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soddersays2021-04-22 10:09 pm
sodder) wrote in soddersays2021-04-22 10:09 pm
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Chapter 2 Preview
CHAPTER 2 PREVIEWS
Welcome to our preview for Chapter 2! You can reference our post about Chapter 2 here. Since this game is still in its creation period, some small details may be subject to change if we feel something might work better.
You can anticipate the majority of information on this page to remain consistent with what to expect from Chapter 2. This is merely a preview for the next chapter. The Door that is opened will alter how some of these elements function/appear. There is a general core structure that will fit neatly into Chapter 2 regardless of what door is opened. "How will this work?" is a question many people might come up with when reading this, but please remember most of that will simply have to wait until Chapter 2 is fully released and the Door has been chosen!
This post is intended to give players an understanding of what they can expect. If you feel you have a general question that could be answered with this limited amount of information then feel free to ask for clarity. Again, the game is still in its creation stages and we are open to changing things that might seem like they wouldn't work or don't make sense.
OOC Mechanics
GAME CALENDAR / AC
The new pacing of our game's general calendar will look like such:
Last 5 days of a month: Reserves open, TDM goes live.
1-5th of following month: Reserves close, AC begins, applications open.
5th: Event details plotting post (AC/Apps close)
8th: Event goes live
15th: CR meme posted monthly rather than bi-monthly.
We will be posting a monthly calendar so people can know exactly when reserves will open for that month. We hope this new outline allows people for more time to get content rolling at the very beginning of the month rather than halfway through.
Our AC will remain largely the same but move away from a point system. Instead, we'll go to a standard "Five Log Comments/Ten Network Comments/Two Proofs" system. This will be further explained during the finalization of the game.
We are also going to implement a system where if an Open Top-Level/Open Log/Network Post obviously exceeded AC requirements, you can simply post that as your collective AC and not worry about counting anything. AC will still require interactions with at least two different characters.
We plan to have consistent AC-Free months throughout the year: December, April, and August. These months will never require AC and will be check-in only for all players. We feel having automatic AC-Free months is a good way to allow players consistent resting periods if they need it. Players will still be allowed to take the usual hiatus/strikes when they need to.
NEWSLETTERS
Newsletter will be replacing the Preludes each month. Newsletters will consistently be posted on the first of each month to provide a short, neat summary of what to expect for that month. This will include weather/climate/atmosphere details, moon phases, and any specific items or changes that will be occurring from an event. This will be more streamlined and direct than the storytelling style of Preludes. Since they will be posted so close to the actual events, we won't be including any sort of general hints at upcoming events as it would feel redundant.
These posts will also include that month's calendar so that people know exactly when to anticipate reserves opening and TDMs to be posted.
This will also be a space for mods to make any important game updates, mod announcements, or provide important reminders about things that are coming up. It will be important to read every Newsletter carefully!
Along with these Newsletters will be what we're calling an Impact Summary. What's this, you ask? Good question!
IMPACT SUMMARIES
With each Newsletter comes the opportunity for players to fill out what we call an Impact Summary. These impact summaries are exactly what they sound like - summaries of important things your character has been doing with other characters or in the game setting as a whole! It can be easy for major player-driven plots or experiences to get lost in the shuffle of a game - but it's also realistic for many characters to be aware of when a character goes on a murderous rampage or if a building is blown up or something of the sort or them opening a business and wanting to advertise.
This is where people can post directly about what they have been doing in the recent event or what they plan to do that could impact other characters. We hope this allows players the chance to be more interactive and aware of what everyone else is doing. We hope this lets people stay up to speed on things that their characters would definitely know about, but maybe the player just doesn't have time to get involved with during a specific month. If you have a player plot you want to execute or have been carrying out, this will also be a great chance to bring it up whether it's in the planning stages, has already happened, or is currently happening.
Since the Impact Summary form will take place on the Newsletter, we hope that this allows players an equal chance for their content and contributions to be seen and a good way to stay organized! We will provide a mod-regulated form for people to fill out on each Newsletter.
GENERAL MECHANICS
- We will still allow typical canon updates. These canon updates will include updating with CRAU history, power changes, or entirely new canon points.
- The in-character process of characters and what they go through when on hiatus/updated will be different than the one we currently have. The new process will fit the new setting more closely.
