navigation

2020-01-02 17:50
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aather navigation

aather rp
a panfandom memory acquisition game.

"There were formerly a king and a queen, who were so sorry that they had no children; so sorry that it cannot be expressed. They went to all the waters in the world; vows, pilgrimages, all ways were tried, and all to no purpose.

At last, however, the Queen had a daughter. There was a very fine christening; and the Princess had for her god-mothers all the fairies they could find in the whole kingdom (they found seven), that every one of them might give her a gift, as was the custom of fairies in those days. By this means the Princess had all the perfections imaginable."

Rules and Considerations

2019-01-02 19:31
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Be Respectful
It takes two to tango! Respect your fellow players and please respect your mods! Along these lines, respect the IC/OOC division. Respect the general etiquette of RP—to state this more explicitly: Don't Godmode, Don't Infomod and Don't Run Over Other People.


Be Considerate
No graphic sex in the main [community profile] aather community! The same goes for graphic violence or any other R•NC-17 scenes! You can handwave these scenes, or fade to black or take it to your journal! Use your discretion, we're all adults here.

That being said if there are any threads or posts in [community profile] aather that make you feel uncomfortable please let a mod know.


Plan Ahead
Please consider the character you're apping! Will they be appropriate for a game where shit may go down? Are they appropriate for a game where they will be depowered?

Keep in mind that this is for fun! Sure, maybe you want Mr. Flatten Everyone Because I am a Godmode to stomp around like a badass dinosaur. But putting Mr. Flatten in a tutu might also be fun. On the other hand, this is not a game without heavier themes. There will be serious things as well! Keep in mind this game has both sides and please allow for both sides to occur.


Be Aware of Game Constraints
Characters do not start with the skills they had in canon. This may make it more difficult for some characters, please consider this when you think about who to app.

There is a powercap in the world of Aather! This applies to every character at all times unless otherwise specified!


Stay in Character
Just because this is an amnesia game doesn't mean that you can ignore characterization! Please keep in mind who you're playing and why you chose to play them the way you did.

If you have serious issue with another player's characterization or other 'in play' issue please notify a mod. There will be dialog and possibly a strike issued if the characterization is truly grossly out of character.


Stay Active
Our activity policy is outlined here. Being able to regularly play in games and with your teammates makes for a better experience for everybody!


Apping and Dropping
Currently at Aather you can app as many characters as you want. We may hold an app/discuss with you if you have current characters that aren't being played, however.

You may pick up a character you previously dropped (if someone else has not apped them) by filling out the handy form found here and emailing it to the mods. You can find the dropped characters listing at the top of the taken characters page. You can also check the ctrl+f list on that same page and it will list every "taken" character.

However if a character has acquired more than 8 memories in Aather then that character can only be reapped by the player who previously played them. This will be marked on the dropped characters page. So, for example, if Fred played Harry Potter and acquired 8 memories with Harry and decided to drop Harry for a while no one else could app Harry Potter. Eventually we may add a concession to time, but for now it is based off of number of memories acquired.

Once a character has "completed" their registry they can never be reapped by anyone. For more information read this post on completing your registry.


Aather Issues are Aather Issues
Going off to an anon meme or anon comm isn't going to solve any problems you have. If you have issues with another player, please either seek to reconcile the issue with each other or notify a mod and we would be happy to work with you.

If you have any gameplay or game mechanic issues, please let the mods know so we can try to improve!


Strikes and Bans
We hope to never use this! But there is a strike, strike, ban system in place at Aather. If there is a serious issue or rule breaking going on a player can receive a strike. If a player receives three strikes z/s/he will be banned from the game for at least three months, at which point dialogue may be reopened.


Three's Cove: World Info

2018-10-29 17:17

Housekeeping

2016-03-22 20:53
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What Goes Here?
❦ Any changes or updates that haven't been accurately reflected within a week of happening.
❦ Any missing information that you think you should be able to find somewhere but can't.
❦ Any problems with Aather's navigation (either the network or the overclocked journal).
❦ Any issues with layouts, tables, etc that you would like to see fixed or changed.
❦ Any typos or missing/outdated information on any of Aather's pages.
❦ Any changes to names or information in any spreadsheets or posts.
❦ Any requests for more information to be provided/easily accessible.


Who Does This Stuff?
❦ Apple and Rui maintain any housekeeping changes! Lula updates the world map & tracks activity.
❦ You can reach any mod via aather.mods[at]gmail!


Need Something Done?
Please comment to this post if you have any housekeeping that needs to be addressed! This should be your first point of contact ahead of emailing the modbox! A representative should be with you shortly :U

World Info VI: The Story's Aather

2015-06-21 19:54

Non-Game Memory Regains

2015-04-11 18:45
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Knight Memory Regains

Knights can win back memories outside of games, to a maximum of 2 memories per month.

1. Knights can win back 1 memory per month doing a quest for a subpatronned Persona.
❥ Actually receiving the quest from your subpatron can be handwaved, but the quest itself must be threaded out.
❥ Your subpatron can then just give you the memory whenever you want it!

Examples:
❥ Peter Pan wants to know what kind of games people like to play but doesn't wanna ask everyone, so his knight does that.
❥ Shinji could get a quest from Beauty to apply to her interests like music or dancing or have people visit her.
❥ Running a mini-event in the Persona's interests (a cooking contest for Mal or Baker)

2. Knights can win back 1 memory per month running a group quest or mini-event.
❥ Make a post or get at least 5 heroes to participate if you're doing it in a mingle.
❥ This memory will appear in your room when it's been completed—just go ahead and email the mods with a link to your event and we'll send you back a memory & its form.

Examples:
❥ Teaching a group of people a skill (cooking, hand-to-hand combat, etc)
❥ Organizing a meet-and-greet/party
❥ Running an event like a card game night
❥ Leading a monster-fighting party
❥ Encouraging people to play with status effects


Idea Dropbox

2014-04-24 20:39
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Idea Dropbox

Have an idea for a game or event? Plans for a super cool game but no Persona to run it with? Want to see something added to Aather? Has it just been a really long time since we had [INSERT STYLE OF GAME OR EVENT HERE]?

Feel free to drop a comment here any time! The comments are screened, and while we won't reply directly to every one, we'll definitely do our best to roll with as many suggestions as we get. And feel free of course to make multiple comments whenever something crosses your mind—that's what this is here for.

If your particular idea is something you would like to run or would be cool with helping with, please make sure you note that so that we know to contact you if it comes up. Otherwise, if it's something like HEY MODS I WANT THIS, MAKE THE MAGIC HAPPEN—that's cool too.


Plot History

2014-03-23 21:38
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Plot History

Our Plot History Documents are courtesy of Apple, Seth, and Tanz, who are fabulous hard working people! They have kindly made a timeline of all relevant Aather Plot goings on, divided by "chapter" at the above link. ♥

You can also search by the Story Time tag, which provides weekly summaries of Aather's on-goings from Camelot onward.


World Info V: The Black Woods

2014-03-23 20:55
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TABLE OF CONTENTS


SettingUniforms and KeysAvailable SuppliesTime, Weather & Monsters
     ❧ The Ring     ❧ Soapstone & Glass Keys      ❧ Unlocked Supplies      ❧ Time
     ❧ The Clearing      ❧ Hero Favors      ❧ Questing     ❧ Weather
           ❧❧ Cabins            ❧❧ Food, Items, Knights      ❧ Monsters
           ❧❧ Sterling             ❧❧ Group Quests  
           ❧❧ Onyx         
           ❧❧ Other Structures         





SETTING
The road leads through the newly-restored woods, past a fork and further to the West. And gradually, again, the woods begin to darken—but not in the way they had before, with trees covered with cold and creeping Darkness, but just . . . dim, shaded, and quiet, towering trunks blocking out the sun.

Nor is the forest silent—there is a constant lively whispering, as though something has been awakened and is watching, excited and waiting. Wispy orbs of light dart to and fro amongst the trees—fireflies, perhaps?

The footprints of a fox lead the way deeper into the forest.

ADDITIONS
pulled from unlock doc




THE RING




The first branching path you reach seems inviting -- in contrast to the close, somewhat cramped path you walk and the dark trees, this new path is paved in white gravel and opens up almost immediately into a bright, wide clearing. Everything here is light-- the bright, wide-open sky is visible above the tree tops, its light reflecting off the clear pool at the center of the clearing.

The pool is a deep aquamarine, but so clear you can see all the way to the bottom; and at the bottom, there on the lakebed, is a circle -- a ring you might say -- made of gemstones, reflecting softly.

Any new arrivals to Aather will appear here, at the center of the lake, standing on the surface of the water. Their footsteps -- and the footsteps of anyone else who would like to try giving walking on water a try -- will leave team-colored ripples in their wake. The water will hold you -- in fact, if you actually wanted to be submerged you'd have to put some intent and effort into it -- and either way anyone who does make it under the surface will not be allowed to disturb the gemstone ring.

ADDITIONS
pulled from unlock doc

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THE CLEARING

By passing the branching path to The Ring, eventually the forest opens up again -- this time to a wide clearing. The ground here is soft, packed dirt, cool and sweet-smelling. In the very center of the clearing is a large fire pit, ringed with clean stones, with a fire already burning -- as far as you can tell it will not stop burning, either, and for good cause: it is quieter here, less whispering, the light of the fire keeping this space calm and safe.

There is a lot of space here, between the fire and where the trees begin to crowd in again, if you needed a place to practice your skills or lay something out without a tree branch or underbrush getting in the way.

The trees are close around the perimeter of the clearing, forming a tight ring, but there are the hints of other paths spiraling out, with the clearing at their center, like a sun, though many of them don't look terribly passable at the moment.

ADDITIONS
pulled from unlock doc


Cabins

Right at the edge of the clearing, where the treeline starts up again, there are 14 trees that seem somewhat more prominent than the others -- and each tree, you will find a fully customized tree house!

ADDITIONS
pulled from unlock doc


Sterling & Onyx

Two more prominent paths branch off from the clearing a short ways -- at their ends you will find two rather large trees, one for Sterling, one for Onyx.

STERLING'S tree is tall and smooth, light ash-grey bark softly reflecting the light of the that hang in its high branches. There are bright banners draped on the branches from mid-way up the tree, all the way to just below the canopy. A silver door sits at the base of the tree, which only Sterling knights and those with soapstone/glass keys can enter.

For Sterling's interior, see this document.

ONYX is a tall, gnarled black-barked tree, tucked off a path a short ways away from the main clearing. It is covered with black vines with tight, dark buds instead of blossoms. There is a red door at the base of the tree you can enter from the outside that leads into the kitchen (accessible only by Onyx and certain knights/heroes), and up in the canopy of the tree is the suspended common room, painted to Onyx's black colors with accents of red here and there.

For Onyx's interior, see this document

Other Structures

For (IC) Gym rules, see {here}
Details on the library catalogue can be found {here}

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UNIFORMS AND KEYS

UNIFORMS


Some of you still have your Spring Uniforms from Camelot, but every new teammate will gain three sets of a Black Woods Uniform more suited to the cold weather. You will also find a team-colored hooded cloak for each hero or knight folded up neatly in your treehouse.

You can also assume that every team has several basic sets of socks & underclothes (of their choice) in their team colours, as well as a pair of shorts and a camisole, and a set of pajamas -- team-colored plaid shorts or pants and a neutral tshirt.

KEYS

Team keys
Your Team Key is palm-sized and appears to have been carved or crafted from the stone your team takes its name from. The cord they hang on around your neck appears to this time a woven daisy chain -- though thankfully the stalks are unnaturally strong, that won't snap or become loose if pulled at.

Sterling and Onyx's keys are metal - Sterling, obviously silver, and Onyx's blackened and tarnished.

Keys are the manifestation of the magic that binds you to your team (or your patron, if you're a knight) and keep you safe from the Darkness. Functionally, the key lets you into your cabin, and also acts, at times, as an indicator or warning system to protect you from Darkness and keep you connected to your team. The keys are unbreakable, but you can lose them—it's just very strongly not recommended . . .

Removing your key for an extended period of time (longer than, say, bathing, sleeping, changing clothes, etc), will result in you starting to feel significantly unwell. The Darkness will sense that you're vulnerable and try to move in, sending nightmares, hallucinations, and severe discomfort. OOCly if this happens for an extended period (several days or more), please contact a mod!

You cannot use someone else's key to access their cabin (either heroes or knights).


Glass keys and Soapstone keys
these are given to heroes from knights. The soapstone keys are temporary, and can be requested from Maleficent or Beauty for a low price, but they are one-use only. The glass keys allow heroes to access Sterling or Onyx at any time so long as the knight that gave them the key is currently in the building as well.

Heroes' Favors
are essentially a reverse idea of the glass keys, which let knights access hero cabins a little more freely. It also encourages a closer connection between teams & knights and gives a small, team-oriented boost as a benefit. For more info, see here
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AVAILABLE SUPPLIES


Well, there sure are a lot of trees--! Some bracken and underbrush crowd in around the tree roots as well, but at the moment not much of it looks useful for anything under than tinder. Other than the whispers that fade in and out, the woods seem silent and empty.

When things start appearing, an overview will go here. Stay tuned!


UNLOCKED SUPPLIES

Unlocks are the constant changes being made to the realm via the efforts of the heroes and knights in games and events. The full text can be found on the IC comm by unlock tag; for a quicker overview/summary, please see the Unlock spreadsheet.

