[JUNE] Test Drive

[rubycitymods]

Thinking of apping a character but not sure they'll fit in the city walls?

Have no fear, a meme for you is here.

Directions:

• Use an RNG to choose a location and prompt, or wait for someone else to tag.


• Post with your character with their name and canon on top!


• If you'd like, leave contact info for people to get in contact for plotting and other such shenans.


• Tag around! Make friends. Don't be afraid to chat OOC while tagging.

Locations

1.TRAIN STATION - The place where everyone gets dumped off at. Your first view of Ruby City, complete with informational posters telling you all about where you've ended up.
2. THE BEACH - Lovely year-round, though in the winter months, you're probably not likely to dip your toes in.
3. THE BLACK STALLION - A rather quaint bar. Supposedly, the burgers are great, but you don't see anyone immediately who's willing to serve you. Maybe you're meant to get it yourself.
4. THE OBELISK - The tall monolith in the center of the city marks the gathering place of many events, though right now it seems to be cold and dark.
5. THE CLOCKTOWER - Offering an impressive view of the city, several residents come here to clear their heads, if they don't mind braving the narrow staircase.
6. THE COFFEE JOINT - the front windows are warm and welcoming, and it seems there's always someone friendly enough to fix you a cup when you wander through.
7. THE CATACOMBS - Intrepid, aren't you? Those weird holes may beg exploring, but go too deep and you're going to be in a lot of trouble, considering the viciousness of the creatures held within.
8. THE CITY STREETS - All told, Ruby City is a lovely place, once you get past the fact that several of the buildings look derelict and on the verge of falling down. There's no harm in doing a little sightseeing.
9. THE PARK - You thought it'd be a lovely stroll, but the park is anything but friendly, if those approaching wolf-like creatures are any indication.
10. CHOOSE YOUR OWN - Don't like what we've come up with? Feel like picking your own place? There's a whole host of lovely locations to choose from in the City.


Scenarios


1. NEW ARRIVAL - Step off that train, walk down the street. People usually latch on to newcomers to try and help them out. Even if you look shy, the other residents probably won't be!
2. WATCH TALK - Feeling lost? Disoriented? Don't worry, everyone feels that way on their first day. Fortunately - if the signs at the station are to believed - the watch in your pocket can be used to talk to whoever else might be here.
3. BAD WEATHER - Aw, man. Whether it's snow, or rain, or just plain cold, today was definitely the wrong day to get dumped off in a City in the middle of nowhere.
4. A RUN-IN - Maybe you weren't watching. Maybe they weren't. Either way, you just bumped into someone. Perhaps apologies are in order?
5. HELP, IT HURTS - Clumsy, aren't you? Perhaps wherever the train brought you from wasn't so friendly, or you just tripped and twisted your ankle. Either way, you're in a bit of pain. Hopefully someone will notice your booboos and help patch you up.
6. HUNGRY - It isn't very obvious sometimes that restaurants are what they are, especially in a place like Ruby City. Where can a person go to get a bite to eat around here?
7. MISTAKEN IDENTITY - Hey, there's someone you know! --Or maybe not.
8. BEING FOLLOWED - Maybe you're just being paranoid, or maybe you've got a reason to be afraid. Whatever it is, it feels like there's eyes on you...
9. EVENTS - Feel free to look through our event tag!
10. CHOOSE YOUR OWN - Don't like any of these ideas? Feel free to come up with your own!

[June] State of the City

[rubycitymods]

STATE OF THE CITY
June 2016

GENERAL OOC INFO:

Good June to you all. We are still pushing on with our shakeup and we hope that you are finding it beneficial to have fewer bits floating around (in exactly the same way that bricks don’t) without any real meaning attached to them. We know that we are, and it makes it much easier to put together more detailed-oriented events without having to take so many things into account. The mod team hopes that you will take each event in your stride and get the most that you can out of them - we enjoy watching you have fun with them!

Please note that we are always open to suggestions on how we can make this game better for you. Comments here are screened, so there need not be any concerns about raising something that another player may not agree with and we will address anything that you feel needs to be brought up. There is also a plot submissions page with a new addition to make it easier for everyone to submit the kinds of events that they would like to see.

Since the general CR meme was not seeing much use, we have elected not to post it this month. However, we encourage you to use this post for all of your general and event-related plotting. We hope that this will work better, rather than having a redundant post that doesn’t see much action, however, we do encourage you to plot around with your fellow players as much as you can!

Finally, the test drive is up for anyone wishing to make use of it.

GAME INFO:

NPC Profiles

WHAT'S NEW
☆ We have a Plot Submission form to give a solid process to submitting events.
☆ The NPC Profiles have been completely filled out for the first time, giving all sorts of new information!
☆ Additionally, the trackers for monthly deeds (be they virtuous or otherwise) have been added to the NPC Profile page.
☆ There is a page for the Mailbox, where player characters can ‘post’ letters and mementos to their absent loved ones, should they feel the inclination.
☆ Finally, there have been some small revisions to the FAQ/rules to allow for large characters. This restriction was felt to be unnecessary and has been removed.

