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xistentiaooc2017-10-21 08:07 pm
spoofer) wrote in xistentiaooc2017-10-21 08:07 pm
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Mod Announcement #5
Mod Announcement #5
Posted October 21, 2017
MAJOR BULLETIN: War Event, Antagonist PCs, Holidays
This month, we're going to introduce our first major war event and introduction of antagonist PCs. D.E.S.T.I.N.Y. is finally coming to Xistentia, using a mish-mash of threats from your characters' exit strategies, as well as infiltration agents (the appable PCs) coerced to the cause. After that, we plan to settle in for the holidays with a low-key world-hop and a sexual intimacy event, as well as no check-ins through January.
- Event: The War
- Fight For Your Life
- Seek Sanctuary
- Into the Drift
- Antagonist PC Applications
- Halloween Party
- Holidays Logistics and Events
- New Icebreaker
- Enable Me Plz
- Poll: Discord Chatroom?
- Reminders
- Questions/Feedback
Event: The War
Threat Assessment: High
Phenomenon Type: Direct Attack by D.E.S.T.I.N.Y.
Predicted Duration:
D.E.S.T.I.N.Y. is attacking. Residents must fight, using natural abilities, existing weapons or items acquired at the fair, or else you can seek safety in the Temple. There, shields activated during the Memory Share will be fortified by artefacts retrieved by Vanyel and others. As a last resort, high-level defenses may be raised but are expected to behave unpredictably.
War is coming to Xistentia on November 4, in 2 weeks. It will start with a blaring warning from Era Ra and the characters' daemons, more urgent than previous notices about weather phenomena and animal movements. Within a day, red soldiers, airships, and sentient tremors and firestorms will begin to approach the city from across the sea, swarming the beach.
Fight for Your Life
At this first stage, characters can engage in combat, using weapons and tactics at home, or even the gifts acquired from the summer fair. They will have the task of trying to stop or slow the wave of fighters, avoid the environmental dangers, struggle against terrifying memories of watching their own world die. Additionally, they will have to defend new arrivals who are crash-landing on the beach at the worst possible time.
The Citadel will be a combat base, overlooking the sea, with storage for weapons, sleeping quarters (barracks) and interfaces that can connect with daemons.
Note, the city's defenses will initially operate as normal. In other words, it is initially impossible to physically or psychically assault another living being there. However, as the battle wears on, these 'wards' will begin to deteriorate, starting with the Westermost edge of the city, moving East. Attacks will begin to do more and more damage to living beings, such as that, initially, a direct sword stab might only cause a surface scratch but this effective invincibility will steadily wane. Homes will not be safe by Day 5, but close monitoring and forewarning by residents will prevent major loss of life among noncombatants.
Depending on player actions, the city itself will either be gradually invaded or held by Xistentia residents. Note, NPCs will provide backup and generally fill in logistical details.
Seek Sanctuary
For those who are not inclined to combat, they can fall back for sanctuary at the Telexistence Temple, where healing triage and tactical planning are safest. There are a handful of revitalization beds here, which gradually accelerate healing. Additionally, at this location, the shields that had stopped the psychotropic rain last month can be reactivated— and new magical properties may be unlocked by adventurers who had participated in Blackavar Island.
Into The Drift
On Blackavar Island, Era and Vex discovered part of a key[1] that fits the Memory Share chamber lock. As a result, we have the PsyLink. F.A.T.E.S. will initiate this protocol from the Temple as a final effort to push back D.E.S.T.I.N.Y.'s forces. This allows the world of Xistentia to initiate the avatar protocol. Every avatar must come from two (2) or more characters combining their minds, Drift-style[2]. Note, the Avatars themselves will remain a mystery. Anyone outside the Temple will experience amnesia about encountering the protocol. In other words, the nature of these Avatars is not the emphasis of gameplay for this plot.
Instead, the PsyLink is where the RP is at— with the danger inherent. In the trance, characters find themselves encountering a Jungian shadow being[3] in a labyrinth resembling a past crisis situation. This being can manifest as anything, from an old enemy to a fairytale monster. But a few things are certain: the shadow is hunting your character through the crisis scenario, causes the character to experience intense fear, making them vulnerable to lose grip on reality. Their partner must then bring them back, by guiding them out of the area of the crisis and reminding them of who they are.
The key to a successful PsyLink is that each participant must balance the other, bringing their partner back from the 'brink' every time the psychic pull becomes too powerful. Characters who participated in the kissing booth at the Summer Fair will have an advantage here; Psylinks involving them will be more stable and likely to succeed, as they have a keener, intuitive understanding of the task at hand and a better grip on reality. Those who didn't participate in the booth may still create PsyLinks, but will find them more difficult to sustain.
