Frequently Asked Question (FAQ)
( frequently asked question (FAQ) )
Please read this Mod Announcement regarding changes. The FAQ will be updated to reflect the changes. In the meantime, please refer to it.
Q: What is Reims Academy?
A: Reims Academy is an Alternate Universe (AU) role play (RP) with a school setting. It covers middle school (grades 7-9) and high school (10-12) and is a boarding school rather than your average high school. One of the main points of Reims is that, other than being in an AU school, there’s no gimmicks! No magic, no quests, no brainwashing and no “sex or die” collars/chips/tattoos, just regular schooling. The one thing that’s a bit different is that there is a school-wide intranet that students and teachers can use to post things.
Q: So what does that mean?
A: First off, AU means that anyone who appears in this has lived in this universe (which is a normal Earth setting more or less identical to our own) for all their lives. They won’t remember ninja-land, wizard-land or super-space-planet because they never lived there to begin with. So this means you’ll have to come up with all new histories for where they lived and how they grew up in a fairly normal version of Earth. Of course, you’ll probably want these events to mirror their canon lives as much as possible - and of course, if your character grew up on Earth anyway in canon, you may not have to change much at all!
Q: So no special abilities?
A: Nope, sorry. While there might be a little reality bending here and there (what kind of boarding school lets middle-schoolers make room requests?), we’re going to keep this pretty much all mundane. No flying, no telepathy, no x-ray vision or miracles. All characters are human, so canonically non-humans characters need to be made human for the purposes of this setting.
Q: So then is there at least some kind government conspiracy or something? What’s the plot hook here?
A: While there will be an over-arching plot to the setting, it will be more subtly felt and not as much of a driving factor of your character’s everyday life. The focus of the game is more on the school aspect and character interactions rather than monthly emergencies.
Q: Okay, fine, for some reason despite all that I’m still interested. So where does this take place?
A: Everything will be taking place at Reims Academy, an international boarding school in the Mediterranean that’s just a few miles off the coast of France, easy ferrying distance from a small port town that the students can visit on weekends and holidays.
Q: International? Mediterranean? So do I have to learn Italian or French or something?
A: Nope! Part of the school’s requirements is for any character accepted is at least an intermediate level of English - not necessarily as their first language, but they’ll have to be able to speak and read it. Don’t worry too much about that, you can just assume your character has learned it if they’re applying there, or feel free to explain how they were tutored or whatnot. Classes will be taught in English and all posts, logs and conversations are presumed to take place in English unless stated otherwise. Your characters are free to know other languages of course, within reason, and can speak them at any time - but as there are no magical translating devices only other characters who know that specific language will be able to understand. Just like real life, go figure.
Q: So who can we app here?
A: Well, you can apply from pretty much any canon imaginable! If you can link us to it and show us it exists and we can understand it enough to judge your app, we’ll probably be willing to let it in. Obviously, you might run into trouble if you try to app Tony the Tiger or Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff, but we’re otherwise pretty open-minded! On the other hand, you can just app… anyone imaginable! That’s right, we allow Original Characters (OCs), though those will be put under a bit more scrutiny than normal apps.
Q: That’s not what I meant, I meant who in game can we play as? Just students or can we be teachers too?
A: Both teaching and student positions are open to be applied for. The administrative board and such will be mod-run, but normal teaching positions as well as other staff positions (counselors, groundskeepers, coaches and the like) will be able to be applied for, though for now we’re limiting it to one faculty per player so we don’t overload on faculty and run out of students. And of course, you can apply for students!
Q: So do I always have to be the new student who pops in mid-semester?
A: You can either apply as a new student just transferring in or entering the school, or you can app in as a student who has been here for a while - there are plenty of NPC students running around, so you’ll just take one of their places. In either case, you’ll be given a new room assignment and a new roommate.
Q: Wait, what, roommates?
