FAQ

[shadowqueen]

Frequently Asked Questions

Applying →Do I have to be familiar with Ico to play here? →Can I apply for an Ico character? →Can I apply for a character without a lot of canon? →What if my character's not human? →Can my character's animal companion come with them? →What items can my character arrive with? →Will my character keep their abilities? →How do the AU numbers work? →Does my character count as canon or AU? Game Mechanics →Where do I post memes? Are there any limitations on which ones and how often? →How do the phones work? →Is there a language barrier? →How does canon updating work? →When I go on hiatus, what happens to my character? Plot Details →What can I write in while my character's exploring the castle? →What will destroy the shadow monsters? →What will happen to the sword after it's found? →Will we ever see the Queen? →Is there an endgame? →Are any parts of the plot secret? →Will there be IC events? →What if I want to run a plot? Character Death →What happens when a character gets killed? →So how long are they dead for, and how do they come back? →What if my character has already died in canon? →What if my character's immortal or undead? →You haven't answered my question, or I think something is unreasonable in the rules. Do I have to be familiar with Ico to play here? No, absolutely not! This game is only based on Ico and does not actually take place within canon. Several key aspects have been altered to make this feasibly work as a panfandom jamjar, and while I've attempted to keep things within the spirit of the game, anything will by necessity be explained in full due to the differences. In short, you should be fine. Can I apply for an Ico character? Ico and Yorda are both fine, but they'd have to be pre-canon. Sorry! It just wouldn't make sense otherwise. Can I apply for a character without a lot of canon? Yes. Seriously, go for it. If you're really unsure you can ask me, but I can guarantee that I will not care 99% of the time. You're evaluated on your writing ability, not anything else. Be aware that most of the time I would classify these characters as AU, and not OU -- therefore there are only two slots for them, not three. What if my character's not human? If they're more or less human sized and shaped, this is not an issue and they can stay as they are. If on the other hand, their form would for some reason cause a major problem with living arrangements at the castle, you should probably consider downsizing them physically smaller or making them human on arrival. I could be persuaded to let them stay as is if you make a good argument, though. Can my character's animal companion come with them? If they're not appable as separate characters, go right ahead! Just make sure you mention it in your app somewhere so that we know they're coming along. What items can my character arrive with? Anything that would regularly be kept on their person can be reasonably expected to arrive with them, including weapons. You're welcome to flub this a little bit if you especially need them to have a certain thing. Will my character keep their abilities? For the vast majority of the time, yes. The only exceptions would be game-breaking abilities-- please ask if you're unsure if your situation qualifies, or if you're unsure on how to tone them down effectively. How do the AU numbers work? The numbers start from 1 within each canon and go up as needed. Numbers are repeated after characters are dropped, and are kept consistent. For example, my vampire Willow AU would hypothetically count as AU2, and if someone else apped in vampire Xander from the same AU, they would also count as AU2, regardless of if we have AU3, AU4, etc. on up for Buffy canon at that time. These numbers are used for consistency and are included in your character's entry tag on the IC comm, as well as for taken page and activity check purposes, so make sure you're clear on what number you have. Does my character count as canon or AU? Honestly, it's debatable. If you seriously can't tell after reading the section in the rules about it, drop me a line and we'll figure it out on a case by case basis. In general, if you could throw your characters into the rest of their canon castmates and the castmates wouldn't think they were off at all, they're canon. If we already have a version of a character you apply for as AU, but your interpretation is very similar to canon or an existing AU, you will likely get rejected on those grounds. Where do I post memes? Are there any limitations on which ones and how often? You can post memes in oocinthemist! We don't mind the spam; just use the meme tags. You can post whatever you'd like and as often as you'd like, with the exception of the feedback meme, which is obligatory and posted on a bimonthly basis, starting February 15th. If we get a ton of memes I can make a spam comm, but I don't anticipate this being an issue for at least a good while. How do the phones work? They do two things: call people and text people. That's it. Everyone comes with everyone else's contact already in their phone, but you have to specifically select each person you want to add to a group call or text, so this can't be a community-wide communication. This is just for private conversation, though you're welcome to have your character randomly select someone to call based on their funny name, or something... Each character has an IC contact post in their journal, which is linked to on their