Carriwitchet's Aphasia

The fine print contains a number of rules which may or may not affect your gaming enjoyment.

1. This game contains mature subject matter.

   It may occasionally contain descriptions of sex (including non-heteronormative styles), violence, gender and soul questioning, and other potentially disturbing material. Please apply to join this game only if you are able to participate in a game that may include such material. Because of the subject matter, the gamemaster must require players to be at least 18 years old, and above the legal minimum age to view such material in their locality. Please apply only if you are old enough to read and play, and mature enough that if you are asked to participate in a plot that makes you uncomfortable for any reason, to be able to say no gracefully, and/or ask the gamemaster for assistance.

2. Posting actions or reactions for others' PCs needs to be kept to a minimum.

   The gamemaster wishes to specify that talking about another PC's actions, lying about them to other characters, or otherwise attributing actions to another character within dialogue is different than insisting upon what another's PC feels or does.

3. The gamemaster may add to or amend the rules as needed during the course of the game.

   The gamemaster will post rule changes as needed to this blog. Please review any changes to the rules and abide by them. In case of any dispute, the decision of the gamemaster is final. Please respect that decision.

There are some stains that are nearly impossible to remove. Once touched by these magics, they have forever changed you. Perhaps there are quests and challenges that can return some amount of innocence to you, but they may rename you, and/or change your identity so that you are born anew.

In this game we call this contagion, and that contagion can pass to others, staining them as well. A dirty secret is like a poison that subtly metastasizes into a cancer of the soul. Knowledge can be a threat to one's sanity as well as a tool.

All magic is subject to entropy. Neglect is the first form of it, allowing a spell to slowly unravel, perhaps even absorb a catalyst that changes it into something completely different. While durable enchantments are possible, their designs need to take strength and form from adaptable sources.

In this game, words are power.

Your word, your oath, your bond, your spoken fear, your whispered love, your curse, your blessing, all of these things pass on Information, which is a form of the first magic, Identification.

Oh, don't get me wrong, symbols (language, letters, pentacles, whatnot) are power, too, but they're passive. They're memories of power, having to be activated: whether that is reading aloud or inscribing or otherwise, they do nothing "on their own."

This may be a reason why magicians are said to do so much with memorization. Certainly, a book of shadows may be a mnemonic aide, designed to bring the meditative mindset to draw the correct phrases, whereas a grimoire may actually give the symbols directly.

Ask yourself: Which would you rather misplace?

A repeated chant may have its own power. Does repeating something increase or dilute its power? Does a name have its own power, or does it rely on what it identifies? (Could you then steal someone's power with their name? Makes those little "HI! MY NAME IS" stickers a little dangerous at wizard conventions.)

What about a soundbite? A paraphrase? A game of telephone? If I describe you as a child-murdering lizard...do you pick up any of those traits?

In this game, choose your words carefully, or be prepared to swallow the results.

related references:
Hawaiian Chants
Tom Tit Tot
The Power of Words

1) Ask questions about things you can't find out from the website or informational messages. Communication allows the GM to not mistake inactivity for disinterest. Abiding by the spirit, rather than the literal letter of rules and events is requested. Being able to express PC and player intent clearly, however, is required.

2) An ability to maintain clear lines between fantasy and reality, as well as IC and OOC knowledge, and a complete adherence to a no harrassment policy. Players and characters are not the same people, and interactions should not suggest otherwise.

Turn Details:

The GM will number turns sequentially each week as they are sent out. Please reply using the same turn number. Turns will be started around 6pm MST (GST -7) on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so moves need to be in before then. Turn titles will also indicate characters and locations involved.

Spoken words should always be kept in quotation marks, and only one person should be speaking in a given paragraph. Telepathic (if applicable) events are noted with dashes (or hyphens; your choice of description), and creatures, locations, and/or events of great power may communicate bordered with _underscores_. Only Death CAN TALK LIKE THIS. The rest of you need to turn off your capslock.

There is a posting limit of TWO times a day per thread. This is not a hard and fast rule, but more of a guideline.

Secondary attempts are limited to one per post. "I try this...if it doesn't work, I'll do this." With that said, there is no minimum length to a post (although "Play Through" is the practical minimum), nor any particular maximum, except to note that events may interrupt a soliloquy. A particularly dramatic moment may be the exception.

Please note that each "turn" consists of one hour of game play, each three month section approximating one day of activity, not presuming 8 hours rest for each character. Your character may of course be able to skip sleep to get some things done, but depending on other circumstances, that will have its own consequences.

Week = 2 GM interactions, indicating two hours.
Month = 8 GM interactions, or eight hours.
3 Months = 24 GM interactions, or one day.

We may choose to reevaluate this as the experiment continues.

The Big Screen:

Many details are intended to be cinematic: when in doubt about whether or not to put in a detail, ask yourself the question, "Would we if this were made into a Hollywood blockbuster?"

Down And Dirty

PC versus PC combat is a possibility, as long as it follows reasonable plot opportunities or experiences, and has no reason to be construed harrassment.

1) The GM will take character action with this priority, and in this order:

1. What a player says a character does.
   
2. What a player says a character says.
   
3. What a player says a character thinks.
   

2) There are no extra character points for contributions, however, every contribution will directly link to an in-game scenario and potential for character advancement. An example: People who send in their own character art may have their character involved in a question and answer session with a more advanced in-game Artist.

3) Playing the board is mandatory. What does this mean, given that this is not a strategy game? It means you control the props: "the board." Props may include NPCs, histories, and locations. If you are in a kitchen, you play the cooks, the knives, and the boiling water, as appropriate. Your influence extends under the "attention" rule; if you give something a lot of attention, you are adding reality to that character and the GM maywill give it more shape in the story.

1) The GM will avoid the design of any "group quests," concentrating instead on developing interactive political and personal environments. The events are created as an arc with sidequests and player-driven plots as a mutually enjoyable detour...and potential destination.

(As everyone who has ever taken a detour or shortcut of any type knows, "No hay atajo sin trabajo." There are no shortcuts to any place worth going, and sometimes it's not the finishing point, but the act of travelling which is important. After all, here there are at least as many paths as there are travellers.)

2) The game is ABOUT the PCs. Every piece of the game is intended to be enjoyable, every puzzle solvable, every victory earned. Every character will have their fifteen minutes of fame, plus. No NPC is untouchable. The more you dare, the more you win. Character death is possible, but it will not be wasted.

1) Things are more interesting when designed in-game, so many questions will be answered with, "All right, let's run through that and find out what happens."

2) A Tuesday-Thursday (and occasional bonus weekend rounds) schedule is most reasonable with the GM's work flow, and with maintaining a standard rate of response. All deviances from the GM's point of view on the schedule will be noted on the day, as well as detailing the length of deviance. The GM's intention is to run the arc of the main plot in 4 parts, each part consisting of approximately three months realtime. Life is not so blessed as to make running a game the GM's sole occupation, and thus, the requirements of life come first. (My sanity (and yours!) is more important than the game.)

2a) The game should not be work. This does not mean it is not art, or serious, or a responsibility; it means it is a HOBBY.

2b) Backstory and other interactions not relating to the timing (regardless to how they relate to events) of the main plot are not included in planned GM response time, and thus do not count for or against it.

3) Players are intelligent, adult human beings, and should be treated that way. This does not mean that the GM, as an adult human being, will not make mistakes. The GM does not intend to run a game in which the GM would not want to be a player, and the GM would like to treat all players according to the Golden Rule.

4) The game master is not a director or novelist: as GM she is a coach and cheerleader.