BDE Announcement: Zinyak's Coming To Town!
Hey folks! It's that time again! ... BDE time, I mean. That time. Yep.
From July 29th through to August 2nd, Fandom will be INVADED BY ALIENS! Specifically, by the Zin as led by Zinyak from Saints Row IV. But these aliens are not the 'knock 'em around and kill 'em' straightforward types: rather, they're here to run an experiment on the locals that they hope to roll out to all of Earth later. Something to make the process of conquering a planet and sucking it dry of its human resources a little easier... a little less unpleasant... a little more civilized...
... by plugging the people into the Matrix.
(They're not calling it the Matrix. But it is totally the Matrix.)
Yep, on the morning of July 29th, everyone who signs up for it is going to be teleported off the island and hooked up to a big ol' server running a parallel, happy version of Fandom, where crazy stuff doesn't happen and everyone lives communally as any baseline member of their species. Sure, there's some weird new landmarks and that whole 'nobody has powers, everyone is a healthy specimen of their species' thing, but it's Fandom. Wacky happens, right?
Except no communications signals can leave the island, you can only wander a few hundred feet onto the mainland before hitting an invisible wall, and acting out leads to some strange consequences...
So How Does This Work?
As noted, anyone who signs up will be transported to Matrix Fandom (found in fh_matrix) on the morning of the 29th, where they'll wake up in perfect-but-superpowerless versions of their bodies. (They'll be themselves, otherwise.) There will be more people on the streets of the island, and those weird towers will be there, staffed by people you'll have never met - but everything will go more or less as normal.
Accordingly, the Matrix comm can be used for the kind of posts you would usually put in fandomhigh, fandomhighdorms and fandomtownies. We'll also use this comm to post daily updates on the state of the sim. We'll open it for membership close to the BDE start date.
Meanwhile, if you don't sign up, you wake up on the 29th to find a whole bunch of people are missing and there's a giant freaking spaceship blocking out the sun. The ship is hermetically shut and built out of a metal no weapons from Fandom will be able to penetrate - but you're more than welcome to try to crack it anyway. It won't respond to communications, either. It'll just hang there.
Researchers are allowed to come together almost immediately, but it's a special breed of them we'll need: hackers. These guys will be working throughout the BDE to crack the simulation and eventually destabilize it. They'll receive help from an NPC, Kinzie Kensington, who's been keeping an eye on the situation.
But I'm Not A Hacker And I'd Like To Do Something!
That's why we have Kinzie! Any would-be hackers who can't hack so good will get a steam course from her on the first night and be able to pitch in with the work come the 30th.
If hacking is not anything your character would even try, researchers can still show up to try and discover ways to crack the ship. It just won't work, at least at first. Any weapons or techniques you might come up with during the week - we won't give you any, so feel free to run off in whatever direction you please - you can launch at the ship on the last day. It won't be destroyed, but anything you fire at it then will cause enough damage to bring home the message that the Zin aren't welcome.
Of course, there's also the superpowers.
Superpowers?
Yep. Anyone on Matrix Fandom might have seen their powers stripped at the start of the week, but it won't stay that way. On the 30th, one lucky hacker will crack part of the simulation's code; starting the 31st, the hackers will be able to give anyone in the Matrix a random superpower every day.
Functionally, how this works is that we'll give you a list of three options to pick from every day - or your choice of one of your character's own superpowers. These will stack over the next few days, until the 2nd, when a large, crazy superpowered offensive within the sim itself will finally do away with it for real.
Against actual baddies that will show up as the week progresses, of course. We're not going to make you punch Caritas. Though some public disorderliness might speed the process along...
So What If I Want To Hack And *Also* Go To The Matrix?
We've accounted for that! If any Matrixees sign up for the hacking list, Kinzie will find a way to communicate with them from the outside. They'll be able to contribute to the coding process from within, though they'll have to be careful not to be discovered by Zinyak.
Wait, Back Up, This Is Another One Of Those Video Game BDEs With Tons Of Rules, Right?