---

Chassie’s powerful and disruptive, if well-meant stunt has left all of the NPCs in a state of self-warring confusion, though to varying extents with each. Some appear to be handling it quite well, but it can certainly be said that none of them are happy. Since the only feedback on the effects of what she did have come from Chassie herself, the full implications may not yet have been fully realised.

What it has certainly meant, as will become clear while the mechanic develops, is that the day to day actions of the people living in the city will have a very real and cumulative effect on the world around them. The NPC Profiles page now displays a running total for the respective ‘influence’ of the vices and virtues that the NPCs represent over the game environment. How this manifests is something that we will have to look forward to, since there’s no real way to know until the evidence of our resident’s true natures starts to come in.

This section of the SotC will henceforth be used to track changes to the city month by month, with a separate post (to be created) logging previous months.

EVENT LIST FOR THE MONTH:
June 04 - June 13 Pleasantville

What would it be like to live in a peaceful, pleasant place, free of any kind of trouble? What would it be like to live with no raised voices, rows of picket fences and neatly manicured front lawns? It could be lovely, but nothing good ever lasts forever in Ruby City, and it can so quickly turn into your worst nightmare.

On the morning of June 4th, the sun is crisp and bright and.. oddly muted. Colours seem drained, almost to black and white, but along with the drain in colour comes a drain in memory, too. You are a citizen of the pleasant, friendly Ruby City, where absolute peace appears to have been achieved in utterly cutting off any connection to the outside world and relying on being self-sufficient. No one questions it, because why would they? As long as anyone can remember, they have lived in this splendid isolation and everything has gone along just fine.

Except, of course, for the fact that it's all a complete lie.

At the start of the event the player characters will find themselves living in harmony with double the number of amicable, passive NPC characters. They will believe that they have lived in this way their entire lives, and those who think differently are shunned and pitied for their 'differences of opinion' (and banned from PTA and Neighbourhood Watch meetings). Families can be set up from canon relations (or not, should you choose), and a firm weight of pacification discourages even the slightest raising of voices. Combative natures are seen as odd, and something to be kept to yourself.

But no one questions it. Why would they? Until they do.

The cracks are small, but there. A smile just on the edge of sinister - uncomfortable in a way that makes you dwell on it - from the friendly old man behind the counter at the general store. The flash of an unnatural shadow in next door's soccer mom's eyes as she catches yours on the way out to practice. Another member of the PTA says something in a meeting and everyone smiles and nods, but only you seem to realise that they just said something about 'taking care of' a rogue team member in a way that didn't sound like discipline. Then, there are the memories. The dreams of another kind of life. Other friends, maybe a different family (or no family), that seem so sharp in their otherness to make you question how real your current reality is.

People disappear. A friend here, a neighbour there, and you start to feel unsettled. Conversations were only ever shallow, but when houses are empty and everyone around you acts as if they were never occupied, it only raises more questions.

Then, things begin to change. Strong outbursts of emotion - any kind - prompt the flooding back of full colour into the affected person and their immediate area. These spots will show their original Ruby City shades, along with any damage or repairs that had been previously covered up by the thin veneer of the event. Memories return with more clarity, leaving a mixture of the old and new with no certainty over which is real.

NPCs react to this kind of change like sharks to a drop of blood in the water, quickly turning on anyone they perceive as different. At first, they can be talked down, persuaded back into their own homes because it's just temporary, she's just under the weather and there's nothing odd going on here at all. The outbursts don't stop, and neither do the reversions of the player characters into their usual selves. No one would blame them for turning on their neighbours, but by this point, their neighbours are clearly not their neighbours anymore. They have turned into strange creatures, their twisted shapes most visible when seen from the corner of your eye, and they will attack with anything they can get their hands on... or just with their hands.

The last few days of the event are a complete counterpoint to the first. Far from the idyllic and 'perfect' scenarios, the player characters find themselves on the wrong side of a witch hunt. NPCs generated in this now patchwork city, along with any player characters who for any reason have not reverted, will not rest until the have rooted out every individual who has become different to them. It would be in the player characters best interests to fight against this onslaught as their memories and powers return to them, or risk problems extending beyond the conclusion of the event...

Reactions of the player characters will matter!

TL;DR
- the scenario is a calm, serene town where conflict is not actively avoided but simply doesn't seem to happen (or so the story goes), but not all is as placid as it seems
- 'neighbour NPCs' are friendly, but will not be able to carry a conversation much past pleasantries
- at first all seems well, but the cracks appear quickly and manifest in memories 'leaking' back to the player characters and strong displays of emotion drawing the 'real' city through the illusion
- NPC reaction is aggressive! They will attempt to attack anyone who they perceive as 'different' or out of place from the imposed scenario
- PROFIT! The aim is survival and self defence, with PC reactions contributing to the event conclusion

NOTE: During this event, your characters may take on any role you wish them to - head of the PTA, local shop owner, anything that you put your mind to. All the better when things start to go.. wrong c:

June 25 - June 27 Spring is in the Air (Everywhere You Look Around)

Now is the time for growing things. Flowers are blooming all over the city - open patches of ground, between cobbles, along the broken down walls… and anywhere that a crack and spot of sunlight might offer a place to root. Outdoors or indoors, nothing short of fire will stop the quick spread and for three days at the end of June the city turns into a veritable garden from top to bottom - a burst of nature that even the imposing black cathedral cannot escape.

