faderiftooc | MOD UPDATES ↠ April 2021

MOD ANNOUNCEMENTS: APRIL

OOC & ADMIN UPDATES

Notable Dates

Applications: Open indefinitely
Leadership Applications: Due April 30
Test Drive Meme: Now! Tracking the post for new top-level comments strongly encouraged.
CR Meme: Someday, maybe

Remember to put all plots and events on the 9:47 Calendar! Once your plot request is approved this should be your next stop. Please help us keep this up to date.

Application Rule Change

It's been so long since we last changed an app rule, we figured we were due. After some reconsideration, we are now allowing CRAU apps, subject to some specific rules laid out below/in the Rules page. They also have a separate app form, which is now available on the App page.

Our primary concerns about allowing CRAUs were always (1) the awkward position it can put other players in when a CRAU arrives with a lot of pre-existing knowledge of other canon characters they met in past games, and/or past-game relationships that may be very different from what the current player is interested in, and (2) the potential to make Fade Rift feel more jam-jarry and complicate rifter dynamics when we've worked hard to establish an atmosphere where characters have reason to get invested in the setting rather than focusing on attempting to get home. We've tried to address these concerns through our accompanying rules:

No CRAUs from sex games, defined as any game that requires sex threads for AC or where sex is a fundamental aspect of the game's premise (e.g., "the city is powered by sex").
No CRAUs from locked or invite-only games.
Characters from games that grant new or additional superpowers/magic can opt to either keep those powers, revert to their canon power sets, or lose their abilities altogether. Any abilities they choose to keep will be subject to nerfing as usual.
Dragon Age canon characters cannot be apped as CRAUs, and other CRAU characters cannot remember CR with DA canon characters from previous games. If a relationship with a DA character was fundamental to a CRAU character's development, you can give it the Lizard Time treatment and rename them/obscure world details/etc. to maintain the development while shedding any knowledge of Thedas.
Players of CRAUs have to provide an opt-in post for other canon characters to opt in to having the CRAU character remember them from previous games. This will allow existing players of canon characters to choose whether they want characters to know them and how much knowledge they're comfortable with. (For example, someone may be fine with your character remembering theirs in general but not want your character to already know their Deep Dark Secret that they haven't yet revealed to anyone else in Fade Rift.) To the extent that people don't opt in to knowledge, CRAU players can say that the process of traveling through the rift erased that part of their memory.

As with all of Fade Rift's policies, these are subject to tinkering if we discover things aren't working how we hoped.

Leadership Requirements

As a reminder, the first quarter of 2021 for leadership requirements is February/March/April. If you play a Division Head, Project Leader, or other IC leadership role please make sure to complete the appropriate requirements by the end of this month, and ideally as soon as possible so that things don't get jammed up at the end of the month.

IC & PLOT UPDATES

April is a mod plot month as scheduled, and there will be a somewhat-optional trip to Orzammar occurring in the second half of the month, along with a few limited plots. The focus of much of this month's mod plot will be advancing some of the Weird Magic & Mystery plot threads presently dangling. It will also introduce some permanent little new game mechanics we've been working on.

The scope of April's mod plot will be a little smaller and more limited than we usually aim for, because we will also be running a mod plot in May. (Surprise!) That installment will (probably, subject to change if we get better ideas) also feature both a trip of some sort and some limited plots, but it will be more focused on the armed conflict side of things. More info when we get closer.

IC Leader Updates

No new appointments this month, but there are still a number of other leadership roles currently available. If you're interested, you can apply here. Applications are evaluated at the end of each month.