Pluviosa Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
pluviosamods) wrote2024-10-11 04:14 pm
pluviosamods) wrote2024-10-11 04:14 pm
RULES & SESSION ZERO
SESSION ZERO
In tabletop games, "Session Zero" is a starter session where players (including the DM) meet up to discuss the content of the game and their expectations of each other (yes, even before they sit down to build characters). This page is intended to serve a similar purpose, as a place where I (Nael, the Head Mod) set up the content and expectations for the game and what expectations are for players, rather than a traditional "rules" page that feels like boilerplate text that appears in every game.
If what I outline on this page isn't in alignment with what you're looking for: this is your chance to go "this isn't for me" and pass on by. These are boundaries that are being set by me as the "DM," and if they aren't to your liking, then both of us will have a negative experience if you try to join. The experience will become even more negative if I have to ask you to leave for the sake of my mental health, so I am politely informing you of the terms to avoid us from being in that position.
Or, to put it more bluntly: This is my house party. If you came to someone's house party, and they asked you not to cut the other guests with knives, they have the right to do that, and the right to kick you out if you can't respect that boundary. Yes, even if it's a BDSM house party and there's someone actively being paddled in the same room.
My fundamental belief - about any kind of RP, but especially something as highly emotional as horror or sexual RP - is that it's a form of consensual nonconsent. In the same way that you don't know exactly what's going to happen when you go into a haunted house attraction at a fair, you don't know what exactly is going to happen to you/your character within the bounds of an RP - but you still have the right to have a general idea of what's going to occur even if you don't get specific details. You have the right to say "No thank you" at the beginning, and to say "This is too much, please stop," at any time. Even if you volunteer for a "surprise me" type of situation, you have the right to know what kind of surprises you're going to get, and to call a halt if you're overwhelmed.
And that mindset also applies to game mods, except that it's a lot more difficult as a game mod to take that "please stop" and step away entirely. It's my house, and I can't leave without things coming to a grinding halt. If the game reaches a point beyond "not currently having fun" into "actively unfun to participate in," then everything shuts down.
In order to prevent that situation, I am setting a hard requirement about tone of play. That tone is no absolute hopelessness spirals. This isn't "no angst," nor is it "no characters hitting breaking points." It's about characters falling into repeated spirals where they have to be dragged out of hopelessness by their CR, only to fall into the same spiral again the next time something bad happens. This is not a judgment towards those who find that kind of play cathartic; I simply cannot engage with it, even at arm's length, and therefore I am disallowing it. If you do not think that you can abide by that restriction, this is not the game for you.
Or to put it another way: The aimed-for tone of this game is Jurassic Park rather than a more classical, "everyone dies at the end" horror movie. This is objectively a horror mode situation, but you never get the feeling it's just kicking you to be cruel. There's still a feeling of hope to continue through.
Certain events will have sign-ups for more intense play options that are intentionally not revealed to all players in order to maintain a sense of surprise and suspense. If after you sign up to such an event, the information given to you by a moderator is something that you would rather not play with, you may back out at any time, no questions asked. We ask only that you not reveal the information given to you to other players who may still wish to experience the surprise unspoiled.
This game is semi-private, with open applications. Game communities are unlocked (by request of the initial group of players), and dropped characters will not be forcibly removed from community membership (though if they leave of their own choosing, they will not be readded to the communities unless they re-apply to the game as a whole). Posts on the OOC community, including event planning posts and test drives, are not locked.
The game discord is also not locked. However, many IC and game-related channels are role-restricted to current and former players. So long as they are not actively banned, former players are welcome to remain in order to reread their old threads, talk with their friends who have remained in the game, and so on. The game Discord is not actively linked on the game's info pages in order to help prevent bots and bad actors from joining; however, a permanent invite link is available in the game's rules channel.
Applications are open to all prospective players. The mods may perform follow-up questions to either applicants or their contacts in order to gauge their fit with the game's playerbase. Mods may decline a player for any reason; we attempt to do so as soon in the application process as possible in order to save declined players' time and energy.
The game is currently capped at 40 players, with a maximum of two characters per player. Third character slots will open two months after game opening. Player cap increases will be based on mod capacity.
Applications are open in a rolling fashion, with apps being judged in groups based on mod workload and the number of slots available in the game. (Typically, this will occur between events.) If the backlog of applications reaches five or more above the number of slots available in the game, applications will be temporarily closed until the queue has decreased. For more information, please see the Applications page.
As of November 2024, Pluviosa is a no-AC game, and there will not be mandated requirements for minimum activity on a monthly or other basis.
Instead, there will be occasional check-in posts based upon player activity or lack thereof. These will be announced well in advance, and are designed to serve as a "are you still involved/paying attention" check. Players have a week to respond to check-in when it goes up.
