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[dunwichmod]

THE CREEPYPASTA VIBES

WHY THIS PREMISE?
Creepy Stephen King-esque towns are our jam. It allows for some slice of life activities among the creepy stuff, like some of our favorite shows: Haven, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Wednesday. Maybe you like Teen Wolf or the Vampire Diaries. All small, creepy towns.

HOW SCARY/DARK IS THIS GAME GOING TO GET?
On scale from Stephen King’s IT to the Stephen King based series Haven, we’re hoping for something a little closer toward Haven with more than the occasional foray into scarier stuff.

THERE ARE SOME THINGS I DO NOT LIKE ONE BIT.
Using content warnings is going to be key. If someone wants to write about spiders or child endangerment (gdi Pennywise) then it becomes critical that warnings are used so that people who do not like that content can skip on by.

On the flip side, if you do not like certain content, heed the warnings. Please don’t expose yourself to something with a content warning you don’t like and then complain that you read the thing you didn’t like?

DO I NEED TO KNOW ALL THE STEPHEN KINGS?
Nah, boo. But there will be all kinds of fun easter eggs for those who are King fans.

CAN I PLAY AN EVIL DOER?
The short answer is yes. The long answer is yes, as long as you understand that your character will likely be incarcerated permanently or possibly killed, depending on the plot. We're open and willing to all kinds of plots to accommodate players and their desires for certain plots, but the fact of the matter is that In Character Actions mean In Character Consequences so be prepared to work with the moderators and the others players to determine outcomes of these kinds of plots before you enact any part of them. Players, if at any time you notice that someone has started a plot that SHOULD have consequences (IDK, people talking about stealing stuff in public or if your character wants to rat someone out), talk to us sooner rather than later. The player in question may not understand how angry their character is making other characters. Basically, we need communication all around for this. As always, if you're ever unsure, hit us up. We will work with you.

TRIGGERY CONTENT

SO THERE'S A FLU?
Yep. It’s not as bad as COVID-19, and it’s certainly not anything near as bad as The Stand. It’s more like that wave of swine flu that happened several years ago with a bit of Dreamcatcher and Haven mixed in. See more information here.

WON’T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN?
You can bring in child NPCs or play younger characters in game. Just please use content warnings for child endangerment plots. We’re going to discourage folks from killing off their child NPCs. While it may be a Stephen King move in a book, a game is a longer lasting medium and do you really wanna RP your character in that headspace?

HOW ABOUT PREGNANCY PLOTS?
We’re not encouraging them, but they’re not banned from game. Keep in mind, you don’t know what your fellow players have been through when it comes to pregnancy, so we will tell you to proceed with caution and any mention of the pregnancy must have a content warning on the post, even if there’s a one off comment in a network post. If you can’t do that much, then don’t do a pregnancy plot.

SUICIDE AND SUICIDAL IDEATION?
No thank you. There is some of that in King’s work, but is that something you want to subject your line partners to? We hope not, especially if you do not know any of their personal history outside of game.

SEXUAL ASSAULT AND DUB-CON?
Some characters have SA in their canon backgrounds and that is allowed. We’re not interested in RPing that out in game. While we don’t want to kink shame people who like dub-con in fanfic, the problem with doing that in a game is instead of the story ending there are consequences after the fact which can be extremely uncomfortable to deal with. Let’s avoid the dub-con. Consent is sexy.

GENDER BENDING OR GENDER SWAPS?
We’re a trans friendly game. A number of us have explored gender identity through writing. Different writers are going to have different ideas on how to explore gender. We want every player to be free to write that exploration, but you do need to use content warnings.

SOMEONE WROTE SOMETHING THAT’S A TRIGGER FOR ME.
Tell a mod. We’ll tell the player to put it behind a cut-tag with a content warning. We want all our players to do their best to use warnings, but some triggers may be less common than others, or a player may have come up with an idea that they didn’t connect to a trigger by accident. As long as we all try to be gentle and understanding with one another, okay?

