FAQ
1. Do we use our journals in this game? No, there will be no journal entries in this game. There are no computers or other such things in the house, and all roleplay will take place through logs.
2. Is this game real-time? Sort of. One day in the game is two weeks in real life--but it feels like (and physically takes) a week to the characters. A night is two weeks in real life and in the game, and feels like it as well. While the clocks in the house and the sun outside may suggest that only a single day or night has passed, an actual week (or two, for night) has physically passed for them, and brings all the attendant discomforts and biological needs that time passing anywhere else would, such as the need for food, sleep, and taking care of personal hygiene. You may post for any time during the day/night as long as you're on the right time, however, and may also backlog.
3. Is there a monster list? Sort of! Every time the change of time from day to night is posted in this journal, there will be an update. Rather than having simple generic beasties, we will have specific ones, usually in specific places--if they are new, they will be described briefly for you so you can write with/about them; if they aren't new, then their descriptions can be found in the bestiary, complete with a danger rating. Until they show up, though, you'll just have to wonder. But if you want a chance at seeing a specific monster, please feel free to suggest it!
4. Is there "insert room/courtyard/etc here" in the house? If it's not on the map, it's not in the house. Dollsyhouse might have one added, but there's no guarantee. If you want a chance at it being added, though, please feel free to suggest it!
5. Who controls the monsters? For the most part you are allowed to control your own monsters. However, if you wish, you may get a mod to run NPC monsters if you ask them. Certain monsters will always only be run by the mods; this will be mentioned in the post.
6. What sort of power limitations are there in the Dollsyhouse? Most powers are accessable in the house, within reason--this is left to the discretion of the mods, while they are looking at your application. They can and will ask for any revisions they feel are necessary, concerning a character's powers and keeping things on a reasonably even keel. However, teleportation into rooms specially locked by the house itself, or outside of the house is disabled, any sort of trans-dimensional transportation is disabled, and characters cannot break down the doors, windows, or walls of the Dollsyhouse. They will find their abilities seem to have no effect on the house itself, though items within it are susceptible as normal. (See question 12 for more on this.) There will also be certain cases, at night, when powers will be completely shut off, but this will be noted. If you're uncertain about anything regarding this, please ask one of the mods, and they'll let you know.
7. What about language barriers? They don't exist in the Dollsyhouse--everyone can understand each other. Exceptions to this will be noted.
For characters with exceptional lingual diversity--bilinguals and polyglots, pretty much--we're allowing some distinctiveness from this to shine through. Presume that everything is getting through fine to others if language isn't an issue. If bits of other languages are being put into a conversation, or the character is consciously trying to speak in an alternate language and not be understood, then presume that they aren't understood unless the other character also knows that language. This can be represented by actually typing in that language (please provide an OOC translation, if you do), or by using italics, or some specific symbol to bookend the dialogue, and making an OOC note that text within them is another language, and should be ICly treated as such.
8. If a day lasts a week and a night lasts two, how do clocks in the house work? Clocks that originated in the Dollsyhouse keep pace with the movement of the sun--they move 1/14 as slow in the daytime, and 1/28 as slow at night. Any watches or clocks the characters bring with them, however, will work as they did in their own world.
9. What should my characters do for clothes? Go to the Linen Closet, wash what they've got, and hope nobody walks in while they're naked? Aside from that, there are clothes left in the closets and Changing Room, sort of. Where and what they are is noted in the room descriptions of the Settings page.
10. What happens when a character is killed? First and foremost, a monster will drag away the corpse. Corpses can be protected, for a time, but know that the Dollsyhouse does not take being refused well--for each monster that tries to take the corpse and is repelled, a stronger one will come to try again, until one finally succeeds. The character will wake up a few hours later (1-2 IRL days) in the Attic, confused and disoriented for a little while, with no memories of the time between death and waking up. There will be no scars or other evidence of being killed remaining, and their clothes will be normal, unstained and untorn. Their weapons and ammunition, however, will not replace or replentish themselves. Still, characters would be wise to try and avoid being killed at night, or they'll have to deal with monsters immediately after waking up, despite their disorientation.
11. What will a character see if they look out a window? At the moment, the Dollsyhouse is too small to see much out most of the windows. The first thing a character would notice would be a long, cloudy sky. Looking down, they would see a small expanse of grass, then a steep cliff, far too long to see the bottom. This view is the same on all sides. The Observatory is an exception to this, out of which it is possible to see the ocean beyond, as well as floating islands in the distance. A fuller description is found on the settings page.
Once the Dollsyhouse starts expanding though, and adding additional floors, the attic might have a good view; this question will be updated to reflect that, when the time comes.