QUESTING
Quests are obtained either from Knights or, for big-ticket/unique items, from Personae. For a general overview of quest parameters, see {here}.

Food
The difficulty level of questing is no longer +1 (from Camelot) - Food quests, likewise, now have no reason to not be perfectly successful.

Items
Item quests now have a percentage chance of returning only the pieces necessary for anything that you (or somebody else) could make by hand, rather than having it already assembled. For example: a quest for a bookshelf would get you nails, a hammer, and some planks of wood. A quest for a jacket would get you fabric, needle, and thread. Barter and learn skills to get things done!

This is, again, rare -- and from an ooc standpoint, completely optional. If you think it would be more fun to play out building your item rather than getting it ready made, then you hit that percentage chance -- but maybe you just have really great luck!

Knights
Knights are once again still required to quest for their items. It is possible for knights to get items for themselves in various ways: (a) get someone to quest for it from them, then make a trade/deal/have them give it to you because you're cute; (b) quest from a Persona; or (c) quest from another knight!

Of course, all of this is intended to make play more fun and engaging, with more for characters to do with their own two hands. If you, the player, think this is zero fun and you want absolutely none of it, you are absolutely able to leave this out of your daily play and make concessions where necessary! Handwave handwave handwave!

Group Quests
Group quests are available for very large items, mass heals, and other things. To see a list of what's currently ongoing, if you'd like to participate, see This document

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TIME OF DAY, WEATHER & MONSTERS

TIME

Time passes… oddly in the forest, in the sense that it's almost always dim here, unless you're in the ring. The level of ambient light increases and decreases somewhat, but the largest source of light -- and evidence of time passing, is the changes in the light orbs that dot the forest. At sunrise, they will be soft orange; Midday, bright, full-spectrum white; dusk, a softer red; and during the night a soft blue.

The day can be broken up as follows:

Sunrise/Early Morning
Morning
Midday
Afternoon
Sunset/Evening
Night

WEATHER

The weather here is cool -- not warm, not cold -- and has very little humidity. This makes the air feel clear and refreshing, if not occasionally with the slightest nip; good thing you've got those cloaks.

MONSTERS

If you wander off the path today, you're in for a big surprise . . .
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World Info IV: Camelot

2013-03-24 20:48

Camelot Cabins, Library and Other Structures

2013-03-23 08:54

world info III: Wonderland

2012-07-20 12:49

comprehensive navigation index

2012-07-20 12:42
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all reference pages
❦ Navigation
The main navigation portal for Aather, with links to the most frequently-used pages.
❦ Rules & Considerations
Basic rules. Strikes, bans, godmodding, staying active & in character.
❦ Activity Policy
Activity expectations. How activity checks work. Hiatuses & idling.
❦ Functional Guides
How to use IRC & DreamWidth. Includes links to editing DW appearance.
❦ Mod Contact
How to get in contact with the mods. I'm sure you could have guessed that.
❦ Housekeeping
Submission page for housekeeping concerns. Where to go if something is broken or missing.
❦ Introduction to Aather
What is Aather? Playing basics, game structure, starting out in the game.
❦ World Info
In-game world info. Maps, world descriptions, unlocks, keys, inventories, clothing.
❦ Plot & Story History
A comprehensive summary of Aather's "story," both Personae/plot and in-game actions thus far.
❦ Stats & Memory/Skill Registries
What are memories/skills/alternities? What is a memory registry? How do you make one? Stats form.
❦ Non-Game Memory Regains
How are memories regained OUTSIDE of games?
❦ Amnesia, Powers & Roles
What is amnesia? "Taking" or "sharing" memories. Character considerations, how teams & knights work/are different.
❦ Applying to Aather
Rules of applying. What characters are acceptable? Team placements, team requests.
❦ Applications
The actual application forms for Heroes, Knights & Personae.
What characters are currently in the game, awaiting placement, happy ended, locked, or dropped.
❦ Drops, Hiatuses & Reapps
Forms for dropping & reapping. Drop methods, details on hiatuses.
❦ Happy Endings
What to do when you're done your registry. Happy endings, alternity and legacy options.
❦ Sub-Patronning
How sub-patronning (knights working for a specific Persona) works.
❦ Heroes' Favors
What heroes' favors are & a spreadsheet for knights & heroes.
❦ Heart Games 101
What are heart games? How do they work? What is the goal? Everything about heart games.
❦ Power Limitations
The powercap page. What happens to your character's powers and skills in Aather.
❦ Team Rankings
The team rankings table. What teams have won the last games and how many times. Loser games.
❦ Registry Directory
All memory & stat registry links for all current characters.


functional gdocs
❦ Name Cheatsheet
The names, Aather names, teams & usernames of all characters, plus player contact.
❦ Games: How Do They Work?
Everything you need to know about running or playing in games.
❦ Knight Doc
Knights! Starting off, duties, perks, glass & soapstone keys, quests (info for knights AND heroes).
❦ Quest Ideas & Status Effects
Ideas for quests or status effects. Primarily useful for knights or Personae.
❦ IC Group Quest/Project List
❦ Personae Info
A list of all the Personae. Who plays who, what their domains and interests are.
❦ Personae Hiatus Excuses
Ideas for what sort of drops or hiatuses you can take with various Personae.




functional guides

2012-07-20 02:03

mod contact

2012-07-20 01:08
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mod contact
You can reach the mods at aather.mods@gmail.com!

stats and memory/skill registries

2012-07-20 00:12
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All current character stats and registries can be found here

what are memories?
❦ Characters win back their memories by playing in the Personae's games. Essentially, you've taken a character's life, broken it into a bunch of pieces, and the Personae give you back pieces one at a time, completely out of order, and mostly at random.

❦ You will need at least 15 memories for Aather, though we generally encourage more in order to give your character a full "arc" in Aather. These are 15 separate "scenes" in your character's life.

❦ In terms of how many of these memories should be canon and how many can be headcanon there will be no strict policing. However, please use as many canon memories—or canon implied memories—as possible. When it comes to headcanon memories, consider how much impact these memories will have on your character. If the headcanon memories are not congruent with canon memories or change the character in a way which is incongruous with canon, you should not include themin your registry.

❦ Re: false memories. You can feel free to count these as "real" memories and put them in the registry. If your character receives someone else's memory in canon as their own these memories are also fair game!


what is a memory registry?
❦ A memory registry is basically a collection of memories and skills. Personae players reference a character's memory registry at the end of each game in order to reward characters with a memory.

❦ A character like Harry Potter might have a TON of memories, whereas a character like Dudley would have fewer memories. However, how you split up these memories is up to you, and really a matter of strategy: the more separate memory entries you have, the slower you will regain them all. If you "burn through" a registry too quickly, you may find yourself running out of memories before you're done playing. There of course options for this, but we encourage players to consider the pace at which they'd like to regain things when creating their registry.


making a memory registry
❦ Memories are separated into the following categories:

Significant Positive - memories that have a large impact on your character and are positive in nature. They do not have to be objectively positive. So if your character was really happy to kill their brother in canon but would be horrified in Aather, it would be a positive memory. Positive does not have to be 'happy' either.

Significant Negative - memories that have a large impact on your character and are negative in nature. This could be angry or sad or any other 'negative' emotion. Again, it is how the character feels in canon, not how the norm would feel receiving it.

Significant Neutral - memories that have a large impact and are not particularly emotionally charged. These could also be memories that are both positive and negative at the same time.

Trivial Neutral - memories that do not have a significant impact and are not particularly emotionally charged. These could also be memories that are both positive and negative at the same time.

Trivial Positive - memories that do not have a significant impact and are positive in nature.

Trivial Negative - memories that do not have a significant impact and are negative in nature.

❦ You may, if you like, add a third category in each, a Neutral category (so you have nine total, after adding Neutral Positive, Neutral Negative, etc) if you are struggling to separate your memories definitively as either positive or negative. However, only the above categories are strictly necessary.

❦ Here's a quick example. For Harry, a positive significant memory may be that quidditch match where he caught the snitch and felt AWESOME. A negative significant memory may be Cedric's death. OR the entire run of the fourth stage of the Tri-Wizard tournament could be one negative memory. All of the forest montage in the seventh book could be one memory because it is a forest montage! Calling forth his patronus could be one memory—even though it is significantly shorter than the forest montage.

❦ When a memory is regained, please clearly mark on your registry that the memory has been received (either with a strikethrough, a special mark, etc, though if you use special colors or markings, please include a clear legend!)


what are skills?
❦ Skills are exactly what they sound like! A skill is something your character can do. Now, this is going to vary a lot per character. A character might get back "deadly sword technique 24" but a different character might get "making the perfect peanut butter and jelly sandwich".

❦ If your character has INNATE SKILLS, your character will retain a certain amount of natural skill. But think of it like this! Say your character is a fantastic athlete. Waking up in Aather is like waking up after 6 or 12 months of not doing anything athletic. The potential is there, the aptitude is there, but it's still going to be effort. But once your character earns back BEING THE BEST TRACK STAR EVER! They will acquire this skill again.

❦ You need a minimum of 5 skills: there is no maximum. You may organize however you want to in your journal, but clearly mark what category each skill is and if you have received the skill or not.

Mundane - a skill that is something mundane. Language skills would go here, or academic skills or knowledge. Cooking. Carpentry. That sort of thing.

Special - ARE YOU MADE OF MAGIC? Anything considered "super human" goes here.

Other - Something that doesn't fit in the above two categories. Something like gaining a disease or MY SUPER COOL GUN HANDS could go here.

❦ Skills like "bar fighting" or "doctor knowledge" could go under Other or Mundane as long as they are skills that a mundane person could do. If it requires some kind of special or superhumanness, then it goes under Special, of course.

❦ Fatal diseases & afflictions are considered skills! If your disease is progressive and invasive and sort of ruins every day life . . . well, either this isn't the character to app at Aather or you have a few options! One of which is to carefully consider when this "skill" will be earned back, and hope that there is some kind of IC healer or other force set in place that will keep your character from dying. Another is to just "freeze" the disease and consider it stuck at a certain nonfatal stage. If you have another idea, please feel free to present it in your application!

❦ Other things that are not really "skills" but may be earned back as such are: Geass, curses, vampirism, different forms, etc. Anything that makes your character special in some way!

❦ If you feel that something is absolutely necessary to start a character with, or would prefer to retain the base/some smaller aspect of a certain skill (beyond the usual general abilities afforded to characters), please contact a mod and we'll talk it over.

❦ It's often better to limit your skills to something smaller. So instead of "all of my badass sword fighting" put it as like "beginning sword skills" or a particular move set or whatever. This is up to player discretion!

❦ Please also refer to the powercap page!


what are alternities?
❦ What is an alternity?
An alternity is when your character receives a memory that their self in an 'alternate universe' might receive. So, if you play Harry Potter from Harry Potter, he might receive memories from a life where his parents didn't die.

❦ When can I receive alternities?
Only after you've completed your registry! Please see this page for further information, and for the request forms to email to the mods!

❦ Is there any limit to what kind of alternity I can have my character remember?
There are no "hard rules" however we would like you to consider your alternities carefully. They are going to be things your characters remember. So a "wtf was that!?" memory may be fun, but this is where you really get to make executive decisions regarding your characters memories.

❦ Where can I pull my alternity from?
Anywhere! You can use experience at another RP, make up your own alternate universe or if your canon has . . . canon AUs (looking at YOU Evangelion) you are free to use them.

❦ How many alternities can I have?
There is no real limit. However you can only progress through one alternity at a time. So if you've chosen to start receiving memories from Alternity A you can't also receive memories from Alternity B at the same time.

❦ What is taking an alternity memory like?
Unlike regular memories where there is a strong sense of the emotions and sensations in a memory an alternity is more like watching it on TV. Your character is very aware this is someone else's life and while they may get some emotional impact from it -- it should be more like an information dump.

❦ What's the format for alternities?
There are two kinds of alternities. A one-off alternity which can be something rather large and encompassing. Something like "High School AU" could be a one-off. Or if a small event in a life changed and only effected a bit of their life that could also be a one-off.

The second kind is a full alternity. Where you receive specific moments in a life. That should be formatted with one umbrella event or starter memory and then successive smaller memories underneath.

EXAMPLE:
[ SIRIUS BLACK WASN'T EATEN BY THE CURTAIN ] <-- umbrella event
• that time Sirius and I went to the Quidditch Cup together <-- smaller memory
• more smaller memories
• these are all part of the same universe

OR, in the case of say "My parents didn't die" for Harry Potter
[ A MEMORY OF CHILDHOOD WITH MOM IN THE KITCHEN ] <-- starter memory
• other memories
• that happened
• in this universe

Full on alternities do not have to be received in chronological order with the exception of the umbrella event/starter memory, that one must always be first. You can think of it as "unlocking" the rest of the memories.


stats
❦ This is essentially the basics people should know about your character! Please make this as a separate page in your journal.

Name AATHER NAME // CANON NAME
Age Appearance and actual age
Team

Height/Build
Hair Color/Eye Color
Notable Traits If there are any -- hair stylewise, scars, tattoos, physiological oddities, etc.

