frequently asked questions |
| updated as of 11/5/2011 |
| Hey! Where are we?! |
The ship's name is the RRV Thursday. You're pretty much floating in outer space. Your settings are detailed here. |
| What does RRV stand for? |
It stands for Research and Rescue Vehicle. This is OOC knowledge only to begin with. Whether the characters will know what it means in-game depends on their IC knowledge and what comes up during gameplay. |
| Wait, so why are we here? |
This, too, will be for your personal knowledge. Which means we can't divulge everything, as it would involve revealing plot, but just know that research, rescue, and lucid dreaming are quite heavily involved!
It's also worth saying that there will be a definitive end game at some point. We just can't see this plot as going on indefinitely without closure of some sort. |
| Okay.. then what's with that "you can't tell dream from reality" sphiel on the profile pages? |
Exactly what it sounds like! That's what lucid dreaming is about, after all. |
| Is this going to be real time, then? |
Not quite. During each real-life month, the days will progress as real-time until we reach Friday. From there, Friday night (8 hours, 9PM to 5AM) will last for 7.5 real-time days. For characters, that don't "dream" or happen to "wake up" early, the (remainder of the) 8 hours will progress as usual for them.
For details and a visual example, please visit the calendar page. |
| What's happening while we sleep? |
For those who don't "dream" during their "sleep", nothing out of the ordinary happens. They'll simply wake up from a dreamless slumber, and Saturday will begin.
For those who do "dream".. well. We'll explain that in another section. |
| How about you explain it in this section, then! |
Gladly! For reference and other details, the map layout is over here.
When your character "dreams", they will find themselves "waking up" in a pod tailored to their size situated in a room that can house such a pod. Mechas and beings too large to fit through a 22 foot wide door will "wake up" outside in front of the Podding Area. On the front of the pod will be the character's name. For those outside the Podding Area, you get a giant sign hanging above your head with your name on it. This is where they will always wake up until further notice, regardless of how many "dream" sessions they've been through. They may feel tired and achy, depending both on their own stamina and on the details of each week's "dream" setting.
Characters will also find that they have reverted back to their canon forms and will have back their memories of what they had been doing before arriving on Thursday (oops i made a pun). Their memories of what happened in the week before the "dream" session can be as cloudy or as clear as you wish. They will also be wearing thin metal band around their neck.
For first-time dreamers, they will notice that any injuries they may have sustained before arriving are relatively healed over, leaving only faint scars for the worst of them.
How much of their canon abilities return will vary with each session. By default, anything insanely god-modey like planetary destruction, portal creation or dimension hopping will be nullified.
More information will be available in mod posts announcing the start of each "dream" sessions. In an nutshell, characters will have woken up in a room, and outside of the room is an exactly replica(?) of the RRV Thursday, with some minor changes that will be detailed in the maps section. |
| Okaaay.. what's our goal supposed to be during this dream thing? |
During the "dream" session, characters can do whatever they want (but sometimes may be given goals). However, they still have that time limit of 8 in-game hours. At around the 6-7 hour mark (roughly Wednesday), NPCs will start telling the characters in the "dream" session to "wake up". This can be achieved through simply falling asleep again, or otherwise going unconscious.
Those that refuse to or are unable to go to sleep nearing the 8 hour mark will be approached by NPCs and dealt with personally. This can be handwaved or played out as you prefer, but it generally involved the NPC(s) ultimately placing a gas mask on the character to knock them out and force them to "wake up".*
*With mod permission, characters can be allowed to evade NPCs and stay in the "dream" session past their time to "wake up", but only for a reasonable amount. The longer they try to evade the NPCs, the more their stamina drains and the more NPCs will gather up to hunt the character down.
Characters who do not need to breathe will still find their stamina draining, whether in terms of simply running out of strength or out of whatever juice that powers them. |
| What happens then? |
Characters will once again 'wake up' on Floor Zero RRV Thursday. However, their clothing will have reverted back to a hospital gown of a different color than before. Yup. They'll have to go find clothes again. Wounds sustained before "sleeping"? Gone. Damage to the ship? Nope. Fixed your faulty radio? It's broken again. Memories of what they did during "dream" sessions maybe also be fairly vague and cloudy! As much as you want them to be.
More details will be provided in mod posts. |
| How come you're using quotation marks around dreams and waking up and stuff? |
Because, we did say lucid dreaming is involved. Dreaming isn't really dreaming, and waking up isn't really waking up. Sleeping isn't really sleeping. Characters will have to decide for themselves what to believe based on what they are told in-game. We can't tell you because that would make it less of a surprise!
(But you can probably make an educated guess and be correct.) |
| Dammit. Alright! What about those metal bands then? |
During the "dream" sessions, characters will wake up with a light-colored metal band around their neck. On the surface of the band will be three glowing squares. As characters sustain injuries, mental traumas, or any other events that will shake their physical, mental, or emotional state, the squares will begin turning off one by one. The squares themselves are a light turquoise, and the metal band will emit a green glow initially. When two squares are left, the metal's glow will turn yellow. At one square, it will glow red and emit a soft 'beeping' sound continuously. The squares will all be extinguished when the character falls unconscious (this is not the same as "dying").
