“Bah! Is this thing working?! Sayo! How do I work the new-fangled device these kids made up this year!”
“Let me tell you, they didn’t have these landline phones when I was growing up! I remember when my grandson tried to convince me to get one of them portable expensive bricks that will get purloined the second I take my eyes off it! Did I ever tell you about my grandson? He’s a fine boy, eyes a bit too big for his head, but he tries his best. Now my daughter, well, don’t tell her I said this, but she’s got a head way too big for her eyes. Son-in-law is a real dolt. She left him with the kids for one day to come down and do some work for me, and what does she come back to? Kitchen a mess, and get this: half-cooked rice, still in the cooker! He can’t even cook rice! Now she got so worried about the kids that I had to hire a second secretary in case my main guy calls off sick again, or decides to ‘take that vacation to the Bahamas and never come back to this damned place’. That’s why I hired you, Sayo! Now, let’s get this property introduction thing over with…”
Hey, You! Yeah, You! Have you ever wanted to risk your mental sanity and physical well-being working for a corporation subsidized by the government? You haven’t? Well, you should’ve thought of that before you signed that twelve (12) month contract, now shouldn’t’ve you?
Now, we’re here to do… a few things, really. But mostly research. You’re going to go in there, you’re gonna see these… anomalies. And you’re going to catalogue them. What they look like, what makes them tick, what they do.
Foreword
This is a Roleplay game, heavily based around characters (that means, not mechanics.) If you join, you are going to want to have a character that you deem both interesting and fufilling to play as. This is something you are going to want to keep in mind, but not let discourage you: use it as motivation to try your hardest! Now then:
Legally Required Disclaimer!!
Follow the Global Rules, including, but not limited to: Being respectful of other users, not discussing real world politics, and not abusing loopholes. Respect other players’ personal pronouns, gender identity, and other additional non-outrageous personal requests. If you don’t know what other players want to be referred to by, ask the player. If you have social anxiety and cannot ask the player, see what other players refer to the player as, and parrot it. You do not get to assume or decide what other players get to be called. Do not provide “quotes” of anything done in a private pm. Referencing host communication is allowed. If any rules get continually broken with no signs of improvement, there may be consequences. Don’t give the host or other players a hard time (please). If you feel a player is not following the code of conduct, please contact myself or a moderator. If you feel I am not following the Global Rules, please contact a moderator.
Introductions
Hello, and welcome to your orientation! Here at Lurenberg housing, we’re here to happily announce that you are the proud new owner of a lease agreement of a house and the land surrounding! Although we know the area is expensive, we’re sure you’ll be able to manage! We just have a few things to walk you through before we can officially give you the keys! We wouldn’t want to rush pell-mell into something as important as property, now would we?
Rules
- Pay. Your. Rent. On. Time. Utilities are included within.
- Do not significantly alter the property without strict approval from the A.Y.H. This includes painting the property a different color than gray.
- NO PETS. IMMEDIATE EXPULSION FROM PROPERTY UPON DISCOVERY OF PETS.
- It is your responsibility to manage both the front and the back of the house.
- Guests are allowed. If a guest stays on the property for longer than seventy-two (72) hours a week, they will begin to count as a resident of the building for rent purposes.
- Please only call us in exceptional circumstances. Having a spat with a roommate is not an exceptional circumstance.
Stats
You all have different stats. Congratulations! Let’s go over the fun part first. You have two different stat lines: talking and action. Each point in the talking statline will increase a specific type of talk you’re good at, and each point in the Action statline increases a specific action you’re good at. Talking is generally more useful for accomplishing your tasks efficiently, but action will save you when something goes wrong; you’re rarely going to be able to talk your way out of getting mauled by a teddy bear!
Your other, less “wow” inducing stats is your physical and mental. Your physical starts at three (3), and your mental starts at two (2). These may be temporarily or permanently modified by your stats or events that occur. If either of these reach zero, something very bad will happen. It is recommended to upgrade these stats alongside your stat lines.
Comedy-Professionalism-Mental-Harmonization (fitting in)-Fear Inducement-Feigning-Delightfulness
Physical-Perception-Musicians-Anomalous Affinity (empathy)-Composure
General Gameplay Overview
There are two different segments to the game, which involve remarkably little violence. One segment is the house, and the other is working. As your characters are human beings (unfortunately) you will need to physically sustain their body physically and mentally, and the way to that lies in both those phases.
The “Stabilization” phase takes place in The House and the nearby area (essentially, everywhere the work phase doesn’t usually take place). This is the time for… relaxing. With no.. stressful.. elements. Explore the house! Watch movies! Maybe get in some shopping so no brutal starvation happens. Sit outside, and enjoy the nice breeze of the air! Maybe get in some social interaction so your mental status doesn’t plummet to the floor.
The “Work” phase takes place inside [stupid name], composing of figuring out what makes an anomaly tick, and other miscellaneous work activities. Upon identifying each part of the anomaly, you will be judged and given a grade. The higher the grade, the more money you make from that procedure. You need money to survive during the home phase, as you need to purchase items to keep yourself healthy and pay rent.
Worldbuilding and Extra Information
Year: 2032, Spring.
Temperature: Averaging 75 F°
Location: Somewhere in the United States of America
Belief in the anomalous in the general public: Low
Your characters are intended to have very little opportunities or… you get the idea. They’re not living in a very expensive housing unit with several other strangers and risking their lives for a dubious corporation because they were focused on the great dental plan. Also you’re under NDA.
Content Warning
Please keep your characters and their backstories non-horrifying.
This experience may contain written depictions for all of the following:
Violence, Weapons, Character Death, Blood, Drugs, Alcohol, Various Absurd/Scary Creatures with many horror-like traits, and more.
This is a PG-13 forum, and such, for the average person, this will not be scary enough to be considered horror.
You may post in the main thread, but there will be private messages provided the majority of the time containing room descriptions, as to allow you all to have varying conversations at once.
I will provide you all room descriptions once you all enter a room for the first time. To join a room, please state in the main thread where you are going and then create a private dm thread including myself and everyone who has said in the public chat that they are in the room, and copy and paste the room description for that specific room (or ask them to invite you to their thread, but this may only work if they’re online). This only applies during the house phase, and exists as a rule so I do not have to constantly hawk over this forum to allow you access to different rooms. Please inform a person what is going on in a room they join in my sted, if you have made any significant changes.
The majority of your time will likely be spent in the Stabilization phase, and I will open up the Work phase at least once a week (real time). For your characters to survive, you should expect to go to at the minimum three work phases each a month (also real time), and very likely 4-5 at least. But don’t expect half the game to take place inside the work phase, as I am expecting it to hopefully be less than 33% of the average person’s time playing.
This is a cooperative game. Your “win condition” is to pay your rent and survive.