Other any special pings or anything that might be innate and needed to be mentioned?



amnesia, powers & roles

2012-07-20 00:07
overclocked: (Default)
This page goes into detail about how amnesia functions as a game mechanic in Aather. It also touches on the differences between knights and heroes and the importance of teams. To read more about the story of Aather, click here. For the functional introduction (how the logistics work, how to play, and how the game is set up) click here.

all about amnesia
❦ Amnesia essentially means you have no memories! Specifically we're speaking of concrete memories like "my name" and "I have badass sword skills" and "my past," that sort of thing. These are generally specific events (ie: scenes in canon) but can be extended to include montages, headcanon, etc. The skills/abilities present in memories will be regained separately.

❦ Having no memories does not make your character a complete emotionless personality-less blank. If your character is an ANGRY DUDE there is no reason why they wouldn't be an ANGRY AMNESIAC as well. But if your character is an ANGRY DUDE BECAUSE EVERYONE HATED HIM/HER/HIR then they might not be an angry amnesiac! Your job as a player is to decide which traits and personality facets you want to attribute to memories and which you don't want to.

❦ As a guideline, think of changes your character went through in canon. Why did they change? Did certain events change them? Or were there more innate traits that were brought out or suppressed by certain events?

❦ Generally, we suggest that things like basic social norms and interactions stay with characters simply for ease and interest of playing. Nnnobody really wants to play with or deal with a character that is a literal blank. Things that are basic or common knowledge, social etiquette, and so on would stay. However, even this is flexible: most characters start off remembering how to read, but if this is something the character canonically struggles to learn, then they may forget upon becoming an amnesiac. Does your character learn to speak through the course of their canon? Then perhaps they lose that skill again, whereas most characters would keep it.

❦ If a character remembers something primarily from childhood, it does not mean that they should be reduced to the mentality of a child! However, it may mean that they are uncertain and unbalanced and are having trouble reconciling what they remember with what they feel. Overall, keep both your own playing comfort and the comfort of those you're playing with in mind, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask the mods!


memories
❦ Characters win back their memories by playing in the Personae's games. Essentially, you've taken a character's life, broken it into a bunch of pieces, and the Personae give you back pieces one at a time, completely out of order, and mostly at random.

❦ Memories/skills/alternities will be presented in some kind of edible or drinkable format. The form will depend on the Personae. Cheshire Cat may always give out memories from his games in malt balls, and perhaps another Personae will give them out in the form of shots of whiskey. All memories look the same, but there is an innate draw to which one is yours. So out of a tray of maltballs your character would just feel COMPELLED towards a certain one.

❦ Some memories are designated as "shareable." This means you can share these memories with others (like sharing a DVD). However, when you do, the experience will not be as rich as the "original" memory—it will lose flavor, feeling, details. After time, the memory won't be there at all. Most shareable memories come with a specified number of uses.

❦ When you take a memory/skill/etc it is a visceral experience. You're taken by whatever emotion is in the memory and may feel the same pain or whatnot in it. Think of it as a concentrated dose of daydream, or like watching a 4D movie, where the fourth dimension is feelings.

❦ Despite this, memories are essentially from your character's "perspective" or point of view. They are, after all, the one that lived through it. If you take a memory belonging to another person, you will be seeing it from their perspective, even if you yourself are in the memory.

❦ A memory registry is basically a collection of memories and skills. Personae players reference a character's memory registry at the end of each game in order to reward characters with a memory.

❦ You can find more on memory registries, including the format we use, here. The memory registries of all the current characters are indexed here.


character considerations
❦ Apping a character to a memory-loss game is a little different from apping to a regular game! There are a variety of things to take into account. We will attempt to address some of them:

❦ When choosing your character for Aather, consider what they'd be like without memories and how receiving memories would impact them.

FOR THIS EXAMPLE I'm going to use HARRY POTTER. So, maybe I really want to app from the Harry Potter books! But I'm not sure which character would be best. First I'd look at the application page and read over the example apps and who is taken and all that jazz.

Would I app Bellatrix? For a memory loss game she could be interesting! She wouldn't be as crazy and wouldn't be as NON MAGIC USERS SUCK!1 But she would also be a little unhinged and possibly a little sociopathic. Do I want to bring that to this game and these teams?

Would I app Harry himself? Possibly! He would certainly be the easiest character to construct a registry for, being the main character. We also get a lot of views into his head, so we have a good sense of his self and what would remain as an intrinsic personality trait even without memories.

❦ You will also need to consider whether or not the character you choose will be capable of working with a team in some way. While we do accept characters that approach being part of a team in different ways, teams work best when they work. So, if you're apping Remorseless Crazy McKiller who will never make friends or listen to what anybody else says, ever, and will repeatedly try to sabotage his team, please try to anticipate a viable route where McKiller learns the potential value of working with others for his own benefit, or something else that will make working with a team possible. Teams have theirs ups and downs, and different personalities are what make them interesting, but a team constantly at war with itself generally isn't fun for the players involved.


teams
❦ Teams are really important. You play games with your team, you live with your team, you rely on your team, and so on. Teams are the cornerstone of your CR—you are both ICly and OOCly encouraged to play with your team frequently.

❦ As mentioned above, a character that cannot work with others at all is probably not the character for Aather. On the other hand, a difficult character or asocial character could benefit from the team dynamic and change accordingly. Is playing that One Douchebag terrible and inappropriate? Not really. But try to gauge your own enjoyment and think considerately of others.

❦ Each team has their own "vibe," and the mods will try to place characters on teams they feel would best fit them. This is why Aather's placement is not first-come-first serve: characters are placed on teams when slots open up, and selected based on who best fills the open spot.


knights
❦ The knight role is unique. Knights have an integral story role to play: they are essentially "free agents" that aren't bound to any one team. They play for themselves and win back memories for themselves. So, playing as a knight, you will not be having the same Aather game experience that most characters & players do—but the knight role can also be extremely exciting and rewarding.

❦ Knights typically have more weight and impetus to get involved with the Personae. They can report directly to them, sub-patron to them for extra power, and have the option to choose between reporting to Beauty or Maleficent (Sterling or Onyx). The knight teams themselves also have their own unique dynamics. Basically, knights become more of a power unto themselves rather than gaining their identity as part of their team's.

❦ On the other hand, the burden of your own play is heavier! You don't have an automatic net of CR or memories: in order to win memories, you have to be at the game yourself—you don't get them when your team plays like most characters—or do extra quests/events. You also need to get out and make your CR on your own, without having a team to rely on to automatically have people to care about your character.

❦ Knights ICly have tasks to do on occasion, and are often the ringleaders in, well, "leading" the heroes. They protect and serve and can come up with unique ideas to change the course of the game—something heroes can do as well, but knights often have more of an individual influence. They are assigned to teams during games, which can be difficult, or unpredictable, or both, depending on the dynamics of the team. However, a knight that cannot or will not play with teams will make things difficult OOCly, both for the team you're playing with, and for yourself in terms of earning memories, so think carefully!

✦ Knights have different expectations than team members. They must okay with being in a position of knowledge and authority. Knights should be willing to help the heroes; for the most part they are a leadership & support role. Knights are expected to be able to integrate with the system in some way and support their patron(s) in the goal of reclaiming Aather. There is a great deal of flexibility and choice allowed in this position in terms of how you want to play, but also a fair degree of following rules and maintaining the system, so please take this into consideration!

❦ Overall, the knight role takes a bit more dedication and independent action than being on a team, but if the character is well-suited to it, being a knight can offer a whole new playing experience.

aather: an introduction

2012-07-20 00:04
overclocked: (Default)
This page is the functional introduction: how the logistics work, how to play, and how the game is set up. To read more about the story of Aather, click here. For detailed information on amnesia and powers, and the difference between heroes and knights, click here.

what is Aather?
❦ Aather is a community-based roleplay game on DreamWidth. It operates in a "commentspam," face-to-face format simliar to [community profile] cfud, [community profile] thusia, and [insanejournal.com profile] sabra_la_tau.

Characters wake up in the world of Aather with near-complete amnesia and are assigned to a team. Together with this team, they play in games run by beings called the Personae in order to win back their past—their memories, their skills, and so on.

The beings that control your destiny in Aather are called Personae (Dramatis or otherwise). They run the games and are the ones who brought you here to save their world—regrettably losing your memories in the process.

You see, the world of Aather is getting devoured by something. Characters tumble into the world into a Ring—there is always a Ring, and there is always a tree. But what these look like depends on the part of Aather characters are working hard to regain. As games are played and memories are regained, Aather expands, and unlocks. The actions of the heroes of Aather cause the world to change and expand as the world—and its mysteries—are slowly freed from the darkness that binds them . . .

❦ Play takes place primarily in the [community profile] aather community. We have an OOC community ([community profile] aather_ooc), and a network ([personal profile] aathernet) that follows all journals participating in the game. We also have an IRC chatroom (#aather @ irc.lunarnet.org).


playing basics
❦ Posts in aather follow a linear timeline, loosely dependent on the time of prior posts. We aim to progress at a ratio of approximately 1 IC day to 3 OOC days.

❦ The posting header is required for each post. You can find it on the network sidebar.

❦ Each post should either take place at the same time as the previous post (in the case of several posts going up in a short period time) or shortly thereafter: morning, mid-morning, noon, afternoon, and so on. Backdating slightly is acceptable (posting further back in time), but we encourage you first to try to find a mingle/general post during that time that would suffice instead. If you do backdate a post, please mark it as such so we don't enter a terrible time loop.

❦ Aather also has an important tag system. Please tag every post with the appropriate !day tag, as well as your character tag. Players cannot create tags: if the tag you want is not already made for you, let a mod know!


game structure
❦ Aather is separated into 14 "hero" teams and 2 "knight" teams. For more on knights and heroes, please check out the amnesia, powers & roles page.

❦ Heroes and knights all play in the games run by the Personae. These are essentially mini-events run either by mods or players that are scheduled in advance and marked on the calendar. Most games are approximately 4-5 hours in length. They can vary from (for example) IC Balderdash or IC Cry Wolf/Mafia to "whoever beats each other's face in more wins" and generally are suited to a particular Persona's "theme." They are marked by the !games tag.

❦ Players are expected to be able to make at least some games, though nobody is expected to be able to make all of them! Heroes receive memories so long as at least one member from their team was in attendance and wins the game—knights must themselves be present. Typically about half the teams present will win memories.

❦ There are different types of games: games where you win back memories, games where you win back skills, games just for knights, or games just for "loser" teams.


starting out
❦ Your character will get thrown through the Ring into Aather. This is a bit like tripping—a little confusing, a little rough landing, etc.

❦ You can (and players generally do) make your own introduction post; or, you can simply comment to an available post or mingle.

❦ Your character (knights and heroes alike) will start with one memory of your choosing. They begin with that so there is no need to 'take' it. They just remember it. You can read more about memories and skills here.

❦ All characters are under a powercap, which means that they have no skills and, even when they regain them, are typically very "nerfed." Knights are unique and, unlike heroes, start with one skill.

❦ All characters start off with one key, carved out of their team gemstone, that lets them into their cabin. They cannot get into their cabin without it (unless let in by a teammate with a key; this includes being allowed into other peoples' cabins), nor can they open any door they don't have the key to. You don't need to put your key in a keyhole: simply having it lets you into your team's space. Non-humans also have a key around their neck and/or secured in a way which would not be easy for it to fall off. Check the knight doc for info about knight keys.

Onyx, Sterling and Other Structures

2012-07-19 16:37
overclocked: (Default)
 
Onyx & Sterling
This page has been retired! If you were lined here from another page, could you let us know in housekeeping? In the meantime, the new world info is here.


Hiatus, Dropping and Winning

2012-07-19 13:56

Personae Information

2012-07-19 12:59

All Contacts & Permission Posts

2012-07-19 12:49

New and Prospective Player Tools

2012-07-19 12:44

IRC Guide

2011-09-07 09:51
overclocked: (Default)
Ways to Get on IRC
There are several clients you can download and install on your computer. If you have a PC mIRC is probably for you. If you use a mac Colloquy or X-Chat both work.

If you're not interested in downloading a client you can also get chatzilla which is a firefox extension or you could use mibbit which is a web client.

The server you're going to be using is irc.lunarnet.org on ports 6667 or 4444.

Currently all info is snagged pretty much C&P from this post by Stelas. Hopefully this will be modified and updated as per our needs soon


Commands
[] - this part is mandatory
() - this part is optional

/server [servername] e.g. /server eldrasia.lunarnet.org - This will connect you to a specific server. If you're having problems to the irc.lunarnet.org address, you can try connecting to a specific server - the full list is further down.

/join [#channel] e.g. /join #campfuckudie - This will make you enter a channel on the network, or create one if it doesn't already exist.

/part [#channel] (message) e.g. /part #campfuckudie Right, I'm off. - The opposite of join; makes you leave a channel, optionally with a message.

/quit (message) e.g. /quit Sleeeep. - Does exactly what it says on the tin; quit the server.

/me [action] e.g. /me writes an IRC tutorial. - This will make you perform an action in the third person.

/nick [new nick] e.g. /nick Stelafk - Changes your screen name.

/msg [nick] [message] or /query [nick] [message] e.g. /msg Stelas sup! - Use these two to send private messages to someone. Using /msg will straight-up message them and display it in whichever channel you're looking at right now, while /query will open a nice separate window for you to chat to that person.

