▶ FAQ / INFORMATION

[synfluxmods]

▷ FAQ

code

BASICS / ARRIVAL

What is this game?
As the premise states, Synflux is a mission based game in a post-apocalyptic, cyberpunk setting. The world is a world just like ours, containing Earth and all of it's planet. Think of it as simply an alternate timeline. It is the year 2277. Only 1/3rd of humanity is left on Earth, and the main cause of their extinction is cause by the wrath of various kaiju and monsters.

The name comes from the prefix "syn" which means "together" and "flux" meaning "constantly changing." Together, LILITH has a changing team of characters suitable for giving this version of Earth a last chance at survival.

Synflux is based off of cyberpunk and post apocalyptic series such as Akira, Evangelion, Cyberpunk Edgerunners, Ghost in the Shell, Bladerunner, etc..

Wait.. kaiju and monsters?
You are correct! Various monsters have been appearing from mysterious rifts that have been seen popping up around the entire world. What causes these rifts is unknown (for now) but one thing is certain, they need to be stopped before all of humanity is wiped out. That's where LILITH comes in.

What is LILITH? What does it stand for?
LILITH is an organization that works closely with the government specifically to fight these monsters and rebuild the population. They are not the government, but an emergency safety team. They're desperate for suitable soldiers at the moment, so that's where you all come in... LILITH isn't an acronym for anything, but LILITH is said to be the first woman on Earth according to holy books. LILITH is working on rebuilding Earth, so they all thought the name was suitable.

How did my character arrive here? What happens to them back home? What will my character have on their person?
LILITH has one of the highest technology left and they are using it to materialize characters from their worlds and bring them here. A few buttons in their ADMIN ONLY control room, and voila! A fresh new somebody from somewhere will manifest!
Back home, their self will continue to exist and thrive.. but their consciousness here won't have those memories. Characters will be informed of this if asked, and if asked for proof LILITH will disclose their futures back in their home world.

As for what they have on their person, nothing but the skin on their backs. No pets/companions, weapons, anything on their belongings.. they're all gone. Characters will lay in a stasis in a pod until they are fully healed from their surgical process. As of November 24th, 2023, characters will find one personal item in their locker or in their room, where ever it will fit.

Isn't this kidnapping?
Not exactly. Your character's existence still goes on in their world! It's just.. you know.. kind of a partial kidnapping. Characters will be aware of this at some point during their first simulation experience. You could say it is a kidnapping of sorts, but then again we never said LILITH was a saintly organization. They're willing to do shady things to get the job done.

Once a character is materialized, their body here will remain unconscious and be escorted to the medical bay where they will undergo a small surgery to enhance... well.. a lot of stuff about them! As for your super-cool OP / gamebreaking power, well.. some of the those things that got left behind in the process. Sorry about that. It seemed to have either gotten lost in process or reduced to 30% (see: POWERS for more information.)

"Enhance a lot of stuff about them?"
Yep. After all, they gotta blend in here. It will consist of an ocular & brain implant followed by a microchip in one of their wrists which is urgent for survival here. To learn more about this operation, read the TECHNOLOGY page.

My character doesn't give a crap about any of this. They just want to sit in their assigned room and eat snacks.
That's totally valid, however...! There was quite a tampering with characters when they arrived in the medical bay. Not only did they receive some cybertech, but they also have been microchipped! No matter how uncaring or ruthless (or lazy) a character may be, something will make them determined to help out in some way and slowly not care as much for their home. Was this some kind of brainwashing? AI influence? Maybe. Possibly. They don't know and they won't find out. It could be they just want to do this to receive praise from others! Or maybe they didn't care about humanity before, but now they do! However you want to alter your character to care even the slightest bit will be acceptable.

Nope. My character is still mad and wants to go home.
They're allowed to feel this way to an extent, however a large part of suitability is selecting a character who can run with this. Ideally, LILITH will not select those who would continually be non-compliant. For characters that doubt LILITH, they will find that LILITH can show them "proof" of their claims. While in the future, there may be plots related to this, we didn't want this to be a main focal point of the game, or become a deterrent for people participating in events. For any further questions in regards to this, please also view our PLAYER PLOT page.

WORLD / SETTING

Explain more about what kind of world this is.
As mentioned, this is an alternate reality from Earth. Real life locations, people, history... etc.. all of that exists in the world as we know it (which might be different than the world your character is from!)

However, due to a lot of factors that never improved (such as corrupt governments, climate change, and of course.. the monsters that exist in this world) most of the world and its population is destroyed. There are countries that are unsafe to live on and some that are entirely underwater or destroyed. There are certain animals that are completely extinct and children who are being raised in this era may have never seen certain animals that we would take for granted here (such as a penguin.. what's a penguin anyway?)

It's also set way in the future so technology is highly advanced, but it's a bit polarizing considering most of the world is in shambles.

What's society like here?
The crime is pretty bad.. very high in most areas. People are doing anything they can to keep surviving. Law enforcement is scarce around here, though they will definitely interfere if you get caught.. depending on who you are and what you're trying to do. Some people are thrown into a heavily guarded prison without being given a trial, and sometimes crimes will go unpunished entirely. Most of the population's moral direction isn't what it used to be. Justice is definitely skewed.