12. What happens if a character attacks the house itself or items within it? Attacking doors, windows, ceilings, walls, or floors--basically, any integral, built-in part of the house itself--does absolutely nothing. Bullets hit and fall to the ground without leaving a mark, grenade blasts leave them without even a scorch mark, knives will slide along the surface without so much as getting any traction to cut with.... That sort of thing. The furniture and other things within but not part of the house, however, may be attacked, harmed, and destroyed as any other objects of their kind normally would. These things replace or repair themselves over the course of the next period of nightfall, when nobody is watching them.
13. What if I want to apply for a character that is unusually small, or too big for the house? The Dollsyhouse does not adjust for new visitors--new visitors adjust for it. =P But only if necessary. To make it clearer, nothing at all happens to small characters; they will simply have to adapt to the challenges of living in a place where nothing is properly scaled for them. Thus, Papa Smurf would need to work on his upper-body strength and learn how to climb or jump very well to get around. But too-large characters would get smaller to fit the confines of the house--applying for Optimus Prime, for example, would result in a very much Shrunk-imus Prime (thank you, Drunk), though the extent of that is up to the player; you could have a robot just barely short enough to clear the ceiling, or a human-sized one--or even smaller, if you wanted.
14. Can my character summon things? What about perform Limit Breaks? Or have Materia? Summoning isn't allowed, period. If you just came here inexplicably and can't get out, what makes you think you'd be able to get a summoned creature in and out easily, as well? They just plain don't work. Limit Breaks may be used within reason, provided that A) they can work and make sense indoors, B) they function like they do in the games (AKA, only when you find yourself badly hurt and in pretty dire straits), and C) the area is appropriate for them. For example, if you try to do a Limit Break which needs a lot of space to work in a small room, expect your character to slam into a wall, or trip over some furniture, or something like that. Just use common sense, okay? As for Materia, as long as your character has them and knows how to use them, then they're fine.
15. Is this game turn-based? Sort of. Within a single thread, then yes, this game is turn-based. Once a thread is established, after everyone posts for the first time, (however that order shakes itself out is up to the players) then everyone sticks to that order to continue the post. If somebody new comes in, then the new person is incorporated into the posting order at the point in which they jumped in. When it comes to multiple threads though, you could post six threads at once, if you really needed to. There's no order for threads in general.
16. Can characters be in multiple threads at once? Sure! There's one limit, though: it needs to make sense. That means you need to have a decent head for time if you do this--don't have two threads running and both be in the early morning. Unless they're very short, that would mean they'd overlap. Keep track of what your character is doing when, and you'll be able to plan multiple threads without running into nasty little time paradoxes like that.
17. Can I apply for a dead character or ghost? What about one that's possessed?
Not quite and maybe. =P If you apply for a character who is dead or a ghost in their canon, you'll need to apply for them at a point where they were actually alive--even if you're stealing them from the moment they're being killed, so long as they're not actually dead yet, then it's good enough. As for possession, that will be decided on a case-by-case basis; please ask the mods about your particular circumstances.
18. If a character is from a canon where certain things don't affect them, (EG: Injuries disappearing, not aging, etc.) will they be affected in Dollsy? Yes, for the most part. Characters who never seem to get injured, sick, or age, without an in-character reason, (such as immortality or regenerative abilities) will in fact have these as part of their experiences in Dollsy. The one exception is stuff that is blatantly supposed to be humorous and non-serious, such as comical anime nosebleeds which involve extreme amounts of blood being lost at high pressure.
19. What happens if my character commits suicide in Dollsy? Unless your character has a disease (such as in the Higurashi series) or otherwise isn't committing suicide in earnest and of their own free will, then your character is dead. Permanently. There are absolutely no exceptions to this rule. They will not wake up in the attic at all, and will have their corpse be dragged away by monsters as per usual. If someone wishes to play this character again, then the character must be restarted as slipping and coming into the house as any other newcomer would, with absolutely no memories of having ever been here before--although characters who had previously met the character can and do remember them. It is only the character themself who is affected.
20. Just what kind of character can I apply for at Dollsyhouse? In Dollsyhouse, our policy is that a character needs to have an established, official canon to be applied for. So anything that has a definitive source that can be consulted, such as movies, books, comics, stage play scripts, animes, mangas, or video games are all welcome here. Things that don't have official canons--for example, people wanting to roleplay actual people (such as real-life band members or actors) or mythological beings that don't have published mythos, or fanmade material--can't be applied.