/query [nick] e.g. /query Stelas - Using /query without any message will pop up a new window specifically to the person you specify.

/topic [channel] (topic) e.g. /topic #campfuckudie This is a new topic. - Changes the topic of the channel. Generally speaking only people with % or @'s by their name can do this.

/whois [nick] e.g. /whois Stelas - Get a bunch of random information on a nick, like what hostmask they are, what channels they're in, and stuff like that.


NickServ
Registering your nicks and maintaining them

Registering your nick is big and clever. By registering it you effectively have reserved that nick for your use and yours only. You can boot other people who are using it, become an auto-op of a channel or register channels, and all sorts of other stuff. It is very worth registering your nick! If you don't register your nick and someone else takes it, there is nothing the admins can do to recover it. It is first-come, first-served.

Linking Nicks: Lunarnet has a slightly different method of registering lots of nicks compared to other servers, mostly because the latest version of Services is a big ho. On other servers, you'll register a bunch of nicks then LINK them together - on Lunarnet, you register one primary nick then, from that nick, 'mark' a number of other nicks as yours, whereupon your password and settings are copied across to them all in a big cloud of nicks.

All NickServ commands are done by /msging it various keywords. You can call up a help menu, with links to individual help pages, by using /msg NickServ HELP. For all the commands below, don't include brackets in the actual command.

/msg NickServ REGISTER [password] (email) - Registers a nick for you, with that password. Lower and upper case does matter; stelas is different to Stelas. You can add an email after the password if you like, but it's not necessary on Lunarnet.

/msg NickServ IDENTIFY [password] - Assuming you got the right password for the nick you're on, this makes the server recognize your identity. You may not have to do this if you were on the nick recently (ie, you switched off it for a half-hour.)

/msg NickServ GHOST [nick] [password] - If you crash and the server doesn't notice, this command can be used to manually boot the dead client. Use the command above, specifying the right nick/password combo. You also use this command if someone's squatting on your nick to forcefully remove them.

/msg NickServ LINK [totally new nick] - This is used to link several nicks together to the same user. In the new system, to link a nick to your primary, you switch to the primary and enter this command, specifying a completely new, unregistered nick. All of your settings will copy over, and the nick will be yours.

/msg NickServ UNLINK [nick] - This will drop one of your collection of nicks.

/msg NickServ DROP [password] - This will drop your entire collection of nicks.

/msg NickServ SET PASSWORD [new password] - Change your password.

/msg NickServ SET KILL ON or QUICK - The easiest way to prevent your nick being sat upon, this will give you protection by booting anyone who doesn't identify with the right password in either 60 or 20 seconds respectively.

ChanServ also exists; this effectively does the same thing but for channels rather than nicks, reserving them and setting up permanent topics or auto-ops. I won't get into the commands here, but you can /msg ChanServ HELP if you want to know more.

Firewalls & Proxies
Problems connecting?

Many firewalls and universities block IRC. If you seem to be completely unable to connect to the network and the servers are up, there are a few things you can try that may remedy the problem.

Try connecting to a specific or different server. - If you're unable to connect successfully, it may be that your connection path to the particular server your client was routed to is down, be it due to ISP problems or router failure; in this case you may be able to connect okay by forcing your client to connect to a specific server by substituting irc. out for a specific server name, e.g. eldrasia. in your connect information.

Try connecting through port 4444 or 8067. - Some restrictive firewalls - like those in many colleges and universities - block port 6667, the standard IRC port. You may be able to connect by specifying 4444 as the port, or one of the other non-typical ones - /server eldrasia.lunarnet.org 4444 to connect there on a specific server, for instance.

Set up SSL and attempt to connect through port 7001 or 7029. - Some particularly restrictive connection setups may block both IRC ports and others included; in this case, you can either contact your system administrator and ask for the port to be opened; in lieu of that a reasonably reliable method of bypassing the problem is to use an SSL-capable IRC client and connect through a standard SSL port. SSL links are fully encrypted and thus generally considered much 'safer' by most administrators and rarely blocked. A handy guide to setting up SSL in mIRC is here while chatzilla can do this automatically by using the command /sslserver eldrasia.lunarnet.org 7001; for Mac users we suggest Colloquy, which can enable SSL merely by ticking a box.

When all else fails... - Contacting the admins and explaining the problem is your best bet, either through a friend who can connect to the network or else the email at the top.

Full server list of all the servers that make up Lunarnet, and which ports can be used to access them:



❦ Eldrasia - eldrasia.lunarnet.org - UK - 6667, 4444, 7001 (SSL), 7029 (SSL)
❦ RPGCafe - rpgcafe.lunarnet.org - NJ, US - 6667, 4444, 7001 (SSL), 7029 (SSL)
❦ Castleheck - castleheck.lunarnet.org - TX, US - 6667, 4444, 7001 (SSL), 7029 (SSL)
❦ Obsidian - obsidian.lunarnet.org - AB, CA - 6667, 7001 (SSL), 7029 (SSL)
❦Eraniss - eraniss.lunarnet.org - TX, US - 6667, 4444, 8067, 6697 (SSL), 7001 (SSL), 7029 (SSL)



HAPPY ENDINGS

2011-08-23 07:29
overclocked: (Default)
So, you've been in Aather a while! You've gotten some memories and some skills and you're thinking: now what? Luckily for you, Aather has a rainbow of options.

For information on dropping temporarily/permanently from the game without "Ending" please see this page.

Ways to Win
Once you have completed your registry, you have three options:

❦ Alternities
❦ Legacy Hero/Knight
❦ Happy Ending

Once you have decided which option best suits you, please fill out the form below and email it to the the modbox [aather.mods@gmail.com]

Please wait for a response from us before proceeding with your Happy End/Legacy!



Essentially this means your character has worked hard! Regained all of their memories and themselves! And can win back "alternate universe" memories that never actually happened to this.

❦ There's no formal ceremony for this. You continue playing with your team and instead of receiving memories or skills you receive alternities!
❦ It just happens to the characters sometimes. Huh!
❦ We do ask that you email the modbox [aather.mods@gmail.com]with the following:

Subject: Alternities
Character name | Team:
Length of OOC time in Aather: #months
Regained back all of/most of their canon memories?:
Does this character have a stable sense of self?: Baaasically a yes or no question, but a few sentences of explanation is encouraged. We are looking for "My character has regained enough memories that alternities will not drastically alter their personality so much as give me something interesting to play with."





❦ Your character has regained their memories and skills, and are given the option to stay in Aather to continue forward as a Legacy member! ICly, they are granted more "immunity" to Darkness as they are "complete" and are now participating voluntarily in games, etc.
❦ If you have not won back ALL your memories, you will receive a bracelet with the remaining so that you can take them at your leisure.
❦ You'll still be with your team, though a new member will come into the team as your "space" has opened up.
❦ Your key will grow wings and you will get your own private room in your cabin.
❦ For characters from ongoing canons who have completed their registries, but would still like to play, we will make opportunities for Legacy Heroes and Knights to get new memories every once in awhile! Just email the mods if you need to make this happen.
❦ Dropping from Legacy: Legacy characters have the option of graduating to Happy Ending or by going off with a Persona or on a "journey through Aather" much like the Happy Ended characters. They cannot be Booked or taken by Darkness. You can reapp from here or transition to Happy Ending at any time.

Subject: Legacy Hero
Character name | Team:
Memory Registry link: (PLEASE MAKE SURE TO MARK OFF ALL YOUR MEMORIES GAINED)
Why do you think they're ready to become a Legacy?: Your hopes and dreams and what you are looking for with your winning, as well as how settled you feel the character is & that further memories won't impact this.




Option 1: Happy End - Going Home
Congratulations! You've won Aather and now you can go home! ...Or Elsewhere!

❦ If your character is a knight they can also call in a boon from their patron. This is something you can work out with the mods, but the rule is typically that the boon cannot interrupt the flow of the world's story. AKA you cannot solve the world's problems with your wish, but some flexibility is there.
❦ If your character is a hero unfortunately they are not granted a boon for good service. However …
❦ Both knights and heroes can also re-locate to worlds not their own. This does not count as a boon for a knight and is a freebie bonus for heroes. And …
❦ A hero has the opportunity to do a task of service so they can gain a boon on their way out.
❦ Note: It is possible for special events that characters that have been returned home could visit again in Aather. So, even characters that go home have the ability to come back into play every so often. Please discuss this with a mod during your closing out process! ♥
❦ If your character is dead in their world, well, come talk to us about what you'd like to happen and we'll work something out!


Option 2: Staying in Aather, but Elsewhere
You've won Aather and now you can continue helping elsewhere in this world!

❦ Your character has technically "left play" but remains in Aather. This means your character does leave their team and also regular play in [community profile] aather. This option is essentially your character becoming an individual agent (possibly for one of the patrons in Aather, should you choose) and doing duties elsewhere in the world to help fix it up.
❦ Insert Super Handwave Platforming Questing Here. Generally they'll probably do some quests, solve puzzles, get stuff, and maintain care over the realms they're staying in.
❦ Your character gets to stay in any of the previous realms!
❦ You can use the [community profile] lifeafterfred journal to play around in as much as you want, and with other Happy Enders.
❦ Occasionally, we will have special events where alumni will be allowed to return. But in general the character is removed from play.


Option 3: Staying in Aather... forever?!
Congratulations! You've won Aather and now it is your home.

❦ This is much the same as Option 2, except that your character now officially lives in Aather.
❦ Unlike the Enders in Option 2, your character does not have to be "working" on anything in specific, or for a specific goal—they just get to live somewhere in Aather! It is their home and world now. Bum freely.
❦ You can use the [community profile] lifeafterfred journal to play around in as much as you want, and with other Happy Enders.
❦ Occasionally, we will have special events where alumni will be allowed to return. But in general the character is removed from play.

This option is super experimental, so we're happy to try to work out whatever details you think you'd like!


Subject: Happy Ending!
Character name | Team:
Length of OOC time in Aather: #months
Regained back all of/most of their canon memories?:
Staying in Aather or Going Home?:
Why do you think they're ready for their Happy Ending?: Your hopes and dreams and what you are looking for with your winning, as well as how settled you feel the character is & that there is no further development in-game that you want to do.


NOTE: All characters who Happy End, whether they leave Aather for their home world or just go elsewhere, will receive a set a magic candles that allow two-way communication with both picture and sound -- so it's not like you have to say goodbye forever. For a list of characters with candle call pages, see here


As always, if you have any questions or concerns or are not sure if you fit within the above guidelines, or want to do something a little different . . .
Just email us and we'll talk it out! ♥


Sub-Patronning

2011-07-27 08:35
overclocked: (Default)
What Is Sub-Patronning?
Sub-patronning is when a Knight and a Persona (other than Beauty or Maleficent) hit it off really well and would like to form an official contract to strengthen their bond and provide support to each other. The Knight will agree to "serve" the Personae and in return the Personae will give the knight a favor (usually in the form of a power or consistent exchange).


What Kind of Favor?
The type of favor is up to the Personae player! It should be no larger than a single skill and can be as trivial as the Personae player would like it to be. If you'd like to provide a slightly greater skill, there should be a measure of equivalent exchange—the knight should perform some task on a reoccurring basis. This is determined on a case-to-case basis!


Further Details
Duration: This is up to the players! Remember that Personae may be capricious and fickle according to their personalities—or they might demand a longer commitment. As long as it is OOCly agreed upon, ICly the terms may vary!

Drops: Dropped contracts by default remain "active"/the Persona remains "taken" and will pick back up on reapp. However, if the Persona would like to make a new bond in the meantime, it's totally possible to OOCly discuss options with the mods & the previous knight player (keeping or terminating it, temporarily doubling up (though we prefer to keep one knight/one persona if at all possible), etc, are all possibilities—just ask!)

Bonds: Another key point about subpatronning is that it creates and strengthens a bond between Persona and Knight! Both players are free to speak with the mods if they have any idea of a subplot they would like to do with this—greater abilities in time of need, the ability to push and play with Persona roles, dealing with Persona past memories, and so on. This is highly encouraged but totally on a case-by-case basis.

ONYX KNIGHTS and those who have SWORN LOYALTY TO BEAUTY are technically considered "sub-patroned" (d-d-double patronned?) and are not able to sub-patron with other Personae!


How Do I Do This?
❦ Personae players, please email the mod account (aather.mods at gmail) with the subject "Personae Sub-Patronning" and the following:

Personae Name:
Personae Favor: (Please include a "name" and short description as used below! Though you may also go into further details separately)

Patron plans:

Patron plans can be loose. Anything from "SoandSo has plans to patron SuchandSuch because..." or "I would love Elmo to be available for patronning because..." or whatever. Then you'll be added to the favor list below.

❦ Sterling Knights, first check out the taken/available/favor list and if you see something you like, ping/pm/email the Personae player in question. If you two hit it off and agree then email the mod account (aather.mods at gmail) with the subject "Personae Sub-Patronning: Agreement" and the following:

Knight Name:
Knight Icon url for Patronning page:
Personae Name:

Reason for Patronning:

The reasons can be whatever as long as they ICly make sense. It would be great if you CC'd the Personae player. (The Personae player can also email this form, but again, a CC for the knight would be great)

Wait to get a reply from the mod email before going on with your sub-patron plans! But then you can thread it out or handwave it or do interpretative dance, your choice.


