Misk

 
Now then.
 
The House is going to be a bit of an experiment. There is most definitely a story, but I'm going to try and see if it can be developed at the players' pace, rather than dictated by plot points and sequences I lay out and have the players go through (not that there's anything wrong with that style, of course). Little bits of the story, or rather, the mystery, will be given out in bite-sized chunks depending on what the characters in the story do.
 
 
The Premise: A group of strangers wake up in a large mansion. They have no idea how they got there, where they even are, or how to get out. Try as they might, they can never seem to escape the house. The front door never budges an inch, the windows unbreakable, and the walls solid as steel. Though there is little cause for alarm, as there is more than enough food to last them a substantially long time, there is running water, and electricity. Despite this, there are no signs of an owner. And if they got in, there must be some way out, right?
 
 
Stuff About Things: I will say upfront, after concerns made in response to the original idea being posted, that this is not really "horror." There are no dangers present within the house. There are no monsters, no ghosts, no grotesque mutants or whatever that want your head. If there is any horror at all, it is only of an existential sort if even present, outside of any horror you as the players bring into it yourselves.
 
 
I will not have any characters of my own in this. My job will solely be to be the house itself and to dispense clues in the various forms they may take. That is, I describe the rooms, the house itself, and various little things that can be found in things such as books, cabinets, etc. etc. All character interaction is between you.
 
 
The House is not all that it seems. The fact that it's unbreakable is only just the tip of the iceberg. At certain points, things in the house or even the house itself may change. And, with permission obtained through PM, I may also do something small to a character (such as change their memory), though in the end all strange effects will be reversed to normal. I may also let certain "events" happen, though still nothing life threatening (i.e., the power goes out) and with simple fixes. All of these events though will contain some sort of clue to what the house is and what everyone is doing there.
 
 
I am considering making a basic map (geometry-only unless someone wants to volunteer their art skills to an experimental RP for some reason) of the house as well for player convenience.
 
 
Before we go on to the rules, I would like to say that any questions or suggestions you have before we start should be said now.
 
 
The Rules
1. The House cannot be broken out of. There is only one way out of the house, and you have to find it. Attempts to will not be penalized but they will also not be successful.
 
2. I decided on open character enrollment. In the end it doesn't really matter if it's an original character or not. Be whoever you want.
2 1/2: Though if you're using an original character and care about character continuity, I would highly suggest making this non-canon to any ongoing development. You may not be in danger, but that does not mean this won't still produce severe continuity snarls if that's something you worry about.
 
3. For right now, multiple characters are allowed, up to 2 or 3. Maybe more, we'll see how many people are interested in doing this.
 
4. Do not use divine or semi-divine characters unless you can properly justify them being unable to break out of the house.
 
5. Character death is on and allowed. But. as stated earlier, there is nothing in the house that wants to kill you. That I control, anyway. You can all kill each other if you really want to.
 
6. Characters that have no relation to each other are preferred but not required. In fact having a handful that know each other might be better than having everyone be a complete stranger, but so long as everyone doesn't know everyone.
 
Again, questions, comments, suggestions, please say them. Otherwise post those profiles.
 
No deadline yet, we'll just see how this goes for a while. Watch this space, I'll put a sign-up deadline once I think it's appropriate.

The question: How do you do exposition without an audience surrogate?

Details/Situation/Context: I'm working on a writing project and I've run into a little problem. It's not really Sonic related, but rather something original, though it can apply to anything, including fanfics. I have a fantasy world I'd like to introduce, but there's a problem. I prefer to write in first person as I feel it better shows what a character is thinking or feeling at any given time. This isn't a problem by itself, but neither of my main points of views can function as the audience surrogate, (read: the character who knows as little as the audience and asks questions the audience wants to know) as both of them haved lived in this world their entire lives so they don't exactly have a reason to have things explained to them.

 

How do you relay critical setting information to the audience without someone who can ask questions?

So a recent shoutbox conversation had me thinking. Has it ever been said by the production staff of either SatAM or AoSTH why two shows about the same character were being produced at the same time?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but SatAM and AoSTH both aired in 1993, didn't they? Is there a reason DIC funded two separate shows that went in wildly different directions?

Big News. The recent financial bill contained a very dirty line that essentially gave the CIA, NSA, and so on the authority to collect and retain any data they want without judicial authorization. This got passed because nobody in Congress wants to actually examine this stuff this close to the holidays


To summarize, Section 309 of the bill allows federal agencies to "the acquisition, retention, and dissemination of covered communications subject to the limitation in subparagraph (B ," where "covered communications" is defined as "any nonpublic telephone or electronic communication acquired without the consent of a person who is a party to the communication, including communications in electronic storage."  (And for those curious, sub-paragraph B only has one limitation: a 5 year limitation on how long they can hold the information. And then it goes on to list seven entire exceptions, with the seventh basically saying "if the heads of the agencies want to.")


Full text here.


Even if you're not American, this will inevitably affect you.


If you're in the States, our only shot is to bring this to the President's attention. Sign this petition to start: https://petitions.wh...r-2015/lln5hN5c If it hits 100K white house has to look at it. The President is the only one with the power to overturn this through a veto. Though granted, given his track record, I don't exactly have high hopes. Still, we need to bombard the white house with emails and calls and make it known that this is absolutely unacceptable.


And by all accounts, spread the word.