comment on the taken page. Is there a language barrier? Nope. Everyone mysteriously understands each other when speaking, and via texts. Physical written language stays what it's written as and is not automatically translated, however, and the language that the Queen speaks natively, as well as the language that the villagers speak, is unintelligible to every player character. How does canon updating work? They abruptly vanish for a period of several days to a week (up to you), and when they come back they wake up in the spring, making the culprit obvious. They are, of course, soaking wet and very abruptly awake because of it. When I go on hiatus, what happens to my character? You can either say that they were on "autopilot" and around doing whatever they would usually be doing during that time, or you can say that the shadows successfully dragged them off and returned them to a stone sarcophagus for the duration. This works even for long hiatuses, like those that are a couple months-- for some reason they don't die of starvation or get bruises from being sedentary. They are unconscious during this time and wake up much as they did upon their initial arrival: headachey, groggy, and without any abilities for at least several hours. You may worsen or lighten these effects at your leisure. What can I write in while my character's exploring the castle? It would be way too cumbersome to try to make a floor plan of the castle's layout-- in fact, don't even suggest it, the thought is ugly-- so you're pretty much all welcome to write in things as you like during your exploring logs. Use the setting page for inspiration (that's what it's there for) and consider watching a Let's Play of Ico if you're really stuck. In general your explorations should include puzzles, physical obstacles, and periodic attacks by the shadows. It's worth nothing that the castle is an incredibly physically demanding place to explore, and any characters not up to the task will find themselves swiftly exhausted and easy pickings for the shadows. Carefully picked groups, stamina, and self-made maps or a backtracking system of some kind are key in order to find your way back efficiently and without injury or exhaustion. What will destroy the shadow monsters? There is a sword located deep within the castle that has special properties, one of which is the ability to permanently destroy the shadow monsters. It can also open the castle's doors on its own, without requiring another person. As of yet, there is no scheduled plan or location for where it will be found, but once we've gotten further into the game and we have a sense of who the dedicated explorers are... some of you will likely be contacted and asked if you'd like to find it. This will take some community-wide OOC discussion and depend mostly on who's most active as castle explorers, because realistically they are who would find it. What will happen to the sword after it's found? Whatever characters decide should be done with it. Whoever has it obviously has a ridiculously huge advantage (opening doors! slaying shadows! returning dead characters to normal! killing the Queen!) but aside from those properties it does not have any added affect against other characters, who are not denizens of the castle. It provides no advantage in combat against other characters than a regular sword would, basically, so wrestling for control of it is definitely a possibility. In character discord and conflict is meant to be encouraged with this mechanic, not out of character, so this will be closely watched by the mods but for the most part not interfered with. Removing obstacles does not make for good fiction. Will we ever see the Queen? The queen will make her appearances, rest assured! Mostly she shows her hand through the actions of her shadow monsters, which are more or less extensions of her will, but it is possible to find her. Whether she will talk in their language or reveal anything to the characters is another story-- but she can be located, and fought. The only thing that will defeat her, though, is (you guessed it) the sword. She has an aversion to the spring and will not come near it, which is what makes it the safe grounds and why it has the living areas based around it. The farther out you explore, the more likely it is to encounter her. She is a formidable enemy, and can teleport at will and turn people into stone, among other things. Make sure that when it's time to take her on, sword in hand, that you're ready for it, because everything will change after she is defeated. (In short, the game will undergo a major overhaul and we'll have to start a new plot, so seriously, guys. This is months and months off.) Is there an endgame? Once the sword is obtained, and the Queen is located and defeated, the castle will crumble and fall apart without her to sustain it. There will be a race to escape, but now when characters are outside of the castle they will keep their powers, and can presumably fend off the mass of villagers now. If they can't, they better prepare for a war in getting off the castle grounds, because the villagers don't speak their language and won't understand the Queen is dead-- and will therefore try to keep everyone in. If they do get out of there and past the villagers, though, the setting will switch and we'll move onto the plot of Shadow of the Colossus, roughly. But that's a long ways off and this should honestly take at least several months. Are any parts of