FAQ

[plotmod]

1. Okay, here's a big one: I've never roleplayed on Dreamwidth before! What do I do?

DreamWidth roleplay isn't all that different from forum roleplay, actually! If you're familiar with any type of roleplay at all, you'll know the basic is just a back and forth interaction with two or more characters. And on Dreamwidth, there are two formats to watch out for: LOGS which are basically the same formats as forum roleplay in that you respond to someone else in third person paragraph form (ie. She felt a little hesitant to accept his offer, but after several moments of deliberating nervously, finally stepped forward and reached to grasp his offered hand.) This can be done in either past or present tense (or whatever tense you'd like, actually) and you don't necessarily have to copy your partner's style and tense, although it's recommended so that people don't get confused. These responses can take from one to two sentences or several paragraphs worth of action and reaction from your character, depending on their thought process and/or if you need your partner to respond to something before you can move forward.

The other format, which is a bit more unique to DreamWidth (and LiveJournal, InsaneJournal, etc) is the first person response. The majority of this takes place when your character is on the phone (audio or video or text) with someone else, so everything written is what they SAY or WRITE. That's it. Everything else exists between action brackets -- their expression, their thoughts, their actions, etc. Example?

[He made a humming noise in agreement, a hand going up to his chin in thought even as he held the phone steady to show both himself and the picture behind him.]

...Maybe we should wait for backup. Charging in won't help much, would it? Surely it can wait a few more minu--

[He's interrupted by the sharp noise of glass breaking, and the video blurs as he turns quickly to face the sound. The feed stabilizes enough just to catch his eyes widening in panic before the movement is blurred again as he runs.]

--Shit! Wait, no! Nevermind -- we need to charge in now!

Those responses tend to be shorter, since it's more of a chat and people don't always wait for a soliloquy before they respond in a normal conversation. There are also the first person action tags: where you meet in person and not over a communications device, although the wording remains the same -- all your actions (and outside actions) take place between the brackets, and what you say is the only thing outside of the brackets.

That's pretty much it. That's the difference. Everything else is the same: respect your roleplay partner, don't godmod them or the game, and remember your own character's limitations. Play with people in-character. That's all!



2. ...But what's 'godmod'?

Assuming you haven't heard of the term before, it means you're playing the god moderator. Extreme examples being if your character suddenly knew exactly what was going on in the storyline despite not having been told in-character by someone else, or when they suddenly know something about someone else's character that was never told to them. That's more information-modding than anything else. Other methods may be deciding that your character is strong enough to break out of town when it's already been stated that it's not possible. You can argue that your character does the impossible all the time, or that s/he specializes in the impossible -- or even has a power that allows them to do something everyone else has deemed impossible! All of that may be true, but if the game states they can't break out, then they can't break out. We don't want to take away any powers here, so please don't use your powers to break the game.

Most commonly, though, is accidentally godmodding other characters. If your character throws a punch, don't automatically assume that the hit will connect, no matter how fast or strong the punch. If the other character is faster (and who knows when you combine so many canons?), then they may be able to dodge. Or maybe they have a shield. But if your character is weak and someone strong is throwing the punch, please refrain from being able to get away all the time. If they would most likely be hit, then you should accept them being hit rather than writing about how your character rolls away and somehow manages to trip the other character!!11!

(If you do not like getting into fights, or the theme and/or situation makes you uncomfortable aka maybe you just don't want your character to die or be maimed or etc, then please feel free to talk with your roleplay partner to come up with alternative solutions.)



3. Do we keep our powers here?

Absolutely. The more outrageous the better, even. Obviously, anything that would break the game wouldn't work (if your character has the power to destroy worlds and tries to destroy the town, the power might fizz) and anything that involves other characters would require permission from the player (so don't just read minds, kidnap, poison, kill, etc without giving the player a heads up and waiting for a quick ok!) but for the most part Havenhollow is pretty sturdy. Just remember that whatever you actually change in the town will disappear and revert back to what it was by the next 'day' (or whenever your plot or event stops). Have fun with your magic/strength/alchemy/geass!



4. Wait, what if my character decided to burn the town down?

Go ahead! Well, at least your own house. Unless you've got housemates, then you might want talk to those players. Burn down all the empty houses. Get an okay before the fire catches on the houses that have characters living there. Communication is always key in roleplay -- there has to be at least another player who wouldn't mind playing out your characters pyromaniac tendencies with you. Just remember -- everything goes back to normal when you're done playing.



