faq

[thevisitors]

 

Your characters find themselves in the lost town of Pinesville. It was a once-bustling village, but is now long-abandoned due to alleged paranormal activity.

The mayor of Pinesville confronts all of you, saying that if you wish to leave Pineyville alive, you will need to commit murder. Deceit and mistrust, alongside the alleged hauntings, are sure to put you on edge. It'll be tough for you to make it out here ALIVE!

OOC INFORMATION

 

What is Visitants?

Visitants is a community-based game, with daily threading and tags taking place in a weekly mod-posted log. Players are both welcome and encouraged to put up their own logs for special events (parties, weddings, the occasional exorcism). Every Friday, a murder will be committed, and a investigation log will be posted at 2 PM EST to allow players to investigate these deaths. On Saturday, a trial log will be posted. Should this go well, an execution log will be posted for the culprit on either Saturday night or Sunday morning, depending how long the trial went.

How long will the game last?

The game will a month.

OOC Day = 1 IC Day. Threads that are posted Monday take place on Monday, and the like. This is with the exception of trials/investigations. Investigation Logs are posted on Friday, while Trial Logs are posted on Saturday. ICly, these take place on Friday. 

When are reserves/apps opening/what are important dates?

Reserves will open on March 30th.
Murder Info Sheets are due by April 4th.
The game shall open on April 8th, with an Intro Log posted on that day. 

From there, the schedule is as follows:

April 8th - Intro Log
April 9th - Host Introduction
April 13th (Friday the 13th) and 14th - First Investigation and Trial.
April 17th - First Motive.
April 20th (blaze it) and 21st - Second Investigation and Trial.
April 24th - Second Motive.
April 27th and 28th - Third Investigation and Trial.
May 1st - Third Motive.
May 4th and 5th - Fourth Investigation and Trial.
May 8th - Fourth Motive.
May 11th and 12th - Fifth Investigation and Trial.
May 18th and 19th - Final Investigation and Trial.

Is there a character cap?

We have a maximum of 20 characters, and a minimum of 15. One character per player. 2 characters per canon.

Sounds great! How do I app?

You'll need to post a reserve when they go up. When reserves open, they will remain open until we hit 20 reserves. Reserves are mandatory, and a reserve link will need to be provided in your murder info sheet. One reserve per comment, and you can change your reserve before you fill out the sheet, provided you do so before submitting it.

Should you be unable to make it to reserves at the time they open, proxy reserves (i.e. reserves posted for another player) are allowed. In this case, the player being reserved for has 24 hours to confirm their reserve by replying to it. If they do not comment by this time, the reserve will be discarded. (We also ask that a player only post one proxy reserve, as a common courtesy).

There will be no app/reserve challenges accepted. Visitants operates on a first-come first-serve basis. The player who first put in a reserve for a character/canon will be entitled to it. If this occurs, the modteam will ask the second player if they'd like to change their reserve.

Who can I app?

Characters from all canons are acceptable. Our preferred character age is 16 at minimum, though we are willing to accept 11-12 at minimum provided the character is mature enough to understand a murdergame situation.

We do not accept OCs, customizatable protagonists or Kaa from the Jungle Book.

Any other character limitations?

We ask that characters be alive at the time of their canonpoint. If this means pulling your character mid-death, we're perfectly okay with that! 

In addition, we also ask that characters have the ability to communicate effectively and have a degree of sentience. As trials and investigations have a hallmark of being based around fast-paced communication, we ask that your character be able to quickly communicate with each other, through whatever means they can. 

Large characters are allowed, but should be either humanized or resized in order to allow for the possibility of other players. Characters with magic/superpowers are acceptable, but will have their abilities removed for the duration of the game.

Are there any game-specific mechanics?

Yes. More on that down below...

GAME MECHANICS

What's the activity like?

Activity checks are done weekly after every trial, and consist of at least two 8-comment threads with two different characters. Additional activity will likely be needed from you should you make it to endgame. Failing activity will cause your character to be deathrolled - please let us know if there will be any issues and we'll try to work something out! 

What if I need to drop out of the game early?

We strongly advise you that if you have a prior commitment that might interfere with your participation in the game, that you seriously consider whether you or not you can dedicate time to this game.

Obviously, things happen and we're more than understanding of that fact. But disappearing players with such a small playerpool will mess with our plot and what we want to do with this game - if something comes up and you need to exit the game early, we strongly encourage you to get in contact with us ASAP so we can work out a way to have your character exit the game.

...So how about that murder?

Right. Murder is happening.

On Sunday, deathrolls will take place in order to determine who will be a part of the murder that week. Two (or more??) players will be contacted, and should both agree, they will have a week to plan for the ghastly deeds that will occur. If players volunteer to be murdered ahead of time or specify this on their app, we will do our best to schedule you, and you may be contacted in advance.

On Tuesday, the mansion's residents will gather in the foyer and an incentive shall be announced. This incentive shall be decided by the players conducting the murder, and may not actually have anything to do with the murder itself. Who knows? This will not apply during the first week.

On Friday, one or more bodies will be discovered. This will usually take place at 2PM EST, though may be earlier or later (and will be announced ahead of time if this is the case). Over the next 24 hours, mods will lead the mansion's resident in a search for clues that were laid out by the two players involved in the case. 