After 2 weeks, characters will have done enough to push back the invaders, forcing a retreat. Captured invaders will become Prisoners of War, and the battle will be over... with some strange changes wrought on the landscape surrounding the city. Rebuilding will begin.
Antagonist PC Applications
That's right, starting in November 2017, agents of D.E.S.T.I.N.Y. are going to be available for play! You have two main options.- Red soldiers, prisoners of war who will be captured instead of killed by N/PCs during the war plot seen above. In this case, your character will have been brainwashed into cooperating. Upon capture, they will begin to experience memories of their homeworld and be able to join the side of the residents. With a side helping of guilt for lives taken.
- Infiltrators, pretending to crash land on the beach as normal 'refugees' during the war event. In this case, characters will be coerced or forced to help D.E.S.T.I.N.Y. because their homeworld and/or loved ones are being held hostage. The enemy basically offers to spare your world, or offer it more time, based on your cooperation in sabotaging F.A.T.E.S.
If you choose to play an infiltrator, you will receive special antagonist missions every other month. You OOCly have a say in the nature of these missions, whether they're violent (most likely toward NPCs) or focus on espionage. It is likely that your character will be detected and caught some time in 6 months of gameplay, unless you choose to plot with players to prevent this. PC death is a possibility! In the meantime, enjoy the drama, angst, and guilt.
Halloween Party
It's currently Spooktober and our friendly neighborhood warlock, Magnus Bane, is throwing a Halloween party with a costume contest at the venue, Mandy's Masquerade, owned and managed by Arthur Stuart and Mandy Slade. Voting for costumes is now closed. Drinks, fortune-telling, and competition prizes have been announced here! Of course, you're free to wear a costume without participating in the competition.
Holidays Logistics and Events
As noted at the top, we will not have our bi-monthly check-in in January 2018. Thus, the next check-in will take place in March 2018.
However, we will still be running several casual, less plot-oriented events over the course of the holidays (November and December). We also welcome player characters to be involved in these events. Feel free to bring us your ideas, or if you don't have any yourself, let us know and we'll make you a pitch to fit your character into our existing plans.
Additionally, as we settle into our balance between metaplot and SOL, we will be implementing a sign-up/wait list for voluntary mod-run plot involvement and a Tinder-style IC swipe right/left 'friending' app. Some of these suggestions have come from the playerbase, and we are always open to hearing more!
New Icebreaker
This month's icebreaker will be a glitch, which means it may optionally be posted without the characters' permission. The theme itself is theRainbow Meme. In order you play this one, your character or their daemon will answer a question for each color of the rainbow. These are not necessarily 100% accurate.
Preferred Alias: FATEY F.A.T.E.S.
RED - Something about yesterday: I realized I'm infinitely too large or infinitely too small to fit into a Halloween costume for Magnus Bane's Halloween party, and it broke my heart.
ORANGE - Something you do well: DJing music from across eras!
YELLOW - Something about your childhood: I was never a child, I'm a virtual process that organizes and structures every timeline in the multiverse.
GREEN - Something you learned last week: Powdered eggs are a thing? Somehow I missed this in millennia of existence. Fortunately, it's not a very common thing.
BLUE - Something you can't live without: You. ♥
INDIGO - Something you watch: The people of Xistentia living in harmony, punctuated by moments of alarming drama.
VIOLET - Something you listen to: Daemon gossip, admittedly.
Want to try it? Paste this template into your entry—
Enable Me Plz
We'll be advertising Xistentia on
enable_me_plz again! All submissions on the last ETP will be included, but if you'd like to update or add, please head down to the comments to fill out the form. The purpose is to invite new players and characters to your canon.
DISCORD CHATROOM?
Would you like to have one for the game? Note, the game Plurk is not going anywhere, but we'd be happy to start a game server if there is interest as well. Please vote yes or no in the general mod feedback thread, and provide additional comments if you have any thoughts on the structure of the server room.
Reminders
- Test Drive meme will open on October
3028, 2017! This will include several war-flavored prompts, as well as a casual network-focused option.
- The Enable Me Pls ad will be posted several days earlier, on the 28th, using the requests from the last announcement as well as this one.
- Applications are now permanently open! As such, the game no longer operates Reserves. You can drop in a new application once at any point during a calendar month.
New Mod
Kerry @
Questions? Plotting? Feedback?
Feel free to use this post for war event plotting. There is also a plot questions thread below where you can reach the mods.
We are also looking for feedback about the changes proposed above, including antagonist applications and the war event. If you prefer, feel free to contact us by PM!
Footnotes
- Blackavar Island threads are still open to backtags, and thread progression/completion will unlock more game features.
- Yes, the PsyLink is very similar to the Drift in Pacific Rim! For a brief film clip that illustrates the concept, click here (note: spoilers).
- The personal "monster" hunting you may be inspired by Mal from Inception (film) or the Shadow King in Legion (TV).