Drug restrictions and laws have mostly lifted for all kinds, the recognition of different sexes and genders is acknowledged and accepted and rebelling against most governments is highly inappropriate. Those who work hard are rewarded, those who need help are overlooked. Some hospitals will do everything they can to help others; some hospitals only care about being paid and some hospitals have people who technically don't have much experience or practice. Those are the back alley ones that citizens will go to when they're very desperate. You can be under qualified for a job and still get it in some cases, depending on how desperate the company is.

School still exists the same as it always has, but the classroom structure and way of learning is different. Some teachers are human, some are robots or AI. Attending class means sitting in a reclined chair with other students and getting educated via the holoscreen and implants. School trips, haydays, getting outside as a way of learning is a thing of the past.

A stroll around areas dense with shopping will bombard citizens with advertisements, calling them out by their names and flashing pop ups on their holoscreens. It's an annoying hassle to go shopping, but with a proper pop-up blocker, maybe it'll make shopping more peaceful. Most cashier clerks are robots or AI.. in fact, most mundane jobs have been replaced by them.

Fortunately, restaurants exist but sadly aren't flourishing as much as they used to. This world is living on limited resources, but things have slowly been getting better since technology has started to provide artificial food and ingredients.

CYBERTECH / TECHNOLOGY

Everything about the tech is covered over here on it's own hefty page! We do encourage players to worldbuild as much as they want with things such as this, so feel free to give us technology suggestions which can be located on the TECHNOLOGY page as well!

POWERS / SKILLS / ABILITIES

Will my character arrive with their powers?
Most of them, yes! LILITH is targeting people to recruit based on their abilities, so characters who possess powers or have skills that would be useful in this type of setting are the ones they are looking for. If a character is a wizard with spell casting powers, they will have those intact. If a character has the ability of transformation to another creature, they will have that. If a character is a standard human but possesses skills with a useful background (say, a military background) they would also be someone that LILITH would want to recruit. Another example would be a standard human who is well-versed in martial arts or handling weapons.. all of these are suitable for LILITH's recruit.

My character is insane and has an insane amount of powers. They're kind of OP as fuck. Surely LILITH will recruit them with this power, right?
Absolutely. They will definitely try, but for OOC purposes and making this game fair to all, any overpowered characters (example: All Might from My Hero Academia, Superman from DC) will have to fill out a NERFED POWER section in their application. The player will have to explain how this power is nerfed or if it discarded. For IC purposes, we are saying characters lost their ability in transition. If you're unsure about if your character's power needs to be nerfed, you can ask in your application or respond to POWER INQUIRY below and we will talk. The goal is to nerf anything that makes monster killing too easy, anything that alters this world, anything that alters another character, anything that allows a character to cheat death. Here is an example of what we mean:

Immortality: Any character who has an immortal ability will be nerfed of this. Death is permanent here and nobody can cheat death without some assistance from LILITH's medical crew. Characters who have a rapid healing ability or some means to heal themselves will not be nerfed in any way, but if something were to instantly kill them, such as a decapitation or being crushed by a big monster, they will die.

Necromancy: Discarded entirely.

Time / Reality Bending: Characters who can control time in any capacity will be nerfed. This also means freezing other characters in place, changing perception of time and space, etc. This power is discarded entirely.

Hypnosis / Mindcontrol: These sorts of powers will be discarded entirely.

Power Erasure: Taking control of another's power or snuffing it out will be discarded.

One Hit KO's: Such as dismembering or decapitating a character or creature with the blink of an eye, energy attacks that obliterate other objects into pieces / to death, super-strong punch through the chest or head that would kill instantly, etc.

World Altering: Anything that alters a broad mass of land, such as weather changes, earthquakes, tidal waves, etc will be nerfed. A power like this can be reduced to 30%, only effecting a small amount of area.

Blast Attacks / Energy Attacks: Reduced to 30%.

Summoning a familiar/assistant: Will be reduced on case by case basis. Is this summon also a monster? Well, now it's a smaller monster. Is it a super strong summon? It's strength will also be reduced. Is it a Pokemon/Digimon? It probably got left behind.

Psychometry: Discarded entirely.

Types of powers that typically don't need any nerfing: Most powers won't require any nerfing such as: enhanced healing, healing others, flying, x-ray and heat vision, shapeshifting, telekinesis, enhanced strength / speed / endurance (most of the time),reading thoughts / emotions, invisibility, element bending / control, hammerspace, enhanced senses such as keen sense of smell, vision and hearing, night vision, clairvoyance / seeing spirits, breathing underwater / in space, hyperawareness (of other's presence), speaking to and understanding animals, teleportation, creating portals...

If you're unsure where your character's power lies, please reply to the POWER INQUIRY comment below. Comments not placed in the proper category will be ignored.

