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fandomhigh_ooc2019-05-07 11:13 am
geniuswithasmartphone) wrote in fandomhigh_ooc2019-05-07 11:13 am
Entry tags:
How Fandom Got Its Groove Back! Summer Travels 2019
It's been an exciting few weeks, right? There were finals, a BDE, new students...It's been a time of change and upheaval. And do you know who's been realizing they're kinda stuck in a rut?
The island, that's who.
Fandom is a mother, a home for adults and students all over the multiverse, a thriving ecosystem for a number of species not found anywhere else. That's a lot of pressure and has the island really been taking time just to breathe? To relax? Just to be? No. No it hasn't. And you know what? That should change. This summer the residents are gonna see...How Fandom Got Its Groove Back.
Rather than going around the world (done that) or even through space (done that, too), this summer, from Monday, May 13th through Sunday, August 25th, Fandom's gonna go on a journey of self-exploration through reality itself, visiting various different realities and AUs, trying to catch that certain spark that's been missing.
Starting next Monday, the island is going to travel to a different AU, mostly inspired by BDE's of the past. That being said, this is NOT a summer of "ALL BDE'S ALL THE TIME." No one has that time or energy left, we are all old now. It will be much like other island-travel-adventures. The island will travel to a new AU, the town will navigate the new AU's weirdness throughout the week, then the next week will come around and it will be time to go to a different reality. Each Monday brings in a new destination, each Friday or Saturday has an OOC announcement go up explaining where they're going to next, what people can expect, and places to ask questions about the upcoming week.
As for fighting, most of those fights will be player-run, with you all modding the enemies or fighting each other (or both!). Unlike a BDE proper, there will be no bosses to fight, no puzzles to solve, and no research to be done. What this event is offering is different backgrounds and environments for people to play in. Enemies and dangers will be environmental and cosmetic, things for people to interact with if you so choose, or to generally ignore and avoid if that's what you'd prefer.
ex. It's an Imaginary Blade Runner AU! Hardison is in a thread with Eliot and they are fighting a runaway replicant. Verity is sneaking through the island, paranoid and on the lookout, on the run from blade runners. And none of my Kathy posts on-island acknowledge the replicants even exist because, frankly, they're not her bag.
Things that WILL be affected by a jump: NPC businesses, NPC residences, the weather, locations around the island (warehouse district, the beach, the preserve, the park), the school.
ex. Entrapta finds a warehouse that's full of parts and bits that she uses to build an replicant named Emily. The weather remains dark and rainy all week, as per the noir setting. Neon ads are emblazoned against the sky.
Not every jump will affect every item on this list, but every jump will affect at least some of these. It's also worth noting that while the school may undergo cosmetic changes and there may be moddable dangers lurking around the school, classes themselves will be safe.
Things that MAY be affected but don't have to be: PC-owned businesses, PC residences (either declared by that building's owner or an agreement met by the residents), NPC workers.
ex. Tiny is an old-model replicant working behind the bar, unable to pass as human. Dite's has turned into a noodle bar, 33 Apocalypse is now secretly an underground replicant meetup.
Things that WON'T be affected: the dorms, the community center, and, as always, anyone who does not want to participated.
There are some AUs where an element of modding in unavoidable. The weather, for example, is something that will affect the entire island. For those things that aren't affected, like the dorms, they will still operate the same and undergo only cosmetic changes. (You might look out your dorm window and see the neon advertisements, cold rain, and noodle carts, but the inside of the dorm will remain the same and operate by usual dorm rules.)
Now, because each destination is an AU, characters will have the option of turning into appropriate AUs of themselves as well. This is not something that needs to be apped; people can just make the choice for their characters when appropriate. These AUs will last for the duration of the island's stay and then be gone as soon as the island shifts somewhere new - in all these cases, these changes will vanish by the following Monday.
ex. In the non-existent Blade Runner AU, Verity could wake up on Monday as a replicant on the run, trying to hide out from the Fandom troopers on the lookout for her, while Hardison is a completely unaware replicant, going through the week slowly learning that he is not human. Both of them will wake up Monday as non-replicants. Hardison may be back to normal, Verity might be a different AU for the new location.
If people choose to turn their characters into monsters or enemies, they can and may fight with other characters, so long as everybody OOCly agrees to it (a la Brood and feral vampire BDEs, neither of which are being visited this event). Everything here is opt-in only. Much like the physical changes from turning into an AU creature, all physical damage from fighting is reversed each Monday (that being said, please don't kill anyone). Mental and emotional damage is what it always is: up to each player individually.
