Bo Jones. Or maybe Dennis. (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
nookiepowered) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomhigh_ooc2015-08-31 09:51 am
nookiepowered) wrote in fandomhigh_ooc2015-08-31 09:51 am
Entry tags:
Fandom High 10-Year Reunion FAQ
Greetings, Fandomites of yesterday, today and tomorrow! We want to welcome you back to the island, no matter how long you may have been gone.
We also want this anniversary event to be as laid-back and fun as possible for everyone, so we've put together some info to hopefully answer any questions or worries people might have about jumping back in to play. (This is for current players as well as anniversary returnees, so everybody, please take a look!)
Q: I'm a former player, but I didn't get an e-mail; am I still invited?
A: Absolutely! We could only e-mail people for whom we had a (hopefully) current address, but everybody's welcome.
Q: How long does this event last?
A: From the morning of Saturday, September 5th, through the afternoon/evening of Monday, September 7th, 2015.
Q: Are we still playing on Livejournal?
A: Yup, and the main communities are still![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
fandomhigh, fandomtownies, fandomhighdorms, and fandomhigh_ooc. (fh_im is also a fun option for playing: if you don't want to have your character physically return to the island, you're still welcome to have them show up on fake Twitter, open a fake AIM chat to all Fandom Island users, or otherwise interact on the fictional internet instead of or in addition to seeing people face to face. Just check out previous posts in the comm for how people structured them to make that style of playing work.)
You don't need to try to join or request membership in any of those comms to make a post there; just for the anniversary weekend, we're opening them up so that any journal, even non-members, can post.
Q: What if I can't use my character's old journal because I don't know the password, it's been purged, etc?
A: No problem; just create a new journal for them, and drop us a line here to let us know the name and which character it's for!
Q: What characters are eligible to come back and play for the anniversary weekend?
A: Anybody who was accepted as a student, teacher (or other school staff), or townie! Early characters who pre-dated the formal applications are fine too, as long as they fall into one of those categories.
Q: What type of characters aren't eligible?
A: AU Weekend versions of regular characters, convention guests, Parents Weekend NPCs, AU kids, temporary characters for plots, and so on. We love a lot of those characters too, but the island will be full enough as it is, and we have to draw a line somewhere!
Q: Hey, it's been ten years, or maybe longer for some of our characters. What about their actual, non-AU kids?
A: If they're younger than high school age, sure, but they need to be played out of their parent's journal, as an NPC.
Q: How many eligible characters can I bring back?
A: As many as you want and/or think you can handle playing over 3 days!
Q: So the last time I was here, we were kind of playing like this: *runs up, slips frog down the back of your shirt* What's the playing style now?
A: In most cases, the game has settled on 3rd-person past-tense narrative style playing:
"The hell?" Xander grumbled, wriggling until a tiny chirruping frog finally dropped out into his waiting hand. A tiny, chirruping, delicately lavender frog. "Guess I don't have to ask who your great-grandtadpole was."
There'll be a thread in the Come As You Were dance on Saturday night, though, where Anything Goes. Asterisks? Present tense? [OOC: A million OOC comments in the middle of the text?] Bring it on!
Q: Any new rules I should know about?
A: Not a whole lot has changed in day-to-day playing aside from the narrative style, but there's a set of what we hope are pretty common-sense guidelines for how to deal with sensitive/triggery issues in-game, located here, which basically boils down to "Use cut-tags or warnings in the thread header so people can avoid reading about traumatic stuff, and don't spring it on people you're directly playing with; check with them OOCly first."
You may also want a refresher on Fandom Meta (no telling other people they're fictional in your character's universe, instead make up a similar-sounding substitute or grab one from the FH Meta Wiki) and What Gets Posted Where.
If you want to read more in general about how the game runs these days, the Fandom High Index is the place to go! But don't worry; you're not responsible for knowing all that stuff. If there's a pop quiz at any time during this event, it will involve questions like "Hey, having fun? Great." (Also possibly, "Why are you still wearing a shirt?")
Q: How do I switch easily from one journal to another? I heard LJLogin was brokenated?
A: Pretty much, sadly. However, if you're willing to use Chrome instead of Firefox, there's an extension called LJ Account Juggler (created by one of our players, in fact) which does the same thing!
Q: What should I make sure to have on my journal's profile page/user-info?
The character's name, what fandom they're from, and a working e-mail address for you, the player, so other players can get in touch with you if they need to! (Current players who haven't yet done this for new or old characters, THIS MEANS YOU TOO.)