TEAMS / MISSIONS

What's with the Team mechanic in this game?
Characters will be organized into four different teams depending on their personality + skills they possess. The teams each have a code name and a color. They are as stated below:

EVERLIGHT REVELATION BRIMSTONE REDEMPTION

How characters are organized is a secret kept by LILITH. OOCly, players will fill out the personality traits section of their application and the mods will sort characters where they seem fit.

Can we pick which team we are on? Or switch teams?
Team organizing will be by mod judgment only. In the event of a CANON UPDATE that drastically changes a character, there may be a chance that the character will get resorted depending on their personality and skill changes.

Does this mean we can never interact with other teams?
Absolutely not! Team organizing is mostly for housing purposes and there may be some prompts that are team specific, but most prompts will involve teams interacting or all characters involvement. All teams live on the same base and can easily harass visit one another as well. For more information, check out the housing portion of the MAIN BASE page.

How do missions work?
Missions are debriefed bi-monthly. There will be an announcement of a new monster and its location along with a travel / setting up camp prompt. If the mission involves any signing up requirements, pairing requests, etc, all of that will be on this debrief section. The log after this one will contain prompts for the actual monster fight followed by any aftermath prompts.

How are all of us going to fight one big monster?
Some monsters will be smaller sized and appearing in clusters in which players can NPC their monster fights. There may be bigger monsters that require a more thought out way of defeat. For example, one large one may have a hidden HP and players can comment to receive a hit or miss or some kind of result from their attack which they may implement into their threads. Most of the monsters will appear in clusters, however.

What's the calendar of events like?
You can check out the CALENDAR page for more information, but it goes something like this..

Month One: Applications & Reserves will be open. First log of the month will double as a TDM / Simulation and Team Building log. OOC introduction meme. Later on in that first month, there will be a social media mingle similar to Twitter (or.. I guess X.. which is so fitting.)

Month Two: Applications and Reserves will remain closed. Monster appearance and debriefing will occur along with an OOC plotting meme near the beginning of the month. Right after, a travel / setting up camp log with activities on the designated area will occur. The last log at midway through the month will be the monster fight and disposing of the rift along with aftermath prompts. Rinse and repeat.

Won't this get old?
Absolutely not. There are all sorts of different monsters we have in store for you all. There may also be occasional player plots or times when no monster appears where we will provide other things for characters to do, but for the most part, this is the vision we have for the events.

LOCATIONS / DOWNTIME LIFE

Where is my character located most of the time?
LILITH's base is located in Shinjuku City in Tokyo. Like most countries, Japan has suffered greatly from various monster attacks, but has progressed significantly with rebuilding it's country. Although Japan is lacking many buildings that we all knew and loved, it has definitely rebuilt plenty of shopping malls, entertainment, restaurants, cafes, and more.

Characters are free to roam Japan as they please. They are welcome to get a part time job at any of the mod created locations or any place that players may suggest for a location. Characters under 18 may attend school if they want, but it is optional. When brushing shoulders with civilians, characters will be required to used their alternate identity, civilian clothes and cloaking device (if applicable). Read the TECHNOLOGY page for more info.

To learn more about LILITH's main base, look at the read the MAIN BASE page.

What other locations can my character go to?
As of now (December 2023), characters will reside in Japan. However, in the future, there are a few countries that are safe for characters to teleport to at their leisure via LILITH's dataportal technology. Say you wanna visit Russia, or India, or Singapore.. these are a few countries that have a dataportal to teleport to. More on these specific locations are on the LOCATIONS page.

SMUT

Is smut allowed in this game?
Yes, please. Any kind of smut is allowed in the game under the condition that it is PROPERLY TAGGED AND WARNED. Synflux's communities will remain private to members only, but players are REQUIRED to warn for any kind of adult content. What you do in your threads is your business, but please be mindful of other members who might come across your filth.

Are characters sterilized upon arrival? Is pregnancy an option?
Characters will arrive as they are and should take proper actions to prevent pregnancy and the spread STDs. LILTH's main base will have plenty of things in vending machines for characters to use. Anything you can think of that your character needs or wants, it'll be in a vending machine.

Even if I want to play (insert terrible taboo kink)?
Do what you want. Just mark it and make SURE that all participants are comfortable with it. The mod team will not tolerate players making each other uncomfortable as this is a means of harassment. If anything uncomfortable crops up, you can contact us.

Can my character get sterilized themselves?
There are back alley medical procedures that offer this and your character may undergo sterilizations for a cost which we won't be implementing or monitoring. It's up to you.

GAME MECHANICS

What are the different communities?
sinfucks - The OOC comm, used for posting memes, announcements, TDMs, and general player notices.
synnet - The IC network comm.
synflux - The IC log comm, used for both mod-posted events as well as player logs.
syndata - The character data files comm. All information here is freely available to players OOCly but is not available to characters ICly.

What's the OOC / IC day ratio? Is the calendar the same as real time?
1 : 1 and yes, the seasons and day of the year will go off of the same day via GMT time.

