✗Q&A :|: FAQ
Q & A :|: F A Q
o1. Premise
o2. What can my character do?
o3. The World
o4. Characters & Applications
o5. OOC Issues
THE PREMISE
0. How does this game work?
Poly is a journal-based comment-oriented multifandom RP set in The City [TM], where characters are supposedly dragged to stop or accelerate the countdown that leads to the end of all worlds. Or so the guides tell you. Characters’ daily lives can be dangerously interrupted by OPTIONAL curse events outlined in the calendar at the beginning of each month. You can suggest your own curses, as well as run game-wide plots, in addition to participating in what is put together by the mods. For an at-length explanation of, well, everything, try the Game Overview.
1. I dun get it ._.
Basically, pick a character, then have them run around, and find stuff out about the city, meet other characters, make new friends and enemies, etc. Or have them try and save the world, or help destroy it- to each, their own fetish. You can do that through comment spam in character journals, or through third-person prose in the log community. Beware the countdown and curses!
2. Wait. Hold on, Voodoo Master here. Curses?
Periods of time when all gloves are off: the environment can change randomly, and your characters can find themselves compelled to act in unexplained, or uncharacteristic ways, according to the curse theme of the day. These events generally last at least 24 hours, measured after EST time. Back or foreward tagging and posting for them is a-okay.
3. What about the ticking, clock, and carousel?
Ahhhhh, the mysterious apocalyptic elements that hint this urban cage may or may not have a purpose. Some say every world is fated for destruction, and that the City collected the key people necessary to come together and prevent that. Others claim the City’s slowly driving its captives insane to feed off their energy.
4. That’s nice, but it’s not answering the question. Again, with feeling: what are the clock and countdown?
The clock under the City counts the time down to something, and its ticking beats through characters’ skulls, whenever they’re alone. The more time they spend in seclusion, the louder the ticking gets, and characters who refuse to find company can steadily grow insane. The carousel’s endless spin is said to be connected to the clock’s rotations.
5. Where exactly is this 'Clock?'
The mechanism's gears lie deep under the City architecture, guarded by, or simply coexisting with various underworld creatures. The lower you go, the more difficult to navigate the environment is, and people can easily get lost, or killed trying.
6. Who are the deities?
Trolls and toads, the lot of them - willing (?) custodians of the City, and, some say, the sources of the curses. These mod-run NPCs are frequently used to facilitate plot events and to run trades with characters. If you need them ASAP, leave an IC or OOC comment here.
7. How are deity trades run?
You can contact mods or leave a message to talk about your character would like to get, and what you’d be prepared to have them give for it. Sometimes, deities can be said to just take what they want in return - be it by snatching a physical token, assigning a task, or serving a punishment. We rely on players to provide us an idea of what would be a fair exchange, but please understand that mods may choose to deny a trade, either as an overall, or under specific terms. Characters can trade for anything from items from their time, to their lives (although characters that arrived dead to the City will receive no guarantee of ever being able to return home).
8. Speaking of, what if my character dies the City?
R.I.P, Anon Character, we barely knew thee. They’ll usually be revived within the City, under particular terms.
9. How do characters interact with each other?
In addition to good ol’ face-to-face meetings, characters can communicate via network devices they find on their persons upon arrival in the City. These mechanisms can be customized according to your preferences, or made to resemble a tool your character might find it easier to understand. If broken, your character can either replace the parts, have it fixed, or find a convenient shop that trades them.
10. How do these network devices work?
They allow characters to post text, audio, or video messages, and they handle any kind of translations perfectly. Depending on player preference, some devices have pre-set codes for filters, whereas others require the character to learn these codes. Unfortunately, the devices have been known to start up and record on their own. The deities have also been known to point and laugh on these occasions.
WHAT CAN my characters DO?
11. Can my character explore the carousel/clock/city levels and find out anything about the City?
YES. The quests might not come without their toll, and characters should expect a healthy degree of danger involved with the job, but any attempt at uncovering City mysteries will be rewarded with clues, or story elements. Please contact the mods before trying anything big!
