OOC FAQ

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OOC FAQ
Main FAQ PAGE

OOC Info Guide

Format ♪ Applications ♪ Appable Characters ♪ General App Questions ♪ Activity and Etiquette

IC Info Guide

Academy Life ♪ AU Specific Questions ♪ Transfer Students Panfandom Characters ♪ General IC questions ♪ The Black Mist and strangelings



OOC

Format

How does this RP work? People from around the globe -and now, beyond- are invited to stay at the Academy, the universe’s only hope for discovering the mysteries of The Black Mist and finding a way to stop the ghastly threats it presents. Characters attend the Academy in some form, either as a student or a staff member. They make video, audio, and texts posts over the communication network, as well as action posts, in order to work together to live, learn, bond, and find a way to abolish the terror that is the Black Mist. Differences between this game and the old d_a In many respects, there have been quite a few changes to the format and expectations of the game, as well as a major change in the game-play format, hopefully all for the best! The original Disney Academy was strictly an AU game with minimal boundaries to how drastic AU decisions could be; more will be covered on that in the application section. In addition, it was not open to canons outside of Disney and Disney-like animated/live action movies; in this game, we've expanded the workings of world itself not only to be far more inclusive and coherently connected with those two original aspects, but we've also created the option of panfandom. This allows for most non-Disney characters to be played within the game! We call panfandom characters "transplants". Finally, we'll be honest here, the original game was rather cracky in terms of plot. We've tightened those sorts of loose ends, rewoven the fabric of what made the original a great setting for the exploration of psychological horror, and snipped off excess bits that don't make for as good a quality of RP. As such, true cracky situations can now be found solely within the crack comm and not within the main aspects of the game. In general, standards have been raised, to better compete with the other well-loved Dreamwidth RP games, as well as to provide a better place for our players to rest their feet and have fun. What community is _____ for? Main: This is the comm for first-person posts with formatted brackets! Posts can be action, video, audio, text, or any combination of the four. Log: This comm is for third-person prose (no brackets, aka "log format"). Posts in this comm are ideal for special events or anything that requires tl;dr. Classes and rescues are always played out in the Log Comm. All entries follow the following format and must include the following information: Who: All characters involved What: Brief synopsis/title of what is to be played out When: When in time does this interaction take place? Where: Where in the world does this interaction take place? Warnings: Anything that other players should be aware of within the contents of the posts and comments. Please be sure to identify trigger warnings, possibilities of violence, and/or any other "squicky" possibilities in this section. Finally, please place a text cut after. < cut > (Without the spaces.) Hanky Panky: This is an optional comm for situations that exceed a R rating. All NC-17 material must be contained in this comm. All entries follow the Log Comm format (who, what, when, where, warnings, cut), though they may be either bracket or log format. Activity in this comm does not count towards Activity Checks. OOC: This is the comm where you connect with your fellow players! OOC introductions, new character introductions, hiatuses/slowatuses, drops, plotting/HMD memes, player-run event announcements, and any other player-related posts are found here! Mod: This is where the nitty gritty side of the magic happens. It is of utmost importance that players keep up with this comm. Game plot/mod-run events and Black Mist Event/kidnapping alerts are posted here, as well as Activity Checks and their respective alerts and results, game feedback requests, opinion polls, and other modly or game-related updates. Crack: Crazy fun! This is where players can post silly memes and play out scenarios that would not be acceptable for IC purposes, either due to the setting or due to the characters. Memes (like those found in Bakerstreet) can be found here! Please remember that everything that happens within the crack comm does not count as game canon. How do I post a_____? Action: The literal physical actions and decisions of a character. No communicator is used. All other posting options are done through a communicator, which connects to the network from just about anywhere on the island and its sister island. It looks like this: Video: A live visual and audio recording of your character (or whatever their communicator is pointed at). It's akin to a Skype call. Audio: A purely-auditory recording of your character's voice and any other noises going on around them. It's exactly like a phone call. Text: Literally, words on the communicator screen. It's basically e-mail without addresses, written on the touch screen. Video, audio, and text posts have to extra options that are at the player's disposal. Private: The post is sent only to one or more pre-selected characters. Good luck figuring out which tab(s) get it to work, though. Accidental: An "oopsie!" post that is either not meant to be sent publicly or at all. If there's one thing the communicators are, it's difficult to use! It's not uncommon for them to accidentally record or send something if they're bumped or knocked over. Maybe we should stop getting school-wide devices made in Toon Town. What's a tag? In this case, we're not talking about commenting to another character. Tags mark important information on posts. !tags are used by mods only to indicate posts you should pay particular attention to, both ICly and OOCly. EX: !events, !activity check, !poll, !modpost, etc. m: name are also mod tags. They indicate mod journals in event, plotting, and other posts. Ex: m: mickey mouse, m: fairy godmother, m: donald duck *name tags designate posts related to player statuses, usually only in the OOC comm. Ex: *new character, *intro, *hiatus, *slowatus, *drop. p: name tags are used by players in their own posts. It includes the character's first and last name (if known) and the canon (which may be abbreviated). Ex: p: Merida [Brave], p: Hiccup Haddock [HTTYD], Tony Stark [MCU]. r: name tags are also used by players in other players posts to indicate they have replied to it. It includes first and last name (if known) and the canon. Ex: r: Tiana [PATF], r: Syndrome [The Incredibles], r: Elizabeth Swann [PotC]. Remember to tag all your posts and all the IC posts you comment to! How do you do [insert something involving HTML]? Please refer to this guide here! (Note that we didn't write it; rather, it's the most comprehensive list of explanations we've found, and a great resource for any RPer or blogger.) What is an AC Reward? AC Rewards are IC bonuses for players who continually pass Activity Checks with all their characters, without any of them ending up on the warning list or dropped due to failed AC. Rewards are completely optional, but should a player receive one, they may use it if they’d like! While this list is subject to change, the current AC Rewards as: ⤐ Ability for the character to have an animal sidekick NPC (Ex: AU characters: Abu, Pegasus, Crickee, Altivo. Transplant: other NPCs from home, if there are none, companion animals purchased from Traverse Town or [tamable] animals found in the woods) ⤐ Transplant characters retain awareness of their original realities