What kind of characters can I submit an application for?
Human, inhuman, robots, AI, fantasy races, folklore/myths, original characters, anything, really. Characters who exceed the height of 304cm / 10 feet will be reduced to 304cm / 10 feet or shorter upon arrival. Characters who have an alternate form that is larger (such as The Hulk) will have no trouble transforming while in their plug suit; it will adjust to their size automatically. Characters who are dead can arrive from their death canon point (they die and then wake up here) and characters who have injuries will arrive with their injuries. It's up to you if they recover in the medical bay after their arrival or if you'd like them to still be injured after their procedure.

More information and specifics on what characters are appable can be seen on the APPLICATIONS page.

Characters who are under 13 are not applicable regardless of suitability. Characters 13 and over are appable, but the closer they are to 13 the stricter we will be on suitability judgement.

Why is this game to strict when it comes to suitability?
We've seen it happen many times before-- an overabundance of unsuitable characters disrupts the vision and overall theme of the game. Synflux will have some slice of life and lighthearted moments, but for the most part, we encourage characters who are suitable for this type of setting to app and have the right to reject characters if we find their suitability is insufficient.

What's death like here?
It's permanent. That being said, if your character ends up dying on a mission, LILITH has ways of reviving them by.. rebuilding them, in some ways. Try to avoid dying at all costs, but if your character does die, you can reach out to us and see what we can do to revive them. LILITH can materialize them again and have them glitch, losing more parts of their body or they can try to work with the remains that are left over. Either way, it will permanently alter your character quite a bit. Characters who have an immortality mechanism of sorts (besides those who have rapid healing abilities) will be nerfed.

How about game pacing? Is there an overarching plot?
The game will be a medium to pseudo-fast game. There are two mod posts per month (TDM / Simulation, X Social Media, Debrief/Travel, Kaiju Fight/Aftermath.) There will be times that the schedule will change a bit or there will be no monster to fight at the time.

There is a somewhat overarching plot that will gradually be revealed as time goes on, but from the start of the game, it is mostly recruiting, missions, team based events. Expect more action packed scenarios then slice of life and expect more gritty and darker themes such as violence, trauma, corruption, gore, drugs, brainwashing, death, end of the world scenarios.

Are there NPCs?
There are! You can view a list of all named NPCs and a short description on the NPC page. They won't be too involved with what goes on here, but there will be times that they are present. Most, if not all of them, will be members of LILITH's administration. Nurses and doctors, clean up crew, chefs, etc, all live on base wihttps://synfluxmods.dreamwidth.org/3109.htmlbsinessth Outsiders. Feel free to NPC any of the lesser staff as you wish.

Can my character own a business?
While Outsiders are encouraged to keep themselves mainly focused on their mission, we are allowing both business suggestions, as well as the potential for character-owned businesses. If you'd like to submit an idea for a business, you are free to do so at any time on the LOCATIONS page. Help us build this world together! In the instance that a player with a player-ran business drops, the business will automatically be taken over by an AI bot.

Since characters are divided into teams, is this a faction game?
This isn't a faction game, per se, but as mentioned, there may be times where specific teams have specifics duties. Sometimes a team's target goal may coincide with another team's goal, but for the most part, teams are not against each other.

Applications? Reserves?
Reserves open on the 1st to 5th of the month; Applications open on the 5th to 10th. Applications & Reserves are bi-monthly. Reserves are not required to submit an application, but are appreciated to help mods gauge interest. Applications will be screened while reserves will not. Reserves will expire three days after applications open. Players cannot change their reserve once it is placed. This is a public game with a player cap and players may app two characters total and only one character per round.

Applications are read on a first-come-first-served basis, and then further judged based on suitability. In the event that more apps are received than slots, the mods will make use of a rolling application system. More information and specifics on the app process can be seen on the APPLICATIONS page.

Proxy reserves are permitted. Proxy reserves are limited to one per applicant for each round.

Players who are seen making a repetitive attempt to reserve and not app risk the result of being banned. This is shitty to do in case someone else who is willing to app keeps losing the opportunity to do so.

That being said, the mod team reserves the right to deny a person a reserve or pre-ban a player.

I have an issue with someone in the game. How is this handled?
It should be sorted out amongst players and we encourage a do not interact between two players who cannot get along. However, if this escalates from there, reach out to the mod team and we'll step in. If there is any harassment that crosses boundaries, also reach out to us.

ACTIVITY CHECK

What is the AC like here?
Activity Check goes by a point system of 20 points per month and anything over 20 points can be banked up for Rewards if you'd like, but that is completely optional. Comments must be from threads started in the month you are submitting AC and Bonuses for. Bonus points can still be submitted even while a player is on hiatus.

Inboxes, and Network comments equal 1 point.
Player Created Logs, TDM / Simulation Logs, Mission Logs equal 2 points.

AC can only be used across three threads in any combination that will give you 20 points. You could simply do one comment in a log with 10 comments and that would be enough, or a log with 5 comments and a network of 10 comments, or a log of 5 comments, a network of 5 comments and a character inbox of 5 comments. Whatever you can come up with for Activity Check.