A few rules about who characters can be turned into:
*No specific characters. Someone dropping into Blade Runner can't turn into Roy Batty or Rick Deckard or Rachael. Same thing for the real AUs we visit. No one here is replacing any named character from that AU's canon. Folks can become versions of generic background characters (say, replicants, blade runners, scientists, etc). Available character types will be listed in the writeups posted before each jump.
It's your choice how much or how little of the character they want to retain; Verity might fully forget she was ever anything but a replicant, but Hardison would be completely himself until he discovers that, for this week anyway, he is not human.
*No animals or non-sapient creatures. The exception to this are creatures that started off human and became twisted; like the feral vampires from last week. Basically, if someone wants to play this type of character...have at? But please remember that all violent interactions are opt-in, not opt-out.
*Not all AUs will have AUoptions for people to turn into. Those worlds will be noted in the AU's explanation before the island moves.
So this event is long. It's spread over about seventeen weeks. That's a lot. So while everyone is welcome to interact with each AU as much or as little as they want, there are also four weeks built in that are just the island being the island. No AUs, no monsters, nothing to fight. Reality may be slightly askew, but not in a bad way. If you were planning on having guests on the island or run a plot without a hundred other things going on, these may be the best weeks for it:
Jun 3-9
Jun 24-30
Jul 15-21
Aug 5-11
Putting those out there now for maximum advance planning.
The last thing I want to make clear in this egregiously long post (you should have seen the plot proposal I sent the admins!) is about leaving the island over the summer while Fandom's having its magical mystery tour. And that thing is:
Leaving the island is a-okay and doable almost any time.
Portals and the Causeway will work as normal 90% of the time. For the most part, you will be able to have your characters take come and go as they please, the same way you would any other time. There's a plot to run off-island? That's fine! Run it at will! Don't like this location and want the character to be elsewhere for it? Take a cool vacation somewhere! Even if the island switches AU while your character is away, that's no problem. They're still coming home to Fandom and that's what counts.
So what's up with the 10% of the time it doesn't work normally?
First, characters can't leave the island/the world of the AU if they have been AU'd in any way that week. With some certain exceptions that will be made explicit, a character wakes up on Monday as an AU version of themselves (much like any weird weekend on the island) and that AU last the full week. If you have plans to send your character home for a few days, please don't AU them that week.
The second exception requires a little refresher about how the Causeway works. Using the Causeway, people generally have two options: leave the island to some part of the world that the island is attached to (which usually means going to Baltimore) or leave the island to some part of the canonical world the character comes from (or, in the case of ex-pats, lives in now). So Kathy could step off the Causeway and end up in normal 2019 Earth Baltimore, or a Baltimore filled with exes as part of her canon, or even a Baltimore filled with demons, now that she's living in the DMC-verse.
The Causeway will continue functioning the same way while the island travels: characters may be leave via the Causeway to go back to their home worlds or to explore more of the AU world that the island is currently part of. They will not be able to get to normal 2019 Earth Baltimore from the Causeway, because that is not the world the island is attached to anymore. (But a portal will be able to take you there, no problem. Or, at least, no non-Portalocity problems.)
The only restriction for going to a character's canon world via the Causeway is the same restriction as with portals. No going if you're AU'd. To continue with Blade Runner, Hyacinthe can't be a replicant and then decide to head home to Terre D'Ange by either Causeway or portal. Nope, sorry, don't cross the streams.
For exploring the AU worlds beyond the Causeway....well, that's a little more complicated. In some AUs, AU characters can absolutely wander out into the wider world. Just be home by the time the island leaves, please. But if it sparks joy to have your character wandering about for a day or so, who am I to tell you no? There are certain and specific AUs, however, where the Causeway will be locked down due to Fandom's own brand of magic. You can still portal or take the Causeway home (provided you are not AU'd), but there will be no wandering about the world itself. In all these cases, this will be made explicitly clear in the writeup before the island moves. Your characters will never be trapped on the island without you knowing in advance.
Okay! I think I'm done! God I hope so, because THAT WAS A WHOLE LOT. But hey, now the floor is open to questions, comments, concerns, and everything else! Got something to say? Hit me up below!
The island, that's who.
Fandom is a mother, a home for adults and students all over the multiverse, a thriving ecosystem for a number of species not found anywhere else. That's a lot of pressure and has the island really been taking time just to breathe? To relax? Just to be? No. No it hasn't. And you know what? That should change. This summer the residents are gonna see...How Fandom Got Its Groove Back.
Rather than going around the world (done that) or even through space (done that, too), this summer, from Monday, May 13th through Sunday, August 25th, Fandom's gonna go on a journey of self-exploration through reality itself, visiting various different realities and AUs, trying to catch that certain spark that's been missing.
