FAQ

[lastresort_mod]

Who are your mods?
Your mods are Rachel and Michelle. You can contact us by PM or emailing resortmods @ gmail.com.

What's up with the island?
In short, it's a mystery.

For some reason, people from different times and worlds, extraordinary and mundane realities, are brought to this island. They're brought against their will to a building abandoned by all except other "guests," which is situated in an equally abandoned town.

No one knows why or how they've been torn from their worlds. Their packed bags and certain things they see around the town seem to suggest that, in some ways, this place was made for them. Was it? Is it all a strange coincidence, or is something nefarious at work? This is what they all will need to try and band together to try and find out.

How does my character arrive on the island?
One moment, your character is doing something completely normal. They’re cooking, or coming home from work, or driving. And then they’re waking up somewhere on the island without knowing where they are and without any memory of ever falling asleep. Beside them, they will find an envelope with only their name on the front; the envelope contains a key stamped with their room number and a small, vague map of the location of their room. For residents of the main house, their map will roughly sketch out where to find the other rooms in the house. Village residents will have the main house marked on their map, but no other details beyond that.

Once they go to the room that was assigned to them, they will find that some of their clothes, as well as ten items from home, are waiting for them.

What are these ten items they get?
When your character gets to their room, they will find ten things from their life waiting in their room for them. Think in terms of items they use often in canon, but you are also free to invent some items as well, things you think would be significant for your character (say, for example, a security blanket or some present from their mom five years ago before she died). They should be things your character would have already, not a list of ten things they would've liked to have.

What's my character's room like?
Your character's room can look however you want it to look! Every room has its own bathroom and a plain black 21st century desktop or laptop for the chat network on a desk. The design of the desk, the bathroom, and the rest of the room is completely up to you. Rooms also have the option of a very small kitchenette, studio apartment style.

If you would like, you can give us a link to a picture (or a post containing pictures) of your character's room on the Housing page and we'll link your room number to it. This isn't at all required, however.

What do the common areas of the houses/apartments in the village look like?
There is no set design for these spaces. The players whose characters live in the particular apartment or house have the option of deciding how the common areas are decorated. If you are living in a house or an apartment in the village whose common areas have not yet been "decorated," then you are free to find pictures and submit them to the Housing post. If there are other people living in the house or apartment, please be courteous and involve them in the process or at least ensure that they approve of the pictures you find.

Where can they go on the island?
The main house area, its grounds, and the village (including the beach), as well as the farm is open to character exploration. The door in the gate surrounding the house will remain open, unless the characters choose to close it. The key to the door is, at present, waiting to be discovered sitting on the desk in the tourist office.

The outskirts of the village start to turn into jungle, and the space available for gameplay stops at a tall stone fence (that would be very difficult to climb). If your character makes it to the other side of the wall, he or she will find an expanse of thick, impenetrable jungle -- literally impenetrable. All attempts to get through it will fail, and will likely make the climb back over the fence that much less enjoyable. Beware of bugs and dangerous animals while trying to force your character's way through the jungle, as well.

How does time work?
Time is weird on the island. Your character might have a general idea of how long they've been on the island, but the longer they've been here, the harder it will be to recall. Characters certainly have no idea what day it is in real time, and characters may think that period of time might have lasted longer than others (i.e., one character thinks it's been two months since they arrived, another character may think it's been three.)

How do magic/super-powers/special abilities work?
A characters' abilities, as well as magic/special items, work on the inhabited parts of the island... and no further than that. It's as if there's a dome-shaped force field that they cannot cross without losing their abilities and becoming a normal person. This "dome" rests at the cliffs behind the house, the jungle's edge just beyond the wall, halfway across the lagoon, and where the forest beyond the farm turns into jungle. If a character were capable of flight, they'd find themselves in trouble about three feet above the roof of the main house, and about seven feet over the treetops in the middle of the village. (Their abilities would be restored as soon as they dropped below that, so chances are nobody's going to die trying this.)

The same holds true for their items. If Hermione's got her wand with her and climbs over the wall, it will be nothing more than a useless stick once she sets foot in the jungle. The Doctor's TARDIS will be bigger on the inside when on the island, but if he tries to ride it off the island, it'll turn into a wooden, closet-sized replica of a blue police box (and will start dropping) the second it hits the "dome".