Nope! Honestly, while Saints Row-the-video-game-series might've started out all dour and serious and rules-y game-y, by the time of Saints Row IV, which we're cribbing from, it's 99% pop culture references and anarchic nonsense, and we're sticking with that atmosphere here. (That being said, if you want to use stuff from the game, it's still part of the sim software. Dubstep gun ahoy!) There are no weird rules, there are no weird mandatory game-y things, there's just a lot of poaching from The Matrix and Armageddon and common superhero shows and basically anything you plug into it yourself.
...Myself?
Zinyak, the poor naive bastard, thinks if he just gives Fandomites the happies - free food, free drinks, no weird stuff, perfect harmony - they'll willingly play along with the whole Matrix thing. He's going to quickly find out it doesn't work that way. And he has... ways... to deal with that.
Specifically, if he finds out you're causing trouble (ie, causing a disruption of any kind that he can't ignore, ranging from punching people to making a loud ruckus in the street to vigilante-ing on the roofs without permission), he can stick your brain anywhere he likes. Because he's consumed too much pop culture in his life, this tends to take on the shape of, well, pop culture references.
Anyone who misbehaves early in the week will find themselves slotted into a happy fantasy tailored to their particular mind; later on in the week, these will start to warp into something rather more nightmarish. Examples from the actual game involve plugging a known sociopath into Leave It To Beaver (one of the softer, early attempts), trapping a giant emo computer nerd in a text adventure game, and forcing a marketing strategist to fight his own soft drink commercial.
Basically, be creative! Because of the pop culture-y nature of Zinyak's brain, the dreams - and later nightmares - will always be at least a little ridiculous, but there's definitely space for darker touches, as this spy-winds-up-in-Metal-Gear-Solid dream shows. You also don't have to feel tied to 'modern' pop culture; you're welcome to plop a character into My Fair Lady, as well.
And if you want to poach something from your personal pocket dimension to use for mayhem in the main one? We won't stop you. Matrix-Fandom is a little more... malleable... than regular Fandom, and indulges Zinyak's love of that kind of thing, which means that if by some weird series of circumstances you wind up stopping a rocket while your friends radio in tearfully and 'I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing' plays in the background, well, y'know, maybe Zinyak watched Armageddon recently.
We do ask that you meta what can be meta'd, and don't crib from versions of canons that are actually in the game - that might make things awkward later, otherwise.
Okay, So I Can Get Stuck Places, How Do I Get Out?
Zinyak's just yanking people off the street when they misbehave, and in the process, he'll leave behind little gaps in the fabric of his simulation. These will show as cracks of light in the air. People getting sucked into these dreams/nightmares can either overcome and rebel against the central horror of that dream (The Leave It To Beaver character cracks theirs when they get so shocked by the overall wholesomeness they start cursing, then starts blowing shit up until the sim breaks, for instance) or have someone jump through the crack and wind up in their nightmare to save them by convincing them to rebel/joining them in the rebelling.
Causing enough mayhem in a nightmare/dream will shatter that simulation, and dump you back in the main one where you started.
So What Else Can We Sign-Up For?
We've got no strike team this time - the finale will be a free-for-all. However, we do need someone to be the first to break out of the simulation, to prove to real Fandom that it can be cracked. That person'll get a short preplayed adventure of their own before making it off the ship. They'll be RNGed from whoever signs up for that option.
What About Classes?
It's a BDE. Teach a class in the Matrix, teach a class outside the Matrix, cancel it: it's your choice.
Anything Else?
As the BDE progresses, changes will occur in Fandom's simulation. We'll publish these in the evenings (CET) before they actually happen, so you can adequately prepare for the changes. Otherwise: it's a digital reconstruction of Fandom, filled largely with NPCs who aren't actually people! Cause all the (super- or unpowered) mayhem you've ever wanted to cause but couldn't because destroying things is bad, yo!
The world is your sandbox this go-around. Literally speaking.
And to end this post, a great big thank you goes out to the player who suggested running a BDE along these lines and got the brain juices flowing. Now, onwards to the sign-ups! Which close Wednesday, July 22nd.