12. Can the clock, or carousel be stopped?
Well, can it?
13. Is there a record of what characters have previously tried to do?
Not an official IC one, but here’s a scoop: the City annals have been filled with various attempts and even successes at taking on the deity office, the Clock and carousel, as well as the population at large. The City’s been under the rule of tyrants and heroes, and it’s survived terrorists, pacifists, and rescue committees.
14. What if my character isn’t the ACTION!!!! type, or just don’t want to go home?
It’s perfectly reasonable for some characters to settle into the City - in the end, why wouldn’t they? Some home worlds suck, and some characters are dead in them. Building a new life in the City - and building new businesses, positions, and hierarchies in the City - is something these characters can pursue at their leisure. They can join the police force, or the local hospital and administration, put together a fire squad or academy, start a black market, or all around just try to piece back their lives.
15. Can I run plots?
Again, a resounding: YES! You can brainstorm and advertise both City-wide plots, or smaller ones. Alternatively, if you already have an idea for a game-wide plot (an event that you believe will affect City residents at large), please bring it up with a mod. If it is accepted, be sure to give the rest of the players a courtesy 24 hour notice about it on poly_tldr.
16. I have a plot idea about something that could happen to the City / that the mods could run!
We’re all ears. Eyes. Um. But really, if you have any suggestions, we encourage you to tell us. We think it’s great for players to participate in expanding the City world and in furthering its adventures!
THE WORLD
17. How big is the City?
The City is large enough to require its own subway system. The City proper is a metropolitan sprawl with dangerous ghettos and beautiful villas, but The City [TM] also includes its surrounding forest and sea. This place is big-big, but sometimes it seems to be contracting, other times expanding. One never truly knows. Your character can choose to travel by foot, by horse, by metro, or they can fly and teleport if it's within their capability. Note however that the City does not have airports or seaports, and that buses and cars are a rarity. Curiouser and curiouser.
18. What are some of the tourist sites?
poly_places is your alternative Google map! You can find details on the over and underground, the Xanadu garden, the local mountain, the great outdoors, the graveyard and Shadow City, as well as a couple of player-created destinations. If you’ve got an idea for a new location you want to see around, suggest it here!
19. What about the fauna?
You can assume the City and its surroundings host any animal suited to the respective geography and climate. For more City-specific creatures or monsters, check out the Bestiary. Feel free to contribute to it!
20. So... there’re more people than just the ones on the character list?
NPCs abound, and relying on them for the occasional bouts of interaction is acceptable.
21. Can my character get a job with NPCs, or run a business?
Certainly! You can always assume some kind of employment, or list down itinerant and often illegal businesses here. If you'd like your character to have a business with an actual storefront, or HQ, please put it down under the adequate location section @ poly_places.
22. Cash or credit?
Yes, the City has money.
23. Where do our characters live once they enter the city?
Anywhere they wish, but upon arrival, many have claimed an (oddly free) apartment centered on 12 specific buildings that surround The Square. Each building is numbered and holds an infinite number of rooms. You are free to choose whichever building you wish, or any other location of your choosing. But take a look here; the numbers = buildings.
The carousel spins all the time- SO! Notice anything interesting?
24. What are these apartments like?
Although you're welcome to customize your character's living quarters as you see fit, here are a couple of optional apartment templates for the detail-oriented: 1-Bedroom, 2-Bedroom, 3-Bedroom, 4-Bedroom Deluxe. You can also play around here and here!
25. Do characters have to arrive within the City?
Characters can first appear within the City (falling into the Fountain in the City Square seems to be a tradition!), or they can arrive in any of the areas outside of it (the beach, the forest, etc). Dead characters have to arrive within the City proper.