Magical/alien/technological equipment will not be able to provide any information or readings on anything regarding the island; any attempts to gather data or answers will just result in static-- even if the equipment usually isn't capable of producing static. Also, if a character normally has a spell or ability that would break through or neutralize a magical force field, it will have no effect on the "dome". Frustratingly, nothing will affect it.

If your character has an ability or item and you're not sure how it might work on the island, feel free to contact the mods.

What can my character watch on the TV?
In addition to DVDs, the televisions throughout the island can play TV shows. What is shown, however, is random and uncontrollable. One day there may be an I Love Lucy marathon (it only plays old TV shows, nothing recent so as to avoid canon puncturing) and the next day there might be old Olympic/sports matches. One hour it might show the Home Shopping Channel and the next a game show or Spanish soap opera. It even plays reality TV shows (some good, some bad). Sometimes it might even start a marathon of any of these types of shows and then never finish it. Try as our pups might they will find that these signals are untraceable; where they come from and how is a frustrating mystery.

What kinds of reading material are on the island?
The library in the house and the library in the village contain all kinds of reading materials, including old textbooks, nonfiction, and fiction books in a wide variety of languages, terrestrial and extraterrestrial, as well as a collection of newspapers, also from all times and places in the universe(s). There are magazines in the waiting room of the clinic that also represent an array of time periods and languages. The library also contains DVDs and CDs; the DVDs are, of course, playable for the outdoor movie theater.

Please be mindful and do your best not to canon puncture anyone accidentally. Assume that if your character reads a Sookie Stackhouse book, and then someone apps Sookie Stackhouse, that your character would not make the connection; there is some level of retconning involved. In general, please be mindful and don't read something that someone would be likely to app for (like a Sookie Stackhouse book, given the popularity of True Blood). Less likely canons are okay because not everyone can see the future and know someone will apply for Killer Klowns from Outer Space.

How do they get supplies?
While they are in the main house, they can rummage around for supplies. The basement, pantry, walk-in fridge and freezer, as well as the rest of the house are open for exploration. In the town, there are various places (marketplace, doctor’s office, hardware store, etc.) where they can get supplies.

On a regular basis, large, mysterious wooden crates will be left on the island that contain fresh supplies. Food will be replenished on a fairly regular basis, including perishable, brand, and alien/international foods. Things such as alcohol, tobacco, and drugs will be supplemented every other month, so your character will have to be sure to ration what they have.

If you would like to have a specific luxury item included in the post, please contact the mods and ask if it would be suitable. Items that affect the community (for example, a trampoline) would require more discretion than a box of hair dye, for example.

You may also request up to 5 items per year from your character's personal life, which appears in the post office. The item will be wrapped in a box and labeled with your character's name, and you may choose when the item would appear, so as to suit your plot.

Who's STEVE? / What's the network? How does that work?
STEVE stands for Special Technology Enabling Visitor Exchange.

In their rooms (or in their apartment, if they move from the main house), there is a basic 21st century black desktop. They can only use it to access the chat-networking system (STEVE), and nothing else. There is no way to access any other sort of Internet, and it is an unhackable program. Since everyone will have a computer, the chat-network will allow them to get in contact with the other people on the Island, either in the form of group posts that everyone can see, or private messages sent to one or more specific people. Please denote in the subject of your post who the recipient is, if the post is not open to everyone. (For example, “PM to John Watson” or just “PM to Watson” or “PM to Watson and Ten.”) "Filtered" messages (like DW custom groups) are also possible if there are too many recipients to list in the subject line; this can be easily denoted as, "filtered to main house residents," "filtered to everyone but John Doe," et cetera.

STEVE looks the same on the character’s computers as the comment pages do on DW. There will be a little picture next to the character's post, but not the userpic you picked for the post. The photo is always a webcam-style shot of the character as they have been writing the post, even though no webcam lenses are to be found on the computers, and any attempts to locate, block, or otherwise disable the photos will prove unsuccessful.

Strikethrough text is normally not visible, and is instead used in an OOC sense to give the other players a better idea of a character's thoughts or actions. If the player wants people to see the strikethrough text, like the character is feeling cheeky or HTMLy or whatever, then they should indicate in an OOC note that it is visible.

This character isn't working out for me. Can I drop? How would I do that?
Dropping is allowed at any time with a post to the OOC community announcing your intentions. The character's room will be emptied out, and their things moved to the storage space in the basement. Please do not delete your threads on the rp or chat communities upon dropping. Those threads are also the work of the other players who took part, as well as the history of the characters in the game.