Also, it's always a good idea to consider the genre's fit for a character. The Dollsyhouse is a horror RPG, so things like character flaws, weaknesses, and fears, and the dynamics and interesting plot material these create, are extremely important. If you don't think that a character has interesting enough chinks in their armor, psychological or otherwise, to be fun to mess with, then you probably won't be getting the most out of your time here.
21. If my character has a companion in their canon, such as pokémon, digimon, familiars, mounts, or pets, can they bring it to Dollsyhouse? Most likely, yes! Consider companions under the same restrictions a player character would be, concerning things such as powers, size, and the like, but as long as they can fit in, they're probably acceptable. To that end, if you want to have the companion(s) in Dollsyhouse, please account for them in your character's application. You don't need to write a separate application for them or anything like that, but we'd like you to tell us briefly what the companion is and looks like, maybe how it acts, and definitely what powers it has is.
22. I've seen the phrase "Three Day Rule" pop up on a few threads. What is that? The Three Day Rule is a rule that is meant to make old, large, or important threads move faster than they otherwise might. If people agree to using it, the Three Day Rule allows for one simple thing: If it's someone's turn to post in a thread, and three days have passed without them posting, then the person who is next in the posting order may go ahead and skip them; the person who was skipped may post the next time their turn in the posting order comes up, and catch up as they can. Typically, deciding to use it is agreed on by everyone, or at least a majority of people who are posting in a thread--or its use is declared in an opening post, and so anyone joining the thread is bound by it.
23. What do I do if I need to go on hiatus? How long can it last? If you need to go on hiatus, please post this fact on the Hiatus post, (which you can reach by way of the navigation bar at the bottom of this page) the OOC comm, or both. The maximum hiatus length is two months--if you need more than that, please discuss it with a moderator. As for within the game, absences don't need to be explained, though it is encouraged. If you'd like to see if a plot-involved reason for a character disappearance can be created, please ask a moderator, and they'll be happy to help figure something out with you.
24. I need more time! Can you extend the OOC length of day/night?
Maybe. Generally, when this is requested, it will go up to a community vote, and if most people seem to need one, there will be one. However, you cannot request an extension the day of a day/night change, and the mods reserve the right to deny this request (generally only for plot reasons). You can also only extend each day or night once.
Navigation
rules☯ setting☯ faq☯ gameplay☯ bestiary☯ timeline☯ taken☯ reserve☯ wanted☯ apply☯ contact info☯ hiatus☯ drop☯ advertise☯ squick
2. Is this game real-time? Sort of. One day in the game is two weeks in real life--but it feels like (and physically takes) a week to the characters. A night is two weeks in real life and in the game, and feels like it as well. While the clocks in the house and the sun outside may suggest that only a single day or night has passed, an actual week (or two, for night) has physically passed for them, and brings all the attendant discomforts and biological needs that time passing anywhere else would, such as the need for food, sleep, and taking care of personal hygiene. You may post for any time during the day/night as long as you're on the right time, however, and may also backlog.
3. Is there a monster list? Sort of! Every time the change of time from day to night is posted in this journal, there will be an update. Rather than having simple generic beasties, we will have specific ones, usually in specific places--if they are new, they will be described briefly for you so you can write with/about them; if they aren't new, then their descriptions can be found in the bestiary, complete with a danger rating. Until they show up, though, you'll just have to wonder. But if you want a chance at seeing a specific monster, please feel free to suggest it!
4. Is there "insert room/courtyard/etc here" in the house? If it's not on the map, it's not in the house. Dollsyhouse might have one added, but there's no guarantee. If you want a chance at it being added, though, please feel free to suggest it!
5. Who controls the monsters? For the most part you are allowed to control your own monsters. However, if you wish, you may get a mod to run NPC monsters if you ask them. Certain monsters will always only be run by the mods; this will be mentioned in the post.
6. What sort of power limitations are there in the Dollsyhouse? Most powers are accessable in the house, within reason--this is left to the discretion of the mods, while they are looking at your application. They can and will ask for any revisions they feel are necessary, concerning a character's powers and keeping things on a reasonably even keel. However, teleportation into rooms specially locked by the house itself, or outside of the house is disabled, any sort of trans-dimensional transportation is disabled, and characters cannot break down the doors, windows, or walls of the Dollsyhouse. They will find their abilities seem to have no effect on the house itself, though items within it are susceptible as normal. (See question 12 for more on this.) There will also be certain cases, at night, when powers will be completely shut off, but this will be noted. If you're uncertain about anything regarding this, please ask one of the mods, and they'll let you know.
7. What about language barriers? They don't exist in the Dollsyhouse--everyone can understand each other. Exceptions to this will be noted.