The rate at which the squares disappear will likely vary with each "dream" session in accordance with the "dream" setting. Players are free to decide how much time has passed before their character wakes up if it the 8 hour mark has not been reached yet.
As a note, characters can be killed during the "dream" sessions. They will still "wake up", but depending on how extensively they were killed (cut in half, ripped to shreds, vaporized, stone-ified and shattered, vegetable-ized), they may have to miss the next "dream" session. Getting killed will also affect the character's state when they start out again in the "dream" session.
Further information about deaths will come with the future. For now, just know that we will not be policing your deaths, but you'll have to report in after the "dream" sessions stating your character's death and basically how it happened so that we can decide whether or not they will be able to attend the next "dream" session. |
| Hm! Okay then. What do we do when we're not in dream session week? |
That's where the odd touch of slice-of-life comes in. Every time characters enter "dream" session week, it will be slightly different. Likewise, every time characters come out of "dream" sessions, the settings will have changed slightly! This could range anywhere from sudden invasion of rabbits you can't touch to suddenly no lights for a week, or even just suddenly the AC no longer works or the heater is dead.
Occasionally we will have weeks where things are relatively normal, which will be listed on the game calendars. Such weeks may include a lack of a "dream" session for that week, essentially replacing it with 7 in-game days. We may also extend "dream" sessions for a few in-game hours (days in real-time). |
| How do characters communicate with each other? |
In person, of course! The only other option is the faulty hand-held tranceiver that characters wake up with initially. In the future, laptops and computers and such with net access will be made available, but until then all you've got is that radio.
Updates on communication devices will be here, and notices will be made to the OOC comm.
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| Wow! That sounds pretty busy! Does that mean we're required to have a lot of pieces for activity? |
Yes, that means you will need at least 4 logs and 6 threads and 3 posts.
Nope! The only checks we'll be doing are at the end of each "dream" session to summarize what characters have done during that week and during the session, especially if anything major has been damaged or changed. Characters will not be required to enter "dream" sessions every time they come around, and we will not be hounding for activity pieces, but if we see you're being inactive for too long, we will approach you and ask what's up and if there's anything we can do to help. Life tends to sneak up on even the best of us, so don't be afraid to ask for assistance! |
| What kinds of characters can I apply? |
Any kind! Anthro, mecha, animals, dead characters, you name it. Anything not human will have to be given a relatively more human appearance outside of "dream" sessions. During the "dream" sessions, however, they will regain their canon appearances, so it isn't like no one will never know your character is really a 30 foot tall living statue.
We'll accept animal characters given that they do have canon information about them. They will remain animals outside of "dream" sessions.
Please check the applications page for the status on OCs. |
| The app page says you accept characters with previous game history! How does this work? |
It is explained in the app section as well! Provide a short summary of what your character has done and if they have changed during their time in their previous game.
Characters with previous AU game* history cannot be the first ones of their series to be apped into the game unless you are apping in with a cast. In any case, please make sure you've asked your potential castmates how they feel about your AU game character being brought in. They will take up the AU slot on the character list.
Essentially, there can be up to two of each character; one is from their original canon universe (or with previous game history), and the other will be from an AU game.
However, should the character have been in the previous game for a long time to the point where their personality and outlook on things might have changed (this can be anywhere from a several months to a year or more), they will be treated as if they were from an AU game and will take up the AU character slot.
We'll clarify it right here again just in case.
OU slot: characters straight from canon, or with previous game history.
AU slot: characters from an AU game, or with extensive previous game history. They cannot be the first ones apping to the game, as they need to check with potential castmates. The only exception is those from series with small fandoms that will have a hard time finding castmates. Please feel free to ask a mod if you're not sure! If you want to app and your fandom has no characters from it yet, let a mod know and we'll mention on the reserves page that someone is contemplating the AU slot! We'll also mention it on ATP for you when the time comes.
*AU games denote games where character backgrounds are re-written to fit into the game's environment; in short, an Alternate Universe game. A simple example is a character from a high school AU game in which they were never ninjas or superheroes or three legged dogs, but regular high school students or teachers according to the game settings. |
| My character is a vampire/cannibal/terminally ill/needs to consume special substances to survive! |
Out of "dream" sessions, characters will be completely normal human beings; their hunger will be a normal human's hunger, and their health will be just fine. Come "dream" session time, though, they will need to feed again and their illness will slowly creep back up over the course of the 8 hour session. The latter especially will vary with each week. |
| What kinds of things can my character bring with them? |
Anything they are wearing, holding, carrying. Pokemon are allowed, but they will only be accessible during "dream" sessions. For special circumstances, please ask us! |
| How about that language barrier thing? |
Outside of "dream" sessions, everyone can understand what everyone is saying. The barrier will come back into play during "dream" sessions, so be sure to note what language your character is speaking! |
| I still have a question!! |
Please leave us a comment! We'll get to you as soon as we can. |
| n a v i g a t i o n |
