Gameplay Instructions
Posting Order
In posts made to the community, such as battle posts or any scenario RPed out in comments, posting order will be important. Each thread will have a different posting order. It will be based on when someone enters the conversation. Here is an example:
There is a post that is open to all players in the Sakura Taisen RPG. Sumire is throwing a party and everyone is invited!
Stella attends and her player leaves a comment about her arriving. The first person to respond to her is Riven's player, having Riven notice her entrance. The comment order will be Stella, Riven, Stella, Riven and so on. This is when it's easy.
However, if Miaka decides that she needs to tell Stella something very important, she must wait until after Riven has commented. It will start a new order. Stella, Riven, Miaka, Stella, Riven, Miaka, and so on. This order is to keep everything neatly organized. Obviously, accidents will happen, but this should minimize awkwardness. There won't be any punishments for mistakes or anything of that nature. This is really in order to make posting more enjoyable and easy to follow. You'll only be in trouble if you're intentionally causing chaos or completely disregarding this set up.
Not all posts will need this, of course. Some posts to the community will simply be logs of IM RPing or chats. You have the choice of RPing in posts in the community or doing it through IM, e-mail or even letting characters IM each other through the Intranet. If you RP something out in IM/e-mail/google documents/your choice, all you need to do is copy and paste what you've done into a post for the community.
Of course, all posts will have the header that tells everyone what to expect in the post.
Who: If posting to the comm, you can leave it as OPEN for anyone to join you. You can also tag someone to keep others from joining.
What:
Where:
When:
Warnings: If something adult is going on here, you should tell everyone. Ratings for posts go from G to NC-17. You should also warn if something disturbing is going on. If you have something in the log that is a potential trigger, you MUST have a warning.
Battle Instructions
Attacks will be decided by mods. We will use the mod journal to post, in the IC community, where the attack is. It will be open to the team located in that area. However, if you are a single person team, you can join in other teams to be part of the action. We will try to keep attacks centered in areas populated with fighters.
In the attack post, we will let you know how many demons there are. Players may comment to the battle post with their character(s) with how they respond. The demons will, naturally, attack.
However, there's a system in place to avoid continuous flawless victories and to keep it fair. Mods will also be using this system, so it's not one-sided!
Every attack post will link to this dice page. You will roll one 8-sided die. If you get a 4 or below, your attack will have minimal to no effect. This goes for demons as well. If you get a 5 or above, this will have a strong effect and can result in major wounds. We have set up a chart to understand the level of damage each number will have to a player.
1-2: If a demon rolls a one or a two, the hit to you will be so minor it'll barely be on par with stubbing your toe. If you did get a cut, it would most likely be the size of a paper cut. Keep in mind, we're talking real life paper cuts, not Twilight gushing wound paper cuts.
If you roll a one or two, you'll have done almost nothing to the demon you're attacking.
3-4: This is where you're more likely to get an injury, but it will be very mild. The worst that might happen is a sprained ankle and, considering the fact you're fighting demons, that's not too shabby.
5-6: It's a lot more serious if your opponent rolls a 5 or a 6. However, you can decide whether you want a serious injury to your body or to lose a major koubu function. What function you lose is up to you. You could decide that an arm or leg of your koubu no longer works or is severed. Perhaps your weaponry is malfunctioning. The only requirement is that it is a major function, and it cannot be something like the air conditioner breaking.
7-8: This is where it gets dangerous. If you get hit by a 7 or 8 attack, you have serious damage. If you are unable to get to a medical first aid kit or a healer, you'll need to surrender the fight and back off. Someone else will have to take your place if this happens. If no one is left to do that, including a back up team, the team officially loses the battle.
Please, in your response, add the number you rolled in the subject header of the comment. If you roll a three, you would put a 3 in the subject header while describing the attack you attempt. Also, keep an eye on the number in the subject header for demon attacks. Whatever number they get tells you how bad you should be injured. You'll have a chance to describe the injury or hit you sustain before attacking again. How bad was it? What was hurt? Did you bounce back or hesitate and give the monster time to hit again? Were you injured or just your koubu?
Healers of the team are able to come in and help patch people up during battle. During your turn, you must send out the distress signal to the team medic. Medics are asked to wait on the sidelines. Please, do not respond to every single wound. Wait for a distress signal to come in before you attempt to heal. Unfortunately, healers, you need to use the dice, too. This is the chart necessary for healers.
1-3: You barely did any healing. If major damage has been done to the player you're trying to heal, they will probably have to forfeit the battle at this point. You did not save them.
