INFO / FAQ v2

[expiationmods]

INFO / FAQ Questions asked from July-on on the old info page under the new mod team still stands. Whatever players have discussed with the old mod team from June and before please comment either here or in the mod contact page as a refresh for what you were told and any changes, if any, to the answers. About Expiation⇁ Expiation is a pan-fandom adventure game with science fiction, fantasy, and subtle horror elements that explore the concepts of crime versus innocence, definition of atonement, and reflection of self. An overarching storyline will encourage characters to determine the truth about why they’ve been brought to this world and will be impacted by character discoveries and actions taken during the bimonthly events. Player-run events and plots are welcome during months where there is downtime. Characters are mysteriously plucked from their world of origin, dropped into the white nothingness of disembodied voices, and told they’ll be treated as 'all of the others' have been. They awaken in this newer world largely pleasant to the eye in the close proximity of a populated town. In hand, they carry documentation and a tablet that accuses them of a crime, whether it be true or false, and they are instructed to simply wait until they face their sentencing. Expiation is an environment meant to give characters the opportunity to analyze and reflect on their past actions in an effort to define and discover their own self-atonement. They may also perhaps seek forgiveness from others that they may have wronged, inadvertently or direct. It is not necessarily rehabilitation, but rather dissection of character motivation and evolution, based on individual dynamic and relationships with others. Of course, not everything always goes as planned. The characters also have an opportunity to relish in and advocate for the chaos and destruction, making the world of the Expiation to be one that reflects their own sense of morality and image. All characters in Expiation are being tested. Every single event, every single miniature event, just about every single thing that characters come up against is a test, including their interactions with the npcs. Every action matters. Sentencing⇁ We will leave a message on your character’s inbox with our NPC (link to expi account) to meet him at Courthouse for incarceration and to meet the council to get their punishments. If characters don’t go willingly, they will be brought by force by said NPC. Once there, he takes them into the court where they will meet The Council and receive their punishment. These punishments will be tailored to the crime committed or the crime characters have come into this world with. They will have until the Friday before the next event to complete these tasks, or it will result in punishment. Again, these will be tailored to the individual characters who have refused these crimes. While characters don’t remember seeing or talking to the council, they will remember their punishment as well as the reward for completing it: to change their crime to another on their “list of crimes”, or to be rewarded in another way. The other ways aren't specified, but they are: - Regain a memory from a previous stay, or recover a memory from a memory-altering event - Gain a small item, could be either theirs or someone else's - Gain a small ability, or temporary supernatural ability (1 month) Proof of compliance of the punishment must be threaded out and sent to the mods for characters to receive their reward. These threads don’t have to be complete, but there must be evidence that characters are working towards it in the thread(s) that are sent in. If real life comes up and you’re unable to make a thread, and it’s IC to finish it, please approach the mods and we will work with you on that on a case-by-case basis. As always, this is opt-in. If there’s a player of a character that automatically is entered in the sentencing cycle via crimes in Aldrip that doesn’t wish to participate, please contact the mods and we will work with you on that as well. Repetitive crime behavior will be handled on a case-by-case basis for other months. We would like for everyone interested in this mechanic to be able to participate, so there may be a month that an automatic character gets skipped if they commit a crime again. Ex: Vi completes her sentence in October, but if there are more crimes committed between now and the December cycle, she will only be added in if there’s a slot to be filled. That is to say, if there isn’t enough interest in those months to fill the slots assigned, they will be added back in if the player wishes to do so. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly section in the Activity Check comments are to help keep the mods aware of potential crimes oocly. The ic component is the NPC inbox that people may put crimes for Jerry to be aware of. Sentencing will happen on TDM months as a way to incorporate plot-related nuggets in between event months. As of right now, that's how they will stay. Arrival⇁ Characters will arrive with inventory they may have been carrying, within reason. If they come with their own phones or other tech, it will power on but it doesn’t connect to any network. If they had anything in their possession that would be considered ‘world breaking,’ they will find that it is completely nonfunctional. Ex: an omni-tool from Mass Effect, that can hack, control devices, and replicate materials. New arrivals will not always necessarily appear in the same location. They will, however, always be within a relatively safe, if not slightly exhausting, walking distance of a populated town where the locals will probably be friendly. Probably. In addition to their base inventory, characters will be provided with a tablet, as well as a parchment detailing the crime they’ve been accused of. To the touch, it feels like ordinary paper, if slightly archaic and out of place. But the parchment is completely indestructible. It cannot be cut. It cannot be burnt. It cannot be destroyed. If lost, the parchment will somehow make it back to its owner. More information on the tablets and network will be on the page linked above. Languages⇁ Everything is auto-translated to the recipient's own language. If they try to speak their own language even as a joke it will be translated to the recipient. Ciphers and codes, however, may be used. Life in Expiation⇁ Expiation is a large simulated world, consisting of different areas, cities and towns. The one that characters most often wake up in is called Aldrip. More information on the city itself is located on the linked page. The people of Aldrip worship and revere something they refer to as 'Those Who Were There.' Very little is known of these deities. As for the government: there is rumored to be a council who watches over the law in Aldrip, working as judge, jury and executioner. However, no one has ever seen the members of council or truly know what