Frequently Asked Questions

Yes - at the moment the site is in beta-testing and as guinea pigs, you get it for free, you lucky people! Eventually it is intended to be opened up to the general public at which stage it will be funded through a mixture of advertising and optional advert-free paid accounts. The exact mix has not yet been decided yet.

The limitations for the icons is 100x100 pixels in size and 60k in file size, and in gif, jpg, or png format.

We do ask that your icon be non-explicit (no sexually graphic images, no icons featuring inflammatory messages).

At the moment we are not looking for any further support volunteers – if this changes in the future, we’ll post about it.

No, not at the moment - this is something which will be considered in future though and this may change.

No. This is a role playing game site. Very little, if anything, you find on this site is actually real.

Many users create journals with the face of a celebrity for use in role-playing games. These journals typically contain a disclaimer in their user information stating that it is part of a game, they are not the celebrity, and have no contact with the celebrity.

Character journals (journals created using the names of characters from books/television shows/films) are not sanctioned by the copyright holders.

Both types of journal are for entertainment/gaming purposes only. No malice or infringement is intended and the contents of the journal should NOT be taken as true/authorised.

All Content posted to RPGDreams.net in any way, is the responsibility and property of the author. RPGDreams is committed to keeping the Service in decent standing for all audiences but is not responsible for the monitoring or filtering of any journal Content. Within the confines of international and local law, RPGDreams will not place a limit on the type, or appropriateness of user content within journals. Those users posting material not suitable for all audiences must agree that they are fully responsible for all the content they have posted anywhere on the service.

You acknowledge that RPGDreams does not pre-screen Content, but that RPGDreams and its designates shall have the right (but not the obligation) on their sole discretion to refuse or remove any Content that is available through the Service.

Well there are several ways to do it, but the easiest is to use the rich text editor, which will give you a toolbar above the text window very much like MS Word. Whilst using the rich text editor, new lines etc will come out just as typed. To turn on the Rich Text editor click the link below the text box that says "Switch to rich text editor".

Should you decide that you wish not use the rich text editor, and just use html then paragraphs are wrapped with <p> at the beginning and <\\p> at the end.

If you just wish to do a new line then use <br> at the end of the line.

Most people who play in the game use AIM as their IM medium of choice, which is why we recommend it. If you wish to only communicate using PMs and email, that's also acceptable. And, of course, you can be active in the OOC to let people know you're around. Some of our members may have MSN accounts, but if they do, they haven't mentioned it!

At the moment, this is set to 50 icons per user. Each icon can be no bigger than 100 x 100 px.

Linked to each character page is a 'view my entire gallery' link. Click this and you will get the character gallery view. At the moment, there is no way on annotating each icon. We are hopeful that this will change in the future to allow for crediting of icons.

Go to their character page and click on 'view my entire gallery'.

At the moment, no, but we're hoping this will change in the future and when it does, we'll let you know!

No, not at the current time - that's something we're actively looking into!

The only way to change your username is to create a new account at this time.

Log into your account, and go to the 'my account' section. Under 'edit', right under your username, there should be two fields for your password. To change it, simply type in your new password in both fields, and hit 'save'. Your password will be changed.

Guidelines for a good password include:

1. It should be 6-10 characters,
2. contains mixed case characters such as WmPoV,
3. contains symbols such as ! @ # $,
4. is a word that does NOT appear in the dictionary, and
5. Is something that is not associated with you, such as your pet's name, names of family members, your favorite band's name or anything else personal

For example:
little or brother are not good passwords.

RxTmWm12!! is a good password.

RPGDreams is not responsible for lost passwords. Remember your passwords, and it is likely a good idea to keep the email that is sent to you when you first create an account. That will have your username on it. If you have already changed your password from the default one assigned, then it is lost. The link in the emails really is a one time use, and cannot be used again to log into your account to change the password. Please keep your passwords somewhere you can access them should you lose them! We currently have no way to retrieve them for you!

No - if you leave the game, your account will be changed to 'view only' status - which will allow you view access (but not posting rights) to the community. The administrators do, however, reserve the right to delete your account in cases of abuse.

At the moment, you cannot delete your account. This can only be done by an administrator. If you wish your account to be deleted, please talk to an administrator or moderator.

Please note that, once deleted, an account CANNOT be reinstated.

First up, we realise that the set up of this website is probably completely different to what you've encountered before and there are some important things to note!

First and foremost you only need one account! That's right - no having to create multiple accounts for multiple characters and spending endless hours logging in and out depending on who you're posting as! At RPG Dreams you only need the one account - your player account.

How does this work, we here you say? Okay, it's easy! You apply for an account as a player. Choose whatever account name you want (it doesn't have to have anything to do with the character you're applying for - choose something that you as a player can relate to). Great, you're now a member of RPG Dreams!

To be able to post in RPGDreams you need more than an account - you need to have had a character accepted to a game. This is an RP site and character-driven. If you haven't had a character accepted, you need to go through the game application process. Posting rights will come with game acceptance.

There is a default community moodtheme, but at the present time, you cannot have your own.

Yes - see here.

RPGDreams cannot make a theme for you, nor can we redo a style you already have. Also RPGDreams support volunteers will not help you with your layouts or customization questions.

RPGDreams also will not assist in customizing your userinfo, other than what is contained within these FAQs.

At the present time you cannot do this.