You may also want to post your AIM user-name, if you have one and will be signed on while playing. Anything else is up to you, but things like what year(s) your character was in Fandom, what they taught or where they worked if they're an adult, and any other personal information you want people to know about the character (or you!) may be useful and contribute to catching up with old friends.
Q: Speaking of contacting people, which characters and players are still around, who are the admins these days, and are people still hanging out on AIM?
Here's a run-down on the current admin team , and here's the current Fandom High Character Directory, which you can sort by character name, canon, player name, and more, and includes contact information for all characters.
AIM gets used less frequently than e-mail lately, but some of us do still hang out there, and the gogremlins chat room will be open all weekend for general game chat and carousing! To get in (assuming you're using the regular AIM client; we can't speak for other apps), just add your own screen-name to your buddy list, then invite yourself to a chat and fill in "gogremlins" as the chat name!
Q: Refresh my memory - if I make an actual post rather than just playing in other people's, what needs to go in there?
The post subject should state where it's set, and the general time of day. The actual content is up to you, but if it gets super-long, or if there's anything not-work-safe in the main post (this should only apply in the character's journal; no NWS posts in communities, please), please use an LJ-cut or a spoiler tag to collapse that stuff.
To make an LJ cut (only hides stuff from people's friendlists, or from the main page of your journal; when you click it, you get taken to the specific entry page, which shows everything): <lj-cut text="text that tells people what's hidden behind the cut"> {All the stuff you want hidden behind the LJ cut} </lj-cut> {Anything you want to be visible again after the hidden stuff}
To make spoiler-text (hides stuff everywhere, including in comments; when you click it, the hidden text appears immediately, on whatever page you're already viewing): <lj-spoiler title="text that tells people what's hidden by the spoiler warning"> {All the stuff you want hidden} </lj-cut> {Anything you want to be visible again after the hidden stuff}
Q: How much time should have passed for our characters since they left Fandom?
A: They do need to be coming from a point after they left the game -- no going back and undoing stuff you already established for them -- but beyond that, it's up to you! (EXCEPTION: If you actually killed off your character when they left the game, you're welcome to either bring them back as a ghost or whatever undead thing works best for your canon, or from some point before the character died.) A week after they left, ten years after they left, or fifty; your call.
Q: Any limits on what we can say happened to them in the intervening years?
A: Only that if another Fandom character who was played by someone else is involved, you need to clear that backstory with the player. No making things up about other people's characters without their approval. There's a brainstorming post here where you can get together with other players and make plans, if you spot a character you recognize!
Q: Do our characters know they'll be coming to Fandom for a reunion?
A: That's also up to you! They can: it's an official island celebration and any characters that you want to be returning intentionally will have received an invitation. If you'd rather it be a surprise to them (pleasant or otherwise), then they'll be sucked up by rogue portals courtesy of why-have-we-not-sued-this-company-out-of-existence-yet-oh-right-we-need-someone-to-blame-things-on PortalocityTM and deposited in Fandom on Saturday morning.
Q: Where can my characters stay?
The Arms Hotel will be open, and there's an OOC post here for reservations and other shenanigans! Characters are also welcome to stay with friends in town who still reside on the island, or, if they're school age, with friends who still reside in the dorms.
Q: Where can my characters go?
For the weekend (including the following Monday), the school and town are wide open for any visitors to drop in and hang out. (However, if you plan to have your returning character visit during a class on Monday, please check with the teacher's player first, either in the OOC thread once the class is posted, or ahead of time by e-mail/chat/etc.) The first floor of the dorms is also open to all visitors; the upper floors, roof and students' rooms are by (in-character) invitation only.
In terms of what's currently around on the island and in town, we've got a map and directory for you!
Places that are open season on posting if there's not already a post set there for the day:
* Any non-building area (park, beach, woods, rocky bits, graveyard, streets, dorm lawn)
* Any NPC business (The Perk, Jeff, God of Biscuits, Our Lady of Fandom, and many, many more)
* Your character's hotel room. Some guidelines on where to actually post that: Since reunion visitors won't appear on people's LJ friendlists, it's okay for you to post open posts (anyone with a reason to visit your character can drop in) with no Not-Work-Safe activities infandomtownies, so players will see them. If a hotel room post is just for your character and other specific characters you've already arranged things with, or if there's sexytimes or other not-work-safe stuffs going on, it needs to go in the character's personal journal.
