(no subject)
understanding the game;
the atheneum
the librarians
the pentamerone
the compendium
the magic
the rules
player's FAQ
the atheneum
The not-so-illustrious administration: established in 1905, the Atheneum is rather young as institutions go, but that's only in the United States of America. It is descended from similar institutions around the world that have been around - loosely or otherwise - for centuries, or at least as long as stories have been told. Headed by four Librarians, this is the institution that makes all the rules, regulates the magic, and keeps track of the magical objects. Tales are required to check in with the Atheneum at least twice a year. In addition, each Tale is required to pay dues four times a year, according to their income.
the librarians
The Librarians make up and represent the Atheneum. There is one for each Tale 'group' - the European, the Arabic, the Fables, and for the first time, the Modern & American. The Librarians watch over the Tales in their respective groups - introduce the new incarnations to the community, make sure everyone is following the rules, mediate relations between Tales, offer a helping hand to those in need, collect dues, keep the Pentamerone running, etc. They're in charge of the magic that might come with their group, whether it be in someone's ability or in an object of power. It can be a demanding job at times.
the pentamerone
Home-sweet-home on the Upper East Side. An old, handsome five-story building nestled in a private park (stone wall, iron gate, gardens gone slightly wild), the Pentamerone is the subject of much idle mortal speculation. It is home to the offices of the Atheneum, a magnificent library, and a store of all the magical objects currently in possession. It is also home to a handful of Tales who might not be able to get their own apartment, or who simply like to live at the Pentamerone - all residents are required to help with the upkeep of the building in some way or another, whether it be handiwork, cleaning, gardening, or assisting the Librarians. The Pentamerone also has a pleasant lounge space, and is a popular place for Tales to come to relax.
The building is laid out like so:
Attic - magic office;
Fifth floor - Librarians' apartments;
Fourth floor - Librarians' offices, other offices, Library;
Third floor - living arrangements;
Second floor - living arrangements;
First floor - meeting hall, common space and kitchen/dining, greenhouse, security guard's apartment, groundskeeper's apartment;
Basement - storage of magical objects, interesting thingamabobs, and secrets.
Click here to see a Sims2 layout of the Pentamerone! All credit goes to Lyssa.
the compendium
The Compendium is the network of magical journals every Tale possesses. Unless small magics are otherwise activated to ensure privacy, anything written in the journals can be seen by anyone with a journal - the writer's name (full name, no nicknames) shows up next to their entries and comments. They are small, old, leather-bound. They never seem to run out of pages, yet never grow in size - but, if you look back for entries made days, months, or even years ago, they will still be there... if you're looking for them. Whenever a Tale realizes it is, in fact, a reincarnation of a long-told story, a new journal pops up on a Librarian's desk and it is their responsibility to deliver it to that Tale, and introduce them to the community.
The Compendium is also an ancient, musty tome hiding in the Pentamerone, keeping track of every story of every life of every Tale. Only the Head Librarians know of its existence. After all, you don't want a witch with a grudge to find out when and where her enemy has been reincarnated so she could make their life hell. Of course, with villains such as Captain Hook filling the roles these days, it gets a little more interesting...
the magic
There is magic in the mortal word; after all, it's what causes the tales to be reincarnated into each generation. In addition to this, it facilitates the existence of several magical objects from the tales, collected and protected by the Atheneum. It can also be tapped by many of those tales who were able to do magic in their original fables, though they often find their abilities not quite as potent as they were in the storyverse. Scrying, transfiguration, enchantments, potions, etc - all are possible, though the Atheneum has strict rules against the capricious use of magic, and all acts are supposed to be cleared with a Librarian - though many flout such a requirement. The Atheneum itself has access to most magical items and uses them as necessary, but is also often required to contract out when particular bits of magic are necessary.
For a more in-depth description of how magic works, go here.
For a list of magical items, look here.
the rules
1. Secrecy.
The entire community is under an oath of secrecy to ensure that all hell doesn't rain down on the lot of them from the mortal world. There are no specific magical preventative measure in place preventing this, but the Atheneum is pretty vigilant about keeping an eye out for such tomfoolery. Historically there has always been the occasional mistake, but with little proof to back up the whole 'I'm a fairy tale character!' claim, most of those who decide to let the cat out of the bag are typically classified as nutters anyways.