At the present time you cannot do this. Currently the only customisation which is available is to your user info page.

To change the look of your account, you need to hit the link for 'my account'. From there, you hit the 'edit' tab, and it will bring you to a the page where you can edit your settings. If you scroll down, there will be a list and preview of all the themes available for you. Simply tick one of them, and then save, and your account will load that theme whenever you're logged in.

Please note that you will need to choose both a 'Theme Configuration' and a 'Blog Theme' configuration. We recommend that you set both of these to the same theme.

To enter a profile, simply go to the 'My Account' page and under profile press 'edit'. This will allow you to enter a profile.

Please note that whilst a heading is currently mandatory, this will not in fact show up on your profile page!

You can customise your user info page by use of CSS code. Please note that this is only available for your player user info, not your individual character profile pages.

To customise a user info page, go to your user info page and under ‘profile’ press ‘edit’. Enter the CSS code in the ‘Profile Customization’ body. Press ‘save’.

We recommend a knowledge of CSS coding before attempting to customise your user info page, however to get you started, we have provided the code below. Please note that you will need to host all images elsewhere and that certain layouts are fixed width (ie, if you use an image which is too large, it may overlap and hide the side bar and all the links). Do not paste in the parts in bold, these are for information ONLY.

RPGDreams staff can give you no further help with customising your user info.

To set the text colour and background colour for the page
div#profile_body {
color: TEXT COLOUR;
background-color: BACKGROUND COLOUR;
}

To put in a header at the top of the page
div#profile_header {
background-image: url(URL OF HEADER IMAGE);
background-repeat: no-repeat;
border: COLOUR solid THICKNESSpx;
height: HEIGHT OF HEADER IMAGEpx;
width: WIDTH OF HEADER IMAGEpx;
margin: 0 auto;
margin-top:25px;
}

To put a box around the character icons on the page
div#profile_mychars {
color: #TEXT COLOUR;
border: COLOUR solid THICKNESSpx;
margin: 0 auto;
padding: 10px;
width: WIDTHpx;
}

To put a border around each character picture and evenly space them in a table
#profile_mychars img{
border: COLOUR solid THICKNESSpx;
}
.field-content {
width: WIDTH OF TABLE DIVIDED BY THREEpx;
}
table .views-view-grid td {
width: WIDTH OF TABLEpx;
text-align: center;
}

Ω Don't hijack scenes. If there are more than two people on a scene and you join it, don't steal it and leave one of the players out.

Ω If someone has taken an open scene already, but you still want to join – it's considered good manners to check with one or both players to see if it's okay to throw your character in, too. If you do join an already-in-progress scene, don't entirely divert what's happening without talking to the other players. (Example: Billy and Suzy are having a serious conversation, and then Joey runs through the room on fire. Billy and Suzy's conversation is most definitely over as they begin their quest for amazing life-giving water!)

Ω Don't ignore, neglect, or skip other characters. Billy, Suzy, Joey, and Annie are having a conversation when Joey spontaneously combusts. Billy's player signs off for the night for that all important sleep, but Suzy and Annie's players finish the scene without him. Not cool! Billy's player wakes up to find that Joey has been put out, taken to the hospital, revived, and endlessly thanked Suzy and Annie while Billy stood in place staring and doing nothing. Suzy and Annie, by not waiting for their third party, have determined that Billy has done nothing – even if he would have done if they'd waited. It's fine to skip a character for a turn here and there, but at some point, you're going to have to stop and wait.

Ω Sometimes it's okay to go off on your own! There is a big dinner party, and there are twenty people in the dining room. It's more than fine to have a bunch of little mini-threads on one post, so it's fine to do your own thing. ;)

Ω Nobody likes their open scene going ignored. So if there's already several open scenes that haven't been taken that game-day? See if it's possible to take one of those instead of putting up a new one of your own – unless there's something you need to do at a specific time or location, of course. :)

Ω When taking an open scene, it’s considered bad form to do so in such a way that your character ignores the original poster. If you’re taking an open scene, please make sure that you engage the initial character in some way. This doesn’t have to be walking over and striking up a conversation, but doing something that will get their attention in some way is a must. Don’t just take the open scene and have your character vaguely in the vicinity, putting all the work on the original poster to engage yours. They have already put in an opening for character interaction – the original post. Your job is to respond to that reaction by taking that post.

Yes you can! But the one thing we'd ask for this is that you're careful doing it. If special fonts are used, they have to be ended specifically or they'll just carry right on down the page! Finish your posts with </font>.

Also, could you remember to use a specific <!--break--> tag within the post - either at the start of the post or after a paragraph so that the post does not 'cut' automatically (which also screws up the formatting for the entire page).

FOR EXAMPLE (your post should look something like this:-

<font face="festus!" size="5">Oh god. I feel sick. And not just sick-sick (which I do, but that’s neither here nor there. But…</font><!--break-->

<font face="festus!" size="5">I got a message from Leija’s dad. she’s in the hospital. Oh god, she’s in the hospital. I left her there, I didn’t even try and help. And she’s in the hospital.

It’s always going to be this way, isn’t it? because I know that I would do exactly the same thing if it happened again. Which just makes it worse. I feel guilty, but I couldn’t say that next time it’d be different. But I never wanted it to be like this.</font>

To look something like this:-

Oh god. I feel sick. And not just sick-sick (which I do, but that’s neither here nor there. But…

I can't believe they won't let me go home. Or, they'd rather I didn't - I'm not sure, but they want me to move to this place and stay for... I don't know what!