Any other businesses are open to all, but only after a post has been made by a character who works there. Likewise, the personal spaces of current characters (apartments, hotel rooms, dorm rooms) need to be posted by that character before you can drop yours in to play.
Ingvar Islet (hey, did you know Fandom and the Isle of IKEA had a baby?) is off-limits; Ingvar is, um. Let us say both temperamental and in need of a little moral guidance, and Fandom is overprotective of both her kid, and her residents/guests, so approaching the baby island isn't going to be possible this weekend.
[Aaaand comment threads are open for business! Or pleasure.]
We also want this anniversary event to be as laid-back and fun as possible for everyone, so we've put together some info to hopefully answer any questions or worries people might have about jumping back in to play. (This is for current players as well as anniversary returnees, so everybody, please take a look!)
Non-Fictional Questions
Q: I'm a former player, but I didn't get an e-mail; am I still invited?
A: Absolutely! We could only e-mail people for whom we had a (hopefully) current address, but everybody's welcome.
Q: How long does this event last?
A: From the morning of Saturday, September 5th, through the afternoon/evening of Monday, September 7th, 2015.
Q: Are we still playing on Livejournal?
A: Yup, and the main communities are still
fandomhigh, fandomtownies, fandomhighdorms, and fandomhigh_ooc. (fh_im is also a fun option for playing: if you don't want to have your character physically return to the island, you're still welcome to have them show up on fake Twitter, open a fake AIM chat to all Fandom Island users, or otherwise interact on the fictional internet instead of or in addition to seeing people face to face. Just check out previous posts in the comm for how people structured them to make that style of playing work.)You don't need to try to join or request membership in any of those comms to make a post there; just for the anniversary weekend, we're opening them up so that any journal, even non-members, can post.
Q: What if I can't use my character's old journal because I don't know the password, it's been purged, etc?
A: No problem; just create a new journal for them, and drop us a line here to let us know the name and which character it's for!
Q: What characters are eligible to come back and play for the anniversary weekend?
A: Anybody who was accepted as a student, teacher (or other school staff), or townie! Early characters who pre-dated the formal applications are fine too, as long as they fall into one of those categories.
Q: What type of characters aren't eligible?
A: AU Weekend versions of regular characters, convention guests, Parents Weekend NPCs, AU kids, temporary characters for plots, and so on. We love a lot of those characters too, but the island will be full enough as it is, and we have to draw a line somewhere!
Q: Hey, it's been ten years, or maybe longer for some of our characters. What about their actual, non-AU kids?
A: If they're younger than high school age, sure, but they need to be played out of their parent's journal, as an NPC.
Q: How many eligible characters can I bring back?
A: As many as you want and/or think you can handle playing over 3 days!
Q: So the last time I was here, we were kind of playing like this: *runs up, slips frog down the back of your shirt* What's the playing style now?
A: In most cases, the game has settled on 3rd-person past-tense narrative style playing:
"The hell?" Xander grumbled, wriggling until a tiny chirruping frog finally dropped out into his waiting hand. A tiny, chirruping, delicately lavender frog. "Guess I don't have to ask who your great-grandtadpole was."
There'll be a thread in the Come As You Were dance on Saturday night, though, where Anything Goes. Asterisks? Present tense? [OOC: A million OOC comments in the middle of the text?] Bring it on!
Q: Any new rules I should know about?
A: Not a whole lot has changed in day-to-day playing aside from the narrative style, but there's a set of what we hope are pretty common-sense guidelines for how to deal with sensitive/triggery issues in-game, located here, which basically boils down to "Use cut-tags or warnings in the thread header so people can avoid reading about traumatic stuff, and don't spring it on people you're directly playing with; check with them OOCly first."
You may also want a refresher on Fandom Meta (no telling other people they're fictional in your character's universe, instead make up a similar-sounding substitute or grab one from the FH Meta Wiki) and What Gets Posted Where.
If you want to read more in general about how the game runs these days, the Fandom High Index is the place to go! But don't worry; you're not responsible for knowing all that stuff. If there's a pop quiz at any time during this event, it will involve questions like "Hey, having fun? Great." (Also possibly, "Why are you still wearing a shirt?")
Q: How do I switch easily from one journal to another? I heard LJLogin was brokenated?
A: Pretty much, sadly. However, if you're willing to use Chrome instead of Firefox, there's an extension called LJ Account Juggler (created by one of our players, in fact) which does the same thing!
Q: What should I make sure to have on my journal's profile page/user-info?