Starting next Monday, the island is going to travel to a different AU, mostly inspired by BDE's of the past. That being said, this is NOT a summer of "ALL BDE'S ALL THE TIME." No one has that time or energy left, we are all old now. It will be much like other island-travel-adventures. The island will travel to a new AU, the town will navigate the new AU's weirdness throughout the week, then the next week will come around and it will be time to go to a different reality. Each Monday brings in a new destination, each Friday or Saturday has an OOC announcement go up explaining where they're going to next, what people can expect, and places to ask questions about the upcoming week.
As for fighting, most of those fights will be player-run, with you all modding the enemies or fighting each other (or both!). Unlike a BDE proper, there will be no bosses to fight, no puzzles to solve, and no research to be done. What this event is offering is different backgrounds and environments for people to play in. Enemies and dangers will be environmental and cosmetic, things for people to interact with if you so choose, or to generally ignore and avoid if that's what you'd prefer.
ex. It's an Imaginary Blade Runner AU! Hardison is in a thread with Eliot and they are fighting a runaway replicant. Verity is sneaking through the island, paranoid and on the lookout, on the run from blade runners. And none of my Kathy posts on-island acknowledge the replicants even exist because, frankly, they're not her bag.
Things that WILL be affected by a jump: NPC businesses, NPC residences, the weather, locations around the island (warehouse district, the beach, the preserve, the park), the school.
ex. Entrapta finds a warehouse that's full of parts and bits that she uses to build an replicant named Emily. The weather remains dark and rainy all week, as per the noir setting. Neon ads are emblazoned against the sky.
Not every jump will affect every item on this list, but every jump will affect at least some of these. It's also worth noting that while the school may undergo cosmetic changes and there may be moddable dangers lurking around the school, classes themselves will be safe.
Things that MAY be affected but don't have to be: PC-owned businesses, PC residences (either declared by that building's owner or an agreement met by the residents), NPC workers.
ex. Tiny is an old-model replicant working behind the bar, unable to pass as human. Dite's has turned into a noodle bar, 33 Apocalypse is now secretly an underground replicant meetup.
Things that WON'T be affected: the dorms, the community center, and, as always, anyone who does not want to participated.
There are some AUs where an element of modding in unavoidable. The weather, for example, is something that will affect the entire island. For those things that aren't affected, like the dorms, they will still operate the same and undergo only cosmetic changes. (You might look out your dorm window and see the neon advertisements, cold rain, and noodle carts, but the inside of the dorm will remain the same and operate by usual dorm rules.)
Now, because each destination is an AU, characters will have the option of turning into appropriate AUs of themselves as well. This is not something that needs to be apped; people can just make the choice for their characters when appropriate. These AUs will last for the duration of the island's stay and then be gone as soon as the island shifts somewhere new - in all these cases, these changes will vanish by the following Monday.
ex. In the non-existent Blade Runner AU, Verity could wake up on Monday as a replicant on the run, trying to hide out from the Fandom troopers on the lookout for her, while Hardison is a completely unaware replicant, going through the week slowly learning that he is not human. Both of them will wake up Monday as non-replicants. Hardison may be back to normal, Verity might be a different AU for the new location.
If people choose to turn their characters into monsters or enemies, they can and may fight with other characters, so long as everybody OOCly agrees to it (a la Brood and feral vampire BDEs, neither of which are being visited this event). Everything here is opt-in only. Much like the physical changes from turning into an AU creature, all physical damage from fighting is reversed each Monday (that being said, please don't kill anyone). Mental and emotional damage is what it always is: up to each player individually.
A few rules about who characters can be turned into:
*No specific characters. Someone dropping into Blade Runner can't turn into Roy Batty or Rick Deckard or Rachael. Same thing for the real AUs we visit. No one here is replacing any named character from that AU's canon. Folks can become versions of generic background characters (say, replicants, blade runners, scientists, etc). Available character types will be listed in the writeups posted before each jump.
It's your choice how much or how little of the character they want to retain; Verity might fully forget she was ever anything but a replicant, but Hardison would be completely himself until he discovers that, for this week anyway, he is not human.
*No animals or non-sapient creatures. The exception to this are creatures that started off human and became twisted; like the feral vampires from last week. Basically, if someone wants to play this type of character...have at? But please remember that all violent interactions are opt-in, not opt-out.
*Not all AUs will have AUoptions for people to turn into. Those worlds will be noted in the AU's explanation before the island moves.
So this event is long. It's spread over about seventeen weeks. That's a lot. So while everyone is welcome to interact with each AU as much or as little as they want, there are also four weeks built in that are just the island being the island. No AUs, no monsters, nothing to fight. Reality may be slightly askew, but not in a bad way. If you were planning on having guests on the island or run a plot without a hundred other things going on, these may be the best weeks for it:
Jun 3-9
Jun 24-30
Jul 15-21
Aug 5-11
Putting those out there now for maximum advance planning.