4-6: You healed most of the damage and can send them back out into battle.
7-8: Congratulations! You managed to heal all wounds, major and minor!
Again, if you are healing, add the number you rolled in the comment header. In the comment, you can add details about your character's actions and reactions.
If there is no medic, you are awarded four medical kits. This kits will repair most of the damage or will, at the very least, patch you up long enough to keep fighting. However, once you run out of kits, you either have to surrender or let someone else take over your fight.
All of this means you will have to keep an eye on everyone in battle. If they need your help, you might have to step in!
Now, each level of monster takes a certain number of hits. This is to keep people from fighting away with no end in sight. In order for the hit to count, it must be a 5 or above. Here is the chart of monsters below:
L-1: The lowest on the demon totem pole. They only take about four hits to go down.
L-2: These guys are a little harder. It'll take about six good hits to get these guys.
Boss: These guys are serious business. It takes about nine successful attacks before they're destroyed.
Every demon post will tell you what type of demon you're up against.
In this game, characters cannot die unless a player specifically wishes them to. If you want a character to die off, you must let the mods know ahead of time, especially if you're planning to let them die a hero in battle. If you kill off a character, you cannot resurrect them. They are gone for good. If a new player comes along and wishes to play them, they will be able to. If you kill your character, you are giving up your claim on them.
While you cannot die, you can lose a battle. There will be in-game consequences to losing a battle. How these consequences come will depend on the scenario.
Musical Gameplay
Musicals and plays are an integral part of the Sakura Taisen franchise, as well as this game. All characters on the main fighting teams are expected to perform in one way or another. Those who act as back up or other positions have the option to be in them, but don't necessarily have to.
Before a play is chosen, there will be a vote as to what is performed for each team. Players will be asked to suggest ideas and then there will be a vote on the next performance. Every team with more than one playable character will have a play. Teams with only a single member on them will be able to perform in another team's play. They can perform with any team that they would like. These posts will be made in the IC community, allowing players to vote IC for what they would like to perform.
Once the plays are chosen, the characters will be cast. There will be an audition post in IC community, where players will be told what the plays are about, performance dates, what characters are needed, and where the play is being performed. Players will comment IC. You can announce your audition two ways. 1. You can simply have your character say who they're auditioning for. 2. If you'd prefer, you can actually write out how they auditioned. It's up to what's more comfortable for you, the player.
Each audition post will be open for two weeks to allow everyone a chance to audition. If you are on hiatus during this time, it will not count against you if you decide to sit out. However, if you want to be part of the performance and will be on hiatus during the audition post, your character(s) may audition early and be included. In order to do this, you need to message sakutaimods to let us know you want in on the action. We will add you to the post so that everyone knows.
After the deadline is up, the mods will make another IC post and allow for another vote. Players will vote for who they would like to see while in-character. However, if your character votes, they must vote for who they'd like to see in every role. They cannot only vote for the role they're after. They also don't have to vote for themselves if you don't think it'd be IC for them.
If your character is not a main fighter, they have the option of not being in the performance at all. For example, nurses or secretaries can say they are sitting out. If they are not involved at all, however, it would be a nice gesture for them to set aside an evening to go see one of the performances. You will not be forced to, of course.
In the OOC community, a practice schedule will be posted. Characters will have to work their schedules around the rehearsal times alongside their training hours. If demons attack during a practice, they must abandon it to pursue the demons. This, unfortunately, may have consequences for the practice itself. How practice is hurt will vary. It may be minor or it may have the cast and crew in a panic. However, the show must always go on.
Alongside practice dates, performance schedules will be posted. Crew will have to arrive an hour before the performance time while actors need to be there a half-hour before.
When it comes to performances there will be one performance post. In the comments of each post, every performance day will be listed. Players will be able to respond to each day with how their character performed that day. In the mod comment about performance days, we will list the day and time. We might also add extra information as it is relevant, likes special guests or a reviewer.
However, you are only allowed 2 perfect performances for each play. Use them wisely! The rest of the time, you must have something go wrong. It can be major or minor. For example, a major flub might be you accidentally knocked over some scenery during the performance. How did your character handle it? Did they continue on like nothing happened, make a joke about it to the audience/another character or freak out?
It could be that your character didn't hit the right note in a song or completely skipped a line. Perhaps it's something those involved in the performance would notice, but not the audience. Perhaps the audience could notice, especially if it's an extremely well known play.
However, you cannot have a perfect performance every single time a reviewer or special guest is in the audience. Sometimes you will mess up in front of someone big. It may or may not hurt the review your character gets for that particular performance. See the example post here.