Active & Available Contracts


3 of 3 BALANCE
The ability to take on a wrong and 'pay it back' equally. Basically like a 'reflect' spell or the ability to heal (by taking the injury onto themselves). There are some other restrictions♥

SUZAKU
(HAPPY ENDED)

BROTHER DEER ANIMAL TRANSFORMATION
For a limit of an hour a day, knights will be able to transform into an animal. The form would be chosen upon sub-patronning, and only one animal form allowed. Example: if you choose a raptor (???) that's the only one you can change into. If a different creature is desired later, a quest must be done. Large animals would be minimized to something roughly horse-sized.

ZERO
(ACTIVE)

CHESHIRE CAT SHADOW JUMPING
Basically traveling by shadow. Distance is no problem! However a knight with this ability will only be able to enter and exit shadows that are large enough to fit their entire body through. Can only be used during dawn, dusk and daylight (so. . . not at night). Cheshire may or may not decide to nix this favor on his whims, though.

ISA
(DROPPED)

DOG DOGGEDNESS
A tripartite favor. Scott will receive a slightly modified boon, due to his canon skills

Seek: The knight can infallibly find any other (player) character anywhere else in the world, though with delays if they've been flying or crossing running water.

Retrieve: The knight gains a boost to tracking down minor lost objects (think missing car keys) and a strange affinity for games of catch.

Come-home: No matter how injured the knight becomes, they'll retain the urge and ability to drag themselves to the location of a character to whom they are personally loyal before any injuries can take their worst toll. What happens next is up to whoever is there.



SCOTT
(HAPPY ENDED)

DORIAN GRAY VICES
Booze and smokes, that's it, that's the patron reward.

AHAD
(ACTIVE)

DREAM FEELINGS CABINET
Knight receives a small six drawer cabinet charm to hang on their keychain. The knight can either 'duplicate' feelings of themselves or others and 'store' them in the cabinet like feelings drugs or may 'lock away' a feeling for an emotional bandaid, essentially.

LEA
(DROPPED)

ECHIDNA HERO'S FAVOR
Grants a boost in fighting against certain types of darkness

LLOYD
(HAPPY ENDED)

FIREBIRD SPEED HEALING
Basically she'll heal whoever she's patronning from whatever injuries they get—tiny wounds heal almost instantly, larger wounds take about half as long as they normally would. This does not include reviving.

WEISS SCHNEE
(DROPPED)

GERDA NEVERCOLD
The knight is provided with constant warmth and is never cold. Optionally the knight is also able to warm plants to help them grow OR produce fire.


AVAILABLE

the GINGERBREAD WITCH A VERITABLE FEAST OF OPTIONS
An Endless Kitchen: May or may not come with children.

Fire Snuffing: Be able to put out fires of certain sizes at a limited number of times per day.

Still Ravenous: Constant hunger is a thing.

These are potential forms only! Actual forms to be discussed with interested parties directly.


AVAILABLE

GUINEVERE ROYAL FAVOR
Knights patronned to Guinevere will receive a handkerchief of hers. When they kiss it, they can summon her to observe their deeds; while she is doing so, they get a power-up on whatever they're attempting (be it feats of strength, valor, speed etc -- basically whatever stat is being attempted, they get a +10 to it). After the task is complete, she will vanish again. Usable once per IC day. As well, the patronned knight may call upon Guinevere once per day in order to come and discuss personal matters; she will swear to discuss in a matter both considerate and fair.



SUSAN PEVENSIE
(ACTIVE)

HUA MULAN ULTIMATE ENDURANCE
The knight may operate past their maximum capabilities for 5-10 minutes. If "maximum MP cap" is reached in a battle, or "maximum stamina" in a long running race, the favor extends one's ability to keep running/using magic/what have you for a certain amount of time before collapse from powercap or physical exhaustion.



KARIGAN G'LADHEON
(ACTIVE)

KIRIKO BONE MANIPULATION
While this could be classified as being able to knit bones back together and set them properly without physically touching the patient, in practice it could also be used to break and twist bones. There might be consequences, though… The price for any kind of bone manipulation is the loss of the ability to talk for a period of time. (Unless you already do not talk, in which case there may be an alternate price or there may be none.) In general, if you use the power on yourself, the loss of speech will be ~half an hour, whereas if you use it on others, it will be upwards of an hour. If it is extensive work on a single person or on multiple people, you may lose it for an entire day.



MITHOS
(HAPPY ENDED)

KITSUNE ILLUSIONS
May create one extremely convincing illusion per day. It may be only one at a time; the previous day's illusion must be given up in order to create a new one.

MIKAGE
(ACTIVE)

MASKED LADY CUT&SEW
The knight receives a charm in the shape of a needle, which, if concentrated on, will turn full-size. It can be used on almost any wound that can be considered "cut" in some way -- a gash, a stab, a severed limb, etc. -- to mend or reattach the flesh. While the wound is stitched together in this way, it is effectively inert. However, the wound will also never heal unless the thread is removed and standard medical treatment is applied.


AVAILABLE

MARJORY (& JUNE) MEMENTO
Use 1: memory of death. The patronned knight may call upon the persona to gain some sort of understanding about their own or someone else's death from their memories. This could be the name or motivation of the killer, a character's final words or sight, etc (discuss with player what is reasonable). This use can only be used once for any particular death (so you could not use it to find name AND motivation AND final words). It is up to the patronned knight to decide what they do with this information.
Use 2: memory of life. If the knight thinks on a sad event of their past and cries, they may choose to use the energy that would normally go to creating tears into creating another item of sustinance to use themselves or give out freely (food, blankets, etc) without requiring the recepients to pay for it in some manner.


AVAILABLE

MORGAN MAGIC
Knights patroned to Morgan will be taught magic, to whatever degree their ability and aptitude allows for. It will be a long process with quite a bit of studying involved, but eventually minor magics will be learned.


OREE
(HAPPY ENDED)

MR. RIGHT VISIBILITY
Now You See Me: Activating this power allows the knight to call attention to themselves for a short period of time. It draws everyone in the vicinity towards them, their voice amplified as though through a loudspeaker, their presence stronger and more noticeable. People can still ignore the knight if they wish, but everything about them becomes much more compelling and difficult to ignore. Average length of time is ~5 minutes, though it is longer when used during the daytime.

Now You Don't: Activating this power allows the knight to turn completely invisible (both their physical body and whatever clothing they have on, though not any items they may be carrying). This mutes their spiritual presence as well, making it easier for psychics and others with similar powers to not notice them--though they are still physically present. Average length of time is ~5 minutes, though it is longer when used during nighttime.

Each ability can be used once per day, though both can be used during a single day (so, NYSM can be used during the daytime and NYD can be used at night, but NYSM can't be used more than once a day and the same is true for NYD).


GILGAMESH
(DROPPED)

NIMUE SHIELD
Her favor has two sides: an offensive capability, or a defensive capability. She will create an impenetrable shield around the knight and those closest to him (in the literal sense), about 3-4 people. This can be maintained for about 5 minutes, and can only be used a finite number of times per week.

EDMUND
(ACTIVE)

PERSEPHONE HARVEST
The knight receives a plant which will come with a full crop of vegetables, fruits, or both at sunrise. The crop is enough to feed one and a half people if you only eat what is given all day.


AVAILABLE

SNOW QUEEN BEECONNAISSANCE
Receive one of the Queen's snow bees, which can either stay permanently as a Loyal Animal Sidekick or just be summoned when needed. The bee can be used to communicate messages from the knight to others and vice-versa, by writing the information in ice patterns on the nearest convenient surface, or be sent out on its own to gather information, and then relay it to the patronned knight upon return. Useful for explorations, especially those where heroes/knights split up into multiple groups!

The knight also has the option to link up with the bee, direct it, and 'see' through its eyes firsthand, using it as a tiny mobile spy camera; however, this ability can only be used once a day. Trying to activate it repeatedly or sustain an existing connection for more than a couple of hours will leave the knight increasingly headachey and disoriented.

JACK FROST
(DROPPED)

SNOW WHITE CAMOUFLAGE
Once per day the knight can blend into their surroundings for a brief time (~20 minutes or so) in order to avoid the gaze of an enemy. Can be used offensively in battle situations to lose sight of an attacker by stepping outside of battle so that the knight can prepare a surprise attack.

MERURU
(ACTIVE)

UNICORN SPEAK THE TRUTH
Grants the ability to charm a person into speaking the truth or otherwise allows the Knight to tell when someone is being very deceptively dishonest. It can only be used once every IC day.

ESTELLE
(ACTIVE)

the VELVETEEN RABBIT COMPANION
The knight will be given a chance to create or quest for a toy companion of their choice that can be as 'lively' as the knight wishes for it to be. This toy companion can be pulled to help with some short range scouting or investigating small places in explores, or simply kept around as moral support. However, if the knight were the abandon this toy (or simply leave it alone for too long), whatever liveliness it had will begin to fade until it's nothing more than a normal toy.

OWAIN
(ACTIVE)

ACCEPTED & AWAITING PLACEMENT

2011-06-10 17:56
overclocked: (Default)
ACCEPTED AND AWAITING PLACEMENT

return to top


HEART GAMES

2011-05-20 11:58
overclocked: (Default)
Heart Games 101
For information on out-of-game heart games, please click here!

If you’re familiar with Disgaea, you’re probably already familiar with the concept of heart games! The characters that visit your character’s heart will literally be interacting with a physical representation of their heart/soul/personality/memories/etc. Through this, aspects of your character can be shown, experienced, or changed by others.

DISCLAIMER: all examples were thought up on the fly and are probably somewhat silly as a result...


Building Your Heart
Basically, your character’s heart will be represented by an actual location that others will visit. This “location” can be anything that you want! Heart games are completely flexible, and all about letting you show off your character’s personality, thoughts, memories, intricacies and oddities! You can set your heart in a carnival, a theatre, outer space, the attic, a white room or a palace, or all of the above. It really doesn’t matter. Whatever you feel best represents your character! Often, hearts will be split into separate areas or rooms that represent different things like relationships, fears, desires, blocks of time (such as “childhood” or “aather”) and so on. Again, this is entirely up to you –– you don’t need to divide it this way, or you can divide it according to different criteria, depending on how you interpret your character.

Example: Let’s use the Batman as an example, he’s a cool guy. Batman’s heart might be set in the batcave! It reflects his dark and tortured bat-soul. However, one section of the cave might be a little underground Wayne manor, another section might develop into the skyscrapers and alleyways of the Gotham City, another might be Aather. Alternatively, all of these locations could be completely separate rather than integrated. Often heart locations are based on familiar and important places to the character, but again, it’s completely up to you and anything goes. If you think that Batman’s heart is better represented by a roller blade discotheque, then go ahead and set it there.


Population
Okay, so you’ve got your heart’s basic layout ready! Now what? Well, a place is good and all, but not terribly exciting for heart adventurers to interact with. That’s why you’ll populate your heart with objects and people who represent different aspects of the character or memories (more on that later). The original version of this is to have multiple versions of the character in the heart, representing almost anything –– their drive to protect, their love of animals, their obsession with burritos, whatever aspect of their thoughts or personality that you’d like. However, it’s completely okay to include other people as well! Maybe their parents, friends, or people they’ve met in Aather can be hanging around in there too. Similarly, objects represent ideas or traits and emotions. These are typically the things that can be affected by the heart adventurers by being altered, moved or destroyed, so keep that in mind.

Example: Batman’s batcave could have an Alfred chilling out in there, guarding his room of secrets as badass butlers are wont to do. Maybe a computer would represent his love of and handiness with gadgets. A bat could represent his drive for revenge. There could be a Batman that represented his ~secret alter ego~, a Bruce Wayne that represented the pretty rich boy persona, a Batman in charge of witty one-liners. The more, the better here –– people and objects are going to be the main entertainment and interaction for your heart adventurers, you want to make sure there is plenty for them to see and do!

Memories
Memories don’t just build the heart itself, they can be included as something that the invaders can actually view and experience. This can basically be done however you’d like: touching an object can trigger the memories, the memory can be a scene playing out behind a door or on a stage, etc. Generally, memories are only experienced and can’t be directly interacted with, though, as always, this is flexible and you don’t have to stick to that if you don’t want.

Example: There is a red rose lying on the floor of the batcave. If anyone touches it, they relive the moment Bruce Wayne’s loving parents were gunned down :(


Breaking and Recreating
What really makes heart games fun is that they are interactive. It’s not just you showing the world your character’s deep dark inner secrets. Because the place is a symbolic representation of your character’s heart, changes made to the objects or people found there will affect your character. It’s very important that you keep this in mind when designing your heart. If you absolutely don’t want an aspect of your character altered, DO NOT include it in the heart, or make sure that it’s beyond the reach of the heart invaders somehow. Alternatively, if you really would like to see that one personality flaw/emotional trauma fixed, now’s your chance –– there’s no guarantee it will happen, but you can always design your heart game to encourage the heart invaders to confront an issue. That said, it would be very difficult to plan ahead for what changes could occur, because this part of the game completely depends on what your heart adventurers come up with. You’ll most likely have to sit down after the game is done, take stock of what was changed, created or destroyed, and decide how it will impact your character in the real world.

