Taravast are often narrow and deceptively still. I leave it at your discretion how troubled Jon is in his journey. By the tail-end of it, he attracts the attention of this beautiful boy, who gives chase with a couple of his friends all the way back to Taravast. Jon can either defeat them alone or, once closer to Taravast, he can ask the help of the party within (you can arrange something in Jon’s OOC intro post or have him do a network post, if you think you want to explore that).
If the large creature wounds anyone to the point of spilling blood, they will become marked as quarry of the Hunt — please let me know if you decide to take that route.
Within Taravast, Jon receives no team assignment. He is introduced by the sorceress Karsa — the Merchant’s subordinate, who assists the group locally — as an envoy of the Merchant. He is given a surprisingly wide berth by Taravast's and breezy access (mostly) everywhere. He is allowed to sleep in don Bonaccorso Spina’s own wing of the Palace of the Doxe.
Karsa can also explain the piazza — a style of communicating to the city at large, with an eye to influence public opinion.