Activity Check can be submitted at any day for the month you're submitting AC for. AC will close at midnight GMT going into the next month. There will be no official warning or grace period for missed AC. Characters will be swept and can app back in next Application round which is bi-monthly. New characters are still required to submit AC the month they are accepted.

For more information about AC, look at the ACTIVITY CHECK page.

PLEASE DO NOT PM QUESTIONS TO THE MOD ACCOUNT.

PMs are auto-deleted and often lost when the Dreamwidth inbox hits capacity. PMed questions also prevent others from being able to see the answer. If you have a private question, you can drop a comment into our screened mod contact page.

Please do not ask questions involving another player's character, as this often results in miscommunication. We ask that all players come directly to us if they have a question regarding their character.

If you don't see an answer here you need, you can comment on this page and start a NEW THREAD with a question and title of the question in the HEADER COMMENT. This is to make it easier for others to find a certain question. Failure to ask questions correctly will result in us eventually deleting it. If you are referring to another question, please link it in the question you ask.

We ask that you give us enough time to respond before reaching out to us again! If we haven't gotten back to you in 2 weeks, feel free to contact us again. Thank you!

Player Submitted FAQ Recap 1: December 2023

code

Comments

POWER INQUIRY

[synfluxmods]

Does your character have a specific ability you need clarification on before you app? Ask it here.

Any other FAQ questions can be asked in a new header comment.

[onlyforgiveness]

So if a character's powers were actively killing them...

In FFXVI, anyone capable of using magic has to deal with what they call the crystals' curse, where as they use more magic their body starts to slowly petrify, eventually leading to a slow and painful death. LILITH wouldn't want that, right?

[dissimilar]

hello mods, here with a question for powers that hover somewhere between the examples of immortality and rapid healing/regeneration:

i have a character who isn't immortal (he ages and isn't immune to disease as far as we know!) but has such insane regenerative powers that he's unable to die. for example, he can be bisected or stabbed in the heart or splattered like a bug on a windshield and his body will scrape itself together and heal. he also has a monster/alien form that's triggered by high and fast levels of regeneration from those kinds of injuries. it is mentioned in canon that he can run out energy in this form from fighting and die.

to keep him in line with the power structure, would it be okay to assume his regen abilities are nerfed so that there are certain injuries that can kill him, depending on severity? (and also does that mean i would possibly be able to lower the threshold of injuries sustained to get to his monster form easier because i just think it'd be neat to fight kaiju with —)

[likemybooks]

I have a character who's skilled in fantasy robotics/engineering and builds things powered by magic rather than by pure physics and computer code. Would it be possible for him to learn about science-based robotics within the game's timeframe, or is does he have to stick to inventing things powered by his own spells?

Related to that, if he were to try to build a magical droid or make healing potions in the game, what obstacles would he face?

[bladebabysitter]

Not quite like an earlier question, and apologies for the needlessly complicated canon, but: a character who is remote-controlling a robot body from their original body in stasis; the latter is actually closer to human than the former, because the character isn't. How does the special LILITH button manifest her?

(If preference counts for anything, I'd find it incredibly entertaining if that same situation persisted, but more realistically would favor the robot body for the entirely meta reason of icons for the actual body just not existing.)

I also assume, based on plurk conversation, that a giant robot is not an acceptable single item to enter game with. :)

Re: POWER INQUIRY

[mechspeed]

hello mods!! just asking for clarification on some wording in the faq

so it says "taking control of another person's powers" isn't allowed, but given it's under "power erasure" does that mean it's moreso stealing someone's power and robbing the original person of them is disallowed or has copying powers in general got a blanket ban?

metal at his current canon point has the ability to replicate (but not actually steal) other people's powersets in its entirety and what i normally do in games is limit that to "he can only copy 1 power and has room for 3 copied powers and then has to discard one to make room if he tries to take a fourth" but I wasn't sure whether that's something you'd rather I just nix entirely

thanks!!

[blackfire]

hi mods!

i have a weird complicated question that literally may not even matter because it depends 100 percent on whether i'm apping crau or not (i'm tempted! but not decided)

if you're canon familiar i'm so sorry

if you're not here it goes and i am also sorry x2:

itachi here comes from a long line of descended-from-alien-gods folks who have special magical eyeballs. if they upgrade their eyeballs enough (this happens via trauma) they get special sparklepowers known as the mangekyō. this power comes at the cost of degrading eyesight + basically implied to give them a Permanent Illness (canon is Vague about this so some people interpret this differently, I choose to view it as an immune response to the eyeball upgrade that damages the organs over time) the only way to fix this is to get a transplant of someone else's magical sparkly eyes.

for itachi, this never happens in canon. in the game he was in, for the sake of Not Dying or Being Blind, he got his dead bff's eyeballs from one of the NPCs. this did give him an upgraded ability that's in line with the way canon handles these things — something called a 'perfect susano'o' which is basically a giant chakra mech. by default, canon!itachi comes with an imperfect version but he does still have it, so essentially what this transplant gave him was an upgrade but not an entirely new power.

i know the app says 'no new powers gained in crau games' but i'd like to know how to approach this particular bit of anime nonsense.

if possible i'd like to keep the eyeballs (they're of sentimental value) and the 'no longer blind/dying' part of it all. i'm not married to keeping the perfect susano'o but wanted to doublecheck with you guys where the line would be drawn.

