cordibus: (Hearto)
cordibus ([personal profile] cordibus) wrote2017-04-16 12:37 am
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Frequently Asked Questions

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There are (what we think) are questions you may have about the game. If you have more, feel free to reply below with one!

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GENERALAPPLICATION GAME WORLD

General Questions
What is this game?
Recursion is about characters awakening to new powers while finding out the life they've been living is a lie, regaining their memories of their homeworlds, and fighting back during the night to find the answers to their many questions.

I know nothing about the Persona video games. Will I still enjoy this game?
You don't need canon knowledge since Recursion is a self-contained story. It's inspired by Persona 3, 4 & 5 and are a few reoccurring themes from the Persona universe (such as the Velvet Room and the Shopping Channel), but newcomers will be able to understand what is going on. Persona usage has also been modified from the games to be very simple and easy to play, with strong emphasis on group participation.

What does being Awakened or The Awakening mean?
Before characters regain their lost memories, they are more or less a clog in the city's system. However, once they remember their old memories, they become an Awakened. The process of regaining those memories is called The Awakening. Most Awakenings are very hard for the characters both physically and mentally.

What canon(s) can I apply from?
We accept canon characters and canon AUs (such as Cloud from Kingdom Hearts and so on). You may also apply an OC, a CRAU (with up to 1 previous game's history), or a Fandom OC (although these will also be judged on a case-by-case basis). Player-created main characters, such as the protagonists of Mass Effect or Dragon Age games, will be judged case to case basis.

What are the Activity Check Requirements?
There are two ways to make AC! One is an open network post, log, or top level plus 7 comments. The other is 10 total comments. You can use multiple threads for AC!

Additionally, there is a bonus system used to modify personas and gain new group skills and weapon upgrades. While these may be based on post count, this is not always the case. Typical bonuses examples are request to tag new players, starting threads with a specific prompt, or doing a log that is detailed in the Velvet Room Requests. These are changed slightly every AC month.

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Application Questions
What can my character bring with them?
Due to the game's premise, your character has nothing from their old world - no powers, no weapons, no clothing. As far as they know, they've been living in Eddan their entire lives. While it may be possible to regain certain items and powers down the line, essentially all characters start off the same with one Persona, one weapon and one gun.

Can I apply for a character that is dead in canon?
Yes! That will make for a very interesting Awakening.

I play a robot/pony/non humanoid. Will they keep their original form?
Not all the time. During the day, they will keep the human forms that they were given in this world, but after Awakening, they will revert to their original forms at night. Any character above eight feet will also be reduced to that height.

As a note: other Awakened characters can also catch glimpses of the character's real form during the day. The best way to explain it is that it works a lot like the anime Wolf's Rain, where humans see the wolves as humans only, but the wolves see each other as wolves. It can sometimes lead to comical situations. (How is that pony driving that car?? Don't let the pigeon drive the bus!)

My character can already summon a Persona. Do they have to start over like everyone else?
Yes. Summoning from the heart is different from other Persona summoning methods. Since their other Personas are 'locked up' in their mind, they will not be able to access them.

Can I apply as resident of the Velvet Room?
Yes. However, they will be unable to use their powers just like the other Persona canon characters.

Can I create my Persona by myself?
As part of your application, you will be asked to list your choice for your character's Persona's branch type, styles, and passives along with your chosen Heart Demon. Once this is approved by the mods and you're given your spells, you're ready for the next step.

Players are free to design what their character's Persona looks like when summoned.

What can a Demonic Persona look like?
Anything your heart desires. The demons can look humanoid or be based off objects and general descriptions are included on the Demons page for you to use (or not use) as inspiration. The maximum height of a persona is three times the character's height (but it can be tiny as well, if you like). Here is a list of various examples from Persona 4 to give you ideas.

Players can draw on their character's canon for inspiration for Persona design. A Pokemon trainer might have a Pokemon-like demonic persona, for example, or characters who had alternate selves in their canons might see traits of that form in their demonic Persona. Just keep in mind that it can't look exactly like something from canon..

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Game World
What is the city like? How come my characters never noticed anything wrong?
How come will be something characters will learn as the game progresses. However, for the most part, the city's populace acts normal and the city itself looks like any other city in the world. Citizens go to work, attend school, obey the traffic laws, browse the internet and post terrible memes... It is only when a character is Awakened that they notice that a few things are off - for example while there is an airport, no one ever seems to leave; the world news tends to be repetitive and almost...bland; and all the buses bound for locations outside the city seem to be indefinitely delayed. There is also an imposed curfew after nightfall due to some ongoing murders the news never seems to give much detail about...