You may still app a new character according to the 30-day-from-your-last-app rule, but if excessive dropping/adding becomes a problem, the mods will be in contact with you to discuss what the trouble may be. They may ask you to wait longer between apps. This can also affect whether or not your apps will be approved in the future.

What is your definition of godmoding?
By godmoding, we mean you may not dictate another character's thoughts, actions, or reactions. Your character may not be invincible. If your character has their hands and feet tied and a gun to their head, they can't just pull a knife or suddenly break loose and fight back. Your character can't avoid a bullet because of a fortunate gust of wind or their amazingly fast reflexes. Your character can't know everything another character is thinking and can't react as if he or she knows. You cannot say whether or not something like a punch has landed on another character without the approval of the other player; you can't assume how another character will react to what yours says, unless you've come to an agreement with the other player. Communication between players is essential here.

What do you mean exactly by canon puncturing?
To canon puncture a character is to make them aware of their status as a fictional character, either by having them stumble across their respective canon (their movie, TV show, book, etc.) or by having another character recognize them from their canon. This is not allowed in our game. If your character would be canonically aware of another, the island prevents their ability to recognize the characters from that canon. If your character has been established as a fan of Harry Potter, on the island, they still would not be able to recognize any of the characters from Harry Potter because of the influence of the island and their captors.

However, in situations where the characters are aware of their canon material as existent, other characters may recognize them. For example, the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle are written as if Watson himself is writing and publishing them. Holmes and Watson make reference to the stories Watson writes and publishes, so a character would be able to recognize Holmes and Watson, and he or she would know Watson to be the author, not Conan Doyle. Legendary characters, such as Robin Hood or Merlin, are recognized in the vague way that such characters are known to the general public, but not according to their specific canon.

What is retconning?
Dictionary.com defines retcon as:
retroactive continuity.
The common situation in fiction where a new story "reveals" things about events in previous stories, usually leaving the "facts" the same (thus preserving continuity) while completely changing their interpretation. For example, revealing that a whole season of "Dallas" was a dream was a retcon.

And we agree with that. :)

Can I choose to have my character die?
Character death is a pretty serious, significant event for those characters being left behind. If you would like to have your character die, you have to first ask the mods and give some compelling reasons for why you'd like your character to leave the game in this way and demonstrate that you've given some thought to what will happen to the characters who will be most affected.

Death does not guarantee that the character cannot be played again in the future. The deceased will be available for rebooting along with the other dropped characters.

So what's the deal with pregnancies?
Pending mod approval, characters may become pregnant. In almost no situations will we allow a pregnancy to result in anything but a baby (ie miscarriage or abortion) as we want to be sensitive to those players in the game who may have dealt with these issues. A great deal of emotion is required for such an event in a character's life, and it should not be taken lightly. Please take into consideration the ramifications of a pregnancy, as raising a child is rather a large undertaking for both the character and you as the player. The child would be your responsibility as a player as it grows up.

If you decide to go the pregnancy route, please contact the mods and we'll discuss what this means for your character.

What's all this about canonical sexuality?
Sexuality is as much a character aspect as any other, and as characters are to be kept as close to their canonical selves as possible, this can't automatically be changed just because a player wants to change it, any more than eye color or innate talents can. However, people sometimes do make discoveries about their sexuality over the course of their lives; if this is something you want to pursue with your character, please contact the mods to discuss it. Please note that this requires serious consideration of your character, and will only be approved in rare cases.

If a character's sexuality hasn't been established canonically, it can be up to the player to decide; though, please keep in mind that even a simple flirtation in the canon material is an indication of that character's preferences.

If a character canonically has an open sexuality, obviously no mod approval is necessary for romantic or sexual plotlines.

My character has a pet in canon that I would like to bring over. Can I do that?
Absolutely! Unlike before, there is no longer a restriction on canonical pets. Please detail in your application that you have a pet you'll be bringing in. Pet food is included in the supply crates (if your pet requires a specific or unusual type of food, please also indicate this in your application).

My character doesn't have a pet in canon, but man, s/he's pretty lonely on the island! Can I get him/her a pet?
There are a number of stray animals that can be domesticated, including some stray dogs and cats. Pet food is supplied in the supply crates. Please let the mods know when you adopt a pet.



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