Pluviosa is only partially a traditional Dreamwidth game. In an effort to be able to respond to players more fluidly, we have chosen to make heavy use of the game's Discord server as an additional platform for the game, both ICly and OOCly. As such, a per playerDiscord point of contact and membership in the game's server are mandatory.
The following are examples of why we chose to incorporate a game Discord so heavily:
-> Easier responsiveness for both players and mods who are out and about or otherwise on mobile devices
-> Easier responsiveness to player questions from mods, generally
-> Ability to directly @ specific other players for plotting purposes
-> Ability to easily search mod question channels and etc for answers to questions
-> Ability for mods to directly contact players for the results of sign-up events and other "secret" information
-> The perception of Discord as a lower-pressure space than formally posting to journal communities
As a result, we have chosen to run Pluviosa as a hybrid game. Although the game communities will of course be home to IC posts and longer information posts such as events and other game updates, we intend to utilize the "forum" channel option in order to better facilitate exploration and other player-mod interactions that are heavy on mod responsiveness. Additionally, we have chosen to leave it open to players who wish to thread on Discord rather than on Dreamwidth to do so, provided they keep some form of record of such threads in their journals (similar to IC inboxes being used in place of closed logs).
We are aware that Discord is a flawed organization and do not wish players to feel as though this is a message of approval towards Discord's handling of recent issues (especially as regards AI training). Nonetheless, we hope that players will keep an open mind towards our ongoing experiment with a hybrid roleplay.
Being a horror game, it is a natural assumption that some of the content in Pluviosa may be disturbing to some players. The mod team makes a commitment to using content warnings and notes so that players can consume such content when they feel secure and are ready for it. We ask that players respect each other and do the same.
That said, no preexisting list of content warnings will successfully cover all scenarios. The Pluviosa application has a section where we request player input on content labels for the game; if you have a trigger or squick not covered below, please make use of that section or inform a moderator privately. This list will be periodically updated so that the whole playerbase is aware of what content in the game needs warning-for.
Content warning list:
Body horror (include subtype as applicable eg parasitism, eye horror)
Gore (include subtype as applicable eg organ gore)
Rape, sexual violence, and sexual coercion
Animal/pet violence or death
Mind control and brainwashing
Spiders and insects
Child and intimate partner abuse
Suicide and self-harm
Due to mod triggers, pregnancy is not permitted in this game.
Please note that being a horror game with body horror, psychological horror (including mind control, hallucinations, and manipulation of the senses), character death, plant horror, and in-universe unreality (including potential "fourth-walling" elements) as major themes, players should assume that they will come into contact with that sort of content semi-frequently. If you absolutely cannot handle one or more of those subjects, this may not be the game for you.
If what I outline on this page isn't in alignment with what you're looking for: this is your chance to go "this isn't for me" and pass on by. These are boundaries that are being set by me as the "DM," and if they aren't to your liking, then both of us will have a negative experience if you try to join. The experience will become even more negative if I have to ask you to leave for the sake of my mental health, so I am politely informing you of the terms to avoid us from being in that position.
Or, to put it more bluntly: This is my house party. If you came to someone's house party, and they asked you not to cut the other guests with knives, they have the right to do that, and the right to kick you out if you can't respect that boundary. Yes, even if it's a BDSM house party and there's someone actively being paddled in the same room.
CONTENT AND TONE
My fundamental belief - about any kind of RP, but especially something as highly emotional as horror or sexual RP - is that it's a form of consensual nonconsent. In the same way that you don't know exactly what's going to happen when you go into a haunted house attraction at a fair, you don't know what exactly is going to happen to you/your character within the bounds of an RP - but you still have the right to have a general idea of what's going to occur even if you don't get specific details. You have the right to say "No thank you" at the beginning, and to say "This is too much, please stop," at any time. Even if you volunteer for a "surprise me" type of situation, you have the right to know what kind of surprises you're going to get, and to call a halt if you're overwhelmed.
And that mindset also applies to game mods, except that it's a lot more difficult as a game mod to take that "please stop" and step away entirely. It's my house, and I can't leave without things coming to a grinding halt. If the game reaches a point beyond "not currently having fun" into "actively unfun to participate in," then everything shuts down.
In order to prevent that situation, I am setting a hard requirement about tone of play. That tone is no absolute hopelessness spirals. This isn't "no angst," nor is it "no characters hitting breaking points." It's about characters falling into repeated spirals where they have to be dragged out of hopelessness by their CR, only to fall into the same spiral again the next time something bad happens. This is not a judgment towards those who find that kind of play cathartic; I simply cannot engage with it, even at arm's length, and therefore I am disallowing it. If you do not think that you can abide by that restriction, this is not the game for you.
Or to put it another way: The aimed-for tone of this game is Jurassic Park rather than a more classical, "everyone dies at the end" horror movie. This is objectively a horror mode situation, but you never get the feeling it's just kicking you to be cruel. There's still a feeling of hope to continue through.