The last thing I want to make clear in this egregiously long post (you should have seen the plot proposal I sent the admins!) is about leaving the island over the summer while Fandom's having its magical mystery tour. And that thing is:
Leaving the island is a-okay and doable almost any time.
Portals and the Causeway will work as normal 90% of the time. For the most part, you will be able to have your characters take come and go as they please, the same way you would any other time. There's a plot to run off-island? That's fine! Run it at will! Don't like this location and want the character to be elsewhere for it? Take a cool vacation somewhere! Even if the island switches AU while your character is away, that's no problem. They're still coming home to Fandom and that's what counts.
So what's up with the 10% of the time it doesn't work normally?
First, characters can't leave the island/the world of the AU if they have been AU'd in any way that week. With some certain exceptions that will be made explicit, a character wakes up on Monday as an AU version of themselves (much like any weird weekend on the island) and that AU last the full week. If you have plans to send your character home for a few days, please don't AU them that week.
The second exception requires a little refresher about how the Causeway works. Using the Causeway, people generally have two options: leave the island to some part of the world that the island is attached to (which usually means going to Baltimore) or leave the island to some part of the canonical world the character comes from (or, in the case of ex-pats, lives in now). So Kathy could step off the Causeway and end up in normal 2019 Earth Baltimore, or a Baltimore filled with exes as part of her canon, or even a Baltimore filled with demons, now that she's living in the DMC-verse.
The Causeway will continue functioning the same way while the island travels: characters may be leave via the Causeway to go back to their home worlds or to explore more of the AU world that the island is currently part of. They will not be able to get to normal 2019 Earth Baltimore from the Causeway, because that is not the world the island is attached to anymore. (But a portal will be able to take you there, no problem. Or, at least, no non-Portalocity problems.)
The only restriction for going to a character's canon world via the Causeway is the same restriction as with portals. No going if you're AU'd. To continue with Blade Runner, Hyacinthe can't be a replicant and then decide to head home to Terre D'Ange by either Causeway or portal. Nope, sorry, don't cross the streams.
For exploring the AU worlds beyond the Causeway....well, that's a little more complicated. In some AUs, AU characters can absolutely wander out into the wider world. Just be home by the time the island leaves, please. But if it sparks joy to have your character wandering about for a day or so, who am I to tell you no? There are certain and specific AUs, however, where the Causeway will be locked down due to Fandom's own brand of magic. You can still portal or take the Causeway home (provided you are not AU'd), but there will be no wandering about the world itself. In all these cases, this will be made explicitly clear in the writeup before the island moves. Your characters will never be trapped on the island without you knowing in advance.
Okay! I think I'm done! God I hope so, because THAT WAS A WHOLE LOT. But hey, now the floor is open to questions, comments, concerns, and everything else! Got something to say? Hit me up below!
I got a question!
Re: I got a question!
Are there any rules for alumni who might pop in to visit? Does the causeway still work like normal for them, or do they count as guests where it'd be easier to stick to those listed weeks?
Re: I got a question!
And alumni are welcome to show up by Causeway or portal!
You know how it is, you figure you'll go back to the island for a quick afternoon and suddenly, you're in a towering hellscape. HAVEN'T WE ALL BEEN THERE?
If you want your alumni to go AU for a week, I'd ask that they be around for that Monday (so we don't have to deal with the whole 'can you go AU while conscious' question), but feel free to have them show up the Sunday before, WTF at everything going on around them, and then wake up on Monday as a flavor-of-the-week!
Re: I got a question!
So Gwen Stacy could ping into Blade Runner as an AU'd character sometime midweek and there'd be no problems - so long as she didn't appear in not-AU'd anywhere else from Monday on. And no narrative mentions or conversational bits with other people could contradict that either, so no "Yeah, I arrived 20 minutes ago" or anything like that.
If she just wanted to show up to go shopping and walked in on this nonsense as herself, she's free to do that whenever she likes.
I got a comment!
Re: I got a comment!
Re: I got a comment!
...Not that I've been sweating bullets since I posted this or anything.
Re: I got a comment!
Re: I got a comment!
I AM EXCITED!
Re: I got a comment!
Re: I got a comment!
B) "No one has that time or energy left, we are all old now" is, as the kids say, a Big Mood.
Re: I got a comment!
Re: I got a comment!
Re: I got a comment!
Re: I got a comment!
Re: I got a comment!
There's gonna be a bit of a ramp up, but oh! The plans I have made.
Other, random, catch-all thread!
OOC (Yes, even on an OOC post)
Also, many many thanks to the admins for okaying this and also being willing to step in with an assist when needed.
<3 <3