UPDATES + POWER CLARIFICATION + REQUEST FOR A PRISONER VOLUNTEER

[abraxasmods]

GAME UPDATES

FAQ & Page Updates

We've updated the FAQ to reflect some new information about canon powers (read more on that below) and add some general lore.

There are a couple new pages: Game History and NPCs. Note that the Game History page includes plot-relevant information about the world's history that has been revealed as well as a month-by-month guide to what has happened in game so far. Any questions relating to these pages should still be kept on the FAQ for ease of organization.

We are working on a page about the Horizon and how to utilize it after this event, as well as an update to our Magic page to streamline both learning Abraxas magic and teaching canon-specific magic to others.

A Note on Powers

This is something that we ought to have tackled during application processing, but with the high volume of interest in the game and the work we were already tackling it ended up slipping through the cracks and for that we do apologize. We've come up with a few policies on powers that have been added to the FAQ. These are as follows:

All characters must be killable. They can be very, very hard to kill, but even if your character is fully immortal and invincible in canon they must be able to be killed here.

Mod and player discretion is always important. Just because a power is allowed doesn't mean it will always work against every character or NPC. Respect player permissions, and respect the fact that while we want to be as open and flexible as possible there will be situations in which, for the sake of the plot, your character will be limited in how effective their powers are. Please contact the mods if you want to have your character attempt to gain sensitive information or otherwise significantly impact the game (for example, if they want to burn down every forest in Thorne). If we need to step in to a situation where a player is breaking the game, powergaming, ignoring permissions, or otherwise ruining plots or events for other players we may need to put hard restrictions in place for the characters involved.

Some powers have cautions:

Teleportation or Flight when combined with being able to survive in space: Your character can go to space and hang out there if they want, but there will be no plot for them there by default. You can investigate the cosmos as part of a quest and there may be some space-related plot in the future, but simply traveling there will just mean your character is currently away from all the action. As seen below, please contact the mods if you wish to teleport or fly to a very important/undiscovered location as well. We will usually allow it but prefer it is done as part of a quest or player plot, both to space out major information reveals for our players and to give us some time to write any needed setting details.

Reality-bending is allowed as long as it does not extend to time travel, reviving dead characters, or inter-dimensional travel. We're going with the honor system on these powers and are trusting our players to be reasonable (see the note above about permissions and contacting the mods before doing major damage).

Some powers will have full or partial restrictions:

Necromancy: As death is supposed to be rare and, in most situations, permanent, characters with necromancy powers cannot fully revive dead player characters or sapient NPCs. Fully reviving animals or plants is still fine, as is the sort of necromancy that creates zombies/ghouls/corpses/skeletons/etc. but does not fully restore a person to their former alive state, even if the revived creations have some free will. There is a form of full necromancy native to Abraxas that your character can pursue, but this is both a difficult ability to obtain and cannot be performed often.

Time Travel: Time travel of any sort is generally not allowed.

Inter-dimensional Travel: Characters cannot teleport to, create doorways/portals to, or otherwise travel to other worlds and dimensions (such as their home world or another character's home world). Travel to the Horizon is allowed for all characters and some characters may eventually unlock the ability to travel to Faerie or other alternate planes. Characters who can teleport or create portals to other locations on Abraxas may keep those abilities (but there may still be restrictions on certain important locations, please contact the mods if you intend on doing something major with this ability like teleporting into an important NPC's room).

We may add more to this list depending on the powers our future characters come in with, and in future app rounds we will address power concerns immediately upon processing the application. Which, again, is something we had planned on doing this round but slipped through the cracks amidst the general game-opening duties, so we do apologize if your character is affected. If your character has restricted abilities but hasn't used them, the assumption will be that they just never regained those particular abilities. If your character has already used one of these restricted abilities, please contact us and we will work something out with you. If you have questions about a power that may fall under this umbrella, please contact us as well.

The TDM

Our next TDM is going up tomorrow! Existing players are allowed to app a second. For new players, we currently only have four open slots, but Activity Check will be processed before apps open so we will have a better idea of how many slots are available then.

Looking for a Volunteer

Now, onto our volunteer. We are looking for one volunteer from among the remaining prisoners to play out a two-part NPC thread with us! As a content warning, the first part of this thread will involve some body horror (affecting one of the NPCs, not the volunteer) and some heavy but not permanent pain/trauma (affecting the volunteer).

The chosen character will be ICly whisked away on August 5th and will return on August 13th. That also means that they will not get to meet the next group of newbies until the 13th, so keep that in mind! There will also be a reward and a first interaction with a new NPC. Please sign up below if you're interested.

Sign-ups will be open until July 23rd at 11:59 PM ET and we will choose a volunteer on the 24th. Please be available to play an NPC thread the week of the 25th if you sign up!