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Entry tags:
faq
ic info.
1. So, where am I?
Vanad--a desert moon somewhere decidedly not where you're used to being.
Specifically, you are in the desert within sight of a village--Niyol. It might be wise to get there as quickly as possible, judging by the heat of the sun.
In the center of the village is the largest building--three stories high, squat utilitarian. Not much is inside--a lobby with an empty info center. Pamphlets containing basic information on your situation are stacked--disconcertingly neatly--on one counter. Propaganda posters glorifying something called "Gizem" and vilifying another called "Korlassar" are plastered on the walls. From the pictures, Gizem may be human and Korlassar alien--but it's impossible to tell if this isn't just part of the propaganda's metaphor. Juding by the posters, though, the Korlassar are rather monstrous...
2. How did I get here?
That is currently classified. You may or may not attain the necessary clearance during your stay to know that.
3. What am I doing here?
Essentially, you're to run missions to rid us of the 'Lassies. They've gone on living long enough and we're done dealing with their guerilla warfare and sabotage. We're in the middle of important work here and they keep screwing it up.
You'll receive more specific instructions at a later date.
4. How do I contact others?
When you arrive, you are issued a communicator. This will allow you to create audio, visual, and text posts over the Vanad network. This network may, at times, reach beyond the moon to remain in contact with those away on missions. No, your homes are not on the list of approved contact points. The network and the devices cannot be hacked to do so. You may lock certain posts if you have the technological capability to do so. These posts will be viewable only to the specified individual(s). Do not discuss classified information over the network or with unauthorized individuals. Remember, someone is always listening.
Further, your communicators are equipped with basic information concerning your situation and the moon on which you are now residing.
5. Where am I supposed to stay?
There are barracks' and other buildings in Niyol, however, some have been abandoned for some time and the buildings may be...dilapidated. It is up to you to improve on the buildings. So long as you check in regularly, it is of no matter which building you stay in.
All buildings in the town are utilitarian and include a main lobby and kitchen area on the main floor. These are also plastered with propaganda slandering the Korlassar. Upstairs are eight sleeping rooms in each building. These are small and spartan. As the city grows, more buildings may be added.
6. How do I get food/supplies?
Supplies will be dropped every other week by arriving ship. You may not board this ship. Supplies include necessary foodstuffs.
7. Can I earn money?
Money is not required on Vanad. Supplies are dropped every other week and these will be more than enough to sustain you. However, if you have something, you may establish trade amongst yourselves or the...natives.
8. Can I leave the village?
Certainly. But it isn’t very interesting out there, is it?
9. Can I leave the planet?
You’re welcome to try, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Some very…unpleasant things can happen where no one is…
ooc info.
1. How old should I (the player) be?
Vanad is a mature survival/horror game drawing on classic sci-fi and horror themes. We request that players be 16+ due to the game's graphic themes, languages, and situations.
2. What's the point/What can my character do in-game?
Your character was brought to Niyol as part of a scientific accident and they are now being utilized as military weapons against mysterious enemies. To this end, characters will be asked occasionally to take on missions both on- and off-world. Superior performance on these missions may result in rewards, including special supplies or privileges, better living quarters, even leave time off-world.
The scientists are still experimenting, though, and occasionally their experiments get loose from the lab on Vanad. This keeps things interesting down on Vanad. Events can range from serious to crack and may reveal important information throughout gameplay.
3. What's the setting?
Vanad is a game set on a desert moon involving a heavy exploration element. Please feel free to have characters explore the city, the moon, and even the surrounding space should they get the opportunity. Characters are welcome to renovate buildings, create businesses for trading and bartering purposes, grow their own food if they get sick of the rations provided, etc. Vanad is not a jamjar game, however, there will be specific missions off-world and events on the moon in Niyol.
Vanad orbits the planet Chisisi, and that planet is visible. Chisisi is your standard blue/green marble, with a land/water ratio of about 50/50; it rises in teh northwest and sets in the southeast. There are no other moons. The sun is a standard yellow star. Vanad itself is, for the most part arid and modeled after the American southwest high deserts. Think large rock formations, canyons, cliffs, etc. Vegetation ranges from small scrub trees in higher elevations to brush and cacti in lower. Temperatures can be extreme, with harsh drops come nightfall. Winter on Vanad brings with it monsoons and spring can bring some rather fierce storms. Vanad's day/night cycle is roughly 48 hours: 24 day, 24 night.
Niyol sits in the shadow of a large rock formation for half the day. The village itself can mark the border between the harsher, lower elevation desert and the scrub forests in the mountains to the west. Temperatures during summer months in Niyol will typically reach 100ishF/38ishC during the day.
4. Can characters leave the village?
You can certainly explore the moon, but there’s something that keeps turning you away from anything interesting and keeps you wandering in the desert until you either die of thirst or starvation, or give up and return to the village. Characters don’t have to stay in the Niyol, but there are certain places that they will simply be unable to find or access.