Posts automatically break (ie the whole post will not appear in the main comm, but be hidden with a 'read more' tag), so if you don't want to be fussed to break it yourself, you don't have to.

You can override the automatic break really easily. All you hvae to do is place your cursor where you want the break to be when creating a psot, then click the 'split sumamry at cursor' button. This will automatically break your post at that point - this is useful if you wish to put a short 'teaser' on your scene of a couple of paragraphs.

Please note: ALWAYS put a break in for handwritten scenes! If handwritten scenes are allowed to automatically break, they will screw up your entire page and nobody likes that!

Currently all OOC posts are community locked and some of the pages of information are community locked.

At current you cannot set any other entries to be community locked - if you have something you wish to be community locked, please contact a moderator. This situation will be reviewed in the future, so if you have any problems, let us know!

Simply press 'delete' - please be aware though that this will delete all of the comments below it and this action is not reversible.

Acceptable HTML are the following:

<a> <b> <big> <br> <center> <cite> <code> <dd> <div> <dl> <dt> <em> <font> <form> <h1> <h2> <h3> <hr> <i> <img> <input> <li> <nobr> <ol> <option> <p> <pre> <s> <select> <small> <strike> <strong> <sub> <sup> <table> <td> <th> <tr> <tt> <u> <ul> <xmp>

Please remember that ALL of these codes need to be properly closed using the </command>. Forgetting to close the codes can cause problems displaying your entries and comments.

NOTE:

Please be careful of using HTML, especially with fonts and tables. RPGDreams posts cut automatically after 600 words and if tags are not closed at the time of the cut, it will mess up the formatting of the page you are viewing! Therefore, if you are writing a post which requires special formatting throughout (such as a hand written journal entry), please ensure you use the <!--break--> tag either at the beginning of the post so that all of the post is beneath a cut, or alternatively after the first paragraph (so long as the first paragraph is less than 600 words!)

A website such as http://www.w3schools.com/html/ may be of assistance in explaining the codes and how to use them. PLEASE NOTE that this website is NOT affiliated with RPGDreams in any way and the link is provided only as a resource.

At this time, the only way to save your entries is to save them manually - either by copy and pasting them into a text or word file, or by saving the entry on your browser. On most browsers, this is as easy as locating File, and then an option such as Save As, Save Page As, or Make Viewable Offline.

You can choose a mood from the mood theme. At the current time, the only available mood theme is the community-wide one. We're working on allowing personal mood themes and will update the community as and when they become available

At the moment, you cannot include music in your post. Again, we will update the community as and when this option becomes available.

CHECK THE FOLLOWING IS CORRECT:-

The time on your journal entries is based on the time set on your computer. If your posts consistently show an incorrect date or time, verify that your computer's clock is set to the correct time for your timezone.

To set the date and time through Microsoft Windows 95, 98, ME, NT 4.0, 2000, and XP please follow these instructions:

1. Right click on the time in your systray. This is commonly in the bottom right hand corner of your screen.

2. Click Adjust Date/Time.

3. This will open the Date/Time Properties window. In this window you can adjust the time and date, time, and time zone. The time zone can be changed or checked by clicking on the Time Zone tab.

If you wish to change how the computer handles daylight savings click the Time Zone tab and check or uncheck the 'Automatically adjust clock for daylight saving changes' option.

4. Once the proper date and/or time has been set click Apply and then Ok.

Scenes and journal entries in RPGDreams are set up to cut automatically, so you don't have to worry about it! The automatic cut off point is 600 words.

There may, however, be times when you wish to cut your post off before this, or when you may wish to have control over where the post cuts (for example, when using a special font, or where you have a table). Therefore, if you are writing a post which requires special formatting throughout (such as a hand written journal entry), simply move the cursor to where you wish the cut to be and press the 'Split summary at cursor' button.

While viewing the entry you wish to delete, locate and click the Edit link at the top of the page. This will bring you to the editing page. Scroll to the bottom of the page, where there will be a link to delete the entry. PLEASE be certain you are deleting the correct entry! Once an entry has been deleted there is NO WAY to get the entry back again.

While viewing the entry you wish to edit, there are two links beneath the subject - View, and Edit. Clicking the Edit link will bring you to the editing page. Make whatever changes you need, and remember to hit the Save button at the bottom of the page.

On this site you pick where you want your post to go before you write it. We've tried to make this as easy as possible. Click on 'create content' and you'll see a list of options:-

Journal entry - creates an entry in your character journal
Scene - creates an entry in the in-character community
OOC Journal - creates an entry in the out oc character community.

Once a post has been created, there is no way to move it to a different location without reposting.

When you go to create either an in-game scene, or a journal entry if you have more than one character the 'Create Content' page will give you a drop down list by each entry-type. Simply choose the required character name from the list and clikc 'create'.

This option is not available for out of character (OOC) posts as it is assumed that these will be player posts, rather than individual character posts.

Because your icon choice is linked to your character rather than to you as an account holder, you don't get character icon choice for OoC posts.

The notifications system works as follows:-

• If you post a scene, or an OOC post, or a journal entry, you will automatically receive notifications of any responses to that post.