From July 29th through to August 2nd, Fandom will be INVADED BY ALIENS! Specifically, by the Zin as led by Zinyak from Saints Row IV. But these aliens are not the 'knock 'em around and kill 'em' straightforward types: rather, they're here to run an experiment on the locals that they hope to roll out to all of Earth later. Something to make the process of conquering a planet and sucking it dry of its human resources a little easier... a little less unpleasant... a little more civilized...
... by plugging the people into the Matrix.
(They're not calling it the Matrix. But it is totally the Matrix.)
Yep, on the morning of July 29th, everyone who signs up for it is going to be teleported off the island and hooked up to a big ol' server running a parallel, happy version of Fandom, where crazy stuff doesn't happen and everyone lives communally as any baseline member of their species. Sure, there's some weird new landmarks and that whole 'nobody has powers, everyone is a healthy specimen of their species' thing, but it's Fandom. Wacky happens, right?
Except no communications signals can leave the island, you can only wander a few hundred feet onto the mainland before hitting an invisible wall, and acting out leads to some strange consequences...
So How Does This Work?
As noted, anyone who signs up will be transported to Matrix Fandom (found in fh_matrix) on the morning of the 29th, where they'll wake up in perfect-but-superpowerless versions of their bodies. (They'll be themselves, otherwise.) There will be more people on the streets of the island, and those weird towers will be there, staffed by people you'll have never met - but everything will go more or less as normal.
Accordingly, the Matrix comm can be used for the kind of posts you would usually put in fandomhigh, fandomhighdorms and fandomtownies. We'll also use this comm to post daily updates on the state of the sim. We'll open it for membership close to the BDE start date.
Meanwhile, if you don't sign up, you wake up on the 29th to find a whole bunch of people are missing and there's a giant freaking spaceship blocking out the sun. The ship is hermetically shut and built out of a metal no weapons from Fandom will be able to penetrate - but you're more than welcome to try to crack it anyway. It won't respond to communications, either. It'll just hang there.
Researchers are allowed to come together almost immediately, but it's a special breed of them we'll need: hackers. These guys will be working throughout the BDE to crack the simulation and eventually destabilize it. They'll receive help from an NPC, Kinzie Kensington, who's been keeping an eye on the situation.
But I'm Not A Hacker And I'd Like To Do Something!
That's why we have Kinzie! Any would-be hackers who can't hack so good will get a steam course from her on the first night and be able to pitch in with the work come the 30th.
If hacking is not anything your character would even try, researchers can still show up to try and discover ways to crack the ship. It just won't work, at least at first. Any weapons or techniques you might come up with during the week - we won't give you any, so feel free to run off in whatever direction you please - you can launch at the ship on the last day. It won't be destroyed, but anything you fire at it then will cause enough damage to bring home the message that the Zin aren't welcome.
Of course, there's also the superpowers.
Superpowers?
Yep. Anyone on Matrix Fandom might have seen their powers stripped at the start of the week, but it won't stay that way. On the 30th, one lucky hacker will crack part of the simulation's code; starting the 31st, the hackers will be able to give anyone in the Matrix a random superpower every day.
Functionally, how this works is that we'll give you a list of three options to pick from every day - or your choice of one of your character's own superpowers. These will stack over the next few days, until the 2nd, when a large, crazy superpowered offensive within the sim itself will finally do away with it for real.
Against actual baddies that will show up as the week progresses, of course. We're not going to make you punch Caritas. Though some public disorderliness might speed the process along...
So What If I Want To Hack And *Also* Go To The Matrix?
We've accounted for that! If any Matrixees sign up for the hacking list, Kinzie will find a way to communicate with them from the outside. They'll be able to contribute to the coding process from within, though they'll have to be careful not to be discovered by Zinyak.
Wait, Back Up, This Is Another One Of Those Video Game BDEs With Tons Of Rules, Right?