they’re like. The way the locals and other NPCs react to The Chosen will differ and change depending on the in-game event. The weather in Aldrip is usually suspiciously pleasant. Despite the rain being scarce it’s not dry or uncomfortable. It usually gets too cold during the nights and the moon is always full. There are some constellations in the sky, but none of them are ones that Chosens would be able to recognize, and every night is a full moon. There are four seasons in Expiation and the weather will change accordingly as stated in State of the Game posts. The flora and fauna of the continent change slightly when new Chosen come in from a new series and world. After a few days, they may notice that some of their animals or monsters are there, as well as some of their plants. The list of what's here so far is here and here. Otherwise, various earth-like livestock may be found in the form of cows, pigs, chickens, etc. There is a currency, as shown here. It's earned and spent as someone would with normal money, earned while working various jobs and quests for the locals. Player-run businesses can be found in the comments on Aldrip’s information page. On arrival, characters may stay at the Inn, where their first month will be free of charge, or find an apartment, other communal lodgings, or have their own house. The initial house that they would move into is a one bed, one bath house with a basic kitchen and a living space. Details on expansion is here on the rewards page. Death⇁ According to the locals, death is a natural part of life. All characters in Expiation are susceptible to dying, whether they are human or not. A character dies in Expiation will come back one week after their passing, awakening in their bed or in a familiar place, with their death wounds healed. However, perhaps not all is as it seems. Characters who find their way back from death may find that something about them seems...off. Some characters may discover that they are missing memories, or that their memories feel wrong, thus making it harder to tell what is real and what has been falsified. Characters may also experience nightmares and emotional changes, such as paranoia and anxiety. These changes are, for the most part, temporary, disappearing within a few weeks—however, if a character dies more than once, they may begin to find that these new developments become more permanent over time. If you are planning for your character to die, please notify the mod team. Rewards⇁ Rewards with extra activity can be redeemed by using the rewards page. This includes approved inventory from home, the ability to run one’s own business, and other like ideas. Please see the page for additional details, how to redeem, and other requirements. Drops & Canon Updates⇁ Canon updates and hiatus / drop page are now two separate posts. Please make sure you use them accordingly. When a character drops, there is no great fanfare. They are simply gone, much in the way they arrived. The record of the crime they were accused of will remain since the parchment that contains that information is indestructible. Any inventory that isn’t on their person will also remain in the world or can be claimed by other characters with player permission. Characters dropped and reapplied for later will not initially retain memories of their previous time in Expiation (if played by the same player). They can regain these memories by submitting extra AC on the rewards page. Characters who are going to be updated in canon will be absent for a minimum of one week (or longer, depending on circumstance). Temporarily they will be extracted from Expiation, but upon return, they will not be assigned a new piece of parchment and will otherwise wake up in their lodgings. They will have no memory of extraction. It will be as if they simply had a long, extensive nap. Applications & Reserves⇁ This is a pan-fandom game, accepting monthly applications for video game, live action, book, film, and other related mediums, including original characters. have a Player Cap of 70. We have a Canon Cap of 10. (This refers to the number of characters per specific canon.) Reserves are a first-come, first-served system and limited to two characters at a time. Due to our player cap, note that we will only accept as many players as we have player slots, however, we will review all applications submitted during the cycle. We will not accept child characters, though extenuating circumstances may apply (read: a younger physical appearance who may be thousands of years old, or a character who may be a construct in an age of single digits). Please consider the nature of the game and the age of your character. There is a two month wait on applying for characters from a newly-released canon. For example, Fire Emblem: Engage released at the end of January 2023. We would begin accepting characters from it by the end of March 2023. If your canon character has a lack of canon material / information and you are relying heavily and mostly on headcanon to the point where your character is likened to an OC, we will not accept the application. We accept CRAU characters with the caveat that they must still accurately represent the character in their canon state. If they are too far removed from canon, we will not accept them, but we do understand the desire to move CR without having to completely rebuild it from scratch. We accept malleable protagonists, such as the Warden from Dragon Age, Commander Shepard from Mass Effect, and the Warrior of Light from Final Fantasy XIV. That said, only one of these can exist [per applicable canon] and they must be applied for without preexisting relationships to canon characters aside from what base storyline dictates. (Exceptions will potentially be made for CRAUs and handled on a case-by-case basis.) We do not accept Fandom OCs. We do accept duplicates: ex: Cloud from Kingdom Hearts and Cloud from FFVII, or Link from all 300 (/exaggeration) Legend of Zelda games so long as they're not sequels to each other. Ex: Link from BOTW and TOTK would be the same character, and Sora from the Kingdom Hearts series is the same character even with the 60 (/exaggeration) games there are in the series. You can check the application and reserve pages for additional details, including cycle dates and other requirements.

Comments

[emet_sulk]

Figured I'd better ask again now that the setting is being updated: would Emet-Selch's soulsight (the ability to perceive aether/magic in the world as well as the nature of other people's souls) still be null here? The previous answer was that since aether does not exist, his Sight would not show him anything. Meanwhile, NPC souls would not appear to Emet (players' characters were up to their discretion naturally).

Would this still stand or are there alterations I should be aware of?

[expiationmods]

It's still null here! Even though the world got a makeover, some fundamental things are still not available for some reason...