A: Yup, as a boarding school, you’ll be set up in a room (segregated by gender) with another student, generally played by another player unless an NPC is requested or there simply is an odd number of players. When you first enter, your roommate assignment will be randomized - the Reims staff likes to inexplicably shake things up sometimes, which is why new players who app in as “old” students can suddenly find themselves with a roommate they’ve never met before! After a month, you’ll be allowed to request room changes, both ICly (your character wants to get a room with their best friend) and OOCly (you and your friend think it would be hilarious if your two characters who hate each other got shoved into a room together!). And of course, you can always ask to be randomized a new roommate!
Q: So what’s the teacher’s living situation like?
A: Teachers have the option of living off-island in the neighboring town or they can reside in the Faculty Apartment Complex located a short distance from the Academy. It is a gated community, so students will not be able to sneak in without bribing the security guard or coming up with an acceptable distraction/plan. Any attempts for students to enter the Faculty Apartment Complex needs to be run by the mods for approval. We're reasonable, so don't take this requirement as an assumption we won't allow the infiltration to occur. We just want to make sure it's a reasonable plan any why the students want inside the Complex.
Q: Wait, what if I want to play someone as a student, but they’re canonically too old to be one! Is my only hope to be a really young teacher or pretend they flunked a few grades? Or what if my character is younger than 12 (AKA the normal minimum age for a 7th grader)?
A: Nope! We actually have a couple work-arounds for this. Students in their third year of high school will have to complete a faculty-approved senior project in order to graduate so even after the age of 18, they may end up sticking around for a few years longer perfecting that or taking more classes or higher-courses - Reims dabbles a bit in the junior-college level. Of course, for those with the opposite problem, we can let you skip a few grades if you can justify it. However, the youngest we’ll allow is 10 years old. We encourage student characters to be in the standard age range of 12-18 and exceptions should be rare.
Q: But that range only fixes so much - what about people over 20 or under 10 we want as students?
A: This is why we’re also allowing you to age-up or age-down your character.
Q: Hold the phone, wait what? We can make our characters jump up or down some years when they enter school?
A: Since this is an AU, they won’t magically change age upon entering Reims; they’ll have always been that age! You can apply for any character at any age (within reason) besides just their canon age. This isn’t just so you can play your favorite nine-year old as a normal-aged middle-schooler or that edgy nineteen-year old as still having a couple years of high-school left, feel free to do stuff for the heck of it. Maybe you want to play that 13 year old as a high school student, or that 17 year old as a teacher who isn’t amazingly young. Of course, be a little reasonable - drastic age-downs (taking a full grown adult and dropping them back into middle school, say) and drastic age-ups (taking your teenager and making them forty) may need a lot more inspection, and if it’s judged that you’ve pretty much just struck out into OC territory, we may not allow it (though you could always make a similar OC…). Again, we encourage student characters to be canonically in the standard age range of 12-18 and faculty characters to be over 18 preferably older.
Q: What about changing sexes and/or genders?
A: That’s actually perfectly fine! Since this is an AU, there was no magical sex-change, simply they were born as whatever sex you want, or present whatever gender you want. We’ll also allow other changes or tweaks that you may want, but don’t go overboard - when all is said and done, they should still be, at their core, the same character as they were in canon - just older, younger, with a different body, gender-identity, or whatever else. We reserve the right to judge you have jumped off the deep end and created an entirely new character.
On a similar note, we’re allowing you to app from AUs with different histories to base as your “canon” - so Cloud can be based on the events FFVII or Kingdom Hearts, Lelouch can be based on the anime or Nightmare of Nunally, Cirno can be from Embodiment of Scarlet Devil or Advent Cirno!
Q: Wait, so with all these “variations”, does that mean we can have a girl version, a boy version, a grown up version, a kid version and a secret 2nd manga AU version of a character all running around?
A: Sorry, but we’re gonna say no to that chaos. Since Reims is set in the real world, we can’t just say “clones” or “a wizard did it”, so suddenly having a bunch of people with the same name and same looks would just be silly. Versions of a character will be on a first come, first serve basis. Once someone has applied and been accepted for genderswap-Edward Elric, the slot for all kinds of Edward Elrics is considered full.