• If you comment to a post you will not be automatically subscribed to it. You need to manually subscribed to any content you wish to receive notifications about which you didn’t originally post.

How to subscribe to content

If you wish to subscribe to content which you didn’t originally post (eg, if you take an open scene, or if you’re part of a group tag scene) you need to go into the post and subscribe to it. You do this as follows:-

• On the teaser view (i.e. the home/journals/scenes/ooc link as appropriate) click either the Title link (i.e. the name of the entry) or the ‘read more’ link, to get the whole post view up.

• Down at the bottom of the scene, you’ll now see that there is a little ►Subscribe link.
• Click on Subscribe, which will give you the option of two tick boxes.
• Subscribe to this page will (amazingly) subscribe you to that page only and will give you email notifications every time anyone posts a comment to it (though you will not get notifications of your own added comments – we didn’t think you needed them!)
• To Scene content (or, alternately OOC content or
• Journal content, depending upon the post type) will subscribe you to updates on every scene/OOC post/journal entry – tick this option at your peril!!!

• Remember to press save!

About the Mods

This game is run by Sue and Taffy, who have been rping for quite a few years, and actively modding games together since 2005, and have run a few successful games over the years.

They pride themselves on being fair moderators, and are protective of players. This means huge explosions of wank aren't going to happen, and problems between players can be dealt with in a civilized manner. No one is going to bust into a game and tear it down with dramaqueening wangst in the ooc, and the games are meant to be a fun, safe environment to roleplay in.

AIM:
Sue: legoxbuilder
Taffy: KillTheLynchpin

In short: NO.

For a longer answer:-

The game runs on a system of time updates. Every day is extended to last 3-7 real days to give people time to fit in what they want to do. Whenever a 24 hour warning is posted, people can put up placeholders for scenes they're not going to get time to finish before the time update goes up. Inevitably, when the warning is posted, there are immediately posted a whole slew of placeholders, suggesting that the game days aren't lasting too long and leaving people with nothing to play.

The other reason for time updates is to enable us to put things in play for the game – community events that people can react to. It allows us to bring things into play and it allows players to be able to keep continuity better. It also gives you the players opportunities to have events happening with your storylines available for the whole game to react to and be part of. As has been shown in the past, us mods are not the only people who put events put into play – if a player contacts us with an event they need to have put into the time update, we'll put it in.

This is put in jeopardy when people play ahead.

Unfortunately, some people want to do that. Playing ahead (ie writing a scene for a game day that hadn't had the update posted yet) assumes that nothing will happen in the game that will affect your characters – not only is this risky, it's not fair on the rest of the game. It's assuming that the only things that will affect your characters are their immediate interactions and not the game at large, anyone else's characters, or any scenes that might not yet have been posted. That's not fair to the other players in the game.

On the time update issue, the trouble is, you don't know what might happen in a time update that the mods have put into play. You don't know what might be put into play by other players. There can and will be large events that will affect the game as a whole. It's setting is a small town. This means unlike in large city settings--events will effect just about everyone, or they have the potential to.

Playing ahead also cuts off interaction opportunities, and plot possibilities. Not everything is planned out in advance, and events in someone's scene with another character could greatly influence yours. If you have friendships, relationships, etc, if things go badly for another character who your character is involved with (say as a good friend)--they may very well need yours and it may very well be natural for your character to be there for them, and it isn't fair for you to say 'well I have my entire day plotted, I can't fit that in before all these scenes I've done, or they will be behaving ooc for the ones I have written. I guess they won't be available' or something like that. It has a large potential to make both yours and others' characters behave ooc to conform to things that were written without information that happened before those scenes occurred not taken into account. This is doing a disservice both to your character and to other’s.

What we're saying is: don't play ahead. If you have something that you really have to have in play to make a plot work? Talk to a mod and we'll do our best to accommodate that. But what we won't do is go back and alter the time update once it's been posted.

Let’s say, for example, Bob and Joan are best friends. Bob’s player plans out their entire scene day and merrily goes off and writes it in advance. Meanwhile, Joan breaks up with her boyfriend in the morning. Naturally, she would seek out her best friend for consolation – but Bob’s player has already written most of the scenes for that game day. Bob’s player decides that he has no choice but to not be there for Joan – which is OOC for Bob, but what can be done? All the other scenes were written in advance. As a result, Joan has to cry alone and, not only that, she either has to be played OOC to ignore the fact that Bob wasn’t there for her as she’d needed him to be, or there are IC consequences and it causes difficulties in their friendship from that time on. And not because Bob was supposed to be uncaring, but because the player hasn't taken other players/characters into account. It boils down to common courtesy when writing with other people.

Does this mean you have to check with everyone first before writing anything? No. What it means is you should have open communication with the people you write with, and stay in the game day we're currently playing. Plotting things, making plans, all of that is fine, encouraged, and perfectly acceptable. It's only the pre-writing that causes the problems.

You play ahead at your own risk. We do not recommend it and we will not support it. And yes, if your scenes clash with the time update you will have to rewrite.

This is a real world horror game. There are no supernatural elements or strange yet heroic powers. This will not be a calm, fluffy sort of game. This will be a game that continually escalates towards all out mayhem. It will be character development and plot heavy, sometimes encompassing the entire game in story arcs. If all you are looking for in a game is ship stuff, shiny happy stuff, private roleplay between you and only one or two other people, only rampant smut, this is not the game for you. If you do not enjoy character development or plots, this game isn't right for you.