Example: Someone kills the bat in Batman’s heart, and suddenly he doesn’t feel that need to vigilante some supervillains anymore. Someone moves our secret-guarding badass butler from the batcave to the Wayne Manor, and suddenly Batman decides to hide his birth identity of Bruce Wayne and openly parade around as Batman. Someone draws a kitten on the wall of the Gotham alleyway, and suddenly Batman views kittens as vicious criminal masterminds that need to be caught and sent to Gotham penitentiary. As a rule of thumb, whenever objects are destroyed/representative people are killed, it erases the emotion/memory/desire that they were symbolic of. When something is altered, the change is based on context: if cheese is moved from the area of the heart representing DELICIOUS FOOD I MUST EAT to an area that represents THINGS OF TERROR, the character might end up with a phobia of cheese. When something is added, again, it’s based on context. For example, if you included an area for relationships in the heart, if a heart invader left a lock of his or her hair there, your character might suddenly be deredere for them.


True Heart
The core and most important part of your heart is the true heart. Think of this as their ideal self, their very center or soul, etc. Again, Your Mileage May Very, but what usually is done is that the true heart is everything your character wishes to be/could be in an ideal world, without getting bogged down in all the complexes and worries and troubles that memories and life saddle them with. This is usually the area of the heart that is hardest to reach, but that does change depending on the character. A more open, loving character would probably have a true heart that is more accessible, for someone repressive and secretive it would probably be a little trickier to locate. Your true heart should be protected! You do not want this being altered or destroyed, if that happened your character would probably implode and be unable to function.

Example: Batman’s true heart is a charming, friendly, altruistic fellow! Rather than a crazy dude who copes with his trauma by dressing up in a bat suit and stalking evildoers by night.

Things to keep in mind...
❦ You will essentially be running a text adventure for a group of characters (maybe six?) so keep that in mind! It’s very important to plan in advance, and an excellent idea to have as much as possible pre-written (such as descriptions of locations, links and descriptions for memories, etc.). It’s hard on your players’ attention spans to keep them waiting for hours on end between comments, it will stress you out, and possibly give you carpel tunnel from all the typing if you try it on the fly. If you think you’ll have trouble keeping track of all your players, try to think of a way to keep them in groups ICly, or even ask the players OOCly if they could try to stick together.
❦ Do keep in mind what you’re willing to play with in terms of after-affects. I said this above but it’s worth stressing. Heart invaders can and will destroy or damage the things in your heart which in turn affects the character’s personality and memories, so be careful of that.
❦ Try to give your players lots to interact with! A heart that’s just comprised of memories or an empty room, even if it would represent your character the best, would be a bit dull. So try to give lots of chances for the players to interact with and affect things. If you aren’t comfortable having your character messed around with too much, you can always...
❦ Affect the players. Does your character call itself Allen Walker and wander around with a murderous headmonster chilling in the background? Then why not let the invading characters meet and interact with that? We all love trauma and drama, so probably no one will mind if you’d like to mongle them a bit. Don’t be shy to put your players through the paces, keeping in mind, of course, comfort zones and the like.
❦ Nothing that happens in a heart game needs to be permanent! It’s perfectly acceptable to play with an interesting personality change for awhile and then let memories reset the character to something closer to the original status quo. There is also the option of running a second heart game to correct the problem (especially if it’s particularly catastrophic), but do keep in mind you’ll need mod permission to do this.
❦ Again, this is a free and flexible opportunity for you to show off your character and play with symbolism. There aren’t really many hard and fast rules. Design your heart in a way that you feel represents your character and don’t get too worried about doing it the right or wrong way. It’s like high school English class: make some sort of sense, and you’ll pass the class with flying colours.



Applications

2011-04-12 22:08
overclocked: (Default)

All applications are emailed to aather.mods@gmail.com with the subject line:
(Hero/Knight) - Character Name (1st/2nd/3rd/4th)
Reapp forms are here.

Hero Application
PLAYER INFO
Name:
Age:
Timezone:
Contact: (email, plurk, etc)

CHARACTER INFO
Character Name:
Canon: (the series they're from)
Reference: (any info page will do!)
Appearance: (a link to a picture)

Character Info: (Tell us about your character! Where did they come from? What are they like? What changed them or impacted their life? Try indicating who they are rather than what they do. History is important but the more detailed section should always be their personality/motivations. 400-800 words.)

Memory Loss Considerations: (How would this character be without memories? You don't need to rewrite everything, but consider some major differences. "Because Oedipus doesn't remember banging his mom, he isn't guilt stricken all the time" would be useful to put here. Also consider what sort of trajectory or character goal you have in mind—what sort of arc does your character have in canon, and how would this compare to getting back memories?)

Skills: (What are your character's skills and abilities, and how would they be affected by the powercap present in Aather? We do not require an exhaustive list! Focus on "What they can do" and "how will you limit this in Aather.")

Team Considerations: (What kind of teammate would your character be? How do you think they will fit in or change as a result of being on a team? Remember that getting along with your team is a major part of Aather, so detail in this section is very important.)

Team Placement Request: (If applicable! Please note whether or not you have a strong preference—your character would ONLY be playable on a certain team/type of team, or you specifically would like to wait for a particular team regardless of how long it takes—or if you would be happy with any team. We absolutely try to take all placement requests under consideration, but sometimes it's not possible; the more flexible, the better & faster the mods are able to make placements.)

WRITING SAMPLE

Can you play who you've apped? You have a few options here! Please choose one option that will give us the best picture of your character, as well as your grasp on their characterization & voice. All samples are to be written as your character's normal self, preferably from the point in canon from which they are being taken.

Option 1: 3rd Person Scene
Write a traditional third person point of view sample of about 300 words where your character does something. Keep in mind that this should be a showcase for voice & personality, and should be unique to your character in some manner.

Option 2: Monologue
Write a 1st person monologue of about 300 words where your character talks about a subject. This can be anything—reacting to or talking about elements of Aather would be fine, but it's up to you!

Option 3: Thread Links
Link 3-6 threads of you playing this character. If there is any information needed —like, this is an AU game, this is an amnesia game, character was under X effect—please include that information somewhere! We would like to see a variety of types threads (or threads off of different characters) if possible (so, no linking 6 threads of threading with the same canonmate, please!)

Option 4: IC Survey
Fill out the following IC survey:

IC Survey
Introduce yourself in a few sentences.

"The suffering of a few is okay if it benefits a great many." Do you agree with this sentiment? Why or why not?

What event from your past has impacted you the most? Please describe.

What are three things you're good at, as well as three things you're not so good at?

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

Do you believe in soulmates or love at first sight?

"Killing criminals is okay if they've committed a grave crime." Do you agree with this? Why or why not?

Do you consider yourself a strong person? Why or why not?

If you met a stranger, and were allowed to ask one single question in order to get to know them better, what question would you ask? And, if somebody asked you this question, how would you answer?

Free section: (Please put something which you think symbolizes you or is otherwise important to you.)






Knight Application
PLAYER INFO
Name:
Age:
Timezone:
Contact: (email, plurk, etc)

CHARACTER INFO
Character Name:
Canon: (the series they're from)
Reference: (any info page will do!)
Appearance: (a link to a picture)

Character Info: (Tell us about your character! Where did they come from? What are they like? What changed them or impacted their life? Try indicating who they are rather than what they do. History is important but the more detailed section should always be their personality/motivations. 400-800 words.)

Memory Loss Considerations: (How would this character be without memories? You don't need to rewrite everything, but consider some major differences. "Because Oedipus doesn't remember banging his mom, he isn't guilt stricken all the time" would be useful to put here. Also consider what sort of trajectory or character goal you have in mind—what sort of arc does your character have in canon, and how would this compare to getting back memories?)

Skills: Skills: (What are your character's skills and abilities, and how would they be affected by the powercap present in Aather? We do not require an exhaustive list! Focus on "What they can do" and "how will you limit this in Aather.")

Suited To Be A Knight? (Why are you apping this character as a Knight instead of a Hero? How do you feel they will fit in as a Knight? Are they suited to the role, and why? Is your character self-motivated and driven (in any way, selfishly or altruistically) to help heroes & the world? Please also reference the "Knights" section on the amnesia, powers & roles page for further Knight considerations! And remember—"not suited to be on a team" isn't the same as "suited to be a knight.")

WRITING SAMPLE

Can you play who you've apped? You have a few options here! Please choose one option that will give us the best picture of your character, as well as your grasp on their characterization & voice. All samples are to be written as your character's normal self, preferably from the point in canon from which they are being taken.

Option 1: 3rd Person Scene
Write a traditional third person point of view sample of about 300 words where your character does something. Keep in mind that this should be a showcase for voice & personality, and should be unique to your character in some manner.

Option 2: Monologue
Write a 1st person monologue of about 300 words where your character talks about a subject. This can be anything—reacting to or talking about elements of Aather would be fine, but it's up to you!

Option 3: Thread Links
Link 3-6 threads of you playing this character. If there is any information needed —like, this is an AU game, this is an amnesia game, character was under X effect—please include that information somewhere! We would like to see a variety of types threads (or threads off of different characters) if possible (so, no linking 6 threads of threading with the same canonmate, please!)

Option 4: IC Survey
Fill out the following IC survey:

IC Survey
Introduce yourself in a few sentences.

"The suffering of a few is okay if it benefits a great many." Do you agree with this sentiment? Why or why not?

What event from your past has impacted you the most? Please describe.

How would you control a large rioting crowd?

If someone screwed you over, how would you get back at them? If you would not get back at them, please describe a prank or surprise party you would construct for a friend.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

Do you believe in soulmates or love at first sight?

"Killing criminals is okay if they've committed a grave crime." Do you agree with this? Why or why not?

Do you consider yourself a strong person? Why or why not?

What is the most important thing in the world to you, and what would you do in order to protect it?

If you met a stranger, and were allowed to ask one single question in order to get to know them better, what question would you ask? And, if somebody asked you this question, how would you answer?

Free section: (Please put something which you think symbolizes you or is otherwise important to you.)



applying to aather

2011-04-12 16:27
overclocked: (Default)
current application status
After 4+ years, the game is now closed. So long and thanks for all the fish ♥

rules

✦ Placement into the game will depend on the team slots available. However, right now most placements are happening either immediately, or within 1-3 weeks of applying (if you requested a specific, full team)!

✦ Applications are processed and placements made on Monday of every week. If an application requires only minor revisions or clarifications, this may be re-submitted as soon as you are able to make corrections.

✦ Currently there is no character cap.

✦ You may submit multiple applications per round but we reserve the right to hold one app for at least a couple weeks to allow you time to settle in with your first character.

✦ If you wish for the mods to hold your app, just email the mod account. This means you won't be placed until you're ready.

✦ If you want to withdraw your app, please also just email the mods and feel free to re-submit at a later date.


what characters are OK to app?

✦ MEDIUM: If the character is appropriate for the game then the mediums you can app from are endless, as long as it is a published source of some kind—we do not accept OCs! However, canons that are webcomics or children's cartoons may require more discussion than novels and canons aimed at older age groups, since Aather does have darker & more mature themes.

✦ AGE: Young characters may not have enough memories or are just not appropriate for a game where shit may go down! So, use your own discretion and mods reserve the right to ask for justification if there seems to be an issue.

✦ HUMAN/NONHUMAN: Nonhumanoid characters are appable! Just remember that all characters are starting at a base level of "around a normal human." So if your character is nonhumanoid, aka a dog or something then their hearing and scent skills will still be dulled a little. If they have like MAGICAL LASER SHOOTING TUMORS then their tumors won't shoot lasers, that sort of thing. Also keep in mind that your nonhuman character will still need to function as part of a team with humans, and how that may affect your character choice.

✦ PERSONALITY: Is your character capable of functioning on a team? Or will they consistently and problematically have difficulties making CR with teammates, being motivated to play in games, or develop as a person? Consider the greater picture! If you want to play a sociopath that doesn't really have feelings, will they still provide a valuable playing experience with others, or be easygoing in games so as not to consistently negatively impact their teammates? Please keep in mind that you are apping to play on a team, as a teammate, and that ICly and OOCly you need to keep your own fun and your potential team's fun in mind.

✦ SUPERPOWERS: All skills will be dulled to that of a normal human until they are earned back. Even if your character is a magical space kangaroo vampire hybrid, their skills will still be dulled, including something like SUPER HIGH JUMPING due to being a kangaroo. You could play this as them just not being able to jump super high like they used to, or feeling something off about their muscles, whatever. Please refer to the memory & skills section for more info on how characters are depowered!

✦ DEAD CHARACTERS: You can app characters that have died in their canon. The character in question will have been revived, just add a death memory to their registry. And by revived we mean they won't be a zombie. Unless they're a zombie in canon, and then they would be.

✦ CANONMATES: Those from the same canon are typically split up in order to encourage wider CR nets and team identity separate from pre-existing relationships; however, especially as available team slots are few and far between, and because there can often be unique benefits to characters & teams as a whole in a placement that results in canonmates together, placing canonmates on the same team is something we are OK with doing on a situational basis & by request! If you have any further questions about this, don't hesitate to ask us.

