The Mods of Word Spell (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
wordspellmods) wrote2014-09-22 12:11 am
wordspellmods) wrote2014-09-22 12:11 am
Frequently Asked Questions
• What Is the Setting of This Game?
• What Characters Can I App?
• My Character Has Very Close Relations with Someone in Canon, How Much Can I Write for the AU of the Character I'm Not Actually Apping?
• I Want to Apply as a Character, but a Canonmate Has Already Determined Part of Their Background in Their History. Do I Have to Follow That or Can I Change Some Parts of It?
• What Happens When I Drop?
• So... What If I App a Character That Was Dropped?
• Does My Character Get to Keep Their Canon Abilities?
• What If I Don't like the AU I Came up with for My Character?
• Where Do Our Characters Live?
• Can I Play a Foreigner?
• So How Are They Going to Communicate If They Don't Live Nearby?
• What Is Wisdom Resurrection?
• So We Comment on the Word Spell Community with Everything?
• Does My Character Know about Fighters and Sacrifices before Coming into the Game?
• What's This I Hear about an Experience System?
• Do I Have to Draw Ears on My Character's Icons?
• Can I Change Journals?
This game is set in an alternate Loveless universe. There's no plot involving the Aoyagi family (they may not even exist), the interpretation of Septimal Moon may be wildly different as the Loveless manga proceeds compared to how we run it, et cetera. We are running things in a Loveless universe without tangling with the serialized plot.
To elaborate for those who do not know Loveless: this setting is in modern era Japan, with a minor cultural difference: biologically, all human beings have cat ears and a tail that fall off when they first have sex. As a result, there is a subtle cultural ambiguity about what it means to be an "adult" - is a twenty plus year old with their ears still a "child"? Is a teenager an "adult" if he loses his ears? There is a very unique tone that floats in the culture about these things, and many people have conflicting ideas on it.
And, of course, your character will be soon exposed to a subculture: the world of Word Spell battles. Fighters and Sacrifices, using words to manipulate and harm each other... to what end? What do you do with such power? That's what your character will have to decide for themselves.
Good question!
We are currently allowing:
• Canon Characters of all media types
• This includes Webcomics
• Alternate Characters; a character introduced in an anniversary edition or a rerelease or something like that is perfectly welcome so long as it doesn't cut too close to the duplicate character rule.
• Original Characters
• Fandom OCs/"NPCs"/Low-Canon-Content Characters (if you've written a story that gives a backstory to some Bug Catcher from Pokémon or you expand on the personality of a League of Legends character then by all means have fun AUing them into the game)
We are also allowing the following character types with stipulations:
• Inhuman characters are allowed, but they must be made human
• Characters from incomplete canons, given that there is sufficient information for characterization.
We are not allowing the following characters:
• Characters from the Loveless canon.
• Duplicate characters. If someone's already playing Mario, you can't play Dr. Mario, no matter how wildly different of a background he has that made him a doctor instead of a plumber.
We'd prefer you to stay vague on other characters' backgrounds, but you can make some decisions about the way the other character has related to yours. Leave the potential castmate as much wiggle room as you can! But what's important is making a thorough application that allows for your character to remain very like themselves, even in an AU.
You are under no obligation to follow their decisions for your character when you write up your AU. You may certainly negotiate with them and work something out that the both of you favor, and it is best to alert them to any changes you intend to make so that you're on the same page. If they are unwilling to change canon, contact a moderator.
You may also completely disregard the AU decisions for the reapplying of a character.
Your character loses their power. It fades away, like it did for Yamato of the ZEROs in canon. The name fades away, and the powers fade as well. The bonds wear thin and break, and the person reverts to a normal human. As a result, they stop participating in everything, and OUTLIER kicks your character's account out of the private online circles. If you would like to do a final action post with your character coping with this before you drop, you are more than welcome to do so! You are also just as welcome to handwave their decision to step back and what they may be doing from then on.
It is possible for character that had once lost their powers to regain them. If you played them before, and are returning to play them, then you are free to bring them back without major adjustments to their AU history and include their prior time in the game as their background.