That means you need to be 18 to play. This is because graphic violence and other mature situations are allowed in game. They are required to be put behind a cut, but they are permitted.

Something to keep in mind, however, is while we do in fact allow sex scenes in game and find absolutely nothing wrong with them, if that is all you are doing you may be asked to leave the game. There are other roleplays out there that are specifically for smut only, but this isn't one of them.

The game rating also means that you MUST be aged 18 or older to be accepted as a player. If you state in your application that you are over 18 we will assume that you are telling the truth. If, however, we find out at a later date that you are under 18 you will immediately be removed from the game.

No – you have to be 18 to play. Sorry, there’s no getting around this rule. This is not a reflection on you – we have nothing against you and we’re not making any judgment on your ability to write or roleplay. This is about legality and the bottom line is that this game deals with adult situations, played out by adult players. And if an adult player is playing adult situations with a person below the age of consent? That is a crime. We will not expose any of our players to the risk of finding themselves on a sex offenders register somewhere. We realise that the age of consent differs from country to country (and even between countries) and therefore, to protect ourselves, the game and our players, we have made the blanket decision that you must be 18 years or older to play, period. Thank you for understanding.

All characters in the game must have at least four weaknesses. This is to ensure that characters are well balanced and, at the end of the day, flaws and weaknesses can really make a character interesting. Nobody's perfect.

One thing to note is that every character must begin the game with a minimum of four weaknesses (if you wish to take more, that's fine and if you take more weaknesses, you will be able to take more strengths - the aim is the creation of a well balanced character) and they must have at least four weaknesses throughout the game. We recognise that a character may have a weakness which they work to overcome, and this can make a great storyline. We encourage this. However, if they do overcome it and it ceases to be a weakness taking them below four weaknesses, this much be replaced by a new one.

The other thing to note is that we're looking for balanced characters. That is, we're looking for characters who have weaknesses that equal, if not exceed their strengths. Weaknesses, flaws in a character make for more interesting characters - nobody likes someone who is great at everything. When considering your characters weaknesses, we will take into account what you've put down as their special abilities as well as what you've put down as their weaknesses. If we feel a character is out of balance, they're not going to be accepted and the application will be bounced back to you and you'll be asked to edit.

The last thing to keep in mind when writing up weaknesses for your character is if you are playing an experiment participant--you are required to have one psychological weakness. So save room for issues picked up during their time being mentally tortured!

We recognise that it can be hard to come up with four weaknesses that fit your character concept and which are interesting and original to play. Which is why we have come up with this handy reference guide to help you out! Your character weaknesses do not have to come from this list, it is simply there as an aid and if you wish to come up with your own, feel free!

Each post should be headed as follows:-
Who: [Characters involved in the scene]
Where: [Location(s) of scene]
When: [Time of day]

Don't forget, NC-17 scenes MUST have a rating warning added.

Also keep in mind that open scenes must be marked as open. If they do not say they are open, consider them closed and unable to be tagged on.

We recognise that people have lives (amazing, isn't it?) and can't always get scenes done exactly when they need to be done. To aid this, we've slowed time down for the game. Each new game day is heralded by a mod post in the comm detailing the date, the weather and any events happening that day, so you know where you are. Here's an example of a time update post here. Time updates are posted when it seems the community is ready to move on, rather than after a set period of time, though it is anticipated that no game day will ever last more than seven days and most only last three-four actual days. A 24 hour warning of the day change will always be posted in the OOC before every time update.

Everyone at times has problems with other players. No one's perfect! If speaking to them does not work or you are too uncomfortable to talk to them about things, please contact a mod. Do not let things go and let problems go unattended. Chances are if someone is doing something with you, they are doing it with other players as well. We as mods are very wary against abusive types of players--we do not want it in our game period. However, we can't guard against it if we do not know it is happening.

More often than not, it's for one of three reasons:

• Obvious errors, from grammar, spelling, and format; or a blatant disregard of the rules in any way. For example, if you're 16-years-old and you post an application? You will be denied on the spot. If your character's history is a thin paragraph or so, even though we clearly state that we need otherwise on the application page? Denied on the spot. We do not have very many rules, it should be no problem whatsoever to follow them.
  
• Purple prose and blatant Mary Sues If you send in an application that is 90% description of an overblown, entirely unnecessary variety that makes our eyes bleed, that isn't good. Reading like it's out of a bad fanfic isn't really good game material. Also, Mary Sues aren't acceptable. There are a lot of different types of Mary Sues out there. If you're wondering about your character, look up the link provided.
  
• Lack of balance as a character - particularly in the weaknesses and strengths. Simply put, if your character has far more strengths than weaknesses, or if your weaknesses are all very small in light of their strengths, then we're going to at least ask that this be edited for consideration. To clear one thing up, 'selfless, cares too much, emotional, overly forgiving' will never be an acceptable three weaknesses for a character.
  
• Unoriginal characters. If your character is plain, boring, and/or has nothing new to offer the game... what's the fun in that?
  
• Factual characters. They might sound fun to you, you might have put in a lot of work, but we are not accepting any character who is descended from an actual historical figure, or current celebrity. There's a whole host of interesting history and backstory out there which doesn't have to involve real, actual people. We put a great deal of stock in imagination here and we shouldn't need to rely on factual people for your character backstory (i.e. 'My character's father was [insert historical figure/famous person here]'). If you feel you cannot create an interesting character without relying heavily on living or historical real people or events? This isn't the game for you.

