Round 3 FAQ + Rules

[grimgrinningghosts]

 

Join now the spirits in nupitial doom,
To this lonely manor... and now your tomb 

 The characters will find themselves in the Phantom Manor, with a currently unknown host guiding your way. Regardless of your mysterious host and unknown motives, one thing is clear: If you want to leave this manor alive, you will have to get away with murder.

Can you escape?  We're just dying to see you try!

OOC INFORMATION

 

So, how does this work?

Foolish Mortals is a community-based game, with daily threading and tags taking place in a weekly mod-posted log. Players are both welcome and encouraged to put up their own logs for special events (parties, weddings, the occasional public display of humiliation). Every Friday, a murder will be committed, and a investigation log will be posted to allow players to investigate these deaths. On Saturday, a trial log will be posted. Should this go well, an execution log will be posted for the culprit on either Saturday night or Sunday morning, depending how long the trial went.

How long will the game last?

The game is being projected to last anywhere from a month to 8 weeks, depending on the amount of players that apply to the game. 

OOC Day = 1 IC Day. Threads that are posted Monday take place on Monday, and the like. This is with the exception of trials/investigations. Investigation Logs are posted on Friday, while Trial Logs are posted on Saturday. ICly, these take place on Friday. 

When are reserves/apps opening/what are important dates?

Reserves will open on December 28th 
Applications will open on December 29th or should we hit the reserve limit, be opened ASAP on December 28th.
Reserves and Applications will close on January 5th. Applications will begin processing on the 3. 
The game shall open on January 8th, with an Intro Log posted on that day. 

No murder shall be committed the first week. 

Is there a character cap?

Foolish Mortals will be running at a maximum of 25 characters, but is designed to run with a base minimum of 13. One character per player.

In addition, there are three characters allowed per "main" canon and with a hard cap of 2 characters allowed per "supplementary" canons. In this case, the Disney movie Peter Pan would be a "main" canon. Whereas franchises like Kingdom Hearts, the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Star Wars would classify as "supplementary" canons. More on that later.

Sounds great! How do I app?

If you're interested in joining our haunting spree, you'll need to post a reserve when they go up. When reserves open, they will remain open until we hit 25 reserves. Reserves are mandatory, and a reserve link will need to be provided in your game application. One reserve per comment, and you can change your reserve before you app, provided you do so before submitting your application.

Should you be unable to make it to reserves at the time they open, proxy reserves (i.e. reserves posted for another player) are allowed. In this case, the player being reserved for has 24 hours to confirm their reserve by replying to it. If they do not comment by this time, the reserve will be discarded. (We also ask that a player only post one proxy reserve, as a common courtesy).

There will be no app/reserve challenges accepted. Foolish Mortals operates on a first-come first-serve basis. The player who first put in a reserve for a character/canon will be entitled to it. If this occurs, the modteam will ask the second player if they'd like to change their reserve.

...So, Disney characters, huh?

Foolish Mortals is accepting characters who hail from Disney and Pixar canons, as well as certain "supplementary" characters, within reason. Essentially, "main canons" classify as media explicitly released under the Disney banner. 

"Supplementary" canons, in this case, are Disney-owned properties that fit in decently well with this guideline. These include, but are not limited to:

* Once Up A Time
* Kingdom Hearts
* Marvel Comics/Marvel Cinematic Universe
* The Muppets

...Disney owns a lot of things, and certain canons may not be allowed despite this. For example, Disney distributed Kill Bill, but we're certainly not allowing The Bride. Common guideline: if you think they'd fit in well at the Disney theme parks, they'd be fine here. Feel free to ask if you're unsure. 

What if a character I want to app was in a previous round/turns out to be an NPC in game?

If a character has been apped to a previous round, we can only accept them in R2 if you were the one who played them in R1.  If you decide you want to do that, we will allow to have your character either retain memories of the previous round or have them wiped. The one exception is if your character is in deadland, while they can remember most of their time in R1, we ask that they refrain from anything spoilery that happened in Deadland - and are willing to wipe certain parts of their memories to make that possible. If you are unsure of if something is considered spoilery, please let us know privately.

