faq

[shardmods]

okay, so what is this?
Welcome to Shardbond! This is a short-term roleplaying game based around adventure, exploration, fighting, forming emotional bonds with your fellow shardbearers, and also maybe saving the world while you're at it.

The game is based off of... well, that's a secret! You'll find out. This game is run by Redd, with a vast amount of work having been done by the late Dal. This game is being run for our friends, in loving memory of Dal and all the fun experiences we've all had with her.

The game is set to run for eight weeks, with a check-in, write-up AC due every week. The pace is expected to be fast, with weekly events scheduled for Saturday, posted at noon EST. (Noon EST is flexible; should it work better for the players to have events run later, that can be arranged.)

sounds great! how do i play?
Shardbond is a comm-based game, meaning that logs will go up in the main community for everyone to interact with one another in. There will be one mod-posted log per week to cover daily threading and activities, and there will be a mod-run event every Saturday.

Otherwise, players are permitted and encouraged to put up their own logs for special events that happen ICly! You do not need mod permission to put a log up; player-run logs can be things like meetings and general gatherings, scheduled practice with your powers, and even larger player-run events like battles if you choose to organize them! Sky's the limit, guys.

how many characters can i play? is there a character cap?
You can only apply for and play one character in the game. There is no upper character limit - everyone who received an invite may join! I'll run with as few as 15 players; furthermore, there's a hard limit of two characters per canon, four characters per franchise!

who can i app?
Almost all canons are acceptable, as long as they're verifiably a work of fiction! All characters being applied for must have a demonstrable level of personality in the canon they originated from, possess human-level intelligence and sentience, be at least fifteen years of age, and be able to communicate in some way. Furthermore, there is a size limit imposed – while characters do not have to be expressly human-sized, we ask that they be approximately human-sized enough that they can navigate the game on their own and without assistance. This includes potential utilization of technology, as well as utilization of basic things like doors. Characters that are much taller than human-sized will be shrunken down to around 7 feet maximum.

Please note that we do not accept the following: online personas (i.e., Nostalgia Critic), CRAUs and game transplants, characters based demonstrably on religious figures, and most customizable protagonists (i.e., Undertale, Final Fantasy XIV).

In the specific case of customizable protagonists, we will allow a case to be made for the character in question, but we reserve the right to ultimately decide whether the character will be accepted to the game or to ask you to pick another character if necessary. The character should have a demonstrated personality that a player will stick to.

OCs are allowed, but we will not be accepting any fandom OCs. OCs will not follow the franchise cap. OCs from the same world will follow the canon cap - two per shared world.

what if my character is dead in canon?
Unfortunately, all characters need to be taken from a point where they are alive. Moments before death is fine, but post-death is not!

my character has something weird going on with their physiology...
This game does have total power loss, meaning that all powers and abilities your characters possess will have been removed entirely. If there's something else that's truly bizarre going on with their bodies that makes them difficult to work with in-game, talk to us about it and we'll see if we can work with you and/or come to an acceptable compromise; if not, the mods reserve the right to ask you to app another character.

my character doesn't want to go!
Due to the nature of this game, all characters must be willing to come. ICly this is phrased as "would you be willing to fight for the safety of another world", so if they would be willing to do that, they're good to go! They will not be offered compensation in the form of a wish/money/any physical items/any non-physical items/etc. They will be doing this out of the goodness of their hearts and to help another world... or perhaps out of fear that the threat may spread to their own world. Characters do not remember this, but for the sake of transparency, this is something your character must agree to. The suitability section on the app will address this.

can my character agree to help for nefarious reasons?
This one can be a bit tricky to work out, but if you have a character that would be willing to come help save another world for the chance to learn how to travel between worlds (for example), then this would be perfectly fine. I love villains and would like to welcome them, though this game's setting is strongly oriented towards teamwork and friendship. Please keep this in mind when apping a character.

so how do i app?
Apps will only be accepted after a reserve has been put in and processed! Please submit your app with the same journal you used to put the reserve in; no apps without a prior reserve will be accepted.

when do reserves/apps open?
Reserves and apps both open January 4th at noon EST. Both will close on Saturday, January 11th at 11:59PM EST; the game will officially open on Sunday, January 12th at noon EST.