Yeah, whatever. Okay, okay, yes. It is in fact a real, honest-to-God weakness, and can be very fun and interesting if played out well. But if you're going to have a lot of the typical Mary Sue weaknesses, you better have enough to balance it out and justify it.

The probationary period was brought in because we recognise that not everybody apps well. Having a probationary period means that we can have some discretion when we receive a borderline application which we would otherwise feel we had to reject. It gives players a chance to really show what they can do. Conversely, we also know that someone's application is not and can never be a reflection of how they will mesh within a game.

The probationary period is only one month long and we anticipate having to use it only rarely. If your first month in the game passes, unless you have been informed otherwise, the probationary period is over.

To protect the privacy of our members, the AIM list is member-locked. If you're accepted to the community, you'll be able to see the list.

No - as far as each participant knew, they were going to be part of a social experiment. Nothing was ever said or suggested in any way that there might be more than one experiment.

The only swapping between experiments was the occasional removal of participants to the Princess Rooms (ExC). This was done in one of two ways. Sometimes participants of other experiments would be removed from that experiment for a short period of time. During this time they would be put into one of the Princess Rooms and then eventually returned to their original experiment. These participants did not have access to the camera system of ExC nor did they undergo any ExC tests. Alternatively, on occasion a participant would be permanently removed from their experiment and entered into ExC, at which point they would be treated just as any other ExC member.

Very little. They were told it was supposed to be a social experiment, with 'high stress situations'. What was mainly focused on in the selling of the experiment was the payoff at the end, and having everything provided for them during their time spent in the experiment.

Your character would know probably most of the others in their experiment. It depends on how social they were, and the specifics of the experiment. (Note: this excepts ExC, none of the participants of that experiment met each other in person, the only contact they had was through the computers.)

No, your character will never have met the participants of an experiment they were not a part of.

The experiment participants underwent the best part of twelve months undergoing all types of physical and psychological testing. At times this was tantamount to torture. We do not think that it's realistic that any participant would come out of this unscathed. It is up to you how your character is affected, but we do require that their time in the experiment had some lasting ramifications on their life.

I want to play a participant but I don't want them to have any psychological problems!
Then this is not the game for you. These people have been physically, mentally and emotionally tortured for months. They've been pushed to the limits, many of them have seen friends and loved ones die or disappear, and we require at least one psychological issue was picked up from that. It's highly unrealistic for anyone to have escaped entirely unscathed. If you don't want to play psych issues, we suggest you apply for a volunteer.

No. Interns were not informed of other experiments, they were only involved a single experiment, and therefore only has information on participants/events pertaining to that experiment.

No. Interns worked only on a single experiment, ignorant of the others.

No. There was always someone who was just higher up, and supposedly they took orders from someone who took orders from the scientists. There was always another branch to dig past, none of the interns ever met one of the scientists face to face.

They were told largely the same thing as the participants were. They were told it was a social experiment focusing on high stress situations. They were not told the levels that were going to be gone to.

It depends on how they reacted to it. If they refused to work, they likely would have been disciplined. If they kept quiet enough, they would have been left to be miserable yet working. This is open for discussion with the mods.

It depends on what kind of Intern you are playing. If it is one who is really there to be debriefed and helped with their own psychological issues they picked up, they are there to help get integrated back into society just like the experiment participants. If they are still working for the scientists, they are there to help put more tests into play, and may have specific objectives. The specific objectives can be discussed with the mods.

No, the scientists are do not take an active PC part in this game. They do not appear physically in it at all and are not playable, not even as NPCs. They are the shadowy presence that never fully forms.

No, the world at large didn't know of the experiments. Ads for participants were random and low key and each of the participants was asked not to disclose to anyone what they were going to do. The first that the world knew about the experiments was when they were closed down, and even then this did not reach the front pages or was widely reported. The were some specific cases which made the papers, mostly concerned with the location of 'missing' persons, but there wasn't the OMG! worldwide impact that might have been expected.

No - go look up the term 'volunteer'. *coughs* Okay, no, they're not, but they may choose to come to town to run businesses, services etc and they can be expected to be paid for those. In other words, they will not receive a payment for moving to the town, but they may earn a living by working once they are there. In fact, they are required to do so - volunteers are there to help support the interns and participants in reintegrating into a more 'normal' society (at least, that's what they've been told) and so will be expected to take on roles as such.

However you want - much the same way as the participants heard about the original experiment or the interns got their jobs. Be creative.

No. In fact, most people will not know they were unless they specifically tell people, or if they claim otherwise and people don't back up their story it would be fishy. However no one is required to tell anyone that they were an intern.

That is entirely up to the players/characters. There are several different ways it could happen. The secret could be kept due to friendship, blackmail, etc. Or, maybe they are trying to hide the fact as well. It's all up to players discretion.

Generally speaking, no. In one case, this was true but it was because the intern was forced to become an experiment participant. Other than that, all interns and experiment participants were kept separate, no participants would have interacted with interns in any real, direct manner.

Most volunteers were flown in first class, then driven out to the site, generally at night and the location is still a secret to avoid press invasion, so the vehicle transport was done in a vehicle with no windows in the transport compartment.