If you ever have any concern if a character you want to app will be an upcoming NPC or not, just let us know privately. We know that there are a lot of great Disney characters out there and we will make sure that we won’t make a character an NPC if you have interest in rping them. (of course we won’t spoil anything for you though if you contact us). If the character you want to app has already appeared as an NPC, however, we will unfortunately not be accepting them into the game. 

(If you need a refresher on all the characters, we have a handy list of Foolish Mortals characters and NPCs)

What about Canon Doubles?

As this was brought up a few times, we figured we should talk about canon doubles here.

With the advent of alternate versions of characters appearing in canons like Kingdom Hearts and Once Upon A Time, canon doubles are a lot more prevalent within the Disney multiverse. We’ll be looking at doubles of characters who have previously appeared in our continuity on a case-by-case basis. As a general idea, the main rule that we have is that doubles should be have major differences from each other in terms of their personality and/or background. 

For a general guideline, we’ve made a list of characters that we would consider acceptable duplicates and those that wouldn’t be:

ACCEPTABLE DUPLICATES:

Long John Silver (Treasure Planet) and Long John Silver (Muppet Treasure Island)
Regina Mills (Once Upon A Time) and The Evil Queen (Snow White and the Seven Dwarves)

UNACCEPTABLE DUPLICATES:

Characters from Beauty and the Beast (1993) and Characters from Beauty and the Beast (2017) 
Elsa (Frozen) and Elsa (Once Upon A Time)

Any other character limitations?

The general rule is that your character should be able to be killed by other characters. Due to the game's overarching plot, we also ask that characters be alive at the time of their canonpoint. If this means you're pulling your Disney Villain mid-fall to their doom, we're perfectly okay with that! 

In addition, we also ask that characters have the ability to communicate effectively and have a degree of sentience. As trials and investigations have a hallmark of being based around fast-paced communication, we ask that your character be able to quickly communicate with each other, through whatever means they can. Pluto can't come and just bark at people the whole time.

Large characters (i.e. Tamatoa, Julius) are allowed, but should be either humanized or resized in order to allow for the possibility of other players. Characters with magic/superpowers are acceptable, but will have their abilities either dampened or removed for the duration of the game.

I'm not apping to Round 3 but I still want to participate in the plot with this being the last "official" round?

Well you have good news, because for this round there will be three different Final Investigations for the final round!  This will be set up differently from normal final investigation with a specific group, and instead it will work like this: 

- There will be a time where all the groups will be able to meet up (how they meet up is a spoiler)
- From them they will divide up into three different groups, dependent on the character's goals and/or the player's availability
- Group 1's Investigation will be Monday-Tuesday, Group 2's is Wednesday-Thursday, and Group 3's is Friday-Saturday

Unlike with the other final investigations, there  will not be a 100% tag in requirement from Main Street and Deadland in order to meet Golden End requirements, both for people who have idled and so that people who play multiple characters won't feel like they have to do extra work!  Of course the more people who participate, the greater chance of a Golden End, but everyone tagging will not be a deciding factor in everyone getting the best possible ending.

GAME MECHANICS

Alright, I'm interested. What's the activity like?

If you're familiar with the murdergame genre, this section is going to sound very familiar to you. 

Murdergames are pretty fast-paced and time-consuming beasts, and Foolish Mortals is no exception. Activity checks are done weekly after every trial, and consist of at least two ten-comment threads with two different characters. Additional activity will likely be needed from you should you make it to the more plot-intensive sections of our romp (i.e. players who make it to endgame will need to be especially active in those final segments of the game). While your ghost hosts are lenient, failing activity check more than once could be cause for your character to get deathrolled early - please let us know if there will be any issues and we'll try to work something out! 

What if I need to drop out of the game early?

Your ghost hosts strongly advise you that if you have a prior commitment that might interfere with your participation in the game, that you seriously consider whether you can allot time for Foolish Mortals in your schedule. Obviously, things happen and we're more than understanding of that fact. But disappearing players with such a small playerpool will mess with our plot and what we want to do with this game - if something comes up and you need to exit the game early, we strongly encourage you to get in contact with us ASAP so we can work out a way to have your character exit the game.