Q: What about Canon clones? Say, Riku and Replica Riku or any CLAMP character ever?
A: That’ll have to be judged on a case-by-case basis and depend on if there’s enough variation between the two versions - that is, after being AU-ed, would they really be all that different? Or would what made them separate entities completely be nullified by the AU? Of course, if you and a friend want to app them as twins or something, something could be worked out! This isn’t a hard and fast rule, so bear with us that it might take some discussion and debate.
Q: So this is some fancy international boarding school. Does that mean my character has to come from some rich family?
A: Not necessarily! Pretty much any reason you can think of, we’ll let fly if it’s within reason! Rich family, scholarship, gifted program, sponsorship and more, if you can work it into your AU history, we’ll probably let you go with that! While Reims is kind of fancy, it’s not super exclusive upper class and is very egalitarian when it comes to education.
Q: So lay it out for me, what were all the ages we could be?
A: Well, Middle School (Grades 7-9) is generally 12-15, and High School (Grades 10-12) is generally 15-18, though we’ll allow as young as 10 and as old as about 20 for students. Teachers have to be legal adults, at least 18 but would prefer older. We’re allowing age ups and age downs, either to suit these requirements or just for fun. Additionally, because there will likely be content not suitable for all ages (drugs, sex and rock’n’roll), we’re requiring that all Players be at least 14 years old.
Q: Did you say sex?
A: Yes, yes I did. Obviously, sex, drugs and alcohol are prohibited by school rules, but we all know that’s not going to stop a bunch of teenagers from getting into trouble. We’re allowing sexual situations with characters of any age, but please be smart about it. If you present material that makes players very uncomfortable (such as say, a sexual situation between a 30-year old teacher and a 13 year old student), we may ask you to remove it. Also as a rule, any sexual situation involving a character that is younger than 16 must either fade to black or be taken off site. You can say it happened and treat it as game canon, but it can’t be actually played out on the game communities. For any sexual situation not falling under these categories, they are allowed to be played out but must be member-locked, hidden behind a cut, and marked with appropriate warnings. Players must be 18 or older for their character to participate in sexual activity.
Q: What about violence?
A: Anything involving graphic violence or other potentially offensive and/or triggering subjects should also be hidden behind a cut and marked with warnings, though they don’t necessarily have to be member-locked. The mod team would appreciate a heads-up regarding overt violence as there will be disciplinary action. Violence is near impossible to hide in a school setting. This doesn't mean you can't do it, but we appreciate the communication.
Q: Okay, so what kind of school-related things can we do besides taking classes?
A: Lots of things! There are student council matters, elections, clubs and all the other things you might expect at a school.
Q: Clubs? What kind of clubs?
A: Well, pretty much any club you want within reason! Just run it by the mods and chances are, we’ll approve it if it’s reasonable and not something crazy like the “Rocket Lawnchair Club” or something.
Q: So what happens if I drop? What if I reapp? What if someone else reapps as the same character?
A: Characters that are dropped are, to the general populace (student body and faculty), considered to have transferred out of Reims. Whether that is true or not, only the upper administration knows for certain and makes no attempt to dissuade the sudden transfer notion. Characters transfer in frequently so it makes sense characters would transfer out just as often. Should you decide to reapp and pick the character back up again, you can come up with any number of reasons as to why the character was absent ranging from illness to a family emergency to a family vacation to being temporarily suspended if the transferring out and back in idea doesn't appeal to you. If someone else apps the same character, the fact that this is AU helps because they won't be the same character as the one from before. They'll look similar and have a similar name, but they aren't the same character. This is an instance where we will have to exercise a mild suspension of disbelief.
Q: Okay, so this all sounds pretty awesome. Where do I apply?
A: Well, you can go to our app pages over here. That will explain the apps, when apps open, when reserves open. Players can only submit a maximum of two character applications per cycle.
Q: And, what communities are you using?