Applications

Appable Character Questions

Can I play a character that isn't from Disney or Disney-esque canons? Absolutely! Panfandom characters are completely app-able so long as they're suitable to be in a psychological horror game. If they have enough screen time and canonical character growth for good characterization, and as long as they're not specifically NC-17-material-only characters, they are appable! What characters count as in the setting or as panfandom? What characters aren't acceptable at all? Please see our canon listing chart here. Note that we reserve the right to change acceptable canons at any time, should incidents arise. If you have any questions on where your considered canon would fall, please contact a mod or comment below! Can I be a Kingdom Hearts character? Yes, you may. However, do take note: due to the complex nature of the video games and the un-justness of assumed-CR that would occur if the canon was considered panfandom, we have elected to keep the concept from the original game in that all KH characters are part of the AU setting. As such, all KH apps will be judged with more scrutiny than normal applications. Please see the "General Application Questions" section for more information on KH!AUs. Can I app a Square Enix character from the Kingdom Hearts series? You bet. These characters count as "duplicates" of the original FF characters, with histories and circumstances different enough from the originals that both series can be played independently of each other in the same setting. Can I app original universe characters? Yes, you may. However, all OU!OCs are required to fill out a different form of the application, and all OU!OC apps will be judged far more strictly and with much more scrutiny than normal applications. Do OU!OCs count as AU characters or as transplants? All OCs will count as transplants, brought in from their own respective original universes. Can I app Canon OCs? No. We will not be allowing Canon OCs. That is unfair to those characters already in the game with pre-established canons and/or AU changes. How do we handle child characters? If your character is very young (under the age of 14), we will ask that you pay special attention to the "how is your character appropriate for this setting?" section on the app. This is a game which deals with psychological horror and is not the most appropriate place for kids to run around. However, that's not to say children cannot successfully be played within the setting; however, be sure to think through with all the challenges and difficulties of playing them within the game before writing the app. Can I apply as someone's NPC if they’re already in game (such as Rajah, Pegasus, Pascal, etc.)? You bet! However, it is imperative that you receive permission from the mun currently playing the NPC alongside their character, as well as obtain any important information about what that NPC has been through while at the Academy with their human companion. Please take note when you write your AU section that you will need to account for any time spent in the Academy, and thus the character will not be arriving new. What about Disney Live-Action/Animated TV shows? Please consult the mods if you wish to app any other possibilities, as whether they are acceptable material in general and whether they fit within the setting or as panfandom differs case-by-case. Can I apply for OUAT characters? Yes, you can. However, please note that those characters and those within Disney canon are not the same, and that neither is ultimately the "right" or "wrong" version of the characters, though they are not the ones found within the setting world. Can I app animals? What about other non-humans, such as aliens and robots? Yes, you may! To cover all ends, due to the same magic that keeps the islands afloat, animals that talk in canon (e.g. Simba, Thomas O'Mally, Louis the 'gator) can speak while on either island. Other beings who may otherwise be far too large will find themselves scaled down to a large but manageable height and weight. Ex: Optimus Prime would be scaled down to 7-9 feet tall, or thereabouts. What is the difference between AU characters and transplants? AU characters are those who fit into the world setting, such as approved Disney and Disney-esque canons. Examples: Prince Naveen, Gepetto, Chihiro, Sinbad, Jack Sparrow, Toothiana, Astrid, Tulio and Miguel, etc. Transplants refers to all characters who are "transplanted" from their home realities, AKA all panfandom characters. Please refer to the canon listing for specifics. Are powers nerfed? Any and all special/unnatural/supernatural abilities remain intact! However, should they be in dense areas of the Mist, those powers will be greatly affected, for better or worse (see the Black Mist section of the FAQ for more details). In addition, Headmaster Mickey will not take to it kindly if he learns your character has been abusing their powers, especially to harm other students/staff members. There will be IC consequences if this is the case (which are made on a case by case basis, depending on the nature of the abuse and what the players want). What if my AU character I'm apping comes from a place that is currently covered in Mist? Then you can still apply for them! However, in your AU section, be sure to explain how your character escaped/evacuated away from the Mist, as those in the Mist typically cannot escape until the Mist decides to leave. I'm an original!d_a player; can I a) reuse old app sections and b) import my character from the original game setting? a) You are free to reuse your AU history ideas and personality section if you believe them to be good enough to be accepted now with the different regulations, updated world map, and higher standards for app acceptance. b) Characters in the original d_a can have distorted, diluted memories of their time previously spent in the Academy. However, the memories will be vague, dream-like, and feel as if they do not belong to them. This is not mandatory for previous d_a-ers to use if you want to bring your characters in fresh, but it's a tool that is available should you feel it interesting. I'm not from the original game and/or am apping panfandom. However, I've applied for the character elsewhere already. Can I use sections from those applications on this one? Yes, you may, for all sections except the samples! We require that all applications have new samples, specific for this game, written at the time of applying. That said, do be sure to reread what you have already written in the past, look through other players' applications that have been accepted, and make sure that what you have is up to our specifics and standards. Can I import characters from another game? No. We do not allow game imports as it would prove messy within the already-vast and established setting. In addition, characters in other games often have growth that does not happen in canon and would not be suitable to use within apps when we need appers to prove that their canon/character is thoroughly understood on their own. Can I apply for multiple characters? Yes, limit two at any application time (regardless of whether it's for AU or panfandom). Muns can play up to four characters total. To play more, they will need both mod permission and for all their characters to be passing AC before they can play another. Both requirements of permission and AC count for each additional character thereafter. What about new canons? When can we app them? New canons may be apped and reserved a full month after they have come out. Say a movie comes out on the 27th of November, it can only be reserved and then apped on the 27th of December. My character has minimal screen time. Can I still apply for them? This depends on the canon and the character in question, thus judgement on it is made on a case-by-case basis. Some characters are handled well in a short amount of time (e.g. Mufasa has a lot of characterization despite being absent for most of the movie; Agent Coulson also has quite a bit despite having far less screen time in the MCU than the other, main characters). However, many characters need the screen time to be reasonably fleshed out, but simply lack it (e.g. Shenzi the hyena, Sophie from Rise of the Guardians). If you have any question about whether or not a character with little canon time would be acceptable, please contact a mod!

