THE PREMISE
Otokoyo - a secret game of hide and seek said to be played by only children and demons in an abandoned town. The eerie neon lights only come on at night, when the children show up wearing fox masks and the demons awaken to the smell of fresh blood roaming their streets. No one knows how it works, but legend says it has for centuries.
But this game is a bit different. The town is the same, as it is in those stories, but you didn't decide to come here because you wanted the adventure. You're an unwilling participant to this never ending game. As you wake up, you hear the faint, sing-songy voice of a little girl; "10... 9.... 8... 7.... 6... 5.... 4... 3... 2... 1~! Ready or not, Here I come." You open your eyes and realize you're at the front gates of the city with nothing but the clothes on your back and a Japanese-style fox mask. The lights are on, but no one's home in any of the buildings - you'll have to survive on your own. But that's harder than it sounds: With five demons looking for you every night, you'll have to find all the best hiding places and know exactly where to run to get away from them. And just because you've lived through one night doesn't mean you'll get to go home either.
You're stuck here now.
Based off the short film Kakurenbo, letsplayotokoyo is a game where your character will be forced into an abandoned town where they will wake up finding they have none of their items except their clothes. No weapons, food, money, nothing. They do all however, find they have a new Japanese-style fox mask, made especially for them.
→The City
During the day, the town seems easy enough to navigate - run-down, abandon buildings are everywhere, each covered in neon lights that only turn on when it gets dark. The city doesn't seem all that big either, and when you walk down the same street long enough, you end up right back where you started. There are no formal apartments, and just enough supplies scattered around so you can make a living. Your character will have to get used to sleeping on dirty futons in rooms with cracked windows and mice, cooking meals with gas ovens by candlelight. It's not the greatest setting, but it beats dealing with this place at night. There are no people in this town except the others who were forced into this place with you.
Night is a totally different story in this town. The town that your character came to understand during the light of day suddenly becomes an enormous maze, each alleyway twisting into a street you didn't know existed before, and no matter how much you run, the town always looks different. But, the very center of the city becomes accessible at night - but you might not want to go there. It's a very large tower, and you're very likely to see something you don't want to see - or you'll be captured. Every neon light that was off in the day shines so bright it's almost creepy at night. No one knows where the energy comes from to light them all up, but it's not like you'll have a lot of time to wonder about it when the Takers arrive. For a (very) rough visual of the town, direct your attention here.
There are four takers that roam the streets, looking for people to snatch away for their own mysterious bidding - The Liver Taker, The Blood Taker, The Oil Taker, and The Child Taker. Rumor says there is a 5th demon who controls them all, but no one knows for sure, since no one has seen it and lived to tell the tale. For more information, see The Takers page.
→Weapons&Supernatural powers
When your character arrives at the city, they will have no items other than the clothes on their backs and their new mask, which must be worn at night.
If your character has supernatural powers (ninjutsu, rubber arms, invisibility, super speed), they will be able to use these powers only during the day. At night, their powers will be gone. This is so everyone is on an equal playing field against the Takers. If your character has non-supernatural abilities, for example they're a master of kung fu, they will still have those abilities at night - although they probably won't do you very much good.
→Posting
Because the town is so different during night and day, there are special Day and Night posts. Day Posts are simple character posts, where you can make a post of your character doing whatever they want.
Night Posts are made by the mods, and are set up like an open-rp post (see here for examples). A mod (one of the oni or taker journals) shall make a post, and then everyone will comment with their characters and to each other. During theads in a Night Post, your character must wear their Fox Mask. Even if they don't want to, they will find themselves wearing it regardless. This means that if your character makes a new friend at night, you two won't know what each others faces look like until morning. Also, any of the Takers can interrupt a thread or can reply to you. It is their job to try and kidnap your character, after all. The reason night posts are set up this way is so that it's easier for characters to work together against the Takers, leading to more CR for all. Our AIM chatroom, otokoyochat, will always have someone in it when the night posts are going on so the mods can talk with each other&do any plotting they wish to do.
In order to give everyone a fair shot at having a chance of being in a night post, no one can make a new post until the newest night post has been up for 8 hours. Don't worry about keeping track of that yourself - at the bottom of the post, the time when day posts can be made again will be there (EST time). Night posts will only be posted 2 or 3 times a week, depending on mod availability.
All posts are face-to-face action. There are no video cameras or computers, so you all are going to have to make friends the old fashion way.
For each post your character is in, tag that post with your character's full name. All day posts will be given the tag *Day Post and each night post will be given the tag *Night Post
→What to do if your character gets capturedIt is inevitable that eventally, your character will be captured by one of the Takers, even though you do not wish to drop them. If this happens, you can not play your character until 3 days after their capture. The second time your character, you cannot play them until 4 days after their capture, and 3rd time 5 days, etc. When they return, they will be on a random street with no memory of what happened to them - their only souvenir will be a quarter-sized ring scar on the front of their neck.
However, if your character gets to the center of town and is caught by the Oni, something different can happen. The Oni will make your character an offer - if they say no, they will be Taken like previously described. However, if they accept the offer, you character is still technically taken but there is a very different way to get them back to normal. Your character cannot be played until the next night post and at that time, they will act and seem to the other characters like the Oni (silently moving through town, not recognizing anyone specific friend or foe, being generally creepy and having immunity to the takers who are trying to kill people). Your character must then lure someone into being captured, whether it's by them accepting the Oni's mask in the center of town or just being captured normally. After this, your character will wake up the next morning with no recollection of what they've done and will be ready for normal play once again.
If your character gets caught 5 times, they will die, and you will be forced to drop your character. If you are forced to drop a character because of this, you cannot reapply for one week. But, in order to keep someone else from grabbing your character, no one will be able to apply for a forcibly dropped character until that one week is up. When you reapp for a character in this situation, you are allowed to recycle your application.
→Activity Checks
Activity checks will be once a month. You have to have at least one thread in a day post & one thread in a night post, OR one day post that you've made and a thread in a night post. Try to thread more than that though, this game will get pretty boring pretty quick if you guys are just being lazy.
→Dropping
If you want to drop, simply reply to the drops page. When you drop, your character will be kidnapped by one of the Takers, which in this game equals death. Of course, if someone wishes to app a character that was previously dropped, you may, but they shall have no memory of their previous experience here.
premise• rules&faq• the takers
taken• reserves• wanted• applications• drops