- We are still determining an item-gain system but presently are leaning towards characters being able to obtain unique items primarily through event opportunities and Blessed Days.
GENERAL WORLD MECHANICS
New Death System
Characters will have a more organic experience with death in Chapter 2. There will be a more involved process wherein character bodies can actually be discovered, buried, funerals held, or even begin to "rot" (in a weird, unique way to the setting anyway). This process will ultimately be part of a character being reborn once more. Deaths in-game will take anywhere from 24 hours before the rebirth process begins to several weeks if a player wishes to play out a character's death during a hiatus.
The reason characters will continually be reborn in the setting will be because all Sleepers are now spiritually immortal. Their spiritual essence is the core reason they exist and their physical bodies can go through several deaths without hurting the essence of the Sleeper.
While in Deerington death came with severe symptoms, the aftermath of dying in Deerington Chapter 2 will be significantly different. We aren't going to spoil it too much - but in many ways, dying will be "easier" in Chapter 2 while still maintaining genuine consequences for dying.
JOBS/ROLES IN THE GAME
There will be an emphasis on the "roles" Sleepers can fulfill in Chapter 2. Traditional jobs such as teachers, doctors, soldiers etc will be replaced with positions similar to "Classes" seen in various RPGs. These roles can be interpreted in various ways and do not need to be restrained to the stereotypes/assumed positions that may come with them. The way these "roles" are presented changes depending on which door is opened, but there will be SIX overall roles characters can fill. Characters can partake in multiple roles, change roles at any time, or not partake at all - the last of which will make them a standard "civilian" in all worlds. This is considered the "neutral" option for those who have no interest in the roles or don't have a character who would fit them.
FIGHTER ROLE: This role will serve those who know how to fight and might have a desire to fight. This is for characters who are usually the ones on the front lines of violent confrontations. This can also be for those who no longer fight but have enough experience that they wish to tutor others.
HEALER ROLE: Characters who are focused on providing some form of medical care to those around them or who might be fascinated with the physiology of creatures/sleepers in darker ways. Though this role is largely associated with people who want to heal others, it can similarly be used for those who want to hurt others.
ACADEMIC ROLE: An student/teacher role that is focused on characters who are more into studying their surroundings than fighting them. This role can be fulfilled by those who want to learn and those who want to teach or a combination of those who feel they are always learning and always teaching at the same time.
FAITH-BASED ROLE: These characters will be tied into the spiritual/magical aspects of the world around them in a concentrated way. They may or may not believe in some sort of deity. The focus is more so on their faith in the unusual/unknown/mysteries of life and feeling like that has some larger significance in life.
BUILDER/FARMER/ARTIST/CREATOR ROLE: Characters focused on growing crops/providing food, building/repairing homes, providing the world with resource materials such as metals, weapons, clothing, and other such trade goods. Similarly, these can be characters focused on trade and commerce.
EMOTIONAL/PHYSICAL COMFORT ROLE: This is a heavily mixed role that focuses on characters who wish to provide some sort of emotional support to those struggling. This is for those wishing to help people in ways that don't involve medical or fighting skills. Some characters in this role may decide to provide these services through sex work while others may choose to provide this service through traditional therapy-style interactions or making sure people have what they need during times of trouble.
One can choose to interpret these roles in different ways. Soldier types might choose an academic path if they feel their skills would be better suited to training. Healer types might choose a fighting path if they feel they'd work better as a combat-style medic. Just because your character is a doctor doesn't mean they need to be restricted to being a healer - they could just as well choose to teach healing under the academic role.
There is no one "right" way to do any of these roles. Academics could study all subjects or just one. Fighters could only use guns and have no clue how to use other weapons. Healers could only be interested in creating poisons and medicines rather than ever actually healing anyone directly. This is meant to be very open-ended and each world has a more unique, stylized version of these roles that better fits the setting. For example, for Fighter Types, the Flesh World has Hunters, the Child World has Gunslingers, and the Mother World has Witchers. These all have different elements depending on their world, different histories with that world, different general impressions, etc.
Characters will still be able to open and maintain personal organizations/businesses in this new world. They can maintain their current ones from Deerington over into Chp2. The organization/business does not necessarily have to directly relate to their chosen role. A Healer-type could open a weapons shop; a Hunter-type could open up a medicine shop.