The character's name, what fandom they're from, and a working e-mail address for you, the player, so other players can get in touch with you if they need to! (Current players who haven't yet done this for new or old characters, THIS MEANS YOU TOO.)
You may also want to post your AIM user-name, if you have one and will be signed on while playing. Anything else is up to you, but things like what year(s) your character was in Fandom, what they taught or where they worked if they're an adult, and any other personal information you want people to know about the character (or you!) may be useful and contribute to catching up with old friends.
Q: Speaking of contacting people, which characters and players are still around, who are the admins these days, and are people still hanging out on AIM?
Here's a run-down on the current admin team , and here's the current Fandom High Character Directory, which you can sort by character name, canon, player name, and more, and includes contact information for all characters.
AIM gets used less frequently than e-mail lately, but some of us do still hang out there, and the gogremlins chat room will be open all weekend for general game chat and carousing! To get in (assuming you're using the regular AIM client; we can't speak for other apps), just add your own screen-name to your buddy list, then invite yourself to a chat and fill in "gogremlins" as the chat name!
Q: Refresh my memory - if I make an actual post rather than just playing in other people's, what needs to go in there?
The post subject should state where it's set, and the general time of day. The actual content is up to you, but if it gets super-long, or if there's anything not-work-safe in the main post (this should only apply in the character's journal; no NWS posts in communities, please), please use an LJ-cut or a spoiler tag to collapse that stuff.
To make an LJ cut (only hides stuff from people's friendlists, or from the main page of your journal; when you click it, you get taken to the specific entry page, which shows everything): <lj-cut text="text that tells people what's hidden behind the cut"> {All the stuff you want hidden behind the LJ cut} </lj-cut> {Anything you want to be visible again after the hidden stuff}
To make spoiler-text (hides stuff everywhere, including in comments; when you click it, the hidden text appears immediately, on whatever page you're already viewing): <lj-spoiler title="text that tells people what's hidden by the spoiler warning"> {All the stuff you want hidden} </lj-cut> {Anything you want to be visible again after the hidden stuff}
In-Game Questions
Q: How much time should have passed for our characters since they left Fandom?
A: They do need to be coming from a point after they left the game -- no going back and undoing stuff you already established for them -- but beyond that, it's up to you! (EXCEPTION: If you actually killed off your character when they left the game, you're welcome to either bring them back as a ghost or whatever undead thing works best for your canon, or from some point before the character died.) A week after they left, ten years after they left, or fifty; your call.
Q: Any limits on what we can say happened to them in the intervening years?
A: Only that if another Fandom character who was played by someone else is involved, you need to clear that backstory with the player. No making things up about other people's characters without their approval. There's a brainstorming post here where you can get together with other players and make plans, if you spot a character you recognize!
Q: Do our characters know they'll be coming to Fandom for a reunion?
A: That's also up to you! They can: it's an official island celebration and any characters that you want to be returning intentionally will have received an invitation. If you'd rather it be a surprise to them (pleasant or otherwise), then they'll be sucked up by rogue portals courtesy of why-have-we-not-sued-this-company-out-of-existence-yet-oh-right-we-need-someone-to-blame-things-on PortalocityTM and deposited in Fandom on Saturday morning.
Q: Where can my characters stay?
The Arms Hotel will be open, and there's an OOC post here for reservations and other shenanigans! Characters are also welcome to stay with friends in town who still reside on the island, or, if they're school age, with friends who still reside in the dorms.
Q: Where can my characters go?
For the weekend (including the following Monday), the school and town are wide open for any visitors to drop in and hang out. (However, if you plan to have your returning character visit during a class on Monday, please check with the teacher's player first, either in the OOC thread once the class is posted, or ahead of time by e-mail/chat/etc.) The first floor of the dorms is also open to all visitors; the upper floors, roof and students' rooms are by (in-character) invitation only.
In terms of what's currently around on the island and in town, we've got a map and directory for you!
Places that are open season on posting if there's not already a post set there for the day:
* Any non-building area (park, beach, woods, rocky bits, graveyard, streets, dorm lawn)
* Any NPC business (The Perk, Jeff, God of Biscuits, Our Lady of Fandom, and many, many more)
* Your character's hotel room. Some guidelines on where to actually post that: Since reunion visitors won't appear on people's LJ friendlists, it's okay for you to post open posts (anyone with a reason to visit your character can drop in) with no Not-Work-Safe activities in
fandomtownies, so players will see them. If a hotel room post is just for your character and other specific characters you've already arranged things with, or if there's sexytimes or other not-work-safe stuffs going on, it needs to go in the character's personal journal.Any other businesses are open to all, but only after a post has been made by a character who works there. Likewise, the personal spaces of current characters (apartments, hotel rooms, dorm rooms) need to be posted by that character before you can drop yours in to play.