the plot secret? Nope, no parts of the plot are secret! No mysteries here, sorry. The aspects surrounding the spring are things we frankly haven't fully thought through yet, and unless there's some huge outcry for plot and background surrounding it, we likely never will. There are a couple easter eggs we might throw in here and there, though. Will there be IC events? We will have occasional mod-run IC events like monster attacks on the living areas and other, hopefully more creative things, that are not plot-dependent. These will be warned about ahead of time to allow time for OOC plotting. Additionally, each month there will be a featured area posted about in the OOC comm. There are a lot of sections of the castle presented in Ico, and as impractical as it is to try to list them all out and make an approximate map for playing purposes, they are still great places to throw characters at! Every month will have a different featured area, detailed in the corresponding OOC post. Examples of these would include the windmill, the water caves, and the industrial crane. What if I want to run a plot? We would love for you to run a plot! If you have an idea for a way to use the castle, the shadows, or the Queen, go ahead and run it by us-- if we like it we'll probably let you run it yourself, if you'd like to. More crackish things like bodyswap events and so on are also possible, but anything off-theme would probably be put up to community vote before being implemented, with majority ruling. Anything that would ICly occur within character abilities on a widespread basis is perfectly acceptable and we'd just appreciate a warning. Especially if it's compulsory by nature. What happens when a character gets killed? Characters that are killed exist in the castle as a shadow monster. As per Ico, these are the souls of the Queen's previous sacrifices, and though they don't speak (or make much of any noise at all) in canon, here they will be soulless and emotionless, but recognizably themselves. Think how the Queen herself looks-- clothed in shadow, but distinctly herself. Characters will remember everything that happens during this time, vividly, as if they had lived it themselves. Shadow characters will wander around and generally behave as mindlessly as regular shadows do. They can speak, but not reliably or very intelligibly, and will attack or attempt to carry off other characters into shadow portals. They're somewhat lazy about this, though, because they're still confused and disoriented about dying, and fuzzy about the details of their life. If aggressive motions are not made toward them, they will tend to be apathetic. I realize this is a vague description, but that's intentional! You're free to play some wiggle room into this and do as you like, as long as it follows the general guidelines. So how long are they dead for, and how do they come back? They will remain in this state until one of two things happens: 1. Contact with the spring will restore them to their former selves, so herding them into it will work fine. Taunting and getting them to chase you, while more dangerous, will also work. The longer they have been a shadow, the more mindless they become, and the less there is to bring back-- therefore NPC shadows will fizzle angrily in the spring but ultimately climb out on their own. The spring will not restore them. or 2. While NPC shadows are simply slayed when attacked with the sword, dead player characters will disperse as shadows and reform as their usual selves. If you'd like to skip the playing-them-as-shadows-and-subsequent-revival process, you're welcome to assume that they were eventually brought back by someone or wandered into the spring on their own, and spent a week as a shadow. Just spend that week not playing them, and at the end you can bring them back. This entire system is intended to be a deterrent toward character death, and is not meant to be played through cheaply or easily. We don't want to foster a casual attitude, ICly, towards death, because that weakens the premise on the whole. What if my character has already died in canon? Characters that enter the game as having died in canon just before arriving are given the option of starting out as a shadow monster if you'd like them to. If you'd rather they not, though, that's fine! Otherwise they'll arrive the same as anyone else. What if my character's immortal or undead? Undead characters, whether vampire or zombie or what have you, are welcome to stay exactly as they are with no changes. The same is true for immortal characters, regardless of the reason they're immortal. If they get into a situation wherein they would be killed, the shadows will drag them off through one of the portals and dump them in another part of the castle, from which they'll have to figure out their own way back. You haven't answered my question, or I think something is unreasonable in the rules. Make sure you've read the rules and setting pages first, and then ask it below. (I'm not kidding, there's actual info on the rules page.) If you'd rather it be a private conversation, the mod contact post is screened. In general, I am very open to existing rules being challenged, and you are welcome to argue your case to me on anything and ask for an exception! If it's something that would affect the game at large, and it seems there is some support for it, it will probably result in a poll of the playerbase et al on the subject before anything is enacted.