For characters with exceptional lingual diversity--bilinguals and polyglots, pretty much--we're allowing some distinctiveness from this to shine through. Presume that everything is getting through fine to others if language isn't an issue. If bits of other languages are being put into a conversation, or the character is consciously trying to speak in an alternate language and not be understood, then presume that they aren't understood unless the other character also knows that language. This can be represented by actually typing in that language (please provide an OOC translation, if you do), or by using italics, or some specific symbol to bookend the dialogue, and making an OOC note that text within them is another language, and should be ICly treated as such.
8. If a day lasts a week and a night lasts two, how do clocks in the house work? Clocks that originated in the Dollsyhouse keep pace with the movement of the sun--they move 1/14 as slow in the daytime, and 1/28 as slow at night. Any watches or clocks the characters bring with them, however, will work as they did in their own world.
9. What should my characters do for clothes? Go to the Linen Closet, wash what they've got, and hope nobody walks in while they're naked? Aside from that, there are clothes left in the closets and Changing Room, sort of. Where and what they are is noted in the room descriptions of the Settings page.
10. What happens when a character is killed? First and foremost, a monster will drag away the corpse. Corpses can be protected, for a time, but know that the Dollsyhouse does not take being refused well--for each monster that tries to take the corpse and is repelled, a stronger one will come to try again, until one finally succeeds. The character will wake up a few hours later (1-2 IRL days) in the Attic, confused and disoriented for a little while, with no memories of the time between death and waking up. There will be no scars or other evidence of being killed remaining, and their clothes will be normal, unstained and untorn. Their weapons and ammunition, however, will not replace or replentish themselves. Still, characters would be wise to try and avoid being killed at night, or they'll have to deal with monsters immediately after waking up, despite their disorientation.
11. What will a character see if they look out a window? At the moment, the Dollsyhouse is too small to see much out most of the windows. The first thing a character would notice would be a long, cloudy sky. Looking down, they would see a small expanse of grass, then a steep cliff, far too long to see the bottom. This view is the same on all sides. The Observatory is an exception to this, out of which it is possible to see the ocean beyond, as well as floating islands in the distance. A fuller description is found on the settings page.
Once the Dollsyhouse starts expanding though, and adding additional floors, the attic might have a good view; this question will be updated to reflect that, when the time comes.
12. What happens if a character attacks the house itself or items within it? Attacking doors, windows, ceilings, walls, or floors--basically, any integral, built-in part of the house itself--does absolutely nothing. Bullets hit and fall to the ground without leaving a mark, grenade blasts leave them without even a scorch mark, knives will slide along the surface without so much as getting any traction to cut with.... That sort of thing. The furniture and other things within but not part of the house, however, may be attacked, harmed, and destroyed as any other objects of their kind normally would. These things replace or repair themselves over the course of the next period of nightfall, when nobody is watching them.
13. What if I want to apply for a character that is unusually small, or too big for the house? The Dollsyhouse does not adjust for new visitors--new visitors adjust for it. =P But only if necessary. To make it clearer, nothing at all happens to small characters; they will simply have to adapt to the challenges of living in a place where nothing is properly scaled for them. Thus, Papa Smurf would need to work on his upper-body strength and learn how to climb or jump very well to get around. But too-large characters would get smaller to fit the confines of the house--applying for Optimus Prime, for example, would result in a very much Shrunk-imus Prime (thank you, Drunk), though the extent of that is up to the player; you could have a robot just barely short enough to clear the ceiling, or a human-sized one--or even smaller, if you wanted.
14. Can my character summon things? What about perform Limit Breaks? Or have Materia? Summoning isn't allowed, period. If you just came here inexplicably and can't get out, what makes you think you'd be able to get a summoned creature in and out easily, as well? They just plain don't work. Limit Breaks may be used within reason, provided that A) they can work and make sense indoors, B) they function like they do in the games (AKA, only when you find yourself badly hurt and in pretty dire straits), and C) the area is appropriate for them. For example, if you try to do a Limit Break which needs a lot of space to work in a small room, expect your character to slam into a wall, or trip over some furniture, or something like that. Just use common sense, okay? As for Materia, as long as your character has them and knows how to use them, then they're fine.
15. Is this game turn-based? Sort of. Within a single thread, then yes, this game is turn-based. Once a thread is established, after everyone posts for the first time, (however that order shakes itself out is up to the players) then everyone sticks to that order to continue the post. If somebody new comes in, then the new person is incorporated into the posting order at the point in which they jumped in. When it comes to multiple threads though, you could post six threads at once, if you really needed to. There's no order for threads in general.