Ingvar Islet (hey, did you know Fandom and the Isle of IKEA had a baby?) is off-limits; Ingvar is, um. Let us say both temperamental and in need of a little moral guidance, and Fandom is overprotective of both her kid, and her residents/guests, so approaching the baby island isn't going to be possible this weekend.
[Aaaand comment threads are open for business! Or pleasure.]
Questions For the Admins That We Didn't Answer
Questions About Game History/Geography/Flora/Fauna That Anybody Can Answer
gloatmeditate when he needs an ego-boost.)Toss 'em here, and anybody in (or no longer in) the game can feel free to expound on the answers!
Answers To Questions That Nobody Asked!
OOC Thread In The OOC Post
Re: OOC Thread In The OOC Post
Re: Questions For the Admins That We Didn't Answer
Re: OOC Thread In The OOC Post
Unless there's another Steve I don't know about.
Re: OOC Thread In The OOC Post
Re: OOC Thread In The OOC Post
Re: Questions For the Admins That We Didn't Answer
Re: OOC Thread In The OOC Post
Re: OOC Thread In The OOC Post
Re: OOC Thread In The OOC Post
Re: Questions For the Admins That We Didn't Answer
Re: OOC Thread In The OOC Post
You don't want to do that.
Re: Questions For the Admins That We Didn't Answer
Re: Questions For the Admins That We Didn't Answer
FYI: I'm not being anyone's wrath. Just so you know.
Re: Questions About Game History/Geography/Flora/Fauna That Anybody Can Answer
Re: Questions About Game History/Geography/Flora/Fauna That Anybody Can Answer
Re: OOC Thread In The OOC Post
Re: OOC Thread In The OOC Post
I'mma just leave this here.
Re: OOC Thread In The OOC Post
Re: Questions About Game History/Geography/Flora/Fauna That Anybody Can Answer
Re: Questions About Game History/Geography/Flora/Fauna That Anybody Can Answer
Re: OOC Thread In The OOC Post
Re: Questions About Game History/Geography/Flora/Fauna That Anybody Can Answer
Re: Questions For the Admins That We Didn't Answer
I signed up as CheerfulCoffee because. well. you know.
Re: Questions About Game History/Geography/Flora/Fauna That Anybody Can Answer
Re: Questions About Game History/Geography/Flora/Fauna That Anybody Can Answer
Glittery boykissy is very important, I feel. To... life. In general. Yes.
Re: Questions For the Admins That We Didn't Answer
I use Adium, which has a very easy "Join Group Chat" command in the File menu. (Both titles are my best approximation of them in English as my own version of the program is in Finnish, but hopefully I'm not too far off.) I hope this helps!
Re: Questions For the Admins That We Didn't Answer
That was much easier than either browser or Trillian.
Re: Questions For the Admins That We Didn't Answer
Re: Questions About Game History/Geography/Flora/Fauna That Anybody Can Answer
Also, who's running the school these days?
Re: Questions For the Admins That We Didn't Answer
Re: Questions About Game History/Geography/Flora/Fauna That Anybody Can Answer
Principal: Still Zoe Washburn-who-became-Winchester/Katie.
Dean of Students: Anakin Skywalker/Fry. Yes, that Anakin Skywalker.
Security: Bo Jones/MP who might be more familiar wearing Xander's face.
Counselor: Electroclash/Corrie, who joined us a few years after you last had a character around
Sheriff: Jake Doyle/Kimera, more familiar wearing Bridge Carson's face
Mayor: Tamsin/Len, probably more familiar as Cable or Jeff Murdock from Coupling
Re: Questions For the Admins That We Didn't Answer
Re: Questions For the Admins That We Didn't Answer
I know the Nothing plot was in effect but I was thinking of Genderswap, etc.
Re: Answers To Questions That Nobody Asked!
I can't figure out how to add Veronica's tag to this post (http://fandomtownies.livejournal.com/7645692.html).
Re: Answers To Questions That Nobody Asked!
-MP
Re: OOC Thread In The OOC Post
Re: Questions For the Admins That We Didn't Answer
Re: Answers To Questions That Nobody Asked!
LJ suuuuucks, man.
Re: Questions For the Admins That We Didn't Answer
Re: Questions For the Admins That We Didn't Answer