26. Is it possible to access outside sources? Databases, news reports from within the city?
It's possible to access outside sources, yes. The fountain, for example, can also be used to tap into the outside world/news reports/databases etc, but the instances of success are rare, and really, how much of what you see is real, how much a dream, and how much a trick?
27. Do we really want to know what happened to question 27?
...elephant seals. Always the God damned elephant seals ♥
28. What about question 28?
Raging pandas.
29. Look, I'm getting SICK of the question jokes -
Wild chupacabras are watching you sleep at night.
CHARACTERS AND APPLICATIONS
30. What kind of characters do you take?
Anything and everything from a fictional environment (books, movies, shows, comics, mangas, games, webcomics). This includes original characters. We only ask that characters should be part of a consistent narrative - that they should have a determinable past, future and set of experiences, even if that is unknown. All our application forms and submission pages can be found at appfloss.
31. How does the app cycle work?
The app cycle is a two-week ordeal: the first week is the ‘app slot,’ and following it is the ‘app week.’ You can submit applications at appfloss at any point, but it’s only during the 'app week' that applications will be judged. Apps are reviewed on a first-come, first-serve basis, so applications that were left in the ‘app slot’ page receive priority to applications for the same character that were dropped in the regular ‘app week’ page. 'App week' and 'app slot' dates will be listed on the relevant posts. If you want scoops on how to deal with the Poly app, you can check out our application notes!
32. Can I app someone who is dead in canon?
Sure. Got something against corpses? They’d come in City-dead, lacking a heartbeat + pulse, and would be unable to trade to recover their lives.
33. Can characters keep their powers?
We rely on player discretion on this issue, and ask that they should tone down abilities to such a level that characters should not find themselves above the power of the City influence. Unfortunately, the City > its residents. Likewise, power-capping helps avoid godmodding. If you know your character comes with very extensive abilities, please explain how you plan to handle toning them down in the application.
34. What items can characters bring with them when they arrive?
Usually, characters bring whatever is on their persons at the time of their arrival. However, there have been instances of characters bringing NPC pets or reasonable items, with mod permission.
35. Do items that worked in characters’ home worlds retain their powers?
Yes, but applying the same moderation policy as with character powers.
36. If I reapp characters, can they have back the memories of their previous stay?
Characters who are reapped can gradually regain their memories, or they can trade to regain them asap. Characters cannot regain memories of times when they were played by other people than you, and you are also asked to not integrate any memories gained in a 4th wall event to which you brought this character prior to applying for him/her.
37. Can characters be canon-updated?
Yes, but we require that they should leave the City for at least a day. They may return with their memories intact.
38. What are the minimum posting requirements to keep a character?
According to the activity policy: two monthly network posts of whatever variety, provided they’re accessible to the community at large. Please try your best to declare hiatuses, when you take them.
39. Can dropped characters be repicked?
Yes, if you are doing it within a month of the drop, and if there is no application for the character in question.
40. Can I use the same journal in multiple games?
We have nothing against that, but we do request that all polychromatic posts should be visible on the journal, and that IC posts for other games should be filtered out.
OOC ISSUES
41. How do I get my game updates?
There are three main communities associated with the game: polychromatic, used for mod announcements; poly_tldr, for player communication, intro, drop and hiatus notices; and tampered, for log posts. Earning its name, poly_crack is the OOC fun tiemz community that you can join at your discretion. To keep up with the IC portion of the game, periodically update your character’s flist and check either that, or the slightly less reliable Poly community flist
42. What if I have a problem?
We encourage players to contact us about any conflict that makes them uncomfortable. We have venues for any complaints about issues of OOCness, inactivity, or general player, or game-related problems at large.
43. Where my mods at?
All yours, all the time.
If you want to contact the whole mod group, try e-mailing us at: polychromatic.mods@gmail.com
44. Where do you keep all your detailed worldbuilding and policy info?
appfloss, berryfloss and poly_places, at your service!
45. So, I still have a question…
QUICK, (WO)MAN! Leave a comment right here!