Additionally, while their non-Awakened family are not their 'true' family, they will still feel like family. They may worry about them, warn them to be careful, and check up on them from time to time. Players are freely allowed to play and NPC their other family members once accepted, or even make plans with new players to form families.

Of course, this answer will change as the game progresses. The seeds of rebellion may need to be sowed in places beyond this city...

Can my character leave the city?
Currently, no. Again, planes and buses out of the city always seem to be delayed and vehicles attempting to leave will either break down near the city's bridges or accidents will happen, blocking traffic. Don't ask 'normal' citizens about it either, since they won't realize it seems weird. After all, there are plenty of people coming in.

Can my character create a stink about the situation or go to the media regarding the anomalies?
For the most part, they'll just get treated like a crazy person. It might draw unwanted attention and ire and paint a target on their back. Remember, it's a rebellion, but it's meant to be a stealthy, nightly one. Trying to force out the truth by shocking it into those who aren't Awakened can be extremely dangerous and highly lethal to normal citizens.

Where does my character stay and live?
They continue to stay with their families lead the same life they had in the city before being Awakened. Exchange students can live in student dorms. There's no specific area for players to live in. As long as it seems reasonable, we will let you do as you want. Planning at night for the rebellion tends to be done in closed homes and the main school, Green Valley.

Why plan at the school?
In part, as a callback to the Persona series. Story-wise, the school harbors many of its own secrets and areas to discover. Since there are 10,000 students from all grades aged between 4-30, a few more there won't draw that much attention. It is also where the two Telephone Viruses, Luci and Lily, lead the Awakened after their first full night.

Who are Luci and Lily?
They claim to be Viruses working with the Velvet Room. While themselves not residents, they have their own purposes to fulfill and are ready to help the Awakened in any way they can. Just don't expect them to explain everything. They enjoy riddles and making characters think for themselves.

What happens if I drop?
There are two options when a character is dropped. The most common is that a character's heart wasn't able to take on the task of rebellion for long and they revert to their 'sleeping' state just like they were before being Awakened.

Characters who are dropped that had relationships to other characters in the game (say they believed they were father and son before being Awakened) would typically lose that connection and the remaining Awakened characters would not be able to reawaken them and reestablish the same relationship. In simple terms, a dropped character would lose their old life and start a new one somewhere else in the city. There is some small comfort that they are out there, still alive. However, lately thiat has changed and the dropped characters can stay close with their family, they simply won't remember their time as 'Awakened'.

Which brings us to the second option: death. It is possible for a character to become a victim of the murders or fall to the Shadows in battle. However, an outright death should be planned with any close CR since it may be highly traumatic for whatever characters are left behind in the aftermath. If we find out that the character's death drop wasn't brought to the attention of close castmates or close city AU castmates or if we get a private complaint that they weren't contacted, the death will instead be treated as a normal drop. Note that their death does not mean that the character cannot be apped for again, however they will need to be a different version of that character and will not have the previous memories of being Awakened.




megabond: (Thinking)

[personal profile] megabond 2017-05-21 02:36 pm (UTC)(link)
This is not only a reminder regarding my PMs I sent (since I'm guessing they might be lost in your inbox) but also some app-related questions so I can start revising my app by adding some negative personality traits for the app round next month.

1. First off, does an extension of a character trait shown in their canon (like that flirting scene) counts as headcanon?

2. Would it be possible to use last month's TDM for my app on the June app round or do I need a new one? I really wanted to make a new one since I feel my muse for this game may be a little stale.

3. Would it possible to put a Positive or Negative section separately or just go the positives first, negatives last format on the personality section?
eremitical: (Default)

[personal profile] eremitical 2017-05-22 05:01 am (UTC)(link)
Just a quick question regarding appable canons - how do you feel about relatively new canons or scarcely translated canons? i.e. Persona 5 has only been out in English for ~2ish months so that could be awkward, and there's a few manga canons that have only a few chapters available in English.
anovelidea: (Default)

[personal profile] anovelidea 2017-05-23 02:06 am (UTC)(link)
Questions for bad life choices

1) I know above there was a question re: supernatural ailments being cured on Awakening, but what about mundane ones that the AU iteration would also suffer from? Example in question is complications of a heart transplant. Nothing blatantly fatal unless you're stupid, but just the usual no stress + immunosuppressant party bus that comes with it.

2) For characters with 'supernatural blindness' (examples: Daredevil of the same series, Toph Beifong from Avatar), would that ability carry over only at night? Daytime would obviously be normal scrub blindness.