They can leave or quit, however they will have to sign extensive legal documents stating that they will share no information on what they have seen/experienced. Vacations are not permitted at this time.

No. There is more than enough room in all the character types for you to bring in a character that has not appeared in game yet. Volunteers are constantly coming and going, Interns are still being placed back in active population, and experiment participants could have been elsewhere due to needing extensive medical treatment, psychological treatment, or they simply hadn't been discovered yet. If you need help coming up with a viable reason why your character has not been involved yet, ask a mod.

No. Everyone is placed into homes to avoid dissension among the survivors. The only way this is alterable is if a character plans to live with another, in which case the couple will be considered together, and placed accordingly.

No. All properties are chosen to best fit the needs of the characters involved, and the lots left empty are likely for other individuals.

They were moved here for several reasons. One of which is everything that happened was amazingly damaging to everyone involved, and they all need help getting fit for the outside world once again. Another is that with as fantastically illegal on so many levels as the experiments were, how many different countries everyone was from--it's a legal, red tape nightmare. So until the political situation with all countries involved have everything worked out, people are meant to be kept as happy as possible in the town.

Somewhere in Russia. Nothing else is known.

Forced is such a strong word. They were merely strongly recommended to, and told there would continue to be compensation if compliance is offered. There may have been a few legal ramifications if they left, however.

Any information on other experiment participants and where they might be is strictly classified information, to protect everyone involved.

Legal issues, transportation, a whole lot of wilderness that contain large predators, and no clear idea where they are in the world, for starters.

At the very least, twenty miles, and it's speculated that that is the shortest possible distance, that it's really somewhere upwards of fifty or more. The fact is no one actually knows, or what direction said next town might lay in.

No. While there are vehicles and such, anyone trying to drive out of town will be stopped, and there are gates.

Technically, but probably only if you're very experienced, a good hunter, and a survivalist. It's not recommended.

Temperate. There are four seasons, all distinct.

Most general goods needs can be bought, and any speciality shops that pop up, whatever is in those. If you're looking for large quantities of plutonium or something, you're likely shit out of luck, but most anything you would be able to buy in the outside world is available, and if it is not directly in town, it can be ordered.

The Russian Rouble. For simplicities sake, we're working on the basis that US$10 = 240 roubles. We're not taking into account any actual or potential exchange rate fluctuations and for game play things in town will cost largely the same as they would 'back home'.

For experiment participants, the money they had been promised has been deposited into accounts for them. The same is said for the Interns, whatever they were making or had made during their work time was set up in an account for them. For volunteers, it's whatever they make while there, and there are some things provided for them as incentive for their generosity.

Not much. There is limited contact allowed with family members, but that's done through monitored phonecalls and written correspondence. Other than that there is no contact with the outside world. There is internet access given, but it is highly limited, and any phone service in town is just that--closed circuit, in town only. The phonecalls to family members can only be done with town officials present, and the conversation is recorded.

For volunteers, it depends on if they told their family. For interns and experiment participants, they have been told that their families have been notified of their status (though only if the character in question signs forms stating the information can be released.)

Families are alright as long as there are not small children with them. There are very strict policies on children being in town, and that's in the 'against' column. However, married couples, older siblings, etc are fine.

Yes, unless said children are legal adults.

Any children born to participant experiments, etc are fine. No one is separating babies from their parents if they're had in town.

Prior to this game, there was another game called 'Playing House' which focused on what is now called 'Experiment A'. What this means is that the characters in Experiment A have all been played before and there is a played out continuity there. Whilst the events in Experiment A will not impact on the events of this game any more than any other experiment, we have decided to limit the characters in Experiment A to those who were played in Playing House for simplicity's sake in preserving continuity.

Sorry, no, that experiment is closed to new characters. Playing House ran for over two years with largely the same cast. It would mess with the ingrained and well established continuity of too many characters to allow it and it would be unfair of us to ask you to read two years worth of posts on two different sites to catch up.

Yes, yes, yes you can! You're more than welcome to!

Yes! Everyone would have been screened. However, that would not actually mean anyone was not approved for the experiment. There were many people with serious medical conditions in the experiments. They would also let people through that were volunteering, or who had signed up to be an intern. Perfect health is not a requirement.

• All cars in town are vintage from the 50s and 60s to fit in with the general feel of the town.

• All of the bigger houses (medium sized and above) on the good side of town have a car in the garage. The standard houses on the good side of town may or may not have cars, there are a few scattered around, but having a garage does not automatically equate to you having a car.
• Winter weather: they’re about as winter weather ready as you can get for 1950s era cars. There’s not that much you can do to a vintage car to prepare it for winter.
• People who don’t have cars, but want them, there are randomly placed cars in empty properties and the keys will be in the cars. We have no problems if anyone wants to put it into continuity that their character ‘acquired’ one of these cars and there’s not going to be any come back from the authorities if they do.
• If someone wants to buy a car, that’s fine – they can be ordered through the garage in town. However, no matter what car is ordered, a vintage car will turn up! If your character orders a state of the art modern car, they will get a vintage car. And a random one at that. Please note: if your character lives on the good side of town and orders a car, they will get a nice car. If they live on the bad side of town and order a car, they will get a poor quality car. This is true no matter what is ordered.

Check your PM settings . Go to your account page and press edit, then scroll down to 'Private Message Settings' - make sure 'allow Private Messages' is ticked.

