Character creation
- Each player starts by choosing an archetype (e.g. “The Changeling”, “The Pedlar”, “The Trickster” - a full list will be provided in the game channel, or you can write your own). Archetypes are how society sees you, and will influence your starting stats, but you can’t be sure in what way exactly. They needn’t define who your character is on the inside.
- Choose a name, nicknames (this is the Feywild, ya don’t wanna be handing out your true name to just anyone), any titles you’d like, and pronouns.
- You can then publicly introduce your character with 3 initial rumours about them (these should read like “2 truths & a lie” statements). The rumours don’t necessarily have to be negative, can be any combination true/false/ambiguous, and you needn’t tell anyone (even the hostess) whether they are true.
- You are, if you wish, most welcome to confide in me a more detailed backstory or motivations, either in the character creation stage or as it occurs to you at any time throughout the game.
- You may also wish to plan (publicly or privately) if you have any preexisting relationships with other characters, be they your friends, family, beloveds, rivals or nemeses.
Reputation
- Each character has a reputation counter from 1 to 5 (1 being a bad reputation, 5 good).
- Reputations are always public knowledge, and can change throughout the festival based on the rumours circulating about you.
- Those with a higher reputation wield greater influence over their fellows. You may invoke this to make a demand of someone your reputation score is greater than. They must either comply with your demand or forfeit a point of reputation. The greater the difference in your reputation scores, the more outrageous a demand will be considered acceptable.
- Those with a lower reputation can better hide themselves from public scrutiny. If you’re writing to someone your reputation score is lower than, you may invoke this to choose that your letter remains secret (see Letter Writing rules below).
Letter writing phase (48 hours)
- You may send up to 2 letters to other players each letter phase. Letters can be a short note, heartfelt written paragraphs, or, if you’re feeling creative, perhaps an image or a poem or song. Try to keep each letter to 1 discord message’s worth of content.
- To send a letter, post it in the letters channel and ping the recipient.
- To send a secret letter (see rules on Lower Reputations above), ping me with it in your ST thread and I’ll pass it on to whoever you’d like it sent to.
- You can send your letters immediately or wait to reply to any you receive. If you’re out of letters for the round, you can also reply in conversation, but your words will carry more mechanical weight in a letter.
- Please keep all in-character conversations public during this phase.
Festivities phase (72 hours)
- There are many ways to spend your time at the midsummer festival! In addition to the things mentioned below, use this time to pull pranks, bestow favours, make deals, steal pronouns, auction children, and challenge that haughty popinjay to a duel!
- You may have unlimited unannounced private conversations with other characters during this phase.
- I will run one or two Jackbox-style minigames. Participation is optional, but the winner will earn a favour!
- You can also use this time to hunt for hidden scrolls. These are letters written by the hostess and/or kibitz if there is one, containing new and revelatory material to base rumours off of. There will be at least 2 hidden scrolls, and who they are about will be randomly determined. Details of how you can search for them will be explained later (I’m gonna attempt to set some bot stuff up).
Festivities phase (72 hours)
- There are many ways to spend your time at the midsummer festival! In addition to the things mentioned below, use this time to pull pranks, bestow favours, make deals, steal pronouns, auction children, and challenge that haughty popinjay to a duel!
- You may have unlimited unannounced private conversations with other characters during this phase.
- I will run one or two Jackbox-style minigames. Participation is optional, but the winner will earn a favour!
- You can also use this time to hunt for hidden scrolls. These are letters written by the hostess and/or kibitz if there is one, containing new and revelatory material to base rumours off of. There will be at least 2 hidden scrolls, and who they are about will be randomly determined. Details of how you can search for them will be explained later (I’m gonna attempt to set some bot stuff up).
Rumours phase (24 hours)
- Each player can do 1 of the following actions – please ping me with your choice.
- Start a rumour: Your new rumour can again be true/false/ambiguous, but this time it can be about any character (including yourself).
- Spend a favour to dispel a rumour: Perhaps it was a vicious falsehood invented by a rival, perhaps it’s true but your intentions were noble in a way that the court has not yet given you the chance to prove. You can dispel 1 rumour about yourself or someone else. The favour spent is removed from the game, and the relevant reputation benefits from the good publicity accordingly.
- Spend a favour to develop a rumour into a SCANDAL: NOT ONLY does Bird have wings and a beak, it ALSO HAS EYEBROWS!!! Perhaps you’ve uncovered the REAL story that started the rumour, perhaps you’re taking a little poetic licence. Either way, a scandalous reputation is one on its way down. Again, this can be done on a rumour about yourself or another, and the spent favour is removed.
- Please keep all conversations public for this phase.
- If you discovered a hidden scroll during the previous phase, you also must reveal its contents now.
- At the end of the rumours phase, you will learn how your reputations have fared over the course of the round.
these are th eimportant ones