3) Again running with the similar thing of "is obviously a mundane non-powered thing during the daytime", this time for languages. the OC I'm apping is fluent in a 'language' that uses things like senses and memories as part of its phonetic makeup, because realities with lovecraftian horrors like to do that. Hearing it tends to cause minor headaches, on par with listening to five people arguing really loudly in Italian for ten minutes, but only if you're trying to fight it off. Obvs in the daytime it'd be like listening to a spoken keysmash, but would it still function at night Y/N. If yes, can it be taught to others (post-Awakened, only nightfall, show your work in trying to learn it, etc).
hachitaro: (Default)

[personal profile] hachitaro 2017-05-23 04:57 am (UTC)(link)
Will apps for OCs use a different form, or should the world/history info just be put under the general history section in the app?
onethousandflowers: (Profile smirk)

[personal profile] onethousandflowers 2017-05-23 06:28 am (UTC)(link)
Ok, so! MESSY, MESSY CANON HERE. SPOILERS FOR AN OLD SERIES BELOW.

Byakuran's main canon power is simple, except not. He's basically omniscient. He can peer between worlds, linking his memories and knowledge from parallel universes that have split off through basic multiverse theory. So if he was in game, when he awakened, would he regain all that knowledge, or just one life's worth? Or would it be a gradual thing?
kokuyoyo: (And the cops are back.)

[personal profile] kokuyoyo 2017-05-24 07:26 pm (UTC)(link)
So I know that the app blocks people from talking about their current lives in Eddan. (For example, "Ciro Bonavita" can't tell people where he attends school.)

However, does the app also block people from talking about their previous lives outside of the questionnaires? For example, Ciro talking about "Chikusa Kakimoto" breaking out of prison.
probablynoteren: (why does he look 12 here)

[personal profile] probablynoteren 2017-05-24 11:24 pm (UTC)(link)
Question about the weather system, is there a way to check the state of the weather for past weeks? If so, please feel free to ignore the rest of the question, I might have just missed the function on the site at some point.

Basically the problem that's come up is that the weather only displays Monday-Sunday of the current week. However, if events are going up on weekends, then it'd be great to see the weather for the past week as a lot of backtagging would be going on in the subsequent week! And so forth. Thanks in advance!
kouteipenguin: (Default)

[personal profile] kouteipenguin 2017-05-25 07:49 pm (UTC)(link)
1. What is the range on telepathy / the HUD?
2. What awareness do you get of abilities off the bat? I'm assuming that element are a learning curve.
beastfang: (22)

[personal profile] beastfang 2017-05-28 07:23 am (UTC)(link)
Since information is now freely shared by everyone now.

Does Green Valley have any sort of student directory for phone numbers, or a local network/email system they could give out to avoid posting everything where everyone can see on applenet?

Or do we just default to a knock off social media site for IC contact reasons if they don't already know one another's phone numbers to text each other?
singlefaith: (pretty please?)

[personal profile] singlefaith 2017-06-03 02:29 am (UTC)(link)
I'm afraid I killed James with questions and have been encouraged to come over here. XD;

A couple of these may be because I've never played Persona at all and just know what very (very) little I've gotten through rp osmosis. Sorry in advance if I'm hitting something I should probably know; I'm just trying to put all the details together and make sure I understand everything!

1. On the demons, are we picking one based on just the physical characteristics, or should we be looking at one that somehow fits personality or trait-wise, too?
2. Do Personas have any will or personality of their own? (James said they do in some games, but I was wondering about here.) I know they come from the personalities of their owners, but do they just kind of stand there silently waiting for orders, or do they move around and interact?
3. The characters will be able to cast spells, correct? If so, what is the benefit of having the physical Persona?
megacurious: (Sad)

[personal profile] megacurious 2017-06-04 12:11 am (UTC)(link)
Um, regarding writing samples, do I have to be limited to test drive prompts only?
sociallyarcward: (Default)

[personal profile] sociallyarcward 2017-06-05 04:25 am (UTC)(link)
So this only recently became relevant, and due to my ignorance of persona I wasn't sure.

Jaune's type is Physical/Light. When I was given the code one of his spells was listed as "Eiha (Inflicts a small amount of Dark damage on one enemy.)" I'm just curious if that's correct since...why would a light spell cause Dark damage?
bulletbiter: (Default)

[personal profile] bulletbiter 2017-06-12 05:27 am (UTC)(link)
If characters receive injuries in the daytime such as a small scratch, will they be able to heal themselves at night with Dia or something similar?
transient_specter: (Default)

[personal profile] transient_specter 2017-06-14 05:11 am (UTC)(link)
Just to clarify - can they summon their Persona during the day or not?
heiring: (Default)

[personal profile] heiring 2017-06-14 05:14 am (UTC)(link)
For characters who are nonhumans, will they be able to retain basic biological functions of their bodies during nighttime? E.g. centaur running like a horse, mermaid swimming, people with wings flying?
transient_specter: (Default)