To send a PM to a player in the game, go to their user info page. There is a tag which reads 'send private message to [username]' - click on that link and it will take you to the PM page. Enter in a subject and message and simply press 'send'

PMs allow you to send messages to other players within your game without using email or having any other information about them save for their username. Please note that this only applies to players in your game and cannot be used for inter-game contact.

There are various ways to tell if you have a private message.
1. You can switch on email notifications for private messages in your user info
2. You will be notified of a new private message when you log into your account
3. If you have aggressive notifications of PMs set up, you will get an alter on every page of the site you view in that game until you read the message

Private message settings:

You will want to check the top two boxes, as well as 'every message' under 'Receive e-mail for unread messages'.

At the current time, the forums for this site are inactive.

Content This is the menu is where you're going to find all the scenes, journal entries and ooc posts available in the game.

Journals: This link will show you only the journal entries of those who are in the communities. This will be all of the journals, not only those on your buddy list.

Ooc Posts: This will show you every post and only posts that are in the Ooc community.

Private Messages: This brings you to the private messaging system, where you can check your private messages and write new messages. Note: You can only send messages to people who are in your specific game. So you cannot send a private message from your journal in one game, to a user in a different one. They operate entirely separately.

Scenes: This will show you the in character community. It will only show you the scenes posted, not journals or ooc posts.

Tags: There are two tags that will need to be put onto posts. First of all, there's the characters. What this is, is a listing of the characters in the scene. The character names should be put in only in lower case, and only using their commonly used first name. For example, if a character's name is David, but they go by Dave, you would put 'dave' in the character tag list. For characters scenes with more than one character, it will be listed in two ways. Both characters names will be listed separately, as well as listed as a pairing. This pairing needs to be listed alphabetically. For example, a scene between Dick and Jane would be tagged as such: dick, jane, dick and jane

The second tag that is required is game day. This is whatever game day the scene or journal entry is taking place in. Because the game runs on a time-system, this field is required.

Please tag both in-character community scenes and journal entries. Out of character posts do not need to be tagged.

Game Information: This is all the information you will need for the game. It includes rules, contact lists, and really any other relevant information the mods put in. FAQs will be there as well, along with wanted characters, etc. Basically, if you have any questions about game content/rules/etc? Look here.

My account: This is all of your information. It's all editable, including passwords, icons, profiles, etc. First of all, there's the 'Edit' tab. This will let you change your password, email notification options, etc. Then there is 'Contact', which allows people to contact you by email rather than PM (please note that people emailling you this way do not have access to your email address, which is hidden by the site).

Create content: This is where you get to post things! When you click this, it will give you several options. You will have Journal entry, Scene, or Out of Character Posts.

Journal Entries are personal journals from your character, written in their voice.

Scene is posts for the in character community. This is where all scenes should be posted from.

Out of character posts are for the out of character community. This is for anything that is not a scene or journal, that's for the other players of the game.

Log out: This logs you out of your journal.

Everything you need should be linked in top bar or the side bar (depending on your layout). If you spot a post that you think would be awesome to have linked there that isn't (and yes, we're only talking information posts here, not the uber-cool scene you wrote last night!) let one of the mods know so they can consider whether to add it to the side bar.

To add a tag (or tags) to a journal entry, enter keywords in the field marked "Tags:". Separate keywords with a comma. You may not use HTML in this field.

There are two tags that will need to be put onto posts. First of all, there's the characters. What this is, is a listing of the characters in the scene. The character names should be put in only in lower case, and only using their commonly used first name. For example, if a character's name is David, but they go by Dave, you would put 'dave' in the character tag list. For characters scenes with more than one character, it will be listed in two ways. Both characters names will be listed separately, as well as listed as a pairing. This pairing needs to be listed alphabetically. For example, a scene between Dick and Jane would be tagged as such: dick, jane, dick and jane

The second tag that is required is game day. This is whatever game day the scene or journal entry is taking place in. Because the game runs on a time-system, this field is required.

Please tag both in-character community scenes and journal entries. Out of character posts do not need to be tagged.

As an additional note, we notice some people have been putting other things in the character tags. Please do not do this. The only tag that should be useable that's not a character name in the character tag list is 'group scene', because for some of the group scenes, that would be a monster of a list, so simply putting that, and then the individual names of the characters involved works for that. We hope this clears everything up! Thank you!

HTML and special/fancy characters are not allowed in the tag field. If you are seeing this message please check and remove all formatting codes, then post your entry again.

To add a tag (or tags) to a journal entry, enter keywords in the field marked "Tags:". Separate keywords with a comma. You may not use HTML in this field.

There are two tags that will need to be put onto posts. First of all, there's the characters. What this is, is a listing of the characters in the scene. The character names should be put in only in lower case, and only using their commonly used first name. For example, if a character's name is David, but they go by Dave, you would put 'dave' in the character tag list. For characters scenes with more than one character, it will be listed in two ways. Both characters names will be listed separately, as well as listed as a pairing. This pairing needs to be listed alphabetically. For example, a scene between Dick and Jane would be tagged as such: dick, jane, dick and jane

The second tag that is required is game day. This is whatever game day the scene or journal entry is taking place in. Because the game runs on a time-system, this field is required.

Please tag both in-character community scenes and journal entries. Out of character posts do not need to be tagged.