do you accept proxy reserves?
We do! Please put both reserves in separate comments - when the proxy reserve is accepted, the person will need to respond to the mod comment to confirm their reserve within 24 hours.

what happens if more than two people try to reserve from the same canon?
Reserves are handled on a "first come, first served" basis - the first two people to get their reserves in will get that canon's slots. However, you will not lose your reserve slot if this happens! In the event of multiple reserves for the same canon, those that did not get in within the first two will be tapped by the mod and asked if they would like to change their reserve; the only way you will lose your slot is if you choose to withdraw your reserve at that time.

is the game open to everyone?
The game is open to anyone invited by Redd. I will not be opening the game up to +1s, as I'm solo modding this.

THE WORLD

so where are we?
The exact space you're in seems to be something out of a science fiction novel - you'll awaken to find yourself on some sort of structure that is seemingly out in space, but oddly enough, you don't need a spacesuit or anything to be able to breathe. The building you're in is simply massive - looking up or down to other floors seems to be a pointless endeavor, as they simply go on and on and on and on... most looking all the same in that somewhat-futuristic, but mostly rundown and abandoned style found in so many space horror games. There are lots of gray hallways and ominously dark corners for things to hide in.

how did we end up here?
Good question! You have no recollection of how you ended up here or why, and your memories leading up to your awakening here are very fuzzy. You'll remember your time in canon just fine... mostly. Up until your canon point, anyway, where the fuzz starts to take over. Feel free to play with this as much or as little as you'd like.

You'll find a terminal set up with a remarkably old-fashioned computer; there's text on screen in a bright neon green that simply reads Thank you for agreeing to help. For now, please practice your new abilities and try to work together. I’ll be in contact with you as soon as possible.

what does my character arrive with?
The clothes on their back. That's it. You do not get to bring your weapons, pets, Gundams, or keepsakes from home. If your character would have had something else on them at their canon point (say, a backpack) it can come along with them, as long as it doesn't provide them with any sort of unfair advantage. Unfortunately, pets (or Pokémon) are not going to come with you. Let me know if there's something specific you'd like your character to bring with them and we can work it out, but generally speaking if it can serve as a weapon or if it's too large for a person to carry/have on them, it's not coming with.

can we regain our items?
There is no dedicated item regain mechanic, though there will be a way to retrieve items from home later in the game, should your character decide to do that. This is strictly voluntary and not up to RNG or dictated by the mod.

where is everyone?
Good question. The place seems abandoned... or is it? Actually, you might have just heard something skittering around just out of view... It's not some kind of monster, is it?

what's this about "new abilities"?
Congratulations, upon waking up you'll now find that you possess a shard of a gemstone, embedded on the back of your dominant hand. It will be in one of several colors as given to you on your acceptance to the game. These shards are the source of your new-found (mod granted) power! You'll have an innate knowledge of how to activate your shard to use said power, though your control may not be very good at all without some practice...

And speaking of practice, if two people with a strong enough bond (positive or negative) activate their shards and try to work together... well, something different may happen. What is it? You’ll just have to find out! Please note that it may take some time for this to work - those with strong bonds (positive or negative) may attempt to use their shards together starting week 2.

is that what the monsters are for?
You'd better believe it.

how does combat work?
Combat is mostly going to be run by you guys. You're free to NPC monsters for each other to fight, NPC a monster together and take turns landing hits/etc, or even just handwave your fights. This will change during mod-run events, as those will all be handled by me. Please keep in mind that there are a lot of you and one of me, so responses may be slow/missed/etc.

so how does combat work during mod-run events?
Combat will be run in rounds, each with a new header for all present characters to respond to. Rounds will generally be anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, depending on schedules and pace. Each round a character may take one action, such as using a power. Talking is always a free action! For characters with healing/buffing/debuffing powers, that will count as their one action even if they do no damage. Characters do not need to roll a die to hit; instead we're going with a different system. At the start of each round, I will have the NPC attack a number of characters. During your response, those who were attacked need to roll a 1d20 to block. A 1-10 is a fail (with 1 being a critical failure), meaning your character will take damage. An 11-20 is a success (with 20 being a critical success), meaning your character does not take damage and successfully blocks the attack. Blocking (or failing to block) is your one action for the round, you cannot block and attack. For those that roll a 20, they will be allowed to completely block the damage and fire off an attack in return. These counter-attacks will always hit. For those who were not targeted by the NPC, you are free to use your action on attacking, healing, or using support skills. During the next NPC round, I will roll to block some attacks, same as you guys. Counter-attacks can also be done by enemies!