5. Can characters with the ability to do so leave the planet?
People can go into space, but there’s an inexplicable pull back to Vanad. It could be ignored, if the character has enough willpower, but there are patrol ships and it’s very very difficult to ignore that need to get back to the surface.
This pull is subconscious and gets worse the farther away from the planet one gets.
6. Who can I app?
Vanad is currently accepting canon/fandom characters, AUs, and both fandom and plain OCs. Please be aware that, because we have no basis of comparison for IC thresholds, AU and OC apps will be reviewed with far more scrutiny than fandom apps.
Vanad currently allows two versions of a single character - one OU and one AU.
6a. What if my character is a vampire/is perpetually ill/needs x, y, and z to survive?
All supplies needed by characters will arrive in the supply drops. Blood will be provided to vampires, needed medicine to sick characters, brains to zombies, what have you. Characters with special needs will receive a text message on their communicator when supplies come in for them.
Special supplies and privileges may be earned by other characters depending on how well they do in their assigned missions.
7. How many can I app?
Players are currently limited to 5 characters. This limit may be changed in the future depending upon player activity. Characters on probation for activity reasons will not be allowed to app a new character until the term of their probation is over.
8. Activity Check?
To pass activity check, each character must have two pieces of activity a month equaling 15 comments from your character. This can be any combination of regular (bracket) threads and logs (i.e., two threads, two logs, one thread and one log) so long as the total comment count between the two is 15.
Characters who do not meet or do not respond to activity check will be removed from the game. Characters can be reclaimed for double activity in the next month. If the character fails to meet the new requirement, they will be removed.
If players continually miss activity check, they may be placed on a precautionary probation. Players will not be able to app new characters while on probation.
Please, please, please let the mods know if there are extenuating circumstances that impeded making your activity check. We are more than happy to work with you if needed.
9. I need to hiatus...
Sorry to hear that. We'll miss you, and we hope everything is okay!
Please post your hiatus to the hiatus post by filling out the provided form. Only hiatuses of two weeks or more will exempt a character from activity check. These hiatuses will require mod approval. Please PM the mod journal if you need to hiatus for more than two weeks. We're pretty understanding people and we don't bite, but we do need to keep characters actually playing to keep the game going.
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1a. In a general sense, what do characters bring with them, if anything? What they're wearing, carrying, etc? Or do they arrive in just a jumpsuit on the desert? This is apart from the rucksack that's waiting with all the stuff for them when they wake up.
1b. More directly: the character I'm thinking of apping would be wearing a semi-organic space suit when he'd be taken. He'd also have a small flechette gun, a knife, and an unmanned drone all attached (firmly) to the suit. Would any or all of that come with him?
2. My character spends a lot of time in free fall/null g, and as much time in low-g environments, like asteroid and moon colonies. What kind of gravity does Vanad have? Earth-like? More, less? I'm trying to understand how much struggle will be involved with mobility more than I'm looking for a John Carter of Mars type superpower. If the gravity is closer to Earth-normal than not, would assistance items, like canes, be available for someone looking for them?
3. Off-world missions caught my eye. Would these be short little hops, longer term, a mixture of each? Spacewalk y/n? Only in orbit of Vanad, or elsewhere, too, at least possibly?
4. I may have missed this, and if I did, sorry, but Vanad is said to be a moon, I believe. I'm mostly just curious, but it would provide some background for sample posts, at least. What kind of planet does it orbit? Are there other moons, and are they usually visible? The locations page seemed to imply one star only, but is that accurate? Is the day/night cycle like our own moons (a day is about a month)? Is the moon always facing the planet it orbits with the same face?
5. Some games have standards about this, so I'll ask. If I app this character, I am actively looking for either a better PB or custom art. If I find either, I'd be changing out at least some of my icons. Would that be an issue, so long as the PB doesn't conflict with another already in the game?
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1a & b. Ffff, I can't believe I forgot to put this in the FAQ in the first place. At any rate, characters generally arrive in what they were wearing, have what they are carrying, etc. In general, the Chisisi military wants as much of an advantage as they can get, which means also bringing in the weapons the characters are familiar with, etc. So, if your character can conceivably carry it, it can come with them, up to and including the drone.
2. Vanad is very close to earth gravity, erring a bit on the "little bit lighter but not noticeably much" side. Assistance items would be available via either making it or scavenging -- or making a request that one be sent in the next shuttle/supply drop. Niyol - the settlement on Vanad - was once inhabited and it's conceivable a character could find such things tucked away in dusty corners. (Or have a cane made out of some of the scrub juniper-like trees near the village.)