Nope! Honestly, while Saints Row-the-video-game-series might've started out all dour and serious and rules-y game-y, by the time of Saints Row IV, which we're cribbing from, it's 99% pop culture references and anarchic nonsense, and we're sticking with that atmosphere here. (That being said, if you want to use stuff from the game, it's still part of the sim software. Dubstep gun ahoy!) There are no weird rules, there are no weird mandatory game-y things, there's just a lot of poaching from The Matrix and Armageddon and common superhero shows and basically anything you plug into it yourself.
...Myself?
Zinyak, the poor naive bastard, thinks if he just gives Fandomites the happies - free food, free drinks, no weird stuff, perfect harmony - they'll willingly play along with the whole Matrix thing. He's going to quickly find out it doesn't work that way. And he has... ways... to deal with that.
Specifically, if he finds out you're causing trouble (ie, causing a disruption of any kind that he can't ignore, ranging from punching people to making a loud ruckus in the street to vigilante-ing on the roofs without permission), he can stick your brain anywhere he likes. Because he's consumed too much pop culture in his life, this tends to take on the shape of, well, pop culture references.
Anyone who misbehaves early in the week will find themselves slotted into a happy fantasy tailored to their particular mind; later on in the week, these will start to warp into something rather more nightmarish. Examples from the actual game involve plugging a known sociopath into Leave It To Beaver (one of the softer, early attempts), trapping a giant emo computer nerd in a text adventure game, and forcing a marketing strategist to fight his own soft drink commercial.
Basically, be creative! Because of the pop culture-y nature of Zinyak's brain, the dreams - and later nightmares - will always be at least a little ridiculous, but there's definitely space for darker touches, as this spy-winds-up-in-Metal-Gear-Solid dream shows. You also don't have to feel tied to 'modern' pop culture; you're welcome to plop a character into My Fair Lady, as well.
And if you want to poach something from your personal pocket dimension to use for mayhem in the main one? We won't stop you. Matrix-Fandom is a little more... malleable... than regular Fandom, and indulges Zinyak's love of that kind of thing, which means that if by some weird series of circumstances you wind up stopping a rocket while your friends radio in tearfully and 'I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing' plays in the background, well, y'know, maybe Zinyak watched Armageddon recently.
We do ask that you meta what can be meta'd, and don't crib from versions of canons that are actually in the game - that might make things awkward later, otherwise.
Okay, So I Can Get Stuck Places, How Do I Get Out?
Zinyak's just yanking people off the street when they misbehave, and in the process, he'll leave behind little gaps in the fabric of his simulation. These will show as cracks of light in the air. People getting sucked into these dreams/nightmares can either overcome and rebel against the central horror of that dream (The Leave It To Beaver character cracks theirs when they get so shocked by the overall wholesomeness they start cursing, then starts blowing shit up until the sim breaks, for instance) or have someone jump through the crack and wind up in their nightmare to save them by convincing them to rebel/joining them in the rebelling.
Causing enough mayhem in a nightmare/dream will shatter that simulation, and dump you back in the main one where you started.
So What Else Can We Sign-Up For?
We've got no strike team this time - the finale will be a free-for-all. However, we do need someone to be the first to break out of the simulation, to prove to real Fandom that it can be cracked. That person'll get a short preplayed adventure of their own before making it off the ship. They'll be RNGed from whoever signs up for that option.
What About Classes?
It's a BDE. Teach a class in the Matrix, teach a class outside the Matrix, cancel it: it's your choice.
Anything Else?
As the BDE progresses, changes will occur in Fandom's simulation. We'll publish these in the evenings (CET) before they actually happen, so you can adequately prepare for the changes. Otherwise: it's a digital reconstruction of Fandom, filled largely with NPCs who aren't actually people! Cause all the (super- or unpowered) mayhem you've ever wanted to cause but couldn't because destroying things is bad, yo!
The world is your sandbox this go-around. Literally speaking.
And to end this post, a great big thank you goes out to the player who suggested running a BDE along these lines and got the brain juices flowing. Now, onwards to the sign-ups! Which close Wednesday, July 22nd.