On Saturday, a trial will be held. ICly, this will take place on Friday shortly after the body investigation. Trials will be held on Saturday OOCly in order to avoid exhaustion from the playerbase. During the trial, the mansion's residents shall discuss their clues and attempt to figure out who committed the crime. At the end of the trial, or whenever your host deems it necessary, a vote shall be called where players input who they believe committed this crime. Majority rules here.

Depending on how the players vote, the players will either be subjected to a bad ending or the culprit will be executed. We'll be going out of our way to make sure each and every case is solvable, and there hasn't been a murdergame yet that has had a bad ending. In the unlikely case that that happens, we'll be providing one save. 

What happens if my character tries to leave town?

They absolutely can, and will have to occasionally. The thing is that the Pine Barrens seem to go on forever and ever - and it's unlikely you'll ever leave the woods, no matter how much you try. It's an outdoor setting, and there are no barriers, though it seems like you'll never leave the woods no matter how hard you try. For that matter, no matter how far into them you go, you always seem to come back to the town...

Is there any way to get items from home?

Are you kidding? You're in spooky ghost town. Not happening.

If my character dies, can I still play in-game?

YES. Rather than a traditional "deadland", both the murderer and victim will become GHOSTS after the trial. They will wake up the day after the trial, now floating and intangible. They will still be able to tag around, though have a few new ghostly powers - possession, intangibility, flight. You can also have your dead/ghost character develop new powers unique to them - with our permission.

Dead/ghost characters do not get to participate in investigations/trials, and do not submit to activity check. They will also be unable to participate in the final investigation and trial. 

Is there a way to bring my dead character back to life?

NO. Death is permanent, and your character will remain ghosts after the game ends. Rather, the endgame will determine what kind of quality of life these ghost characters will have after the end of the game.

Anything else I should know?

Actually, yes! Visitants also has elements of survival horror.

In what way?

Well, the thing is...while Pinesville now has more residents than it's had in years (21!), it's still abandoned. Your room has a limited amount of rations and a couple small bottles of water (like 4-5). Outside that, you might find a small amount of rations available in town and The Mayor might be willing to give you a one-time something in the case of emergency. Outside that? There's no food or drink to be seen. We're not some fancy-shmancy murdergame with neverending food and drink.

So...what do we do about that?

You'll find a pretty decent amount of weapons here. Bows and arrows. Daggers. Very vintage muskets. Stuff along that lines. You'll have to hunt for your food. 

How does that work?

If you mention in a toplevel during the weekly log that a character is leaving the town to hunt today and what they'll be bringing (and give us a mod notice in the header), we'll reply to you with a list of spoils - what your character managed to find/grab (hey! they shot a deer or they found a creak) and stuff along those lines.

We can also reply to you with saying that they found nothing, or with plot-important investigation threads/one-off finds (maybe your character found a cryptid? The Jersey Devil is lurking). 

Some of these are RNGed and some of them are common sense. You won't find things with every hunt, and maybe you'll find more things if you work with another character. Everyone has to contribute their part.
 

RULES

1 - Code of Conduct

While murdergames have a degree of competitiveness, we ask that you maintain a degree of respectful conduct towards your fellow players. Believe me, we super appreciate the occasional tease, but please don't cross the border into antagonism. Our doors are always open if you have a problem with another player. 

We stress that code of conduct also extends to our Discord chat. We recognize that disagreements may be had between players and misunderstandings happen, but we ask you to treat things in a civil manner and don’t make people uncomfortable. 

This is also a good place to mention that your character is likely going to die, and we ask that you come into the game prepared to play with that possibility. There are only a small handful of characters that survive each round. As a result, please do not come into the game with the mindset/attitude of trying to "win", if that makes sense. To that end, please don't godmod.

2 - Sensitive Subjects

In that same vein, we ask that you please keep an eye on what you're saying to other players ICly. It's a murdergame, and we love talking about some fucked-up shit! If that content is warned for and players treat it with mature attitudes, you should be good to go. However, making light of any sort of triggering subject (rape, abuse, etc) could be grounds to being ejected from the game.

3 - Role Spoilers

If your character has been given a role in the game, please keep it a secret from your fellow players! This includes victims, culprits, moles and more. Everything will come to light eventually. 

4 - Canon Spoilers

Due to the nature of murdergames, major spoilers from each character's canon will likely come into play, and players are not required to warn for them. 

5 - Backseat Gaming/Spectating

As murdergames tend to be gripping, a lot of people are drawn to watching and commenting on events that take place within the game. That's perfectly fine and dandy, so long as the spectators stay within their rights. Publicly speculating on modplurks, pinging players so they can fulfill trial requirements, anything that goes beyond spectating and into trying to moderate the playerbase. 

If you notice this happening and haven't seen a mod approach the user in question, please let us know. This behavior is not acceptable, and we won't hesitate to warn the offending user. If it persists, the offending users could be barred from any possible future rounds of the game, or end up blocked by the modplurk. 

The same goes for people who've applied to the game as well. Obviously you can ping your fellow players during trials/investigations if you have a question that might help out with the trial and whatnot. But please don't moderate your fellow players to the point where they're uncomfortable.

7 - Anything else?

If you have any questions, please ask them down below! You can also contact your mods at lepowned or sousuii on plurk.