3. Missions! These are my favorite part of the game. >>;; I have a combination of the two planned. Spacewalks are totally awesome and encouraged. Visits to other planets are a very strong possibility. It's involved, yes, but the off-world missions and (possible) space battles are pretty much the whole reason I created the game. |Db
4. (Before answering this, I'm going to add a bit of a disclaimer: my understanding of astronomy/physics/pretty much anything science-y, despite all attempts to the otherwise, is still pretty rudimentary. I am trying my best to walk a fine line between fact and workable fiction. We're still adding to the locations and working a few things out here and there. We built a bit of a complicated galaxy here, /laughs.) Vanad and Chisisi are probably closer to a twin-planet setup than a planet and mood, in all reality. Vanad is the smaller of the two and Chisisi is pretty earthlike, with different climate regions, continents, ice caps, etc. Vanad is, for the most part, arid, with some pretty extreme temperatures as day and night goes. There are no other moons, but Chisisi is visible - it rises in the northwest and sets in the southeast. Day/night cycle is roughly 48hrs: 24 day, 24 night.
5. Change your icons as you will and as you see fit. If the PB does end up conflicting with another character in-game, we'll work with each of the muns and try to come up with an acceptable solution. (I'm okay with face-twins, but I can see where some muns might hesitate. First-come, first-serve is the general rule, but I do want to be as accommodating as possible.)
I hope I didn't miss anything/muddy anything up. If you need clarification or have other questions, go for it. :)
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Also ><; if I were to app a Shakespeare character is it alright if I don't ... necessarily ... write like Shakespeare? I mean I can do some flowery but stanzas and soliloquies and doth this and wherefore art that is beyond my grasp.
Like I said, dumb question is dumb.
/mod's account, I promise. Juggler hates me atm.
And, no. You don't have to write like just like Shakespeare.
If I had to write a soliloquy every other tag, I might die.no subject
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Oh, and another question! What about character death; can they die and will they come back? Are there consequences to deaths, etc?
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Character death is treated as pretty serious. It's possible for them to die and come back, but their in-game memories would be, at best, very fuzzy. However, given medical technology and a little bit of plotting, we can work around such things. (Think cryogenics and things and alien NPCs who might be willing to help. |Db)
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/mod's account, really. juggler is malfunctioning on me.
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1 - Does the planet have a regular yellow sun, or something else? (Ftr the character I'm thinking of apping, his survival is directly dependent on solar energy from a yellow sun.)
2 - And second question, relating to a character my friend might app along with me, their team has this thing called radiotelepathy, which is essentially mechanical telepathic contact with each other through implanted nanites, and the system is essentially independent of any other equipment (it's been canonly shown to work on other planets/dimensions, in the middle of space, etc, with a global range.) Would this still work in-game? It wouldn't affect any other characters since it requires a nanite implant to communicate.
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2 - This would still work in-game. It might get messed with thanks to events now and again, but it's a go for in-game.
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1) #9 in the first section up there says that some very unpleasant things can happen to people out in space if they choose to leave the planet. What sort of unpleasant things are we talking? What if they just went out into orbit? Essentially, how fr can they get from the moon before things start getting weird, and what kind of weird is it?
2) Vanad is a moon, right? What sort of planet does it orbit?
3) In the premise section, it says to be sure to check in or they'll find you. What does that mean, exactly?
4) I know you've said there's a research facility. What sort of security does it have there/how fortified is it?
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2) It is! Standard blue-green marble, about 50/50 land to water ratio.
3) That's coming in the NPC post Sunday night. |Db Spoiler alert, but the military really wants your help and they think they have ways of making it happen. /vague, I know.
4) The same mental compulsion that keeps people on Vanad right now keeps them away from the facility. Again, this will change in the near future, but right now, it's inaccessible.
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I saw that Vanad orbits slowly, with a 48 day cycle of day/night-- What do the temperatures reach? Is Niyol constantly in the shadow of the Mesa, or only for some time during the day? Is it like earth deserts, where it's blistering in the daytime, and the temperature drops dramatically at nightfall?
I assume the atmosphere is similar to Earth because of it's breathability?
Thanks!
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Niyol gets the shade from the mesa for about half the day - the first half. Very much like earth deserts: Niyol and the surrounding area is modeled after North America's high desert. Arid, hot during the day, and chilly come nightfall. Temps during the summer months will typically reach 100ishF/38ishC during the day. Vanad does have seasons, which run roughly on Earth-time
because it's easierwith monsoons/storms in the fall, a dry winter season, early, short spring, and a long summer.no subject
And last one: Is the tech level about the same? Electricity, combustion engines, etc-- And does it function currently?
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If information is released that is a fairly significant to your character, how should that be handled? Should we notify you guys and make changes to the app for reference? It's not something that's groundbreaking, but I don't want to seem like I'm making up stuff or anything if something were to happen where it might come up.
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(i am totally for hilarious size mis-matches, to be honest! But if there were to be accommodations, that would be good to know. u___u )
this is a mod, I promise.
If, however, you think it might not be cool to play out forever, we could work with size mismatches at first and then maybe a request of the Powers That Be to work on a better one -- or maybe one of our more tech-saavy characters could come up with some way to link the comm to a bigger-scaled tablet. IDK. We can figure it out.
Hello definitely a mod! C: