Labyrinth Spirit (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
labyrinthspirit) wrote2012-01-16 06:44 am
labyrinthspirit) wrote2012-01-16 06:44 am
Entry tags:
[OOC] Setting.
Time.
Time flows strangely in the Labyrinth. People do not seem to age, but it clearly passes as there are seasons and carnivals and other time-related events. Time is measured in weeks, days, hours, minutes and seconds within the Labyrinth. There is no concept of "months" or "years", though Newcomers are welcome to keep track of time on their own. Certain events are held in cycles of a determined number of weeks, but even weeks themselves are not numbered or measured. The effect might be jarring for Newcomers, as days have names, but no numbers. Monday is Monday is Monday. Days are only recognizable individually in reference to the week as a whole to which they belong: "the same week as the carnival" for example.
OOCly, weeks and days are numbered in the OOC post and Day Change posts, to help organize events and help players keep track of how much time their characters have been in the Labyrinth. Every two weeks, a new entry will appear in the Blank Book, detailing anything about the character's home world, their own past history or perhaps the history of their world. These entries are decided by the individual players, and, like the Blank Book itself, might be used as they see fit. For more details, check the Calendar.
An IC day is made up of 24 hours; OOCly this is equivalent to three or four days: day changes will be posted on Sundays and Thursdays, unless otherwise required for plots. When you post a log or a Rock entry, it's very helpful to also make note of the date and time.
The Labyrinth and Puzzles.
Visually, the Labyrinth that surrounds the village seems made of impossibly tall, grey, brick walls that connect to each gate, but the Labyrinth itself changes shape and look every time a Gate opens: sometimes the brick walls remain, other times it might look like a hedge labyrinth, and sometimes it might not even look like a Labyrinth at all. The Labyrinth is accessed by one of the four Gates that surround the Village, but only one Gate will be open at any given time. Each time a Gate opens a new puzzle is revealed, so there is always something for characters to do. Gates remain open for one week, ICly, and then close so another Gate can open instead.
Puzzles can be anything. Anything. These are basically the fancy name for the events in the game. They can go from jigsaw puzzles to Zelda-style puzzles to riddles on the walls to things adapted from the Newcomer's own world. The Labyrinth learns from the people it brings in, and it has access to all their memories and their experiences, and it will use those to craft the puzzles. Each puzzle offers a reward after being solved, which might go from a bag of gold, to unlocking a special ability that had been repressed, to finding a very personal item that had been taken. The magic of the Labyrinth resets the puzzle for each Newcomer, unless they are meant to be completed as a group. In that case, Newcomers will be unable to cross the Gate unless they form a group large enough to solve the puzzle ahead.
OOCly, each new Gate will be announced in![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
labyrinthooc , explaining the objectives and requirements of each puzzle. Puzzles are not mandatory and characters are not punished if they skip participation. However, players must bear in mind that their characters will not unlock their powers/recover their items, unless they do participate in puzzles. Whether a character solves the puzzle or not will be initially left to the players' discretion. However, if this is abused, then the Mod will start tossing a coin and assigning wins/loses randomly instead.
Missions.
Every Newcomer can expect to find some gold inside their Bag, to get them started. However - with Mod approval - players can engage in simple missions around the Village to obtain goods without spending their gold. Missions go from delivering goods to performing tasks around the shops. The Villagers are a strange lot, however, so the Mission does not necessarily have to do with the item the character wants to acquire. Missions can be handwaved or logged; the Mod approval is mostly just to keep IC consequences to IC actions in check, but players are encouraged to come up with the details of their missions on their own. Players should bear in mind that the Spirit protects the Villagers from harm, should Newcomers be dissatisfied with the outcome of a Mission, and that the Villagers themselves routinely demand bizarre things. The Potion Shops Missions are a special category that will only be open by player request and are the only missions the Mod will outline on their own. Missions are meant as a good way to foster CR and allow characters to explore the setting and basically enjoy shenanigans. They are not meant to last longer than a day, ICly.
Spirit's Quests.
So, the Gate's open, the puzzle's right there... and your character is stuck. Well, the good news is that there is something akin to a Strategy Guide for the Labyrinth. The bad news is that it is the Spirit. Yes, the smug, taunting, mercurial, moody Spirit that the Villagers revere like a God and who bore witness to the Mark of every single Newcomer. You know, that guy. And he knows how to solve those pesky puzzles.
The good news is that the Spirit is willing to share hints about the Labyrinth and its puzzles, along with performing various Services, like retrieving a lost Rock or Blank Book. The bad news is that he requires a price for it. If your character really, really wants a hint, the Spirit will give them a quest to perform, which will usually cost them a day or so to fulfill. These quests always, always revolve around another character, often ones that the requesting character does not have CR with. They can be anything, too, but this is the Spirit and they will often be embarrassing. Kisses, hugs, dates, declarations of love are just as likely as fights, stealing from the other character or attempting to find out something specific about them. The Spirit is often very bored, and few things in the world are as terrifying as an essentially omniscient, omnipotent being that's bored.
Money.
If your character completes puzzles in the Labyrinth or does missions around the Village, they will sometimes be awarded with the currency of the world: gold. Gold is gold, forged into coins about the size of a silver dollar with the Spirit's Mark engraved in them. Each coin is roughly the equivalent of a US dollar, and they are used to buy essentially everything around the Village, from food to items to services. Gold will allow characters to buy extras around the Village and decorate their quarters with anything they want. Most puzzles offer a gold reward of some kind, regardless of any other reward like lifting the power limiter or obtaining a personal belonging. Needless to say, while basic needs are covered at the Manor - food and boarding - a steady supply of gold will make a character's life that much easier.
Supplies.
We have established that the Village stands at the center of the Labyrinth, and that Villagers will die if they step out of it. How then, may your characters ask, can the Village keep supplied with food and goods necessary to support the Manor and all the shops around? The short answer: it's magic. The long answer: the Labyrinth's magic provides for the Villagers through the Spirit. Characters are welcome to figure out the holes in the system, but no matter what they do, Villagers will always be provided for. Even if their storages are set on fire or their animals killed, by the next day, things will have been restored. Again, though, trying to mess up with the Villagers will result in the Spirit messing up with the characters, often cursing them with temporary ailments.
Fighting and Death.
While the Spirit will prevent any Newcomer from harming a Villager, there is no such restriction between Newcomers themselves. That means your backstabbing, evil villain can do all the backstabbing his evil heart desires. Newcomers can and will get hurt during the puzzles, but they can also be hurt in the Village, by other Newcomers. And as all superhuman powers are suppressed by their Marks, characters can die if injured enough. After death, a character's body remains in place for half a day before it disappears when no one's looking; while it's present, the corpse is liable to be manhandled and stuff taken from it, like clothes, money or even their Rock or Bag. As soon as the body disappears, however, the character will wake up as if from a nightmare, back at the Spirit's Temple, with all their stuff (if it wasn't taken) and vague memories of a dark, cold place where someone or something studied them for what seemed forever before allowing them to wake up again. However, there are consequences for killing another Newcomer, though nowhere near as swift or potentially brutal as there are for trying to kill a Villager. One of three things will happen to the Newcomer who killed another: Their Mark will reset to its original state, sealing away any powers they might have unlocked, for twenty-four hours. They will lose an important item they have recovered from the Labyrinth, only to find it again in their quarters two days later. They will loose all their accumulated gold for a week, before mysteriously finding it in a heap inside their quarters.
Time flows strangely in the Labyrinth. People do not seem to age, but it clearly passes as there are seasons and carnivals and other time-related events. Time is measured in weeks, days, hours, minutes and seconds within the Labyrinth. There is no concept of "months" or "years", though Newcomers are welcome to keep track of time on their own. Certain events are held in cycles of a determined number of weeks, but even weeks themselves are not numbered or measured. The effect might be jarring for Newcomers, as days have names, but no numbers. Monday is Monday is Monday. Days are only recognizable individually in reference to the week as a whole to which they belong: "the same week as the carnival" for example.
OOCly, weeks and days are numbered in the OOC post and Day Change posts, to help organize events and help players keep track of how much time their characters have been in the Labyrinth. Every two weeks, a new entry will appear in the Blank Book, detailing anything about the character's home world, their own past history or perhaps the history of their world. These entries are decided by the individual players, and, like the Blank Book itself, might be used as they see fit. For more details, check the Calendar.
An IC day is made up of 24 hours; OOCly this is equivalent to three or four days: day changes will be posted on Sundays and Thursdays, unless otherwise required for plots. When you post a log or a Rock entry, it's very helpful to also make note of the date and time.
The Labyrinth and Puzzles.
Visually, the Labyrinth that surrounds the village seems made of impossibly tall, grey, brick walls that connect to each gate, but the Labyrinth itself changes shape and look every time a Gate opens: sometimes the brick walls remain, other times it might look like a hedge labyrinth, and sometimes it might not even look like a Labyrinth at all. The Labyrinth is accessed by one of the four Gates that surround the Village, but only one Gate will be open at any given time. Each time a Gate opens a new puzzle is revealed, so there is always something for characters to do. Gates remain open for one week, ICly, and then close so another Gate can open instead.
Puzzles can be anything. Anything. These are basically the fancy name for the events in the game. They can go from jigsaw puzzles to Zelda-style puzzles to riddles on the walls to things adapted from the Newcomer's own world. The Labyrinth learns from the people it brings in, and it has access to all their memories and their experiences, and it will use those to craft the puzzles. Each puzzle offers a reward after being solved, which might go from a bag of gold, to unlocking a special ability that had been repressed, to finding a very personal item that had been taken. The magic of the Labyrinth resets the puzzle for each Newcomer, unless they are meant to be completed as a group. In that case, Newcomers will be unable to cross the Gate unless they form a group large enough to solve the puzzle ahead.
