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Letale Narrator--The Bellum Letale Mod Journal (letalenarrator) wrote in bellumletale,
@ 2009-10-01 10:00:00

premise/rules/faq
Read before applying.

premise

There is an apartment building in New York called 'Bellum Letale.' Most people ignore its auspicious name, though they would be advised to pay more attention to its meaning.

It is a strange building. It seems to be somehow bigger inside than out, with narrow passageways, intimidating doorways, and lovely corners that disappear and reappear at random. There's the pool downstairs that reflects the truth, the painting that shows people where they really came from, the catacombs beneath the building where children lost their lives. And its occupants are just as strange--from all over the world, from all walks of life, all of their lives have nudged them toward this building as if they were always meant to live there.

This is, of course, because they were. Every man, woman and child in the building is a reincarnated fable, the stories told to human children for hundreds, sometimes thousands of years. Once very real, the fables began to fade as science and reason dispelled the probability of their existence. They have all been reborn in human forms, though their essence remains, waiting to be awakened at the right time, in the right place.

Now is the time--Bellum Letale is the place. As their lives connect and weave together, as they follow their petty desires and long-held grudges, they are, all of them, on the brink of disaster. Their Landlord knows their every move, and the building they live in seems to have an agenda of its own. People are tortured, people die, people plot behind each other's backs and sneak around and cheat. They love, they fight, they draw blood. This is not the fairy tale you remember being told.

rules

1. NO GOD-MODDING.

This one should be obvious. Your character might be a super hardcore awesome fable, but if he gets shot in the face, he is still going to die--unless your character has an ability which prevents this of course, and we'll get to that. Don't act for other characters unless you have explicit permission to do so. IC =/= OOC. OOC information is never, ever to be used in IC situations.

To summarize--use your noggin and your common sense. If you're not sure about whether or not something you are doing will be kosher with the mun you're playing with, ask them. It will help you avoid a whole lot of trouble and a possible ban.

2. BE AN ADULT.

Also fairly obvious. If you can't be cordial to your fellow muns, just don't talk to them. Wank and fight-picking will not be tolerated, end of story. Play nicely with others. It's not that hard. On that note...

3. TALK TO THE MODS IF YOU HAVE AN ISSUE.

If you cannot work out an issue with a player in the game, please contact the mods and let them know what is going on so that we can help. Don't take it to RPS. Don't take it to the anon meme. Just talk to us. It doesn't get more simple than that. In this way, we avoid wank while exponentially increasing the fun factor. It's just math. To contact the game mods: letalebellum@gmail.com

4. HAVE GRAMMAR.

Have grammar, will travel. If your grasp on the English language is...shall we say, less than robust? You may want to reconsider applying. RanDOm CaPAtaLIZAtion is a no-no. Chat and l33t speak are also out.

5. NO DUPLICATES.

Which is to say that:
A. Only one version of each fable will be accepted, unless, of course, the fable is dropped and marked as 'adoptable.'
B. No duplicate played bys will be accepted. There is a list of taken PBs, so please check it before applying. If you apply with a taken PB, you will be asked to pick someone else. This is just to avoid the confusion and discord that multiple characters with the same played by tend to create IC. (This does not apply in the off chance of identical twins)

6. WE ARE A MATURE COMMUNITY.

This is not the place to bring your Mary Sue, or to apply to if you cannot handle adult concepts, including swearing, violence, and sex. We are also very slash friendly.

You must be 18 or older to play in this game. No exceptions. If you are found to be under 18, you will be asked to drop. It's nothing personal, and we know there are a lot of awesome role players still in high school, but this is simply not a community for underage players. Period, the end.

7. WE LIKE PLOTS--SO LONG AS YOU GOT PERMISSION TO DO THEM.

Plot ideas are awesome! Enacting plots that will affect everyone in the building without consulting the mods or the other players is not awesome. If you are going to create a blanket plot that will affect everyone in the building, and we will certainly have some, you need to talk to the mods before you initiate them. But we are always welcome to ideas, and there's an excellent chance that if you run it by us, it will get approved.

8. NAUGHTY BUSINESS GOES BEHIND A CUT.

If it involves anything above an R rating, it should be behind a cut. Simple as that.

9. NO ADULT/MINOR SEX IN THE COMMUNITY.

Don't do it. It's just that simple.

FAQ

1. REGARDING THE DEAD--IE, DROPPED AND KILLED OFF CHARACTERS.

So what happens if someone wants to drop a character? It's complex to do in a community like this one. If you want to leave and the character has had any kind of significant interaction with the other characters in the building, they will either be killed off or 'move away.' In game, the essence of the fable that character had will then transfer to someone else, since all fables need to exist somewhere, and the first character loses the special essence that made them a fable. Space time ripples, and while the first incarnation of that character still exists, they are now a normal person. The essence of the fable then belongs to the next incarnation of that character somewhere in the world, and the premade can be applied for by someone new as a new character moving into the building, possibly totally unlike the first version of that character.

If a character is legitimately killed off during the course of play, that character will generally be optioned out as available for a new incarnation. Everyone in the building will keep their memories of the original version of that Fable.

The main difference between the new fable and the old is that the new one will move to the building and start fresh, and therefor have none of the established relationships that the premade did.

2. SO WHAT'S UP WITH THIS 'AWAKENING' STUFF? AND WHAT SORT OF SPECIAL ABILITIES ARE OKAY?

The reincarnated fables in the game do not all know they are fables. In fact, most of them, at the start of play, most likely won't. But as they spend more time in Bellum Letale, particularly as they spend time around fables they have history with, their memories will start slowly coming back to them. They are still the person they have always been, but they also have a separate set of memories from another life. They may embrace this person they were, they may rail against it and deny it--that's all up to you. These memories may come to them in flashbacks, as dreams, as fleeting sensations of deja vu, but they will come back, slowly but surely.