16. Can characters be in multiple threads at once? Sure! There's one limit, though: it needs to make sense. That means you need to have a decent head for time if you do this--don't have two threads running and both be in the early morning. Unless they're very short, that would mean they'd overlap. Keep track of what your character is doing when, and you'll be able to plan multiple threads without running into nasty little time paradoxes like that.
17. Can I apply for a dead character or ghost? What about one that's possessed?
Not quite and maybe. =P If you apply for a character who is dead or a ghost in their canon, you'll need to apply for them at a point where they were actually alive--even if you're stealing them from the moment they're being killed, so long as they're not actually dead yet, then it's good enough. As for possession, that will be decided on a case-by-case basis; please ask the mods about your particular circumstances.
18. If a character is from a canon where certain things don't affect them, (EG: Injuries disappearing, not aging, etc.) will they be affected in Dollsy? Yes, for the most part. Characters who never seem to get injured, sick, or age, without an in-character reason, (such as immortality or regenerative abilities) will in fact have these as part of their experiences in Dollsy. The one exception is stuff that is blatantly supposed to be humorous and non-serious, such as comical anime nosebleeds which involve extreme amounts of blood being lost at high pressure.
19. What happens if my character commits suicide in Dollsy? Unless your character has a disease (such as in the Higurashi series) or otherwise isn't committing suicide in earnest and of their own free will, then your character is dead. Permanently. There are absolutely no exceptions to this rule. They will not wake up in the attic at all, and will have their corpse be dragged away by monsters as per usual. If someone wishes to play this character again, then the character must be restarted as slipping and coming into the house as any other newcomer would, with absolutely no memories of having ever been here before--although characters who had previously met the character can and do remember them. It is only the character themself who is affected.
20. Just what kind of character can I apply for at Dollsyhouse? In Dollsyhouse, our policy is that a character needs to have an established, official canon to be applied for. So anything that has a definitive source that can be consulted, such as movies, books, comics, stage play scripts, animes, mangas, or video games are all welcome here. Things that don't have official canons--for example, people wanting to roleplay actual people (such as real-life band members or actors) or mythological beings that don't have published mythos, or fanmade material--can't be applied.
Also, it's always a good idea to consider the genre's fit for a character. The Dollsyhouse is a horror RPG, so things like character flaws, weaknesses, and fears, and the dynamics and interesting plot material these create, are extremely important. If you don't think that a character has interesting enough chinks in their armor, psychological or otherwise, to be fun to mess with, then you probably won't be getting the most out of your time here.
21. If my character has a companion in their canon, such as pokémon, digimon, familiars, mounts, or pets, can they bring it to Dollsyhouse? Most likely, yes! Consider companions under the same restrictions a player character would be, concerning things such as powers, size, and the like, but as long as they can fit in, they're probably acceptable. To that end, if you want to have the companion(s) in Dollsyhouse, please account for them in your character's application. You don't need to write a separate application for them or anything like that, but we'd like you to tell us briefly what the companion is and looks like, maybe how it acts, and definitely what powers it has is.
22. I've seen the phrase "Three Day Rule" pop up on a few threads. What is that? The Three Day Rule is a rule that is meant to make old, large, or important threads move faster than they otherwise might. If people agree to using it, the Three Day Rule allows for one simple thing: If it's someone's turn to post in a thread, and three days have passed without them posting, then the person who is next in the posting order may go ahead and skip them; the person who was skipped may post the next time their turn in the posting order comes up, and catch up as they can. Typically, deciding to use it is agreed on by everyone, or at least a majority of people who are posting in a thread--or its use is declared in an opening post, and so anyone joining the thread is bound by it.
23. What do I do if I need to go on hiatus? How long can it last? If you need to go on hiatus, please post this fact on the Hiatus post, (which you can reach by way of the navigation bar at the bottom of this page) the OOC comm, or both. The maximum hiatus length is two months--if you need more than that, please discuss it with a moderator. As for within the game, absences don't need to be explained, though it is encouraged. If you'd like to see if a plot-involved reason for a character disappearance can be created, please ask a moderator, and they'll be happy to help figure something out with you.
24. I need more time! Can you extend the OOC length of day/night?
Maybe. Generally, when this is requested, it will go up to a community vote, and if most people seem to need one, there will be one. However, you cannot request an extension the day of a day/night change, and the mods reserve the right to deny this request (generally only for plot reasons). You can also only extend each day or night once.
Navigation
rules☯ setting☯ faq☯ gameplay☯ bestiary☯ timeline☯ taken☯ reserve☯ wanted☯ apply☯ contact info☯ hiatus☯ drop☯ advertise☯ squick