Certain events will have sign-ups for more intense play options that are intentionally not revealed to all players in order to maintain a sense of surprise and suspense. If after you sign up to such an event, the information given to you by a moderator is something that you would rather not play with, you may back out at any time, no questions asked. We ask only that you not reveal the information given to you to other players who may still wish to experience the surprise unspoiled.
PLAYER ENTRY
This game is semi-private, with open applications. Game communities are unlocked (by request of the initial group of players), and dropped characters will not be forcibly removed from community membership (though if they leave of their own choosing, they will not be readded to the communities unless they re-apply to the game as a whole). Posts on the OOC community, including event planning posts and test drives, are not locked.
The game discord is also not locked. However, many IC and game-related channels are role-restricted to current and former players. So long as they are not actively banned, former players are welcome to remain in order to reread their old threads, talk with their friends who have remained in the game, and so on. The game Discord is not actively linked on the game's info pages in order to help prevent bots and bad actors from joining; however, a permanent invite link is available in the game's rules channel.
Applications are open to all prospective players. The mods may perform follow-up questions to either applicants or their contacts in order to gauge their fit with the game's playerbase. Mods may decline a player for any reason; we attempt to do so as soon in the application process as possible in order to save declined players' time and energy.
The game is currently capped at 40 players, with a maximum of two characters per player. Third character slots will open two months after game opening. Player cap increases will be based on mod capacity.
Applications are open in a rolling fashion, with apps being judged in groups based on mod workload and the number of slots available in the game. (Typically, this will occur between events.) If the backlog of applications reaches five or more above the number of slots available in the game, applications will be temporarily closed until the queue has decreased. For more information, please see the Applications page.
ACTIVITY
As of November 2024, Pluviosa is a no-AC game, and there will not be mandated requirements for minimum activity on a monthly or other basis.
Instead, there will be occasional check-in posts based upon player activity or lack thereof. These will be announced well in advance, and are designed to serve as a "are you still involved/paying attention" check. Players have a week to respond to check-in when it goes up.
FORMAT & PLATFORM
Pluviosa is only partially a traditional Dreamwidth game. In an effort to be able to respond to players more fluidly, we have chosen to make heavy use of the game's Discord server as an additional platform for the game, both ICly and OOCly. As such, a per playerDiscord point of contact and membership in the game's server are mandatory.
The following are examples of why we chose to incorporate a game Discord so heavily:
-> Easier responsiveness for both players and mods who are out and about or otherwise on mobile devices
-> Easier responsiveness to player questions from mods, generally
-> Ability to directly @ specific other players for plotting purposes
-> Ability to easily search mod question channels and etc for answers to questions
-> Ability for mods to directly contact players for the results of sign-up events and other "secret" information
-> The perception of Discord as a lower-pressure space than formally posting to journal communities
As a result, we have chosen to run Pluviosa as a hybrid game. Although the game communities will of course be home to IC posts and longer information posts such as events and other game updates, we intend to utilize the "forum" channel option in order to better facilitate exploration and other player-mod interactions that are heavy on mod responsiveness. Additionally, we have chosen to leave it open to players who wish to thread on Discord rather than on Dreamwidth to do so, provided they keep some form of record of such threads in their journals (similar to IC inboxes being used in place of closed logs).
We are aware that Discord is a flawed organization and do not wish players to feel as though this is a message of approval towards Discord's handling of recent issues (especially as regards AI training). Nonetheless, we hope that players will keep an open mind towards our ongoing experiment with a hybrid roleplay.
TRIGGERS & WARNINGS
Being a horror game, it is a natural assumption that some of the content in Pluviosa may be disturbing to some players. The mod team makes a commitment to using content warnings and notes so that players can consume such content when they feel secure and are ready for it. We ask that players respect each other and do the same.
That said, no preexisting list of content warnings will successfully cover all scenarios. The Pluviosa application has a section where we request player input on content labels for the game; if you have a trigger or squick not covered below, please make use of that section or inform a moderator privately. This list will be periodically updated so that the whole playerbase is aware of what content in the game needs warning-for.
Content warning list:
Body horror (include subtype as applicable eg parasitism, eye horror)
Gore (include subtype as applicable eg organ gore)
Rape, sexual violence, and sexual coercion
Animal/pet violence or death
Mind control and brainwashing
Spiders and insects
Child and intimate partner abuse
Suicide and self-harm
Due to mod triggers, pregnancy is not permitted in this game.
Please note that being a horror game with body horror, psychological horror (including mind control, hallucinations, and manipulation of the senses), character death, plant horror, and in-universe unreality (including potential "fourth-walling" elements) as major themes, players should assume that they will come into contact with that sort of content semi-frequently. If you absolutely cannot handle one or more of those subjects, this may not be the game for you.