[personal profile] transient_specter 2017-06-15 03:31 am (UTC)(link)
What is the age of majority in Eddan? Aka what are the ages for driving a car/drinking/entering into a contract that's not set up by the Velvet Room?
megacurious: (Thinking)

[personal profile] megacurious 2017-06-16 04:58 am (UTC)(link)
Okay, I've saw a log from a new player already and this makes me wonder:

Can new players post in the log comm already before the IC intro is released?
kokuyoyo: (Tell him next time I'm going to be)

[personal profile] kokuyoyo 2017-06-18 01:39 am (UTC)(link)
Do the "no bueno" headaches still happen for Awakened if they're talking to other Awakened about the app/weird Persona shit?

also there's something weird with the titles of the posts in both the mod journal and log comm where you can't see them unless you hover over them
touketsu: (𝗔𝘁𝘀𝘂𝘆𝗮: drift ice)

Shenanigans

[personal profile] touketsu 2017-06-19 01:29 am (UTC)(link)
If characters were to attempt a sort of "guess who/cards against humanity/information scavenger hunt" across AppleNET and the city of Eddan, would the app allow it?

For example...

One person posts half a clue about themselves on AppleNET:
"My favorite activity is..."

And then other users will have to physically hunt around Eddan for a clue that could match that one:
"...detective work and solving mysteries!"

The rule being that no names or symbols can be attached to the real world clues, and the only way to confirm might be to post collected sentences on AppleNET and compare them with others to eventually whittle down which sentence belongs to which user.
forsteri: (Default)

[personal profile] forsteri 2017-06-22 06:01 pm (UTC)(link)
regarding drops since it's relevant to me now:

1: "scattering" is mentioned in the FAQ as
"Characters who are dropped that had relationships to other characters in the game (say they believed they were father and son before being Awakened) would lose that connection and the remaining Awakened characters would not be able to reawaken them and reestablish the same relationship. In simple terms, a dropped character would lose their old life and start a new one somewhere else in the city. There is some small comfort that they are out there, still alive."
so my question here is, does yoshio just not have an older brother now, or was "mako" replaced by someone else? and is he aware of that, or does it just seem like his older brother has gone back to being ignorant of the app, etc? the way Awakened can't recognize castmates until the castmate is also Awakened, i feel like it'd make sense if it seemed like they forgot.

2: if it just seems like yoshio's elder sibling has "forgotten": if a character has mentioned a dropped character in text, is the text retconned? like if i were to have someone else fill in the "elder sibling" slot, would the text change to read as their name? or is there evidence that that person was once someone else, by staying the same?
seasonsofdeath: (Default)

[personal profile] seasonsofdeath 2017-06-23 01:10 am (UTC)(link)
What's the policy on talking about Persona/powers/etc when the blocks on identifying information are on? (Also I've been running with Pharos calling them Persona because... he knows what they are, but for the sake of others have they been officially named yet?)
touketsu: (Default)

[personal profile] touketsu 2017-06-23 03:40 am (UTC)(link)
Sort of piggybacking off my other question, but if users were to try and fool the app by using code for locations, would it be permitted or blocked either by redacting the info or causing headaches?

(For example, using something like Verdant Lowland instead of Green Valley, or Fruitful Stone to refer to the school's nickname of Appled Jewel.)

Also, if it's allowed and characters successfully meet up in person, am I correct in saying that headaches would prevent them from speaking about the app together?
kokuyoyo: (I don't even know how to be here.)

[personal profile] kokuyoyo 2017-06-23 03:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Would the information blockers on the app get in the way of an Awakened character telling a not-yet-awakened character telling them what happens at the end of the countdown?

("You have to tear out your own heart while being attacked by shadowy monsters, and that makes a DIFFERENT monster pop out who helps you fight and also now you know magic and get sweet new clothes.")

On one hand: lots of information
On the other hand: So out there that newbie characters to the app might just go "whatever, weirdo"
touketsu: (𝗦𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗼𝘂: hypothermic)

[personal profile] touketsu 2017-06-23 11:05 pm (UTC)(link)
One more question! (I am so sorry...)

Regarding AppleNET, I saw it mentioned in the FAQ that posts could be bookmarked within the app, but I didn't see it stated anywhere (if it was, I apologize for missing it!) whether or not Unawakened users could skim back through the posts that were made to the app by Awakened users.

Is that something they can do, or would those older posts not appear to them right now?
hachitaro: (Default)

[personal profile] hachitaro 2017-06-26 03:46 am (UTC)(link)
Can people who have relatives outside the city talk to them? Like, could Taro call his parents who live outside of Eddan?

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