As for abilities--fables are inherently magical creatures, so most fables do have magical abilities of some sort. They have to be tied in to their original fable in some way, but they can sort of run the gamut. Most likely, the more 'awakened' the character is, the more control and power they will have with their ability.

Some examples include animal fables (The Big Bad Wolf, Madam White Snake) developing an ability to shift back to their true shape. Witches may find that magic spells actually do work when they perform them. Sleeping Beauty might have the ability to put anyone to sleep that she chooses. The Snow Queen might create ice with a touch. It really is up to you, as long as you tie it in with the essence of the fable in a reasonable way. And it doesn't necessarily have to be a useful ability--maybe The Frog Prince can turn into a frog, but that's not very handy in combat. It's up to you.

3. SO HOW ARE MY CHARACTERS COMMUNICATING?

Computers are cheaper and more efficient than they've ever been. Even a poor kid like Aladdin can afford one in this day and age. The main community is essentially a massive public forum for the people of the apartments, and is meant to be posted to the same way you'd post to any community in RL.

4. WHAT TYPE OF POST GOES WHERE?

First-person community posts go in

bellumletale. Third-person logs go in

bellumlogs. OOC posts go in

bellumletaleooc. There are more detailed explanations of what posts go where in the profiles of each of those communities. Character driven entries that are not logs, such as descriptions of your character's apartment or entries in their journal, belong in that character's personal journal--and for this reason, you'll want to remember to friend everyone as soon as you are accepted.

5. WHEN CAN I APPLY?

If the application post says 'open' at the top, you can apply.

6. WHAT IS THE CHARACTER LIMIT?

We currently have a character limit of 4.

Currently the application limit is a maximum of 1 application at once. You will be asked to wait a week in between applications, whether your application is accepted or rejected.

7. HOW DO THE PREMADES WORK?

Theme: Bellum Letale is intended to bring together varying literary topoi, folkloric themes and childhood figures from written works into the real modern setting. We don't want any one work to dominate the game.

Consistency: We want people to choose one version of their premade, and so we limit to literary works so that they may be referenced by others, particularly because we have events in which people turn into their characters.

Balance: We limit certain types of characters because we don't want it to become a game dominated by those types. Mythological characters (defined as any entity that people worshipped for favor) would be extremely problematic in a game with Ichabod Crane running around. That's a brand of crack we don't want to distribute. We are considering lifting the Shakespeare ban for a limited number of characters, but we have to be careful because some of the favorites are mythology.

Historical questions: We don't want people to start arguing OOC about what kind of gun Annie Oakley used on the full moon. We don't want someone to do a massive amount of research on Elizabeth I. We don't want copyright issues if we can avoid them. Hence the time limit and the literary rule--if it's written down somewhere, then there is a reference, and if its before a certain time, we'll get a certain distance between our characters and their tales they wouldn't otherwise have.

THEREFORE...

Premade Guidelines (subject to mod discretion and exceptions):

Allowed:
Fairy tales by by the Grimms, Perrault, Hans Christian Anderson, and John Newbery (Mother Goose).
Characters recorded in literary form (i.e. written down in prose or verse) before 1910 A.D.

Disallowed:
Characters who are based in religion and worshiped by a culture at any period in history.
Characters who are recorded in substantial historical record and not based on prominent fictionalizations.
Characters from works that intend to represent the biographical life of a historical personage.

The mods can and will limit certain characters and character types that might otherwise be permissible if we feel the game's theme is shifting. We will also make group decisions on what characters are more historical than fiction.

8. HOW OFTEN DO I HAVE TO BE ACTIVE? AND HOW DO HIATUSES WORK?

You will be expected to post at least once every two weeks (unless you are on hiatus). A post that will qualify you as still being 'active' needs to be at least a paragraph long. No one-sentence posts before you disappear for another two weeks.

We understand that RL trumps RP, and will be somewhat lenient with this rule. However, if two weeks have passed and you've received multiple warnings as to your inactivity, you will be dropped.

If you need to go on hiatus, no worries. Everyone gets busy. Just please email the mods to let us know. It is also courteous to your fellow players to make a hiatus post in the OOC community so people aren't waiting around for you to finish a thread before doing something else.

There will be a check in with you after your hiatus has gone for two weeks without word. If you are unable to become active then, you will have the option of either ending your hiatus or dropping. This is because there simply aren't very many premades, and an inactive person can drag down the entire cast while someone more active may be happy to pick up that character. We are not trying to be mean, just fair to your fellow players in the game.

If you go on an extended leave, you will be permitted to bring your character back to the building as a different premade, providing you alter their application to make the new premade applicable.

9. CAN I MAKE RELATIONSHIPS OUTSIDE OF THOSE IN THE PREMADE?

Absolutely! That's what roleplaying is all about, and they're going to want all the allies they can get. Or enemies. Or lovers. Or whatever.

On the topic of sexual orientation--it would be preferred if you at least tried to stick the relationships marked out in your premade, just because someone picking up the other side of that relationship would likely be dismayed to discover they bought into false advertising. But if no one is picking up the intended love interest of your character, feel free to give them license to shop around. The last thing we want to do is limit your play because no one has picked up a character you need, but keep in mind that finding someone to pick that character up is often as easy as advertising in one of IJ's many rp advert communities.

10. AM I ALLOWED TO HAVE FUN?

No.

RP is serious business.

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