(i... yeah. no. this canon is... it's a lot.)

thank you in advance!! ♥

[hollowedground]

Hey there!

Apology if I missed this, but for characters who hail from canons where the world is digital therefore their powers are digital, but the digital world is functionally a world they're connected to more than the "real" world, how is this handled?

ex: if I wanted to app Endrance from .hack could I app him with his avatar form and his in game powers or would I have to app him as his real life form (which likely isn't suitable/he has no powers there and is just a teenage boy).

Re: POWER INQUIRY

[psyker4649]

Hi mods! Some of Akira's psychic abilities involves affecting people's minds in a way that toes the line into mind control: Showing them frightening hallucinations, making them panicked or demoralized, etc. Some descriptions suggest that he's reading the person's memories or fears to use against them (like making them think about how ashamed their mothers would be of them), while other text seems to say he's affecting their emotions directly. (Akira is also a mindreader, healer, and telekinetic, which the faq has covered.)

My suggestion for clearing his powers up would be that he can create visions/hallucinations in combat, and can't directly dictate what emotions they cause in the affected person -- basically, an enemy stubborn or focused enough could power through or ignore it, even if they don't have any psychic/supernatural defenses. But I'd like to know what the official mod opinion is!

[myadsharp]

It's me again--

Powers question this time, I wanted to do some basic clarifications about summons/familiars though I may need to add detail/more questions later on. Firstly, roughly what size reduction would be given to a large dog spirit the size of a room? Secondly, I'm wondering why Pokemon/Digimon are excluded from being able to be familiars/summons, just as a point of reference for that type of 'ability', is it because they're counted as pets/companions?

[thundercrashes]

hi there, quick question! You mentioned Pokemon/Digimon but what are the mods thoughts on Duel Monsters from the Yugioh franchise? I would assume that something like the Duel Spirits that display a personality (example: the Ojamas that this guy here is usually haunted by) would not be able to appear here, but could I potentially keep his ability to see any spirits that might appear here, even if its not the same ones that usually follow him around in his world?

[1797]

hi, i am so sorry if you aren't canon familiar with persona 5 outside of the protagonist having an appable personality, because i have some questions regarding his powers.

1) accessing his powers: so in p5, characters can only summon their personas (a physical manifestation of their soul) when they're in a parallel dimension created by humanity's collective unconscious. the characters get there by phone app (lmao) and i'm planning to nerf this by just not giving ren his phone, so would be alright to let him freely access his persona as long as he has his canon conduit for it (a mask) as his freebie item?

2) outfit: speaking of masks, his persona comes with a fashion makeover, magical girl style. since it's mentioned that everyone is expected to wear the plugsuit on missions, would this still happen? he's technically still wearing it, but uhhh if it's a visual requirement, that is obviously a problem. oh also, if this flies, is it cool if his mask just looks like his nerdy glasses when he isn't in costume? they consistently swap for his mask in canon, to the point the game devs have forgotten he wasn't wearing them, swapped him back to his civvies, and bam, glasses. this is purely cosmetic and so i don't have to keep track of 2 things on his head, so nbd either way.

3) personas: ren can shuffle between multiple personas, which cap out at 12. since most characters from the franchise only have a single persona, would the mod team prefer this nerfed in any way? just wanted to check before i contemplate the nightmare of summarizing however many he has on hand.

[faetalattraction]

hello! if your character typically draws on their powers by cooperating with magical creatures in their environment such as fae or spirits, would LILITH draw some such creatures in alongside your character?

[windstrewn]

Hi mods! I have a question about a character I'm considering apping in regards to necromancy being entirely discarded.

I have a character whose main (but not only) power would technically amount to necromancy. He primarily uses it to fight using zombies who then return to being dead the moment he is done. They aren't revived/alive, don't regain their personality or even speech, and it's a temporary use for battle, and he's also pretty limited to the amount he can revive at a time (like 10 max I'd say and even that might be pushing it.)

He can't bring people back from the dead, his "zombies" are basically a weapon. (Or, well he kind of can but that's an entirely different power and process that I assume would be 100% nixed here.) The reason I say technically necromancy is because it's not actually about reviving dead people, it's about the ability to control things with a certain energy that dead people happen to have, so in effect it's the same as necromancy but it also extends to other things. (ie: he can control demons, ghosts, things like that.) For the sake of this inquiry though I'm just curious about the "zombies" as I think the rest would need to be worked out separately.

I figured it was worth asking if this ability would be completely discarded just to be sure. Thank you!

CW in this question for some non-graphic discussion of brain damage

[nmc0204]

Wasn't quite sure where this counted as a power vs a character injury/disability because honestly it's both my girl do be goin thru it so I'm popping it here to be safe! I am so sorry in advance to whichever mod has to learn information about 13 Sentinels.

