Strange Trip Out of Character Community

The scene: The Silver Bar with the seating area replaced with rows of two-person tables. Each has two seats across from each other. There is free-flowing alcohol, as well as non-alcoholic drinks for those who choose not to imbibe.

How it works: Sit down at a table and wait for people to come to you. Or sit down in the empty seat at someone else's table. This is bisexual speed dating, so you might get approached by someone of either gender. No strings attached! Also, you're wearing a name tag with your name and some interesting fact about yourself.

Important note: Tagging in characters with a top level comment means they're sitting at a table waiting for others to join them. Tagging someone else's top level means that character just sat down at someone's table.

Feel free to assume they're here by choice, for a lark, or are being coerced somehow. Use just dialogue, or description, or whatever! Remember when you first tag to include the text on their name tag with their name and some interesting fact: "Hello my name is ___ and ____"

As always, just for fun, no in-game consequences. Present, past, future pups all welcome!

Second verse not quite the same as the first.

The inn isn't just going to let April Fools' Day pass by unobserved when it could throw some crack at us.

And here's your chance to sign up for the fun and find out what power(s) your character ends up with.

What: Powers Swap!
When: April 1-3, from the time they wake up April Fools’ Day, until they go to sleep three days later.
Who: This plot is opt-in. Everyone at the inn should quickly figure out there are shenanigans afoot, but you're only as involved as you want to be.
How: Participating powered and/or non-human characters "lose" their powers for the duration of the plot. Non-powered humans (or those who have lost abilities) gain a power set, from a pool of offered powers, assigned by random number generator.

FAQ

* Can I lose my powers without gaining others? Yes! [Vex spends three days as a baseline human.]

* Can I offer my powers for the pool without losing them? Yes! [Caroline’s vampirism goes in the pool, but Caroline remains a vampire.]

* Do I have to lose my powers in order to gain others? Yes. [Coby can’t keep his wings and pick up Sunny’s magic.]

* What about different species? Species inherent powers can be transferred. Physical traits can not. [Lillith puts her powers in the pool. RNG gives them to Emma. Emma gets darkvision, a resistance to fire, and spells that all tieflings can cast, but she is not and does not look like a tiefling.]

* What does it mean for my non-human character to lose their powers/be baseline? That is kind of up to you. [Lillith could lose her learned magic, but remain a tiefling with tiefling-specific abilities. She could lose her learned magic and her tiefling-specific abilities, but still be a tiefling. She could spend the three days experiencing life as a human without powers. That’s up to Allie.]

* What if I want my powered non-human character to gain a power from the pool? In order to gain a power, your character has to be non-powered, either canonically or by giving up all their powers. [Baseline for Lillith could mean losing only her learned magic, while keeping tiefling-specific abilities. But if she wants to gain a power from the pool, she has to give up both learned magic and tiefling-specific abilities. Whether she is still a tiefling or takes on human appearance along with her new powers is still up to Allie.]

* What powers are transferable? When you fill in our handy dandy sign up form below, and answer Yes to putting your powers in the pool you write what you consider to be the relevant powers for your character that someone could acquire and how they work. Please note: we don't consider race, gender or medical status to be powers.

* The RNG gave me a power that’s problematic for me as a player or for my character (or both). This is meant to be fun. If gaining a certain power is problematic for player or character, it can be rerolled for you. (If you don’t want to do that in the comments here for some reason, ping mere in Slack or by email.)

* I was really excited about the power I was assigned the first time around. Can I keep it? Unfortunately, no. Believe me, the mods and I all feel your pain. Because the pool of available powers will contain only those powers people put into it, the fairest and simplest option is to re-assign all powers from the new pool.

* I have a question you haven't thought about. When in doubt, do what you think honors the spirit of the day. When overwhelmed, ask. There’s a Questions thread below.


This sounds cool, how do I join?
* Comment below using the handy dandy sign up form before March 18th.
* RNG magic will happen Monday, March 18th, (most likely after 10pm EDT unless I am too excited and do it that afternoon), and assignments posted.
* Plan, plot, play.