5. So we can't affect the town at all?

Not entirely true. Things that take time and is created by your character will remain. But those things are also mortal. If your character plants herbs, then after some time you'll get herbs to cook with. If those herbs are destroyed before they're fully grown, then they're gone forever unless you plant new herbs. If you fold a paper crane, then you'll keep that crane. If the crane gets burnt, then all you're left with will be the ashes. But items that were already in town will remain unchanged -- that paper you used to make the crane will still be there the next day after you've made the crane. Whatever you use in town will be back the next 'day'... whatever you create yourself will stay with you so long as it hasn't been used up, destroyed, or expired.

If you'd like an exception or clarification on this, please do ask away!



6. ...Okay, so no activity check. But what if I need to go away for a few months?

Have a safe trip! No, really, it's fine. Just leave a quick note to someone, anyone who plays here, and feel free to break from roleplaying for a few months... a year or two, even. Come back whenever you feel like it. There's no pressure to do anything here other than have fun at your own pace and leisure. If a character doesn't work out, you can say they just disappeared or went back through the tunnel. If you want to bring a character back, that's fine as well. Maybe they found their way back here again. It's just a musebox: so don't worry. Even other characters should understand once they get used to people being spirited away.



7. What if I have a character I want to play that's already in Havenhollow?

Talk to the player who has that character. If they say it's okay, then feel free to play the same character under a different username. There are levels to this, even -- you could interact with characters the other player hasn't interacted with, could interact with characters the other player has interacted with and confuse them a little, or even interact with the other player's character: suddenly, twins! Make up your own thing; maybe it's a mirror event? Maybe they suddenly activated some alternate dimension mirror or shadow world or anything at all.

Remember: relax. It's just a musebox. Whatever you want to do, the answer is most likely 'sure, why the hell not?' Changing the rules is an okay thing if there's something you want to play out.



8. There's only one community? Shouldn't there be a separate log community?

Nope. We're far too lazy. Go ahead and just title the post 'LOG: your title here' and include a little bit of information on whether it's open to everyone, certain people, or closed to a specific character, group of characters, etc. In fact, even for non-logs, let's just use the 'AUDIO: your title here', 'VIDEO: your title here', 'TEXT: your title here', or even 'ACTION: your title here' as your headers. Don't forget emails! You can forward emails to everyone in town or just sent them to a certain person (or people) with 'EMAIL: your title here' and then specify who might be receiving your message. So long as people know what they're responding to, right?



9. What about tagging posts?

Not going to rag on anyone for not doing it, but it is recommended so that you have an easier time managing and keeping track of your posts and comments. If you're going to partake in the DreamWidth tagging system, remember to put '!CHARACTERNAME' for if you're posting or 'c:CHARACTERNAME' if you're commenting to a post. It does start getting confusing without tags after a while and it's always a good idea to tag, but if you'd rather not, then that's okay as well.



10. If there are no applications or activity checks, how do you keep this going?

By sheer love of roleplay. Although it would be a major plus, this place wasn't created for riveting comment spam or perfect grammar. You don't need to be entirely in-character, even, so long as you're trying and having fun. Museboxes are made to be places to relax and practice voices. It's okay if you're not very good -- that's why you don't need an application. It's okay if you lose the character voice a few days after starting them. This game goes as fast or slow as people want it to -- that is to say, we can have just two characters in a time bubble or have a conversation spanning two months when only an hour has passed and therefore other characters haven't missed anything. Time is irrelevant in Havenhollow. Therefore, play at your own pace.

Although you might be poked once a month to see if there's still interest in current and new threads. No obligations, just reminders that we're here if you'd like to play.



11. I want to bring in original characters / AU characters / genderbent / etc.

This is a musebox. Go for it!



12. This doesn't sound like it's possible to have full-game events.

Well, that's not a question. But sure, it's possible to have a full town even if there are just a handful of players who want to participate. Does this mean you'll miss it if you're gone during that time? Nope, backtagging is always possible and there's always the possibility of something screwing with a character's mind if they said that they hadn't seen anyone around but then you backtagged into their thread. We'll make it work somehow!

Besides, most of the little plots here will probably be between 2-3 characters each time, so that it's possible for players to have fun and plot and not intrude on others in town who might not be so willing to participate be it lack of time, real life issues, or just lack of interest for that general plot. Anything goes!