OOCly, each new Gate will be announced in
labyrinthooc , explaining the objectives and requirements of each puzzle. Puzzles are not mandatory and characters are not punished if they skip participation. However, players must bear in mind that their characters will not unlock their powers/recover their items, unless they do participate in puzzles. Whether a character solves the puzzle or not will be initially left to the players' discretion. However, if this is abused, then the Mod will start tossing a coin and assigning wins/loses randomly instead. Missions.
Every Newcomer can expect to find some gold inside their Bag, to get them started. However - with Mod approval - players can engage in simple missions around the Village to obtain goods without spending their gold. Missions go from delivering goods to performing tasks around the shops. The Villagers are a strange lot, however, so the Mission does not necessarily have to do with the item the character wants to acquire. Missions can be handwaved or logged; the Mod approval is mostly just to keep IC consequences to IC actions in check, but players are encouraged to come up with the details of their missions on their own. Players should bear in mind that the Spirit protects the Villagers from harm, should Newcomers be dissatisfied with the outcome of a Mission, and that the Villagers themselves routinely demand bizarre things. The Potion Shops Missions are a special category that will only be open by player request and are the only missions the Mod will outline on their own. Missions are meant as a good way to foster CR and allow characters to explore the setting and basically enjoy shenanigans. They are not meant to last longer than a day, ICly.
Spirit's Quests.
So, the Gate's open, the puzzle's right there... and your character is stuck. Well, the good news is that there is something akin to a Strategy Guide for the Labyrinth. The bad news is that it is the Spirit. Yes, the smug, taunting, mercurial, moody Spirit that the Villagers revere like a God and who bore witness to the Mark of every single Newcomer. You know, that guy. And he knows how to solve those pesky puzzles.
The good news is that the Spirit is willing to share hints about the Labyrinth and its puzzles, along with performing various Services, like retrieving a lost Rock or Blank Book. The bad news is that he requires a price for it. If your character really, really wants a hint, the Spirit will give them a quest to perform, which will usually cost them a day or so to fulfill. These quests always, always revolve around another character, often ones that the requesting character does not have CR with. They can be anything, too, but this is the Spirit and they will often be embarrassing. Kisses, hugs, dates, declarations of love are just as likely as fights, stealing from the other character or attempting to find out something specific about them. The Spirit is often very bored, and few things in the world are as terrifying as an essentially omniscient, omnipotent being that's bored.
Money.
If your character completes puzzles in the Labyrinth or does missions around the Village, they will sometimes be awarded with the currency of the world: gold. Gold is gold, forged into coins about the size of a silver dollar with the Spirit's Mark engraved in them. Each coin is roughly the equivalent of a US dollar, and they are used to buy essentially everything around the Village, from food to items to services. Gold will allow characters to buy extras around the Village and decorate their quarters with anything they want. Most puzzles offer a gold reward of some kind, regardless of any other reward like lifting the power limiter or obtaining a personal belonging. Needless to say, while basic needs are covered at the Manor - food and boarding - a steady supply of gold will make a character's life that much easier.
Supplies.
We have established that the Village stands at the center of the Labyrinth, and that Villagers will die if they step out of it. How then, may your characters ask, can the Village keep supplied with food and goods necessary to support the Manor and all the shops around? The short answer: it's magic. The long answer: the Labyrinth's magic provides for the Villagers through the Spirit. Characters are welcome to figure out the holes in the system, but no matter what they do, Villagers will always be provided for. Even if their storages are set on fire or their animals killed, by the next day, things will have been restored. Again, though, trying to mess up with the Villagers will result in the Spirit messing up with the characters, often cursing them with temporary ailments.
Fighting and Death.
While the Spirit will prevent any Newcomer from harming a Villager, there is no such restriction between Newcomers themselves. That means your backstabbing, evil villain can do all the backstabbing his evil heart desires. Newcomers can and will get hurt during the puzzles, but they can also be hurt in the Village, by other Newcomers. And as all superhuman powers are suppressed by their Marks, characters can die if injured enough. After death, a character's body remains in place for half a day before it disappears when no one's looking; while it's present, the corpse is liable to be manhandled and stuff taken from it, like clothes, money or even their Rock or Bag. As soon as the body disappears, however, the character will wake up as if from a nightmare, back at the Spirit's Temple, with all their stuff (if it wasn't taken) and vague memories of a dark, cold place where someone or something studied them for what seemed forever before allowing them to wake up again. However, there are consequences for killing another Newcomer, though nowhere near as swift or potentially brutal as there are for trying to kill a Villager. One of three things will happen to the Newcomer who killed another: Their Mark will reset to its original state, sealing away any powers they might have unlocked, for twenty-four hours. They will lose an important item they have recovered from the Labyrinth, only to find it again in their quarters two days later. They will loose all their accumulated gold for a week, before mysteriously finding it in a heap inside their quarters.