...So how about that murder?

Right. Murder is happening.

On Sunday, deathrolls will take place in order to determine who will be a part of the murder that week. Two (or more??) players will be contacted, and should both agree, they will have a week to plan for the ghastly deeds that will occur. If players volunteer to be murdered ahead of time or specify this on their app, we will do our best to schedule you, and you may be contacted in advance.

On Tuesday, the mansion's residents will gather in the foyer and an incentive shall be announced. This incentive shall be decided by the players conducting the murder, and may not actually have anything to do with the murder itself. Who knows?

On Friday, one or more bodies will be discovered. Over the next 24 hours, mods will lead the mansion's resident in a search for clues that were laid out by the two players involved in the case. 

On Saturday, a trial will be held. ICly, this will take place on Friday shortly after the body investigation. Trials will be held on Saturday OOCly in order to avoid exhaustion from the playerbase. During the trial, the mansion's residents shall discuss their clues and attempt to figure out who committed the crime. At the end of the trial, or whenever your host deems it necessary, a vote shall be called where players input who they believe committed this crime. Majority rules here.

Depending on how the players vote, the players will either be subjected to a bad ending or the culprit will be executed. We'll be going out of our way to make sure each and every case is solvable, and there hasn't been a murdergame yet that has had a bad ending. In the unlikely case that that happens, we'll be providing one save. 

Is there any way to get items from home?

If you're good about your stay within our happy home, you might be rewarded. I suppose you'll find your answer in the hotel's gift shop

RULES

1 - Code of Conduct

While murdergames have a degree of competitiveness, we ask that you maintain a degree of respectful conduct towards your fellow players. Believe me, we super appreciate the occasional tease, but please don't cross the border into antagonism. Our doors are always open if you have a problem with another player. 

We stress that code of conduct also extends to our Discord chat. We recognize that disagreements may be had between players and misunderstandings happen, but we ask you to treat things in a civil manner and don’t make people uncomfortable. 

This is also a good place to mention that your character is likely going to die, and we ask that you come into the game prepared to play with that possibility. There are only a small handful of characters that survive each round. As a result, please do not come into the game with the mindset/attitude of trying to "win", if that makes sense.

2 - Sensitive Subjects

In that same vein, we ask that you please keep an eye on what you're saying to other players ICly. It's a murdergame, and we love talking about some fucked-up shit! If that content is warned for and players treat it with mature attitudes, you should be good to go. However, making light of any sort of triggering subject (rape, abuse, etc) could be grounds to being ejected from the game. It's Disney, we shouldn't need to be warning about this. Stay in character. 

3 - Role Spoilers

If your character has been given a role in the game, please keep it a secret from your fellow players! This includes victims, culprits, moles and more. Everything will come to light eventually. 

4 - Canon Spoilers

Due to the nature of murdergames, major spoilers from each character's canon will likely come into play, and players are not required to warn for them. Friendly reminder that it's Disney, and it'd be really dumb if you got angry about Beauty and the Beast getting spoiled for you.

5 - Backseat Gaming/Spectating

As murdergames tend to be gripping, a lot of people are drawn to watching and commenting on events that take place within the game. That's perfectly fine and dandy, so long as the spectators stay within their rights. Publicly speculating on modplurks, pinging players so they can fulfill trial requirements, anything that goes beyond spectating and into trying to moderate the playerbase. 

If you notice this happening and haven't seen a mod approach the user in question, please let us know. This behavior is not acceptable, and we won't hesitate to warn the offending user. If it persists, the offending users could be barred from future rounds of the game, or end up blocked by the modplurk. 

While this has only been an issue with players who are not a part of the game so far, the same goes for people who've applied to the game as well. Obviously you can ping your fellow players during trials/investigations if you have a question that might help out with the trial and whatnot. But please don't moderate your fellow players to the point where they're uncomfortable.

6 - No flash pictures, please!

We spirits are frightfully sensitive to bright lights.

7 - Anything else?

If you have any questions, please ask them down below! You can also contact your mods at foolishmortals

Goblins and ghoulies, creatures of fright...
We summon you now, to dance through the night