There will be advantages and disadvantages to partaking in each role and sometimes these things will be portrayed through events. There are different parts of the new location where these roles dominate, but there are also neutral and residential areas in between to keep any one role from taking up the majority of the space.
MOON PHASES AND MONTHS
No matter the world, there will be unique moons that occur in two-month cycles. The phases of these worlds represent moon colors that bring about unique magic and consequences into the world. These consequences will change depending on which Door is opened. These phases represent the cycle of life and death. Time/Months/Years will occur as they do in our real life.
The phases are as follows:
Blood Moon: September - October: A dark red moon.
Bone Moon: November - December: A pale white moon.
Egg Moon: January - February: An egg yolk yellow moon.
Wild Moon: March - April: A pale green moon.
Flushed Moon: May - June: A pale pink moon.
Beast Moon: July - August: A deep orange moon.
PATRON PTHUMERIANS
Move over, Zodiac Signs, there's a new monthly representation in town and that's your Patron Pthumerian. Each month will have a unique Pthumerian NPC that serves as the patron to the month. These Pthumerians will have symbols/themes associated with them and will be present in the actual game to interact with players. These Pthumerians may have influence over their monthly events (though not always). They will generally be "neutral" but may at times show acts of bias towards Sleepers such as with Blessed Days...
BLESSED DAYS
This is your character's new birthday! This can be when the character is canonically born/their canon birthday or you may pick out a new day entirely. You can pick it out based on some significant date from the character's canon, a random day you feel fits more, or pick it out to sync your character up with a certain Pthumerian you like.
Either way, the significance here is that each Patron Pthumerian will feel like Sleepers born in their month have some sort of "connection" to them. This means that characters will all have a "Blessed Day" wherein a Pthumerian may grant them some sort of gift or temporary ability. This will always be clarified within Newsletters.
Blessed Days cannot be changed so choose wisely! Remember, Pthumerian gifts/blessings might not always align with what the Pthumerian is most commonly known for. Pthumerians are known for their unpredictability...
NPCS OVERALL
There will be "native citizens" to Chp2's in all of the worlds - but their appearance and behavior will change significantly depending on which door is opened.
Each "role" will be overseen by an established NPC - mostly Pthumerians - that will maintain a distant but present form of authority over the characters who work within those roles. This will be less of a "boss" situation and more of a "This NPC will give direction sometimes that characters may or may not choose to follow" and will serve as an easier way for players to get their characters involved with different roles ICly. These NPCs will be "masters" of their trade, so to speak, and be able to provide characters with basic IC information as to what their role generally entails.
There will be no real sense of "governing" present in the new world since it is technically a "post-apocalypse" setting. Society has reformed to be communal and the closest thing to "rulers" would be Pthumerians, but Pthumerians are so powerful in nature and spirit that they don't consider it important to "rule" over anyone - let alone Sleepers.
Pthumerians in general will have a large presence in this game. While a good chunk of them will be neutral to good, there will be plenty of bad ones that will serve as temporary NPCs in certain events as antagonists towards Sleepers.
Pthumerians will operate the same across the board regardless of the world opened since Pthumerians technically all come from the same place and are not a direct product of the dream. They are more closely related to Sodder and therefore many have powers like hers and have either avoided the dream altogether or created new things despite it, during it, or after it.
There may be some sort of presence of Deerington's original NPCs in Chapter 2 but this cannot be determined until official votes have been cast.
GENERAL POWERS
There will be a "neutral" option for power systems that allow people to opt-out of changing their character's regular canon abilities or lack thereof.
Characters will still be able to be things like robots/vampires/werewolves whatever they may be in their canon world and/or maintain Sleeper Creature curses into Chapter 2. Chapter 2 will allow other venues for playing with a character's biological make-up such as other monster transformation opportunities. The power system in Chapter 2 is meant to change the "core"/"essence" of a character and supply them with powers through that. Pthumerians and Native citizens of the new setting will largely consider Sleepers as a singular species, but they will also recognize the various types of Sleepers there can be the same way they acknowledge the variety of Pthumerians.
