AU PLANNING EVENT

[somarium_lords]

Good evening, everyone! As promised, here is your OoC planning post for our next major plot to take place during the Full Moon phase of April (near the end of the month). So, for those who remember what happened last year during the spring, you might be interested to hear that we are revisiting the 'Alternate Universe' theme from back then.

This year, however, will be slightly different. So without further ado, we will announce that the theme for this year's AU event is...

AU EVENT 2011: 1920s NOIR

• So How Does This Work? Basically, Somarium as a whole will regress to a single point in its history. This time, it will be the equivalent of the Roaring 1920s in the United States. That means that the Jazz Age is in full flourish, with debauchery, gangsters, flappers, women out to prove their equality to men, and free-flowing liquor. But the gangsters will be slightly more sinister than their real-world counterparts. Most will undoubtedly have some involvement with Nightmares and her minions...
• What the Heck Does This Mean For My Character?
• Like last year's AU event, it will be up to you, the player to decide whether or not your character will be consumed by Somarium's apparent time regression. Should your character participate, they will become completely integrated into Somarium's 1920s environment. They will dress in period-appropriate clothes, they will have a new set of memories to suit the environment, and they may even have a Somarium family of their very own. This event is meant to give you a chance for a complete change of pace from your Regularly Scheduled Somarium Game-Playing, so remember above all to have some fun!
• Please Do Not Use This As An Excuse to Go Hog-Wild. Even though this is an Alternate Universe event, we must ask that any 'new' backgrounds written for your characters "suit" their canonical backgrounds and experiences. A well-done AU should still retain the same character personality as their canon counterpart, despite differences in history. We won't be very strict about this, so please don't freak out. This is also an opportunity to give your characters things they could never have in their normal lives, so don't be too fearful to experiment.
• What if you don't want to AU? Well, your character will simply be able to observe how effin' crazy everyone else is acting. Perhaps they will even question their own knowledge about themselves and the people around them. But they will not be able to ignore that most other people in Somarium have suddenly begun to believe they have lived in this Dream World all their lives.
• Characters WILL Retain Full Memories Of AU Occurrences When This Event Ends. Whatever happens in AU, whatever background each character gains, whatever interactions they engage in will be fully remembered by the character at the close of the Alternate Universe. This is generally accepted as mind-bending and maddening, but it also gives each character ample opportunity to reevalute their current situation and/or become embarrassed at how they carried on in a 1920s speakeasy.

So what is the full purpose of this post, then? We would like to invite all the players to use this post to PLOT AND PLAN the AU history, family, occupation, etc. for their characters. Nothing listed above is completely set in stone yet, so we will also accept suggestions with event twists to throw at characters and other such things. To keep things organized, we suggest keeping your character information and ideas to one thread, and allow others to bounce off of your ideas. Laena and Meygan will post example planning comments below.

And if you think this is a little early, don't worry! We'll have a second round of planning posted one week before the start of the event to allow new players and characters the chance to put together an AU.

HAVE FUN, FOLKS, and we look forward to seeing what everyone comes up with for this year's AU.