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Lethevale Mods ([personal profile] lethevale_mods) wrote2016-08-24 01:32 am

Gameplay

Characters may arrive in Lethevale for any number of reasons - to work at the Hall or in the town, to visit relatives or explore, or by accident. But even if they don’t want to be here, can they really leave a town with so much potential, so many unanswered questions?

Well, as it turns out, no. There’s nothing as obvious as a physical barrier, but whenever a character tries to leave the valley, fate intervenes.

The exact nature of this intervention will differ every time, and should be discussed with the mods. Maybe there’s a storm, and they’re forced to take shelter. Maybe they’re attacked, by animals or people or something worse. Maybe a very urgent letter comes to tell them to stay, or their horse is lamed, or the road’s washed out, or they fall ill. Maybe they remember there’s nothing to go back to. Whatever happens, it seems pretty clear: You’re stuck.

Life in Lethevale.
Your character’s experience of Lethevale will of course depend on who they are and why they ended up here. However, as a rough rule:
  • Characters who are taking on a job at the Hall will be offered a place in the servants’ quarters there
  • Characters taking a job in town, or visiting relatives, will be invited to stay with whoever they’re working for or visiting
  • Characters who are lost or in Lethevale by accident are probably best getting rooms either in one of the pubs, or in a spare room somewhere in town (if the latter, discuss with the mods)
Lethevale is a suspicious town, but not an unfriendly one, exactly. Like many country folk, the citizens of the town can be quite pleasant and very generous - they just don’t trust outsiders a whole lot. Particularly not after some of the things that have been happening.

Day-to-day life is pretty much as you’d expect in a rural town. The market comes on Wednesdays, there are festivals every once in a while, and of course there are quaint local customs like garlic on doors and crosses on walls - but nobody’s going to force you to follow them! The Lethevale Echo is published and sold once a fortnight (note: this is in IC terms. OOCly, the mods will only post Echoes when plot-relevant), and the mail comes in once a month, usually in the first week of the month.

Food can be bought at the market, or on non-market days, at the general store, bakery, butcher’s, etc. You can take tea at Sharon’s Teashop on the corner, or join the old farmers propping up the bar at any one of the pubs. There are also stables, tailors, undertakers, joiners, chandlers (candlemakers), and everything else a town needs when it’s as cut off from the world as Lethevale.

Contact can be made with NPCs outside the town, for example your character’s family. However, this contact can only be made by mail, which slows things down a lot, given how unreliable the postal service is.

All things told, you’re cut off, and you’re on your own.
 
Investigating
Maybe you’ve decided to look into some of the secrets Lethevale might hold. How do you go about it?

ICly, of course, this depends on what your character wants to do - whether it’s ask NPCs some probing questions, search the setting, or grab the flaming torches and charge the manor.

OOCly, the process of looking for new information is simple: ask a mod. Tell the mods what your character wants to do, where and how they want to go about it, and we’ll put together what you need. This may be a one-off description of a place, or it may be a conversation with a mod-run NPC. Just ask!

Characters may also discover plot-relevant information by accident, or in mod-led events.
 
Changes
Over the course of your time in Lethevale, you may, if you’re very lucky, stay as you are. But that’s by no means a given. By mod consultation and/or events, characters may either win back memories of their canon selves, or gain powers, or even change into something else entirely.

There’s a nominal list of changes characters can undergo, but if you have an idea for a change you’d like to happen to your character, by all means, talk to the mods about it!

The most common way to change is by dying. Death in Lethevale is not necessarily permanent. Characters who are killed can opt-out of death by taking on a “death change” and becoming one of the following:

Ghost.
Incorporeal - cannot touch or lift anything, can pass through walls, etc. Transparent and floating. Bound to the area in which they died (Forest, Mansion, Mountains, or Town). No personality effects. Can become invisible, either intentionally or accidentally. Frighten all animals.
Can be removed from the game by exorcism or simply moving on.

 
Revenant.
Corporeal. Do not die or feel pain, but also do not heal - any wounds received at or after death will remain on the body. Not bound to an area, but cannot enter churches or cross running water (i.e. the Lethe). Bound to obey any direct order by the person who raised them (determined by mod/player discussion)
Can be removed from the game by dismissal, burning, or beheading.

Vampire.
Corporeal, but can turn to mist at will - cannot pass through walls but may be able to mist through locks, etc, to enter otherwise closed-off rooms. May either feed on blood or on hearts. Cannot enter graveyards or churches, or cross running water; can only enter buildings when invited. Heal all non-fatal injuries. Most alive in appearance.
Can be removed from the game by staking, daylight, fire.


Dead characters cannot come back a second time - i.e., if the character is exorcised or otherwise moved on, they must leave the game.

Characters may also be changed by the following:
 
Werewolf.
Changed by werewolf attack only.
Increased hair growth and sensitivity to the moon, depending on severity (determined by mod discussion). Around full moon, increased strength and speed, and heightened senses, but also an insatiable hunger for raw meat. Turn into an unnaturally large wolf on the night of the full moon; will not remember actions taken in wolf shape while human or vice versa. At the most severe, characters may just run off and join the pack, losing themselves to the wolf (and potentially leaving the game to become a werewolf NPC)

Possession.
Characters may be possessed by ghosts (either PC or NPC). This should be done by consultation with the ghost’s player (mods, if NPC), and is temporary.
Possessed characters may or may not be aware of their state. In most cases, they will wake as if from a deep sleep when the possession ends, unable to remember what they have said or done.

Posting.
[community profile] lethevale is the core community for IC threads. Threads in this community should be action threads, taking place in or around Lethevale. Closed threads must be clearly marked, to avoid confusion. The following post header should be used:
 
Who: The characters involved
Where: The area of Lethevale where the thread takes place
When: The date, and approximate time, of the thread.
What: A brief synopsis of the thread.
Warnings: Please warn for any NSFW content, as well as common triggers (e.g. rape, severe violence, abuse, etc.)
 

All threads should be tagged with the name of characters involved, eg #mina murray, #jonathan harker, #abraham van helsing.

The community is primarily prose based, however for smaller informal actions or logs feel free to use brackets/action spam.

 
Written communication.
As the game is set in 1870, we have no IC network. However, we do have [community profile] lethe_mail, which is the community for written communication of all kinds - letters, diaries, posters or notices, and occasionally issues of the Lethevale Echo, the town paper, which will be published by the mods.

The following post header should be used:
 
Who: The characters involved (if the document is public, say so)
When: The date the message was written
What: A brief synopsis of the thread, and what kind of document it is - letter, public notice, etc.
Warnings: Please warn for any NSFW content, as well as common triggers (e.g. rape, severe violence, abuse, etc.)
 

 
All threads should be tagged with the name of characters involved, eg #countess mircalla, #laura, #baron vordenberg, and with the type of document, e.g. #!letter, #!notice, or #!diary.



 
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