2. Mortal Interaction.
As the characters live in the mortal world, and are in many ways mortals themselves, it isn't quite possible to stay out of mortal affairs. However, it is the loose policy that members of the community restrict themselves to doing so in mortal ways, and do not use tale-based powers or magic to interfere with the lives of normal people. Furthermore, while the Atheneum tends towards moral neutrality, it enforces mortal laws out of convenience more than anything else. On occasion they may interfere to keep a community member out of trouble, but should a character commit any of the general litany of common crimes, they will be dealt with privately, or worse, left to the mortal legal system to deal with.
3. Magic.
For the sake of discretion, magic is officially restricted by the Atheneum. Those with natural aptitude are allowed to indulge in basic matters of cantrip and prestidigitation, but anything more significant (charms, potions, enchantments, etc) require an appeal to the Atheneum and approval. Naturally, this is a rule often pooh-poohed and even sidestepped, but the powers that be do what they can to prevent casual use.
4. Dues.
Magical though the Atheneum and Pentamerone may be, money still does not grow on trees. As such, every Tale over the age of 18 is required to pay a tithe to the Atheneum four times a year. The amount is proportional to that Tale's income; if they make no income, and live in the Pentamerone, they're expected to pay their dues in other ways, be it by helping with housekeeping, or running errands for the Librarians.
5. Checking In.
In order to help the Librarians keep track of all the Tales running around the place, Tales are required to check in with their Heads at least once every six months. This is highly subjective to the Tale in question, however; troublemakers may have to check in as often as their Librarian demands it. (Note that this is not required OOC, but if you want to RP a check-in scene you are more than welcome.)
6. Consequences.
There is no official practice in regards to punishment when rules are broken, and the capricious and varied means in which offenses are dealt with (usually depending on who is in charge of the Atheneum at any given time) is a matter of constant scrutiny. Punishments can range from stern warnings to magical enchantments to private imprisonment to leaving offenders to mortal justice. On occasion and in the case of serious crimes death has been used as punishment, though the seriousness of this is somewhat circumvented by the foreknowledge that the offender will re-manifest soon thereafter.
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frequently asked questions;
• Is this a Fables game?
A: Although you might recognize some aspects of Bill Willingham's Fables series in Fairly Tales, no, we are not a Fables game. We owe the majority of our inspiration to a previous reincarnated fairy tales game, Grimmingly, which is no longer active. However, this is NOT the same game as Grimmingly -- for instance, we've taken some inspiration from Fables.
• Can I have a Disney character?
A: No, you can't. This game is based off of the literary version of stories, not the films. You're welcome to play with modern interpretations of original characters (like their reaction to them, etc), but you cannot take a character that was created for the films and has no literary precedent.
• I want a character not on the list!
A: We're hoping to fill the so-called 'big names' first, so we highly encourage picking from the list of availables. Your first character should be taken from it, but after that if you're just bursting with an unlisted character idea, bounce it off one of the mods and we'll see if it flies.
• Can I have a fifth character?
A: Maybe. Fifth characters are available to our most consistently active and engaged players, and we're very picky about this! If you think you would like a fifth character, e-mail the mods at fairlymods@gmail.com and we'll talk.
• Why aren't there any Asian/Russian/Italian/African/Martian tales?
A: Simply put, it's because they don't have the same popularity of the tales that are listed, and also to keep the game clearer to begin with. Again, if you feel strongly that something from another group should be included and have a great concept, ping a mod to chat on the topic.
• What's the deal with the reincarnation?
A: Since the tales have existed in popular, written format, they've been reincarnating themselves in suitable avatars. That is to say, they are reborn, and they live lives as people with parallels (in personality, and maybe circumstance, too) to their fairy tale lives. The realization comes at different times for everyone - for instance, Hansel and Gretel might realize who they are sooner than Prince Charming. Characters can remember their past lives, but that's totally up to the player. The older the Tale, the more lives they've lived. Aesop's are by far the oldest, followed by Arabics.
Although the European stories certainly existed for quite a while before Perrault and Grimm got to them, for simplicity's sake we are saying that the Tales began reincarnation a bit after they were written down. Thus, the French tales were collected at the end of the 17th century, German tales in the 19th century, etc.
Modern and American tales are only in their first incarnation.
• Wait, what's that about American and Modern Tales?
A: They're new! They haven't lived any past lives before. This means that a) they're more connected to their Tale lives and b) they're kind of looked down upon in the Tale community, as they don't have the prestige attached to them of being old Tales passed down through generations. It can be a point of plotty contention, so keep it in mind if you want to app a Modern or American Tale! (But also remember that we want to keep the Tale groups somewhat proportional, so even though these Tales are really popular, you might not be able to app one.)