The sudden verdant and intrusive growth does little harm, save for some minor structural damage and assault on the allergies of any hayfever sufferer, but several of the flower species are ones that have never been seen before and hold their own peculiar properties for those who might care to examine or experiment with them.

☆ A creeping plant covered in small, blue, star-like flowers centred with yellow causes faint light-headedness when inhaled closely, but brings a dreamless sleep if used in tea.
☆ A large, purple blossom resembling a rose but growing in small bunches attracts bees with its heavy scent, and clears foul odour if burned.
☆ Daisy-like flowers with bright orange petals that stain fingers when picked, their leaves curling against any touch. They clear the head when their delicate scent is inhaled.
☆ An unusual green-hued flower that grows on a vine gives off an odd antiseptic smell and works in much the same way that the smell suggests.
☆ Low shrubs with no flowers but dark red leaves and centimetre-long spikes on every branch do not look particularly inviting, but the sap found when the branches are broken or the bark is stripped gives off a sharp, tangy smell before becoming thick and glue-like when exposed to the air. Pressing two covered fingers together is not advised, as it will be difficult to prise them apart.

These flowers can be cultivated if harvested, but after three days of blooming almost all of them will begin to die off. This will leave some cleanup, but will also reveal the orchard in full fruit and ready to be picked. The flowers and plants will recede quickly but remain on the walls around the city… at least until the cold weather kills them off.

STATE OF THE CITY:

Weekly Weather Report

WEATHER:

The weather moving into June is much the same as the weeks that came before it. Warm, a little on the wrong side of too humid and scattered with the occasional thunderstorm that sends every living thing with any sense scurrying under the nearest cover. There is little warning given before the skies open for these downpours, so anyone who gets caught out in one is likely to get very drenched, very quickly.

Flowers are blooming, of course, spelling misery for any allergy sufferers but offering a wide variety of colours and scents. While many will be entirely unfamiliar, plants from the home worlds of anyone who has ever resided in the city can be found in this blooming period. Some may be harder to find than others, but only according to their usual nature.

ANIMALS AND BESTIARY INFO:

The dryads in the woods will happily give flower crowns to anyone who comes near enough to be beckoned in by their laughter, though don’t be fooled by their friendliness into thinking that they never mean any harm. They will just as happily lead a person into a fairy ring just to see what happens, and if they will get out, but they do still maintain the sentience to feel guilty about such things and might be heard bickering about the possibility between themselves.

Early in the month, a high wailing can be heard out over the plains. Anyone investigating after night falls will find a wraith wandering through the grass and gentle hills, which will not allow anyone to get too close. If pursued, it will lead the way to a trail of will o’ the wisps, coaxing curious individuals into a soupy bog. Only then will it move in close.

Any exploring the forest may come across strange totems made of wood and animal bones, tied up against trees. Observing them does no harm, but moving or destroying them will surely summon a leshen to the scene - a powerful spirit which can summon wildlife to attack and pushes its hands into the ground to cause roots to burst from beneath any target.

STORES AND SUPPLIES:

As a slight reprieve from the bare shelves, a few basic goods are showing up once again. Vegetables, fruit - all fresh of course - and a small selection of dried meats still require the residents to supplement with their own supplies, unless they find the meagre options offered by the stores to be to their liking.

Surely there’s only so many things that you can do with a potato.

MOD CONTACT:

Fiona hardtostarboard || AIM@LittleBritTeacup
Kitten GrimmKitty || AIM@SilverCrusnik
Ingrid togamint || SKYPE@Taekotogami
Duck rowaduck || AIM@rowaduck

Moderator Plurk: rubycitymods

PLAYER ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Suggestions Post

Permanent Links
Phoenix Wright’s Records
Spiral Training School Information

Cola was a DJ once upon a time, and is thinking of ways that he can go about setting up something similar in the city. Though the place lacks the kind of radio equipment that he’s used to working with, the call to go back to what he used to do is strong. If anyone would be interested, or wants to lend a hand, let him know!

Maedhros also offers a new CR opportunity in his current project. Jump in here or on the log itself if you want to get involved.

CLOSING STATEMENT:

A short finisher today, as we have covered more or less everything in the sections above. We hope that you are finding the game more energised than it has been in recent times, and feel that it is somewhere you would like to recommend to people. If you do, then please do it! We would love new players here, or to welcome back old ones, and the mod team is working hard to ensure that everything continues to run as smoothly as possible c:

The activity check will go up as usual on the 5th of the month, but do remember that as long as your post or thread was started before the 5th, you can use the activity period to get it up to the length that you need it to be.

Finally, as App This Plz went up a month earlier than Fi-mod thought it would, we unfortunately missed it this month. However, we have a shiny ad all ready to go and encourage you to put forth your wanted characters in this list.

Until next time!