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Comments

[white_doves_fly]

Out of curiosity, if I applied to play Yorda, would her speech be unintelligible like the Queen's? I would be entirely okay with this - it would be quite fun to play with, actually - but I wanted to clarify.

[guiltapalooza]

Yes, it would be! And I agree with you on it being fun to play, hahaha.

Actually, if you wanted to play Yorda here we'd be happy to involve you in the overarching plot if you liked. You probably noticed that I wrote in in the newbie guide that where you find her in the game exists but is inaccessible-- if you wanted to bring her in that way, with player characters discovering her much like Ico does, that would be pretty cool.

[thekidsare0kay]

Questions about the app.

If we do a voice post, can it be a link to a voice post in another comm or does it have to be brand new written?

And for the prose sample about the character, what are you looking for exactly? Do you mean a prose tag like the beginning of a log? Would a fic from the POV of the character be good enough?

Finally, I'm not sure what the fourth one is. Do you mean any sort of prose at all, like a fic that has nothing to do with the character? You're just looking for signs of writing ability generally?

And yes, I know I only have to pick two, I'm just making sure I understand all four before I decide.

Edit: Oh, one more question. Would an AIM RP be okay for #3, if I copypasta'd it somewhere or into the app itself?

[guiltapalooza]

1. No, it can be a link, as long as the post itself is 100+ words of dialogue (I actually used an old DDD post as Willow's voice sample).

2. Any of that would be fine-- it's literally just meant to be introspective prose about the character, in any form.

3. Yeah, that's exactly the intention. Since the second option should exhibit characterization, that's just to show writing ability if you have a hard time with samples or providing threads.

4. Yup, no problem! AIM RP is still RP.

I think that answered everything? tl;dr I'm easy do whatever you want, lol. I'll always just ask for another sample if the ones provided aren't what I'm looking for, anyway.

[hopelessprince]

Sorry, I have no icons yet. Still need to do the...transfer thingy.

Anyway, the doors that require two people to open. Do they only work with even numbers, or once two people have opened the doors, can a group with, say, an odd number go through?

[guiltapalooza]

Lol no worries. There is definitely a DW learning curve.

Any amount of people greater than one can open them! It's not two specifically. Maybe I should clarify that in the description. :|a

[jenioctavia]

Quick question!

How would you classify characters from things like Vocaloid or UTAU which have no set canon but a lot of fanon behind them? There's the actual Vocaloids themselves and then PV versions like Daughter of Evil series, Rolling Girl, Alice Human Sacrifice, ect...

I ask because I've had so many different games classify them as different things (AU, OU, Canon OC...) that I always want to check before considering apping. ^^

[guiltapalooza]

I think I'd personally classify them all as AU, because they do have source material to be based off of, so they aren't really OCs. But since they are almost entirely fanon based, they can't be OU, either.

If you have an argument either way, though, I'm open to hearing your thoughts! I'm not very familiar with Vocaloid and assume that someone in the fandom would have thought about this in a lot more depth than I have. :)

[vital]

Hey, just a quick question to make sure I'm not reading anything wrong in this FAQ!

I reserved the character Aslan from the Chronicles of Narnia series. I'm not sure if you're familiar with the canon, but he's basically Jesus in lion form -- however, he's only in lion form in the world of Narnia, and in other worlds, he appears as another entity altogether. He basically shape-shifts according to whatever world he's in. He also grows bigger in size -- as the people around him grow up, so does he.