• How do the journals work?
A: The IC community (fairlytalesrpg) is for the playing and posting of actual scenes, as well as phone conversations, e-mails, care packages or any other sort of non-journal IC interaction you wish to use. The OOC community (fairly-ooc) is for hiatus notices, queries, and general out of character tomfoolery.
The first person journals are actually enchanted leatherbound books that allow private communication between the tale community (see: The Compendium above). Please keep in mind when posting that the journals are written by hand, and not electronic. That means no smileys, unless you specify that they're being drawn. It definitely means no *actions in asterisks*. In addition, rather than expecting everyone to know everyone's handwriting, when your character makes an entry or comment, their name - first and last given names, but not their Tale name - shows up next to that entry.
• What about journal locks?
A: You can 'lock', that is, make an entry seen only by various other characters in the game. One can do group locks, but while they're magic journals, they aren't magical enough to see abstract things like 'locked to all people who like the color green'. A common sense rule is: if your character can name every member in the group they're locking to, it's good. It would a very insecure system indeed if villains could seek out this incarnation of their antagonist just by locking an entry to 'The Prince'!
• Are the locks visible to the readers?
A: It depends on whether you're locking to someone, or against someone. If your character is making an entry visible only to certain people, it shows up as a list of names that those characters can see (remember, your character should only be locking to groups that they can name all the members of!). If your character is making an entry that everyone but a specific person (or group of people) can see, then those names are not visible.
For example: [Locked to NYU professors] would show up as Velvet Lyon writes to Jacob Anser, Richard Jones.... [Blocked from Murdock] would not show up as anything special - Murdock simply will not be able to see the entry or the comments.
• How do characters realize they're fairy tale reincarnations?
A: There's plenty of room for player interpretation here, but generally at a variable point in your character's life they gain first-person memories of the story from whence they came, as well as possibly snippets from previous incarnations. Shortly thereafter, they are contacted by representatives of the Atheneum with an explanation, a journal, and an invitation to the Pentamerone.
• Do Tales recognize each other as Tales?
A: Yes, they do. This 'Tale sense' is a feeling of strange familiarity or oddity - something wrong or, perhaps, something right. Whatever it is, they get a feeling that pegs the other person as a tale. This feeling is strongest between characters from the same Tale, but also exists in a gradient between characters from the same Tale subgroup, group, and just Tales in general.
• Do I have to start playing my character at their 'awakening'?
A: No, you don't. In fact, we encourage you to start things a little further down the road, to prevent the game from being overrun by too many new recruits, so to speak.
• What is the youngest my character can be?
A: While we're fine with your character realizing their Talehood when they are very young, fifteen is the youngest any PC should be in the current game.
• Do characters have powers?
A: This depends on the character, and the tale on which they were based. Those who had some sort of magical or otherwise special ability in their tale often wind up with some reflection of that power in their reincarnations. Those who were animals retain some loose ability related to their old creature self. Again, this is open to player interpretation, but please remember: these are fairy tales, not superheroes.
• Does my character have to live in New York and/or the Pentamerone?
A: No, not at all. You can set your character wherever you wish, though keep in mind the majority of interaction will be within New York City (and the US in general). The journals allow one to interact from anywhere, and conventional travel or the use of magical items can take you to and fro. The Pentamerone is an open residence to any tales and often preferred by those who work in the Atheneum, but is not at all required.
• Can my character be in the Atheneum?
A: Sure, there's plenty of bureaucracy to go around! Talk to a mod about the possibility of the character being involved, and whomever the Head of your character's group would be.
• Can my character possess a magical object?
A: Generally, characters do not own magical objects - they're under the jurisdiction of the Atheneum, and if your character wants to use an object, they have to talk to their Librarian (and you have to check in with a mod OOCly). However, magical objects are a good plot point and if you have an idea, come bounce it off us!
• How do I get rid of that stupid navigation bar on livejournal, and get the customised S2 comment pages back to default?
A: Navigation bar, see here for S2, and here for S1.
A: To default to the livejournal comments page, see here.
• I want to use more than fifteen icons! How do I do that comment-embedding thing?
A: See tutorial here! Existing players can also request icons from the graphics mods if they ask nicely, since we like things looking pretty. A plethora of bad icons in the game makes us feel deeply unsettled.