There will be a dedicated dice rolling channel in the discord for our rolls. After all characters present have taken their actions (or 30 minutes to an hour has passed), the next round will go up, reacting to the previous actions and initiating the next set of enemy actions. Rolling for blocks is required for all mod-run battles.

what about npcs?
You can try to type on the terminal and see if you get a response, but otherwise there will be NPCs around later in the game to interact with. Interacting with all NPCs outside of events is optional and not required to play at all. Events are kind of a different beast here.

so what's the part you're not telling us?
There will be a setting change after the initial week in the game, during the first weekend event. This setting change will reveal much more about the game and will result in edits to this page (edits will be done in red).

This setting change will come with a slight tonal shift as well. While the initial setup of the game is more horror-based and PG-13ish, please expect the setting of the game as a whole to be more PG rated. You are still free to swear as you'd like, but maybe don't try to kill the NPCs every five minutes as that sort of clashes with the tone here.

GAME MECHANICS

how is this game going to be run, timeline-wise?
Shardbond works on a weekly system - every Sunday a weekly log will be posted explaining where you are, what you're doing, and what types of enemies you may be facing for the week. For Sunday through Friday, you are free to thread as you see fit, making use of these details (or not).

On Saturday there will be a weekly event. This type of event will change from week to week, so be prepared for something different each time. You may be tasked with exploring and investigating, fighting mod-controlled enemies, or something else entirely. These events will not take the whole day, leaving you free to thread out the aftermath afterwards.

On Sunday the previous week's write-ups are due. So week 1's write-ups will be due on the first day of week 2. You may submit these at any point during the week.

what's ac like?
AC does not have a comment count or required thread link and is simply a write-up. Write-ups should include notes about your character's bonds - both with their fellow shardbearers and with the NPCs (if applicable). This does not have to be a detailed deep dive on each character (unless you really want to), but should give a general idea of what the bond is like on your character's end.

Write-ups are check-in based - you will not be punished for not developing bonds during the week if you need to take a break. If you fail to submit a write-up, you'll be asked if you’d like to stay in the game, but please do not abuse this system. Again, one of me, many of you, please don't make me chase you down to ask about AC.

what happens if we tank the encounters/accidentally kill the npc/otherwise completely screw up?
Well, we...wouldn't recommend knocking the NPCs off a cliff or anything? But otherwise we're here to see you guys succeed – we're not going to make encounters unwinnable, and the individuals you're having them with are surprisingly good at taking care of themselves. If an encounter ends up completely tanked it will make things much harder for you down the line, but we won't go out of our way to soft-lock you out of a good ending and we'll allow for a learning curve to let people get used to playing the game. If you somehow manage to completely bork the game, or if you bad end it...well, we suppose you tried.

It's also worth noting that some encounters do involve fighting. Please don’t be afraid to fight the NPCs. You can try to talk to them, but fighting is always an option.

there's a possible bad end?
Yep.

what happens if i need to hiatus or drop the game halfway through?
That's okay! We would prefer to not see you go, but we understand that life happens. In the event that you need to drop, just let us know, because we have a way to ICly write you out; if it's just a hiatus and you'll be back, we can work that out as well!

Dropped characters are permitted to app back in at any point during the game and will be written back in ICly. Due to the short length of the game, we will not be recruiting new characters in the middle of the game. Should we lose too many players, endgame may begin earlier than anticipated.

ANYTHING ELSE?

where are your codes from?
Most codes are from tessisamess, with some modifications by yours truly. Anything that is not by them will have credit linked. If something is truly horrific and cannot be read, please let me know so I can edit it! Sorry in advance about the header images on mobile, I did my best.

i have a question that wasn't answered here!
Feel free to leave a comment here, or alternatively PM or PP me! You can find my plurk at pokerap. All mod announcements for this game will be in the discord, which you will receive a link to in your invitation.

NAVIGATION