13. So how do the game mechanics work? Cellphones?

Smartphones! We'll let you decide how advanced or not advanced it is, and what it looks like. You can include flashlight apps and alarms and games and the such if you'd like. All we require from the phones that you've chosen is that it has audio, video, and texting capabilities. Don't worry -- we'll be footing your characters' bills here. You can have it powered by magic so that they never loses power (unless there's a plot that says it does), or you can make it a rickety thing that keeps running out of battery power every eight hours because your character is constantly using it to play Angry Birds.

Feel free to be able to connect to the internet with it... or not be able to connect to the internet with it. Maybe it can only connect to celebrity rumor sites. Same with your computer (at home) if you'd like. Have fun with it -- is your character constantly getting viruses because of porn sites? The blue screen of death? Need some help with that bewitching piece of technology because your character has never heard of computers before? Accidentally smash your cellphone against some rocks because you thought it was something to throw at crows?

...Well, if that last one is the case, then don't worry. You'll get a new cellphone the next 'day'. We've got insurance covered, too!



14. There are only fourteen houses in the map. What if I want to bring in more characters?

Will you be playing more than fourteen characters at a time? Just spread your characters through the houses and then that's extra potential of interacting with other players via being housemates, or even have them miss each other all the time or think that their house is haunted because it feels as if someone else is living there as well but your character can't seem to see them. When you get tired of playing a character and want to move on to a new character, you can have the new one take their place in the house. Should the old character want to come back, move them to a different house.

As long as you're willing to keep track of those things (or just tell plotmod to keep track of it), then it can work.



15. Can I get a bit more clarity on how the passage of time works here?

Sure. The thing is: it's all hazy. Time works when you have the time to play. Two players could work out a month worth of roleplay in their threads, and anyone can come back after and have their characters claim that only a day as passed for them. One character's five hour adventure can be two weeks to someone else. Havenhollow works on your time, not the other way around. You can work six months on only one thread and that's fine. Coming back from that thread might mean other characters call you out for being gone for six months, but you can have your character claim that it's only been an hour since s/he went to the other room to call someone. Time. Fuzzy.

Since everyday looks the same in Havenhollow (it's always Halloween Eve), how can you really tell how long it's been? The clocks might work, but are they really accurate when it's always dark and foggy out?



16. Okay, I want in on this. It's lazy and I can back out any time. How do I join?

havenhollow is a closed community due to the musebox having a private storyline. It's not entirely to discourage people from joining -- it's just to ensure that random people don't just pop into the middle of something when no one knows who they are.

That isn't to say you can't join. Hover your mouse over the little person icon in front of plotmod. See that? The box that appears? Within that box contains several bullet points. One of them says 'send message'. Just click that, and send a message about how you'd like to join in on Havenhollow. It's not an interview or an application -- we just want to say hi and welcome to the game. The players here know each other, and it'd be nice to get to know you as well. After that, just send a list of your characters' usernames, and we'll send out the invites. If you have new characters at any time, message the usernames over and tell us who you are, and we'll send more invites.



17. Are there NPCs in this game?

Yes. Minor ones. Since this is new, there aren't any non-playable characters that truly stand out. There are random trick or treaters who all seem reluctant to chat to you (maybe because they're mostly young children) and parents on sidewalks who might give your characters strange looks if they bug them. Those characters are moddable -- meaning, you can do as you'd like to them. They tend to be ghostlike and out of reach, most of the time not tangible if you try to grab a hold of them, but on the rare occasion (aka don't do this too often), a character might be able to catch one. Accidentally kill one? Maybe you can just invite them in and have some tea. If your character wants to lock one of the NPCs up in the basement for a few months, just remember to leave a comment about what they did and maybe we can plot something about either the NPCs wanting revenge or to find their friend or maybe another character finds out, etc.

Just remember, these characters from from the forest, and they will retreat back into the forest until you can't follow them anymore. Attempting to track them is a bad idea, but be sure to have your characters learn for themselves if they haven't been told and seem the adventurous type.



18. What if my character dies? What happens?

They come back the next 'day'. There are no real death penalties unless you want to play them out, so let's just say they come back cold and shivering with the feeling of let's never do that again! along with a strong aversion toward whatever killed them. Or love, if your character happens to be a masochist. If you would like to play out penalties, you're welcome to do so. Loss of a sense for a little while, or injuries, or power handicaps, or even mental handicaps... whatever you'd like to do. Just be sure to let the player you're threading with know.