<b>Character:</b> <b>Player & preferred contact method (in comments, Slack, email, etc.):</b> <b>Powers Pool:</b> No/Yes (if Yes, please write what you consider to be the relevant powers for your character that someone could acquire and how they work) <b>Losing Powers:</b> No/Yes <b>Gain New Powers:</b> No/Yes (if Yes, character must be nonpowered, either canonically or by answering Yes to previous question)

The inn is a small community. It’s likely that your character will have some idea of who to talk to about their new powers, should you be looking for an excuse to make a new connection.

I'm hoping this will be something fun for all the players, if not necessarily the characters involved, that the period of adjustment will give the characters something that isn't the interminable SSDD of life at the inn.

Meme time!

Post your character below, one post per character with their name in the subject line. This is a great opportunity to share a quick (or detailed, you do you) State of the PC, let us all know what's going on with them.

You may additionally post planned or potential muses with their own post.

Once a character is posted:

1) Other characters may ask that character any questions they like. (If you want to ask about SotPC stuff you can, but really anything you or your character wants to know about them is a great question.)
2) The CHARACTER must answer all questions truthfully -- not just the first question, but anything subsequent as well.
3) The PLAYER, however, gets infinite vetoes for anything that makes them uncomfortable or that they're not sure how to answer.

Let's do a "conversation hooks" meme!

Whatsa conversation hook?

A conversation hook is basically exactly what it says on the tin. You know how you use a hook to catch a fish? You can use 'em to catch CR (character relationships), too. The best way to do that is to bait the hook with something interesting or irresistible to another character (like catnip, but we're working a fishing metaphor here).

What makes a good conversation hook?
Aside from being interesting to other characters, a good conversation hook:
* is specific enough to provide a definite direction for conversation
* can't be said of lots of characters (ie, it's not necessarily unique to your character, but it's not so common as to be dull)
* has enough breadth or depth to sustain more than a tag or two
* is important enough to your character that they want (or really, really don't want!) to talk about it
* is something that you can easily work into a conversation, EP, or log start
* is something that you want to thread about
In other words, a good conversation hook, while not necessarily a soul-deep truth, is significant, meaningful, interesting, or important to both you and your character.

How do I meme it?

So glad you asked! For each character or potential character you're currently considering, tag in separately.
1. Copy the text below into your comment.

a. Name something you like (preferably something potentially available):<br> b. Name something you don't like (preferably something you might encounter):<br> c. Name something obvious in talking to/seeing you:<br> d. Name something not-at-all obvious in talking to/seeing you:<br> e. What's something you want fellow residents to know about you?<br> f. What's something you don't want fellow residents to know about you (but that your player wants to reveal)?<br> g. What's something you fear?<br> h. What's something you miss? <br> i. What's the most important promise you've ever made?<br> j. Name something your player really wants to do with you.<br> k. Name one character you don't know much about who you might be interested in getting to know.<br> i. What kind of connections are you interested in making? What types of people are you most likely to make those connections with? j. Answer any other question(s) we didn't ask that you think might be interesting!



2. Answer at least 4 questions and as many as all of them. (Feel free to delete the ones you don't answer, but don't remove the html code at the end of any line you keep.)

3. READ other people's answers.

4. Tag them with suggestions for conversations/threads/events/plots you could do together. If they agree, be prepared to follow up. If they don't seem interested, it isn't personal. (Tip: do try to be specific enough about why they might be interested in the conversation and with whom so that they aren't left wanting to answer but feeling dumb about asking what you meant.)

5. If you see something in other people's tags that makes you curious to see them log together, tell them both about it!

6. If the characters want to chat, let 'em. But don't have the whole conversation in a meme thread. If a few tags seem promising, try making a game thread! (That's not to say characters can't chat as much as you want. Just don't make the hooks boring to you before you use them.)

Because you will inevitably skim and miss things:

* yes, potential characters are allowed
* no, please don't put all of your characters in one comment
* no, you don't have to answer all the questions, but answer at least 4.
* no, you don't have to tag everyone, but you should aim to tag at least 2-3 for each character you tag in
* yes, you can tag characters with suggestions that don't include your characters
* the meme is open until people stop answering it.

Have fun!