✦ TEAM PLACEMENT REQUESTS: Consider if there is a specific team or teams that would work best for your character! Does your character have specific considerations that would make them better/worse in a certain environment or with other types of people? You can include your team placement requests in your application, or email the mods at any time—remember that you can also include requests for OOC reasons and we will always do our best to support them!


how to apply
first character
✦ Check out the main navigation for the game.
✦ Read the rules, starter guide and memory guide.
✦ Check the taken and dropped characters page.
✦ Look at the sample apps (Vriska Serket and Mint)

thirds, fourths, & beyond
✦ There is no longer an activity requirement for your 3rd+ characters, but we may hold an app/discuss with you if you have current characters that aren't being played.

✦ Please keep in mind your own ability to maintain your characters' active presence in the game, however! Always remember that hiatusing and reapping is an option and that communication with your team will be greatly appreciated.

✦ For more information about activity, please see the activity policy page.

knights
✦ Playing as a Knight can be a different playing experience than playing as a hero! Knights have to play in games essentially relying on their own skills, and do not have as much of a safety net either in social interactions or in winning memories as the Heroes do, both ICly & OOCly. Knight characters should be self-motivated and feel like inserting themselves into different aspects of the game. Please keep this in mind when you choose whether or not to apply as a knight!

✦ Knights have different expectations than team members. Knights should be willing to help the heroes; for the most part they are a leadership & support role. Knights are expected to be able to integrate with the system in some way and support their patron(s) in the goal of reclaiming Aather. There is a great deal of flexibility and choice allowed in this position in terms of how you want to play, but also a fair degree of following rules and maintaining the system.

✦ For the time being, all Knights will be apped onto Sterling and will serve Sleeping Beauty directly. Once in Aather, of course, Knights have the IC ability to move to Onyx.

✦ Check the taken and dropped characters page.

✦ Check the sample applications (Lloyd Irving and Dino Cavallone).

reapps
✦ For info on reapping a dropped character, go here

applications ➠

Activity Policy

2011-04-05 22:48
overclocked: (Default)
activity policy
FAQ | Heroes & Knights | Personae


Aather is a game that, by its nature, needs players/characters to be active! Time is more-or-less linear, and your relationships with your team and with other teams are constantly developing. We also have a limited number of character slots; and teams rely on each other being there to play in games. In short: being active and present in a game like this is a big part of keeping the game running at its best.

We understand that sometimes real life is busy, and of course, you have other things to attend to—in no way do we want people be pressured to play more than they’re comfortable with, or to get stressed out if they aren’t feeling it or don’t have time to play! We fully want it to be at your pace and whatever you're interested in playing with. If there is an event that you aren't interested in, or if you need a short break, we don't want this to be an issue for anybody! In light of all this, our current policy is as follows:

❦ There will be a monthly check-in post—you can fulfill activity at any point between the 1st until the end of the month.

❦ You will be asked for a link with:

1. a single 20(+) comment thread, or
2. two 15-comment threads

*This is per character—15 or 20 comments from you in a consecutive thread.

❦ Running a post is another option for meeting activity, even if none of the individual threads reach 15 comments. As long as you are making an honest effort to engage with the post, it will count—this does not mean you must reply to every person who comments to the post, but keep in mind general posting etiquette.

❦ Multiple shorter threads in the dramatispersonae also count towards activity. However, you must be demonstrably present and contributing during the game.

❦ Play with your teammates, or with a variety of teams if you're a knight.

❦ Make sure to comment to the check-in post. If you don't have any threads but still want to play, it's fine to just let us know that you want to stick around and make AC for the following month! Just be sure to comment to the check-in post saying "hey, I'm here and still playing."

❦ Players that don't comment will receive an email reminder. If we don't hear back from you after that and there are no recent tags, inactive players/characters will still be idled.

❦ It will no longer be necessary to call a hiatus, but if you will be "on hiatus" for more than 3 weeks, make sure you have a hiatus reason (so your team knows ICly where your character is) or consider tempdropping, since you can reapp at any time. Additional information on hiatuses can be found here.

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strikes & idling
Players that don't comment to the monthly check-in post will receive an email reminder. If we don't hear back from you after that and there are no recent tags, inactive players/characters will be idled.
You should be playing with your team (if you're on one) and with a wide variety of teams (if you're a knight): Communication and playing with your team is an important part of Aather, so if we notice that you are only playing with CR outside of your team, we may open dialogue with you regarding this! Similarly, with knights, you are expected to try to create a wider web of CR with a variety of different teams, since you will have to play with multiple teams during games, and have different expectations as part of the knight role.
Remember, picking up characters after dropping/idling is not a painful process at Aather! Just fill out the reapp form here.

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Personae Activity
✦ We will be doing a monthly check for Persona activity! We would like to see each Persona out at least once a month, with at least one thread every two months.

What counts as activity for a Persona?
✦ running a game or event
✦ putting up a themed post! (ie: a mingle that states, "today there are shadow portals on the ground!" Anything that encourages participation and mingling and has something to do with your Persona's domain
✦ or just threading with someone!

Basically, what we determine to be activity for Personae is very flexible; we'd just like to see them out and around and doing something.

If we don't see your Persona out during the month, we will drop you an email query just to note that we would like to see them out the month following. If you go two months without doing anything with your Persona, we will email you to consider temporarily retiring your Persona if you don't think you're interested in playing them any longer. If you've just been having a busy month or two and have some further ideas that you're planning to implement, that is A-OK as well, though.

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POWER LIMITATIONS

2011-03-17 00:10
overclocked: (Default)
Powercap Guidelines
The powercap was adjusted on June 9, 2014

Aather has a powercap that restricts a character's abilities and skills! If your character can leap a building with a single bound, fight for ten days without stopping, or kill a god . . . well, that doesn't make for particularly balanced or fun roleplay!

We trust players to make any adjustments necessary, but please use this as a guideline for how your characters' powers will be limited. If you have any specific questions, don't hesitate to ask the mods ♥

❦ The biggest rule, of course, is play nice with others! Don't godmode, don't infomod, don't corner other characters (or even npcs/monsters) with no hope of escape.

❦ The second rule is "struggle more"—really just meaning don't wave a magic wand and end things. Fights should be more like two kids hitting each other with rocks than one kid fighting a tank. If everyone gets mauled by wild goats, you shouldn't all be healed the next day—that sort of thing.

❦ The third rule is simply—communicate! Basically if two characters are evenly matched and want to do a thing—perhaps a one hit kill, maybe a permanent Geass, whatever. It is okay. However, never feel like you have to! If you are like "well, power limiting table says no one hit kills" then everyone should respect this! However, if all parties involved are like yeah okay death is going to happen we are cool with that and want the fall out from that e t c then you can bend the power limiting a bit.

❦ Any time a character starts to hit the "upper limit" of their skill or power they're going to suffer some kind of backlash. Maybe they'll vomit for hours! Maybe they'll pass out for a day! Maybe they have a splitting headache or see double, whatever. But if they hit the upper limit or push beyond it by a hair there are consequences. So, please do make sure to play those out!

Also, these limitations only affect skills earned back. Since . . . without your skills you don't have anything to be limited.


Magic

EXTERNAL
Anything where you pull magic from an external source. Nodes, mana, whatever. As long as the magic comes from NOT YOU.

External magic is severely limited by the world. At the moment the world of Aather is still under attack and dying. Spells that require you to draw magic from the world around you will be far weaker because of this.

Drawing magic out of the world is pretty difficult and requires a lot of effort. It should be pretty tiring to do so.
INTERNAL
Magic which draws from the internal! So something that pulls from Magic Points, or your own life-force or whatever.

This means internal magic has the advantage, right? Nnnootttt really. Since there's no inn-ethers-magic statues to help refill your magic it makes using it really exhausting.

For example, if you're an MP/SP sort of character, assume that you have like 25MP. Simple cure or small fire takes about 5MP to cast on this scale.

Any magic powers that you acquire as an outside source/channeling (ie: materia!) will function at about half the effectiveness if you are not from a canon that typically uses it. So, if you are an ordinary combatant that gets his/her hands on fancy magic, you will only ever be about half as effective as someone from that canon (at the very outside! Please gauge this according to what you perceive to be your character's natural skills & inclinations!)

The key to internal magic use in Aather is to remember how exhausted your character will be in the near future!
OTHER
Magic that doesn't fit into either category. Summons and pokemons and stuff like that can happen! However your summon/whatever will be limited as well.

Death spells are almost always nulled! One hit kills, in general, are discouraged. However in certain situations when players both oocly agree it would be awesome, they can happen! But think of how low the death likelihood is when you cast mudo already, then lower it by like 800%. Revival spells, on the same note, are likewise almost always nulled.


Physical
If your character is superpowered, try to gauge your physical ability to just above peak human. A speedster might be able to move almost faster than the eye could see but still be trackable by the human eye. Someone with superhuman strength might be able to lift a smartcar, but not an SUV. That sort of thing.

In terms of CRAZY ABILITIES like whacky physics defying canons (I am looking at YOU Air Gear) and so forth it's just that everything (like magic) is kind of muted. So, if your character can MAKE A TORNADO WITH THEIR HANDS it is more likely they can make a small gust instead.

For those who just have crazy good skill, like super duper 108% precision sharpshooting or "I can cut this vegetable in half and put it back together my sword skills are so good the cellular level of this vegetable don't even know" . . . yes, that will be limited as well. If you never miss in canon, you may start to miss some in Aather. Perhaps a very low percentage, but it will happen—or, you can't do it a lot without feeling at least a little tired.

Basically, the rule is "have as much fun as you want but remember that you were always a little better at home!" If being maximum cool means that you're still not going to compete against an Exorcist or someone from Dragonball, then it's fine to not powercap yourself as much as they would need to.


Other
Psychics, illusions, clairvoyance, astral planes . . . telekinesis, regeneration/self-healing and other bodily manipulations (like metabolism and such), teleportation—

Mostly, just keep in mind the rules above and try to work out an equivalent. Maybe you can only use your empathy for ~five minutes~ before getting a killer headache. Maybe your illusions don't last very long or are easier to overwill. Things like self-healing should take a while, at least a few days.

What about genius intellect/high aptitude/super learning etc? This really depends on the player! If it is within the human norm, then when you earn this back roll with it! If it is like actually I am a computer only better than a computer because I am a person! That's going to be capped a bit. Mostly, use your discretion on whatever seems most fair and fun and still true to the thrust of the character.


Team Rankings Table

2011-03-04 14:15
overclocked: (Default)
Rankings


How team rankings work:
❦ They are based on the game history!
❦ Previous Realms: Beauty's Forest | Three's Cove | Wonderland | Camelot
❦ The first column is the number of times that team has won memories out of the last six games! This DOES NOT include skill or knight games, but DOES include loser memory games.
❦ Teams are ranked based on the first column primarily; the secondary categorization is the last time they won. The third column is essentially for reference and only affects the ranking if the other two categories are tied.
❦ "Loser" teams are generally the losing "half" of the rankings under the red line. This generally varies between 4-6 depending on the spread of numbers, and is slightly flexible—if the middle of the group is tied at 3 wins each, with a few teams above and a few below, it is mod prerogative whether or not to have a bigger or smaller group of losers. However, we will almost never split a number. If one team with 3 wins is a loser team, then all teams with 3 wins are. There may be exceptions to this on occasion, like if a lot of teams are tied with the same number of wins, but we will attempt to stay within these guidelines for the most part. In this case, we would separate them based on when they last won a game.

Loser Games
❦ If you are a Persona running a loser game, check with a mod to make sure that this has been updated immediately prior to your loser game. If there is still another memory game between now and your game, the results will not be accurate!
❦ All teams that qualify for the loser game and are represented in the game should be awarded memories.
❦ All knights that participate in the game should also win memories. If a gamerunner notes that a knight or team signed up for the game but did not play, please alert a mod!
❦ Teams that are not in the loser rankings may also participate, but may not win.
❦ Memory loser games generally occur approximately every six or so games. The mods will generally reserve a time on the calendar when a loser game should fall, though if we don't have any plans for itself, we will mark it as "currently unclaimed" and any Personae player can claim it!

As of Day 335 Aather moved from Camelot to the Black Woods and the rankings were reset to 0 for both memory and skill games.

❦ Memories


Skill Games
❦ The skill game rankings simply include every skill game, since there are much fewer. Winners and losers may be determined by how long ago it was since they won a skill, since there often several teams tied at the same number of wins.

❦ Skills



drops, hiatuses & reapps

2011-01-05 20:37
overclocked: (Default)
❦ Officially calling a hiatus is no longer necessary if you expect to not make activity. But if you will be "on hiatus" for more than 3 weeks, make sure you have a hiatus reason—so your team knows ICly where your character is—or consider tempdropping, since you can reapp at any time.

❦ When the monthly activity check-in post goes up, comment with your character's IC hiatus reason! You can use this to inform their teammates or non-team CR.

❦ If you want a reason to be gone check out this spreadsheet for ideas! Just ping a player and ask if it is okay if your character goes with that NPC -- or add it to your comment about your hiatus!


For a drop please fill out this form and email it to aather.mods[at]gmail!

Character Name:
Character Journal:
Team:
Eight or more memories regained? (locks the character to you)
Drop Method: (Book, or Persona)
manage_circle del_read [username]
manage_circle del_access [username]

❦ What are these dropping methods?
The Book means, well, your character gets pulled into a book; two-dimensionaified and flattened and that is where they remain! It is a mostly trauma free drop! You will just feel a bit flat for a while :B two dimensional.