However, you are just as free to use this opportunity to handwave things of their prior existence in The Bondless community. You may change their AU history, handwave old CR, etc in order to play the character the way you would like to play them. But their prior experience as a Fighter or Sacrifice remains. We will be keeping track of characters that were present here, and each character has a tag for the communities.
Probably not. But if it's something subtle and you can justify it fitting in a low-magic setting, then yes. It can't be something innately more powerful than Word Spell. For example: in canon, the Fighter Nisei has a form of telekinesis that he's had his whole life. He can't do more than lift a pencil. Your characters are welcome to have some strange trait along those lines, an extremely powered down version of their canon power; detail it in your application and we will determine whether or not we shall allow it. Expect, more often than not, to be without those powers if they don't have a major impact on the character's personality.
You have a couple options, depending on the size of the change you want to make. If you're doing a minor background adjustment or removing a chunk of the AU history because you don't like how it's making you play your character, just talk to one of the mods and we'll approve or deny it.
If you want to completely overhaul the whole background, we'll need you to reapply with the new AU History.
Anywhere in Japan. We suggest keeping track of your character's area (and possibly displaying it in your character's profile and/or journal) so that others can determine how close they are to your character offline.
If you can explain it, yes. Remember that Japan has a large circle of fairly xenophobic people, and that will impact their regular life to varying degrees. You are also free to AU your character's nationality if you so please.
It's 2014 - communications are amazing these days. Here are some of the ways everyone can communicate without living next door:
•Twitter: A popular service that allows for communicating more publicly (though still allows for private conversations).Kudos if you actually keep your characters' tweets under 140 characters...
•Cell Phones: VASTLY more popular in Japan than elsewhere in the world, nearly everyone in youth culture and a vast majority of everyone else uses their phone very frequently. More valuable than laptops! So naturally, you can always call someone, video chat with them, or text them.
•Meeting up: Get on a train ya bum. Go meet somewhere. Especially if you think you're going to make a strong bond with them...
•Wisdom Resurrection: A popular MMORPG. There's a surprisingly large number of players that know about Word Spell, and OUTLIER emails everyone a code to generate an account. This account allows them access to a private server. It's also a high fantasy MMO, so enjoy playing with friends if you can't buy the train tickets to go meet them in person.
When you make a post or respond to one, we recommend you tag or title it to clarify the means of communication. [Tweet], [Private Tweet], [Video Call], [Phone Call], [Text], [Action], and [Wisdom Resurrection] are our recommended post titles.
It's a popular MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) in Japan! It's a fantasy-themed game. Your character could have a character in it before, and could have been playing for a time either casually or with dedication, but all characters will receive an invitation to join a private server by a player named OUTLIER. You may select for your character one of the following classes:
• Archer (Bows, Crossbows, Guns)
• Paladin (One-Handed Swords, Maces, Shields)
• Thief (Knives, Short Swords, Toxins)
• Fighter (Gauntlets, Lances, Axes)
• Swordsman (Greatswords, Katana, Longswords)
• Sorcerer (Attack Magic)
• Witch (Familiars, Debuff Spells)
• Mage (Healing Magic, Buff Spells)
Yep! Action, text, MMO meetups... all of that in character roleplaying goes on the main comm
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wordspell. You are perfectly welcome to close a post to another character, or to have sections of your post closed.More often than not, no. However, if you have a compelling reason for them to be familiar with a Fighter or Sacrifice beforehand (i.e. your AU story parallels the canon when describing the background) we will consider it, though these NPCs will be standard Fighters and Sacrifices rather than The Bondless like the players. And obviously, if a character currently being played has revealed to their relative/friend that they've become one of The Bondless, then of course the character can know in advance - once again, simply notify and explain it within your application and we'll approve or disapprove it.
It's a very simple system meant to record how long characters have been together and how practiced they are in wordspell battles. It's detailed in the Activity Check guide.
You don't have to! Not all characters even start with ears, and not everyone is going to keep theirs forever. If you decide not to, make sure you definitely make it clear on one of your information posts or profile about whether your character has their ears or not!
Definitely! Just let us know on this post and we'll replace the usernames, no problem.