My question is -- am I allowed to keep him in his lion form (sans the growing into a gigantic cat, of course - we can't have that), which is what he is known to look like in canon?

[guiltapalooza]

I'm actually a huge Narnia fan and had a private squee moment when you reserved Aslan, LOL, so yes you're free to do as you like with him! I'd be thrilled for him to get to stay as a lion. :)

[(Anonymous)]

For linked samples with 40+ comments, can we use memes or do they have to be from a game?

[shadowqueen]

Memes are perfectly fine! Really, any setting is acceptable, though if it doesn't showcase the character adequately you might be asked for additional material.

[flyingmechanical]

Hi! I'm apping a character without a whole lot of canon and I just wanted to doublecheck-- he is intended to still be OU, as everything about him is included in or extrapolated directly from canon; he has reasonably solid characterization, for his small part. Is this still all right? His personality section isn't strictly as long as I've seen some people do, so I'm a little worried I'll get tagged with a revision, but I don't really want to include a lot of headcanon/fanon, since I don't want him to be AU.

[shadowqueen]

Unfortunately this is hard to judge without seeing the application in question, but if he does have some canon background, I feel reasonably confident saying he's okay as an OU.

Go ahead and app that way, and if I feel differently upon seeing the app, I'll let you know?

[old_world_courier]

Sorry if I missed this anywhere in the rules or FAQ, but how do player characters work like Commander Shepherd from Mass Effect or The Courier from Fallout: New Vegas? Would they be considered AU since there is not any absolute canon when you as a player can pick what path they take or a Canon OC since they essentially are?

[guiltapalooza]

They're classified as AU, mostly for the sake of convenience. My personal reasoning on the subject is that we don't know what the strict "canon" is for them, so any interpretation is therefore an alternate one.

[pridegoesbefore]

Hello!

I'm adding my character to the taken page - I was unsure if you wanted her listed as OU or AU1? I'm going with AU1 for now, but will edit if need be.

Thanks.

[guiltapalooza]

Oh hey, sorry, I did totally forget to mention that. AU1 is perfect! Thank you. :)

[superheroine]

Quick Q!

I just realized that around the canon point I am considering for my character, she's just become pregnant. How does Castle handle this? Would she, y'know, continue being pregnant and develop along, or does the castle interfere with that?

I know different games handle those things differently, so I just wanted to double check. If it's an issue or complicates the setting, I can totally take her from before that point.

[shadowqueen]

There's no reason that the castle would interfere with her pregnancy, hypothetically speaking. But can I ask how it turns out for her? Does she have a normal nine month pregnancy, and then have the child, etc.?

My only issue is that I'm not sure introducing a newborn into a setting like this would be a good idea. It can be a pretty sensitive issue (for other people, not for myself, admittedly), so it might just be simpler to take her from before that point if it doesn't mess up your plans for her too much.

[(Anonymous)]

Hello, sorry to bother you. This game looks very interesting but I'm easily confused and have a couple questions that I'm hoping you can clear up for me.

First of all, I've never played in a game that is almost exclusively face-to-face interactions- I've been spoiled by inexplicable handwaved networks and fancy communicators until now. Can you give me an idea of how posting would generally work? Is every single post like an open log?

Furthermore, um...is this a prose only game? I've read all the info and didn't see anything that specifically said it is, but all the sample options on the application are prose or straight voice. Does that imply that we're not supposed to/are discouraged from using action spam, brackets and the like?

Lastly, are there any rules or restrictions about icons for original characters?

[shadowqueen]

No bother at all! I'll try to help.

1. That's pretty much it -- posts are like open logs. You might check out cfud/campfuckudie for an idea of how that works in practice.

2. Nope, not prose only! It says in the rules at #7 that people are welcome to use action spam or prose as they prefer, but there's no rule about either one. (I prefer action spam, myself.)