In other words, you don't really have to do anything with acknowledging the "Sleeper species change" unless you really want to explore that. But all game-given powers will be given because Sleepers are Sleepers. The world around them will respond to their bodies because they are in Sleeper bodies. This is not much more different than how Sleepers already function; the only difference is that Sleepers will now be in a "real world" rather than a dream world.
TECHNOLOGY
Technology will look quite different in the new worlds but will generally operate the same way! It will be less accessible in some worlds, but still functional. New communication devices will be provided to characters as an update from Fluid that better fits their new world. The functionality will be identical to that of a Fluid's.
Characters will be able to have high-tech devices but will either have to obtain them through unique events or bring them into the game through applications.
HOUSING
Characters will either be able to maintain their same homes from Chp1 but with some minor alterations - or choose completely new homes. Each setting will have a specific architecture that dominates the landscape, such as Victorian/Elizabethan/Gothic Revival architecture for the Flesh World, but there will also be variety. Just because the majority of a location might look cottagecore doesn't mean it's impossible for there to be some glaring neon sign over a modern bar sitting in the middle of town. This is technically the future of our own world - but greatly changed thematically.
Characters will be able to have multiple homes if they choose and be able to live with whoever as they do now. Characters may use housing for storage/safehouses/or whatever personal reasons. This concept can be extended to how characters maintain businesses.
STYLE OF HORROR
All of the doors open into horror-inspired/based worlds. These worlds may look very different but at the heart of them are horror and thriller themes. Chapter 2 in many ways will be darker since it will no longer take place in a child's dream. No door is more or less scarier/gorier than the next - they are simply scary in different ways or gory in different ways. Overall, if you have been able to handle Deerington's content up until now, you will be able to handle all of the worlds and their possibilities. The events will still be paced the same to have heavier months, lighter months, and we have designed the events to always have mingle-style prompts as well as horror-style prompts so that players can pace things appropriately for themselves.
One door will be opened but you will definitely see elements of the other two doors present in the main world. They all come from the same child, the same event, just from different circumstances so there should be some overlap. Even if the Mother Door is voted on, you might still see Lovecraftian or Surreal elements from time to time, but the general themes will otherwise be largely consistent to the setting based on the door.
no subject
I know you might not be able to answer all of these questions, but just in case you can:
- in Deerington as it currently is, healing powers are for the most part warped and no longer functional. Since there will be a "healer" role in Ch2, will this mean that these powers (or powers that you'll get from choosing the healer role) will work?
- it sounds like the NPCs will generally be friendlier?
- will the sandbox period be just for backdating things, or will there be a 'setting' to still work within? That is, will time be passing for the characters, or will they be in a sort of stasis?
no subject
2. The NPCs will absolutely be more friendly. The Civilians of Chapter 2 will be a huge contrast against the hostile Townsfolk and the wary Wastes - they will be outright friendly and helpful in a sincere way.
Many of the Pthumerians will also be good/kind. Some Pthumerians will be more neutral or naturally violent/chaotic but there won't be such prominent "evil"/antagonistic NPCs such as Mother Superior. Most of the evil/violence in the new world will either come from Sleepers or general monsters/temporary evil presence from events.
3. They can be for backdating things and with how June's structured, you will be able to have your character remain in Deerington's setting for the summer and therefore continue to play some new stuff. While our mod team won't be supplying events, we encourage players to use the time to finish out threads or generate some new ones for a brief period.
Time will still pass for characters as is but there will be much less of the town and it will be in a strange state given that it is collapsing. It will be fully collapsed by the time our first event in September is posted for Chapter 2. They will be able to intentionally or unintentionally do this depending on player choice.
We will be turning off comments to our major information pages and closing them down - but we will permanently leave all communities open so players can continue to use them and backdate however long they may like.
no subject
I noticed that characters are allowed to maintain their homes from Chapter 1. I wanted to find out what this means for Airy's rooftop garden. It was obtained as a reward, with the stipulation that it was supposed to be able to survive anything the game throws at it. I'm not sure if that includes starting a new chapter!
I ask mostly because this will probably play a big part in my choice of role for Airy!
Thank you!
no subject
And great question! It can definitely mean surviving through Chapter 1 but it might just need to change what exactly it's on the rooftop of!
no subject
I'll bring that up, once we're ready for Chapter 2 planning!
no subject
(Translation: Ref wishes she'd app'ed a lot sooner and thrown someone into some of ye past events)