You can also choose to go with a Persona to their realm for a time! Just talk to the appropriate Persona player ahead of time to arrange it.

If you have completed your registry or are otherwise done with your character and want to take your character out of play permanently, please refer to the Happy Endings page!


Please email this form to aather.mods[at]gmail.com with REAPP: Character Name (1st/2nd/3rd) in the subject:

Player Name:
Character Name:
Series:
Character Journal:
Team:
Dropping Method:

How has the book/darkness/Persona leave impacted your character?:



STATISTICS & REGISTRIES

2011-01-02 19:09
overclocked: (Default)
STATS ( S ) & REGISTRIES ( R )
CORAL
RUBY
JASPER
CITRINE
Dick Grayson ➢ S & R
Richard ➢ S & R
Mikado ➢ S & R
 Shinjiro ➢ S & R
Ben ➢ S & R
Chromedome ➢ S & R
 Arietta ➢ S & R
Makoto ➢ S & R
Kite ➢ S & Mem R/Skill R
Ao ➢ S & R
 Elan ➢ S & R
Killua ➢ S & R
Setsuna ➢ S & R
Fenris ➢ S & R


CARNELIAN
TIGER'S EYE
HELIODOR
PERIDOT
Katniss Everdeen ➢ S & R
Minako ➢ S & R
Anthy ➢ S & R
Naruto ➢ S & R
Stiles ➢ S & R
 Noel Kriess ➢ S & R
Kujou Yamato ➢ S & R
Stefen ➢ S & R
 Ned ➢ S & R
Ciel ➢ S & R
Hinata ➢ S & R
Ran ➢ S & R
 Tetsu ➢ S & R
Sousuke ➢ S & R
Alluka ➢ S & R
Nick ➢ S & R


EMERALD
TURQUOISE
SAPPHIRE
IOLITE
Clara ➢ S & R
Zen ➢ S & R
Haymitch ➢ S & R
Jacob Stone ➢ S & R
 Mao ➢ S & R
Koujaku ➢ S & R
Kovu ➢ S & R
Utena ➢ S & R
Fingon ➢ S & R
Korra ➢ S & R
 Shirakawa Yuki ➢ S & R
Shirayuki ➢ S & R
Hanayo Koizumi ➢ S & R
Acheron ➢ S & R
Gon ➢ S & R
 Dean Winchester ➢ S & R
Temeraire ➢ S & R
Vanyel ➢ S & R


AMETHYST
KUNZITE
Ryner Lute ➢ S & R
Fon ➢ S & R
Kagari/Homura ➢ S & R
Sahashi Minato ➢ S & R
 Ruka ➢ S & R
Waver ➢ S & R


KNIGHTS
STERLING
ONYX
Anna of Arendelle ➢ S & R
Davian ➢ S & R
Elsa ➢ S & R
Estelle ➢ S & R
Flynn ➢ S & R
Jade ➢ S & R
Johanna Mason ➢ S & R
Kaname Kuran ➢ S & R
Karigan G'ladheon ➢ S & R
Kiryuu Zero ➢ S & R
Maedhros ➢ S & R
Meruru ➢ S & R
Mint ➢ S & R
Owain ➢ S & R
Ren ➢ S & R
Shill ➢ S & R
Susan Pevensie ➢ S & R
 Bucky Barnes. ➢ S & R
Judar ➢ S & R
Natasha Romanoff ➢ S & R

HOW DO I MAKE IT LOOK PRETTY

2011-01-02 16:59
overclocked: (Default)
OKAY! So you have a dreamwidth! And you are on dreamwidth.org! NOW WHAT.


Go to "SELECT STYLE" under the organize tab! This is the tab you can go to do, well, all of your organization things.


You might have to scroll down a little, but go to "developer area."

CLICK ON 'YOUR LAYERS', it should take you here!


You will want to "Create Top-Level Layer." You want to put it on 'layout' and change the 2 to a 1. Then hit "create."


Is what you will get! Click the "edit" button and you will come to the layer making page. In the right hand box there will be two lines of text, delete everything in that box!

And then select this code

and paste it into the box! Then click the "Save & Compile" button.


Compiled with no errors means you've done it right! Click on "back to layers list" and it'll take you back to the layers page.

From here you click on the organize tab again, and go back to select style. Clicking on Your Custom Layers will allow you to select flexible squares! Apply the theme and then click "customize" and now you can customize it as you would a livejournal S2 layout!

For those who don't use flexible squares often, click on Customize CSS and it will bring you here. I usually look at [livejournal.com profile] mintyapple but there are a lot of good layout communities out there.

There you have it!

DREAMWIDTH BASICS

2011-01-02 15:47
overclocked: (Default)
HELLO LIVEJOURNAL/INSANEJOURNAL USERS. Dreamwidth is a website much like its siblings but there are a few changes!

• You will need an invite code to make a dreamwidth! When you receive your acceptance email it will include an invite code •
• If you use the LJ log-in widget, you can put your dreamwidth accounts there! •
• Points in the shop are basically LJ Tokens! •

The breakdown for icons is as follows:
basic (unpaid) accounts get 15 icons for free
paid accounts ( $3 a month, $17.50 for 6 months ) get 100 icons
premium accounts ( $25 for 6 months ) get 250 icons

You do not pay for icons, they're just part of the paid account package.

There are a few other nifty features, here's a list. Dreamwidth also has keyword renaming, browse on posting and on 'post new comment' pages and you can sort your userpics by different orders.

All of the basic html code you can use on LJ and IJ also work here. For a full list of support html you can go here. This link is also next to the rich text/html tab on your post a new entry page!

The site specific tags are a little different. <lj user="username"> has become <user name="username">. You can link to offsite journals like journals on livejournal (like [livejournal.com profile] alexander like this <user name="alexander" site="livejournal.com">. At the bottom of the profile for all dreamwidths, there is a code you can copypaste to link to your dreamwidth on other websites!

<lj-cut="cut text"> </lj-cut> has become <cut text="cut text"> </cut>.

If you are like but no! I don't want to change how I write my cut tag and username tag! Well, to be honest you don't have to. You can still use your old LJ coding.

Dreamwidth default layouts are NOT THE BEST, this is true. But to make it like the flexible squares you KNOW AND LOVE go here for a tutorial.

Also, because [personal profile] emiri is amazing she wrote a guide to making dreamwidth's site scheme look more like livejournal's. You should all love her.

• Dreamwidth does not come equipped with a hoverover to display the name of the journal. However there is a greasemonkey script that will allow you to 'annotate' usernames, which can serve as a replacement for hoverover.

BACK to Navigation

(no subject)

2010-10-11 14:47
overclocked: (Default)
activity policy
Aather is a game that, by its nature, needs players/characters to be active! Time is more-or-less linear, and your relationships with your team and with other teams are constantly developing. We also have a limited number of character slots; and teams rely on each other being there to play in games. In short: being active and present in a game like this is a big part of keeping the game running at its best.

We understand that sometimes real life is busy, and of course, you have other things to attend to—in no way do we want people be pressured to play more than they’re comfortable with, or to get stressed out if they aren’t feeling it or don’t have time to play! But we also have to draw a bottom line for inactivity, since “invisible teammates” really do have a negative effect on teams and everybody’s ability to have fun.

❦ Activity is Sunday to Sunday—you can fulfill activity at any point during the week and players are expected to play once a week at minimum.

❦ Activity cut off is Noon GMT on Sunday, to try and accommodate for as many time zones as possible. You can find what that translates into for your timezone here. Activity for the finished week will be checked after the cutoff. For most players, this means that playing on Sunday will count for the week upcoming, and you have until late night on Saturday to make your activity for the week prior.

❦ Play with your teammates, or with a variety of teams if you're a knight.

❦ Call a hiatus if you aren't going to be around for more than a week.

❦ Multiple, shorter threads will now count for activity! You will have the option of either a minimum of:

1. a single 15(+) comment thread, or
2. two 10-comment threads

. . . with some allowances made for mix-and-match cases, such as one 13 comment thread, an eight and a nine, etc. However! We would prefer to not have this be the case every time and will review it on a case-by-case basis.

❦ Running a post is another option for meeting activity, even if none of the individual threads reach 15 comments. As long as you are making an honest effort to engage with the post, it will count—this does not mean you must reply to every person who comments to the post, but keep in mind general posting etiquette.

❦ Multiple shorter threads in the dramatispersonae journal used in games will now also count towards activity. However, you must be demonstrably present and contributing during the game.



details & faq
1. Play at least once a week! We check activity fairly continuously. If we have not seen you have a significant thread (defined above) from Noon GMT Sunday to 11:59 am GMT the following Sunday, we will email you as a reminder to either call a hiatus, check to be sure you’ve tagged your posts, and/or to ensure you’ve gotten back to playing within the week. This counts as an activity strike.

We do go by the start time of the thread, unless there is significant backthreading since we do understand that carrying on old threads should not invalidate your activity. However, since we are checking tags for a lot of people (and just as a general preference as well) we would still like to see at least one fresh tag per week! Also, all activity must be within that 7-day period to count toward that week. 14 comments in one week with the 15th being past the deadline will not count.

If you do not respond to our attempts to contact you after the first warning, have not played after two weeks have passed, and/or otherwise fail a second subsequent activity check, we will idle you.
2. We expect everyone to start new threads at least once a week. However, if you are significantly backthreading and for whatever reason cannot progress in that week, we will ask for links! The activity date for these threads will be 15th from the newest—that is, we will be counting your comments from the end of the thread backwards and that is the date that will be recorded. For all other instances, the start date of the thread will be counted!

We may tap people if we notice frequent/repeated cases of large gaps (for example, playing every other weekend, or frequently going more than seven days without tagging out). We don't expect that this will be a major problem since you are all here to play because you want to play! But we reserve the right to call players on consistently meeting only the bare minimum of activity.
3. The Strike policy is as follows: a failure to make activity for the week will, result in a strike except in the case of extenuating circumstances, such as a family emergency or computer issues. We will always, always contact you before marking you for a strike—if you had declared a hiatus or had a qualifying thread that we somehow missed, just let us know and everyone will be on their merry way! Even if you do not have a qualifying thread, please do still respond to the email just to let us know you have seen it; we don't want to give someone a strike in error because the email went to spam or got buried under thread notifs!

A strike will be given in the event that you were not on hiatus and have no qualifying threads—but don't panic! A single strike will honestly not have that big of an impact on your 'record', as it were.
4. Two strikes in a row or three strikes in a two-month period (so, not making activity three out of a possible eight weeks) will unfortunately result in idling—but if you are just having an off week among a history of good activity you should be fine.

Additionally, a strike will be removed from your record after two months of good activity; you won't ever have to worry about being idled if you, say, fail activity routinely once a year over Christmas break.

If for some reason we "miss" sending a first strike/reminder email about activity, this does not mean that the missed week does not apply to the overall standards. You are responsible for monitoring your own activity!

5. If you call a hiatus email the modbox (required!) and post to the OOC comm (if you wish). However, due to the Sun-Sun time frame, it is no longer really necessary to declare short hiatuses. For instance, if you have already made activity on Tuesday week one and plan to be out of town Wednesday-Sunday, or even into the following week, you do not need to declare a hiatus except as a courtesy to your teammates, etc (in which case a post in your journal would be fine!) You could of course still declare hiatus for week two if you think you will also not make activity at any point during the week after you return.

Please keep in mind that while you can still declare longer hiatuses with mod approval, the maximum length for a hiatus is two weeks! This means, the longest you can be removed from play is two consecutive weeks, so please plan accordingly! A hiatus starts the day after your last activity thread, and ends when you are back in play—if this timeframe looks to span outside two weeks, please drop the mods a line.

"Over"-hiatusing is potential grounds for idling! If you are consistently going on hiatus with little to no return to reasonable activity in the meantime, we do reserve the right to talk to you about your low activity, which may result in idling. There are no hard and fast rules regarding this, but please keep in mind fairness to those you're playing with, and especially to those on your team!
6. You should be playing with your team (if you're on one) and with a wide variety of teams (if you're a knight): Communication and playing with your team is an important part of Aather, so if we notice that you are only playing with CR outside of your team, we may open dialogue with you regarding this! Similarly, with knights, you are expected to try to create a wider web of CR with a variety of different teams, since you will have to play with multiple teams during games, and have different expectations as part of the knight role. Failure to do so will not immediately result in idling, but if we have to talk to you multiple times and there is still no improvement, we may issue you an activity strike.
7. Communicate with the mods and with your team! If you are playing and regularly talking to your team and your mods about how often and when you are going to be available to play, there is absolutely no reason for problems to occur! In all cases, we want this to be as easy and non-stressful as possible for everyone, and would much rather be emailed frequently than have anyone worrying over whether they have made activity or if they've understood something incorrectly. If you have any questions regarding whether you have made activity for a given week, you should absolutely feel free to email the mods and we will double check for you.
8. Contact us! If you believe you have an extenuating circumstance or should be granted leeway (for instance, a 14 comment thread that was dropped by the other party), please contact us. If you have questions or concerns, please contact us. If you are unclear about any of the above please contact us—we are absolutely willing to try and work something out with people, but it is very difficult to do so retroactively.

Remember, picking up characters after dropping/idling is not a painful process at Aather! Just fill out the reapp form here.

The complete revision of the activity policy is HERE!


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Aather Mods

January 2020

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