3. Annnd no rules about icons for original characters. Can I ask what specifically you have in mind when asking that, though?

[schrodingersghost]

Hey, I'm considering bring in a character from an unfinished series. One that doesn't look like it will be finished any time soon. Thing is, I really want to play him from post series. After a certain problem of his is fixed.

Should I use the AU application if I am planning on diverging from the most recent canon and making my best guesses on how the series will end?

[guiltapalooza]

Yup, that'd probably work out for the best!

Go for it as an AU. :)

[whatshisface]

Hello! I'm sorry if I missed this topic somewhere else.

How do app challenges work? If someone has already reserved a character, can they still be challenged when they post up an application? Does the challenge need to be posted before the one who reserved did, or may they post it beforehand?

[guiltapalooza]

Challenge apps can be posted at any time. Having a reserve means that if we do receive a challenge app, we wait the length of the reserve to receive theirs before judging either application. That's the purpose of a reserve-- to guarantee them a shot at applying.

Did that make sense and clear up your questions? :|a

[broke_the_world]

Hello. It's Tsumi here and I am thinking of apping Hermit here from .hack//Quantum but I had a question about powers and nerfing.

In canon he has a stick in The World that allows him to find backdoors to things and basically delete inanimate objects, people, rewrite code on monsters to make them his slaves, and set things on fire.

Would it be okay if in game I nerfed his power to be able to delete only some objects, such as some boulders or other small things in his way but not anything big like the doors to the apartments, the duel activated doors, bars that block paths, switches, ect? And the monster rewrite ability would be gone too.

Also instead of deleting people he would simply freeze them for a few seconds, pending mun approval, and still be able to set flammable things on fire? Or would it just be better for his stick to lose it's power and just be a stick?

[shadowqueen]

No, that all sounds fine! I think you've thought through the power nerfing pretty well and that's reasonable. If you'd prefer for him to be powerless for whatever reason, you're welcome to do that, but what you've thought out as your plan would work out fine. :)

[theoclist]

Hi there!

I'm creating a masterlist of RP games for OC and Fandom OC players. So I just wanted to ask if you accept fandom OCs as well as original universe OCs.

Thank you in advance.

[bilbo_dragons]

HEY THERE! so me and my friend are looking for games to app Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee from Lord of the Rings to.
we just have a few questions and things that need clearing up, so to get in character, i've gone to the trouble of creating a personal dreamwidth account and posting them all in one place while she sits around, eats my food and whines about ~her burden~ (just kidding tho)

- the biggest and most obvious issue we're having is the ring. what do you think we should do with it? she wanted frodo to have it, because its where 90% of his negative traits come from and she's afraid he might come off a little boring as a character without it. on the other hand, without the threat of attracting sauron's attention, i could see the ability to turn invisible at-will being pretty game-breaking. so, this got me thinking: since the ring shifts the plane of existence it's wearer is on, instead of actually turning them invisible, do you think it would be fair if, say, he only disappeared to player characters, and attracted the attention of the shadows with it on? i haven't played ico yet but this is the best way i've thought of to keep it from getting ridiculous
- if we take them from during the trilogy, sam would have his pack with him, which would have things like survival tools, lembas bread, pans, a flint and tinder and the like. is this alright, or too much? if its too much i dont have a problem changing what he has on him so LET ME KNOW
- also: frodo would have the light of elendil with him. is this alright or should we get rid of it? and if so, what sort of effects would it have if he used it on the shadows? im guessing none, im just covering my bases

I THINK THATS ABOUT IT i didnt bother asking about them being hobbits since it doesnt seem like that'll be an issue at all

[shadowqueen]

I would have let you had it regardless. Might have attracted the queen's attention.

the badnews is that this game has pretty much been closed since summer though nobody did a formal announcements. I don't know many fantasy based games.

http://dwroleplay.dreamwidth.org/1118.html Try here? You might get lucky.