A: This is a community-based game, so we have a few communities to be used: ReimsAcademy is the main community, where all the Intranet posts will go - these are first-person reply and response deals. ReimsActivities is the Log community, where in-person actions and events will happen, logged in either 3rd person prose or action style as the players choose. ReimsAssembly is the OOC community where out-of-character business like intros, hiatus announcements, drops, and plotting can all take place. ReimsAntics is the crack community where memes and other shenanigans can be posted.
ReimsApplicants is the Sample community where prospective players can try out playing AU version of their characters before apping, and current players can interact with them.
Q: What if a canonmate wants to app in and coordinate AU Histories with my character but my character is already in play?
A: We understand that canon relationships are a lot of fun to carry over into AU, especially when such relationships affect a character's personality a lot. That being the case, with mod approval, we will allow retconning/rewriting of an accepted character's AU History to accommodate the new character.
Q: What is this Intranet you keep talking about?
A: The Intranet is an school-only social network system that allows both students and faculty to communicate amongst each other. Every student is assigned a username upon enrollment as is the faculty when they are hired. The interface is similar to other international web communities the characters may have encountered or used back home.
Q: How do you access the Intranet?
A: The Intranet can be accessed by any internet capable device such as a laptop computer, a desktop computer, iPad, Smartphone or stationary terminals located in the library, student lounges and faculty offices.
Q: Internet capable devices? Does this mean we have access to the World Wide Web (WWW)?
Yes, you do have access to the WWW or global network. The school places very heavy content filters on anything cross-posted to the Intranet, so there will be no pornography or other inappropriate content allowed in the Intranet or school terminals. Character personal internet devices are another thing. Those do have free access to the WWW and therefore all characters can make use of it. Pornography is still prohibited and, if caught, there will be disciplinary action.
Q: What type of entries can be posted on the Intranet?
A: There are three types of entries possible - Text, Voice and Video. All school terminals are capable of these functions, as are most laptops, but if your character's personal device that you've chosen them to use does not contain a web camera, video posts would not be possible. It is assumed characters have multiple ways of accessing and posting to the Intranet.
Q: What are filters?
A: A filter is a specific setting on an entry that restricts those capable of viewing specific entry or response in question. The standard filters are [Faculty] and [Student] though it is possible that the faculty user settings could allow faculty to view everything under the general [Student] filter. In order for regular faculty to view the general [Student] filter, they must ICly request an override from the Administration. Meaning contact the mods about it with a reason for the override.
It is also possible to filter entries and responses to specific usernames aka other people or a specific group of people. All that needs to be done is to use the handy-dandy filter application that does all the work for you if you're not particularly computer savvy.
Q: What about those characters that are computer savvy? Can we hack filters?
A: Yes! If your character is particularly skilled with computers and it's listed in their application, it is possible to hack various filters depending on the skill level of the character. All filters created using the supplied filter app are fairly easy to hack, but it is possible to create custom filters without using the pre-coded ones. That means there are various levels to filters and hacking. We do not allow ooc tags such as '90% unhackable' or 'moderately hackable'. Please do not use them or we'll have to unleash the rabid wombat.
Please keep in mind not everyone can hack at the high school level and it's even rarer at the middle school level. Also, if your character wishes to hack a non-general filtered entry or response, seek player permission before doing so. Communication is very important here!
Q: Can the system as a whole be hacked/messed with?
A: Yes it can if the character is of a very high computer savvy/hacker level. This MUST be specified within the application as well as the general type of things/reasons the character would mess with the network. All system-wide disruptions need to be mod-approved as there are members of the faculty specifically for maintaining and trouble-shooting the Intranet. And just because something worked once doesn't mean it will always work.
Q: Can a character with the right skills post to the Intranet as 'anonymous'?
A: As with the previous question, this is something only a highly skilled character would be capable of an also needs to be mod-approved. Removing the username tag is very difficult and even then there are ways the faculty tech monkeys can trace a post. It's best to not give this a try as such entries and responses are instant red-flags that garner attention. But it still can be done.
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