Ryoko is a giant mech pilot whose brain is fitted/enhanced with nanomachines that, in canon, have various vaguely defined functions but whose primary purpose are to allow her to interface directly with computers and data & essentially download it into her brain to allow her to learn at a rapidly enhanced pace. These nanomachines are also what allow her to pilot her Sentinel, her giant robot (which she obviously won't have here, lol)

However, the nanomachine network in her brain is also currently infected with a virus called DD-426 that causes these nanomachines to detach from her brain. This causes degenerative brain damage that primarily affects her ability to recall and retain memories, her emotional regulation and impulse control, risk assessment — canon itself is vague as to how far this goes but based on her canon symptoms, I assume & play her with the idea that she is suffering frontal lobe damage. She also suffers from chronic pain and fatigue and the endpoint of this degeneration is total loss of memory with personality left intact.

THAT WAS A VERY LONG WINDED EXPLANATION leading up to me just wanting to ask: how would this be handled in game? My preference with Ryoko is not to entirely remove DD-426 as an issue for her to manage but to give her resources in game to temporarily stall or slow its progression so I can pursue that as personal development at my own speed, but I also don't necessarily know how this works or doesn't work with setting lore so I wanted to check in with you guys to see how that would roll!

[gundemn]

Hi mods! I have a character who is a mecha pilot. As I understand, there aren't giant robots in the setting, but would pilots be able to keep their robot as their "item" since it enables them to fight? (Say LILITH reconstructed it and the 304cm/10 feet rule and nerfs would apply?)

[rappaccini]

revives this thread, haha

so my girl right here can summon her pet swarm of demon butterflies which eats people, animals, what-have-you! think of a group of piranhas when you toss meat in their midst, that's pretty much how they kill and feed. they can also track people (up to a certain distance) due to their telepathic link to their owner and half of them can conjure illusions real enough for people to go insane. the downside is that, it slowly kills roxana since it also feeds on her blood for her to maintain control over it on top of her poisonous body weakening her when she commands the butterflies.

would the swarm itself be nerfed to a handful of butterflies? it's never been clearly stated how she summons it, but it's always come from her body in some way so it's assumed that they reside within her.

re: necromancy

[ghastric]

Hello mods! Hope you are enjoying the last day/s of 2023 whereever you are!

I just have a quick question regarding necromancy being nerfed ... could I please ask for clarification on what that entails / what kind of "necromancy" is deemed unsuitable for the game? I did have a look at your answer somewhere above to another enquiry that "playable character cannot revive other playable character", but I would love to have a little more clarification around it!

The character I'm interested in apping into Synflux is technically categorised as a "necromancer" - but in The Locked Tomb universe, necromancy is less "raising the dead back to life" than it is about the process of utilizing the "death" energy (referred to as thanergy) that is converted from thalergy ("life" force) decay, which is most naturally produced from cellular death of any living beings - while they call it "magic", it has been compared by people as being similar to our reality's nuclear fission / radiation / quantum physics.

Ianthe's primary abilities are flesh manipulation (using blood as warding barriers, using necromantic powers to augment beauty / physical characteristics such as forcing hair follicles to produce faster growth, summoning up gross body horror-esque fats and meat as barriers to block attacks, etc). She has in one instance puppeteered the body of her former cavalier, but it is more telekinetic rather than resurrection. In fact, the process of actually "resurrecting" someone after death is considered something that's only achievable by the Emperor.

I am so sorry for the TLDR! Please let me know if you'd like more details from my end!

[depressy]

happy new year, mods! quick question on powers: meteion is an empath who can read other people's emotions. while i know that empathy doesn't need to be nerfed (though i will have an opt-in permissions post if i app), i was wondering if kaiju have emotions/would meteion be able to read them...

meteion is also able to project her emotions onto other people or creations. would kaiju be affected by that as well (eg. if she projects fear onto them, would they be afraid)?

thank you in advance!

[peacewithouttyranny]

hihi, mods!

so transformers has the ability to... well, transform into another form called an alt mode, and this guy here transforms into an armored car. since he will be downsized in game from 30ft tall to maybe 10ft tall, i'd assumed this would also affect his alt mode? so my question is... while he transformed into his alt mode, will he able to retain the size of a car (size changing/mass displacement which is an actual thing in his canon) or will he be the size of a... idk, a power wheel, which would be hilarious.

also re: empath/telepathy

soundwave can hear thoughts and emotions because being a transforming big robot isn't cool enough. but his telepathic range seems absurd, if not limitless? for example, he can established a telepathic communication with someone on earth while he's on jupiter. another example is that he telepathically sensed a friend's death while soundwave was on a completely different side of the galaxy than they were.

so i wonder if his telepathy range would need to be nerfed?

[alwaysimpaled]

Small question. I know the FAQ mentions healing powers are fine and immortality stuff would be nerfed... so my question is what about someone who kinda straddles and blurs the line?