I WANNA EXPLORE A DIFFICULT OR POTENTIALLY TRIGGERING TOPIC.
Keep in mind we’re not therapists. If we have players that are therapists, they don’t want to be therapists during their pretendy fun times. We want to give you the space to write the things you want to write, but please be respectful of the space we’re giving you. If you start to worry your fellow players and mods, we may have a talk with you. Also please use content warnings and cut tags.

GAME MECHANICS

HOW DOES MY CHARACTER GET HERE?
While doing whatever, your character slipped through a Thinny. A thinny is a weak spot in reality where the fabric of the worlds has been worn thin. It usually looks like thick fog.

When a character is pulled from their own verse, do they go missing from that reality or is a copy of them left behind?
They do not go missing at all. They are taken from a certain point in time, and it's as if they were never gone from their canon). If a character goes back, they slip back into their canon without memories or missing time. This will allow people to pick up dropped characters without having to keep back history.

WHAT HAPPENS IF I WANT TO DROP A CHARACTER?
A swirling mist not unlike Todash Space surrounds your character, and they disappear through a thinny back to their dimension (we hope?) with no memories of being in Dunwich.

I dropped a character, and now have dropper's remorse. Can I pick them up again?
Adding and removing characters is kind of draining on the moderators, so we're going to have a two week waiting period between when you dropped the character and when you can pick them back up again. You will also need to get permission from your fandom mates and any close lines you formed during the time you were in game.

If I drop a character and pick them up again, can they remember being here?
Yes, they can remember. However, if we feel that this is being abused, the moderators reserve the right to say no.

Can strike-through texts like this by on character be seen by other characters on netposts and comments?
Strike outs cannot be seen! If it's a reply that it all strike outs, the other character will know they did a reply, but that they "left it blank."

Threads that have to be 400 words per character - what number of replies do they need to have?
Generally, we go with the 5/5 rule or 400 words from each character on the thread.

CAN I CANON BUMP MY CHARACTER?
Yes. Canon bumps will be allowed using an activity reward. (A canon bump, for those of you who don’t know, is when your character gets updated memories from their source material as new movies, tv show episodes, etc, come out.)

If I wanted to do an AC canon update, could it be less like memories downloaded and more like "here's a vision of the future you didn't ask for" via a dream?
Yes, and we love this idea.

Would I need to wait to get AC points if I'd like to come into the game with my NPC child/robot/pet?
Yes, all NPCs must have AC to come in. If you're currently in game and have the AC points, you can use those to bring the NPC in with them.

Would I need to AC for my character to go to school? And for a part time job?
Yup. Both would require 1 AC reward point each.

Can characters see icons/picture or just names?
We're pretty flexible/squishy on this. So if the two players of the characters interacting specifically want them to be seen or not seen, either works. Kinda like a zoom work call where someone can decide to have the camera on or off. Just communicate with players if you have something specific in mind that you want.

FANDOM AND AU QUESTIONS

CAN I PLAY ANY FANDOM?
Some authors don't like fanfiction of their stuff and actively and legally fight against it. At this time, we will not accept Harry Potter or any other characters from JK Rowling's novels. Not because those characters themselves are terrible, but because they’re too closely tied to Rowling’s transphobia and it’s not an association we want.

CAN I CREATE AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE FOR MY CHARACTER AND BRING THAT VERSION IN?
Yes. If your character is from an original universe, please give a detailed history of that character's life (and what their world was like if it's vastly different than our real world). If your character is from a fandom universe, please try to fill in any major changes to that universe. If you need examples, I suggest reading or looking up Marvel's "What If...?" series or comics. Fill in all those little things that would ripple and change because of a major change in the canon.

WHAT IF SOMEONE WANTS TO PLAY ANOTHER UNIVERSE VERSION OF A CHARACTER?
We welcome other versions. Please check a player's application to see if they allow alternates and email them to discuss before holding even if they answered yes on their application. It's just good manners.