Like Dante here can and will die with enough concerted effort, but at the same time has walked off taking a bastard sword to the chest like it was nothing. For clarity, I would mainly be looking to use said power in this capacity as more of a dramatic once in a blue moon (or maybe once ever) situation as a punctuation or something rather than a get out of jail free card. That said I do feel his durability and quick healing is core to his character simply to enable his recklessness.

[ordinarythings]

Hi, Surolam here has the power to turn into a dragon, about the size of dragon!Haku from Spirited Away. I'm wondering if the size nerf would be for her head-to-ground height on all fours (no change there), or her overall body length (would shrink her down) in this form. I can work with either, just want to know how that works!

Also, she has the power to speak to inanimate objects, although their level of communicativity varies. I'm wondering if this would be nerfed in any way, since while I know telepathy/empathy are allowed, her being able to potentially interrogate almost everything around her would give her a lot more to work with.

[lifeprice]

Hi there! Just a couple of questions about Aki's powers!

Aki has 'contracts' with Devils that allow him to use certain abilities - the Curse Devil let him have a nail like sword that he could use to inflict massive damage of his enemy at the cost of his own life and a contract with the Future Devil, giving him the ability to see a few seconds into the future, mainly for fighting purposes (which may be nerfed, as a time manipulation thing). Would these work in the same was as this response, where he can still use them in lieu here despite the devils not being around?

A second question about his powers is linked to CHAINSAW MAN SPOILERS, so I'm tucking it under here just in case anyone casually flicking by is reading! Apologies if you don't want manga spoilers!!

If I take Aki from the point after he died/became the Gun Fiend, would he retain the powers he got from that (enhanced durability and speed, restoring health by consuming blood) - he could also shoot bullets from a gun on his forehead, but as he's coming back "whole" (minus an arm) I'd assume that's gone) or would they not necessarily count?

Thank you!

[caughtademon]

Okay so two things with this guy, Hadesu Itsuhito (responsible(?) shonen adult teacher figure and also the protagonist) from Hokenshitsu no Shingami (which is a series no one but me cares about because it was technically a comedy manga for middle school boys so I'm gonna try and Explain Things)

1. Itsuhito's powers come from a sort-of possession, he "caught" a demon and is letting it infect him in order to use its powers.

In this series demons are just moments of strong emotion that take shape and try to destroy people, they don't have goals or deep emotions beyond that. A demon is just you accidentally giving your intrusive thoughts the power to supernaturally wreak your life. Some of them talk to people to do this but Itsuhito and his demon do not communicate with each other and it can't communicate to anyone else (at this canonpoint... but the end of the series was a disaster and so I'm electing to not go there)

So I'm thinking that because it's his power source and not actually an appable character he'd be able to keep it.

2. Emotion control powers. Itsuhito's demon eats emotions, and it's always hungry. It's constantly devouring his emotions (meaning his emotional range is uh. weird. it's fine, he's fine.) but he uses it offensively to get rid of demons that are possessing other people (and he also has to use it to keep his own emotions from being completely devoured, though in canon he typically just goes after the emotion demons and doesn't usually use it on "normal" emotions).

Basically he uses his demon to devour the momentary emotion while not getting rid of underlying factors (ex: the boy who is a little too obsessed with his friend remains gets possessed and goes full yandere and when the demonically enhanced impulse is removed he's still a little too obsessed with his friend, the "comedic pervert" trope boy keeps getting possessed and keeps getting the demons removed and... just keeps doing this... stop trying to break into the girls changing room...)

While I know the more significant aspects of this power would have to be nerfed entirely (at one point in canon he does go after and destroy someone's will to live/desires), I was hoping he'd be able to keep the basic "remove emotions" aspect both internally (his emotions being eaten is a huge part of his character) and also for others (because him having to essentially be an emotions vampire in a world without the demons he's used to is funny to me he will hate it and also because sometimes characters just need to chill (with ooc communication beforehand of course)).

[icyspicy]

Hello mods! I have a couple of D&D magic-specific questions for you!

1. Regarding "blast/energy attacks" needing to be nerfed, does this include something like a warlock's eldritch blast? If you're unfamiliar with damage types in D&D, I would consider force damage to be concussive force, so something similar to Cyclops' eyebeam in X-Men. I'm okay either way, I just wanted to be sure for app writing purposes. EDIT: I guess I should clarify that as a cantrip it's not super OP so I wasn't sure where the line was or if it's a blanket nerf for all blast attacks!

2. Regarding no necromancy, I read the question upthread specifying that resurrection is out of the question, but what about spells that deal necrotic damage? This would be like draining the life force from something, causing flesh to decay, or something along those lines.

3. My warlock has the spell dream, which allows him (or someone else he casts the spell on) to walk into the dreams of another creature (so long as that creature sleeps and dreams). While there, he can communicate with the dreamer, and shape the environment. This is mostly innocuous, but if he tries to cause harm by giving them a nightmare, the dreamer has a chance to resist. Would something like this be allowed? It's not really mind control or reality alteration so I wasn't sure where it fell. Obviously, if it ever comes up, I'd make sure to get appropriate permission from all participants.

Thank you!