CAN I PLAY PREVIOUS GAME CANON OF MY CHARACTER?
Absolutely. You will need to contact players of characters that had very close relationships with your character, the same way the mod asks you to contact players who have close canon lines.

Can I play an OC?
We have made the decision to change our stance on OCs. All OC's must belong to a fandom.

WHAT IS CANON PUNCTURING? AND IS IT ALLOWED?
It's telling a character that they are fiction. For example, your character told Anakin Skywalker that he was in movies in their world. Canon puncturing is not allowed, except in AC Reward cases. See the AC Rewards page (players only).

DO CHARACTERS HAVE TO HAVE PREVIOUS GAME HISTORY OR CAN THEY JUST BE AN OC FROM A FANDOM?
While we are open to OCs from a fandom, we usually defer to canon characters to make sure that there isn't much in the way of overlap. If your OC has the exact same powers and appearance of canon characters, we may run the concept by them to make sure there is no toe-stepping.

Can I play a Dunwich native as an OC?
No, Dunwich native OCs are not allowed. We're evil and using the Dunwich natives for our own nefarious purposes.

DO I NEED TO KNOW ALL THE FANDOMS?
No one's going to know all the fandoms, and there's plenty of Wikipedias to look them up if you feel that you need to. However, the joy of panfandoms is that the characters won't know that fandom either.

Do you have a Wanted section I can look through?
We don’t have a wanted section because I find they don’t get used or updated very well.

LIFE IN DUNWICH

WHERE ARE THE CHARACTERS LIVING?
Characters will be welcomed by Mobius at The Pickman house. See Dunwich Lore for more information on the building. From there, they can move into housing as they see fit once they’ve earned activity rewards.

Can my character share an apartment in the Pickman?
Yup, just let us know!

MY CHARACTER HAS A MORTAL WOUND COMING IN. HOW IS THAT TREATED?
Thinnies have many strange qualities, and while most of them are not great outcomes. Your character will find themselves healed enough from their wounds that they won't die. Maybe Dunwich needs you.

If I play a nonhuman with a really nonhuman appearance-- do they become human or do they get to keep their original appearance?
We're pretty flexible on the nonhuman appearances. If you want to play them as their regular appearance, go for it. if you want them to become human, go for it. Strangely enough, the locals won’t notice either way.

MY CHARACTER IS FROM A WORLD OR TIME PERIOD WITH NO SMART PHONES.
When they arrive in Dunwich, a local will likely hand you a phone, claiming you dropped it. You didn't, but Dunwich works in weird ways, and what do you know, the phone works for you.

Do tablets/phones/etc have text-to-speech ability?
Sure do! It'll be something Siri-like.

What happens if the character doesn't speak English? Does whatever brings them here give them an instant brain download?
We're handwaving this one. Whatever brought you here somehow gave you the ability to speak English. You'll still know your native language. Think of it as the Translation Circuit on the TARDIS.

WHAT ABOUT CURRENCY? HOW DO WE BUY THINGS?
Get a job, you bum!

RULES CLARIFICATION

WHAT COUNTS AS ACTIVITY?
A netpost, ten back and forth interactions on the network (five comments for each character), or a log or thread of at least 400 words from each character involved. You need three pieces of activity per month to remain in the game. However, going above and beyond earns rewards.

WHAT REWARDS?
If you make 4+ pieces of activity with a character in one month, a character can receive various items. Maybe they want something from home, like a vehicle or a pet. Maybe you want them to get a canon bump. Or they want a specific job. Or a house in the area. The players-only Activity Rewards page shows examples, and you can comment with what you'd like.

CAN I HAVE A PET?
As long as it's not bigger than a bear, we're good to go.

WHAT ABOUT VEHICLES?
Vehicles will be allowed on a case by case basis and must use an activity reward to gain them.




I have a question that's not on the list. How can I ask it?
Dropbox!