General Application Questions

Can I pick a pre-canon canon-point? We're going to have to say no. Unless the premise of a particular canon is told exclusively in flashback from the current setting, this will not do. In general, flashbacks do not give enough information to work off of to completely understand and play a character in a pre-canon mindset and situation. Should you feel your canon provides a particular exception, please bring your claim and proof to a mod's attention; we'll review it and see whether or not it's acceptable for the game. Are all Disney/Disney-esque characters automatically AU, or can they be apped straight from canon like a transplant character? Here's the dealio. They can be apped from either standpoint. However, those not apped in from the AU setting will have some minor consequences for being a true duplicate and coming to exist in this particular reality. First off, their setting counterpart will be whisked away by the Mist, so there's no chance of having two of the exact same character within the Academy setting. Second, the longer the Disney/eqsue transplant spends in this reality, the more they forget about their own and believe this one to be theirs. Awareness of their original canon reality will be granted as an AC Reward for those who continually pass AC with no characters on the warning list and no AC drops. Please note that Disney/esque transplants are still held to the app cycle and may not be reserved before panfandom reserves open and may not be apped in at any other time than that specified period. For more information on how to incorporate an AU, please see below. What's the difference between AU and Canon History? Canon History is exactly what happens in the movie or series from start to finish. AU History starts out as the same, but is then altered in bits and pieces to fit the canon and character into the world setting. AU History example*: Charlotte LaBouff has lived a healthy, happy, and wealthy life in New Orleans, Evangeline. After her childhood friend Tiana married, Lottie returned to her life as a debutante. However, with the Mist having visited New Orleans more than once, when she received an invitation to the prestigious Disney Academy, both she and Big Daddy agreed that she would be safer there. Not to mention... she had heard rumors of single princes attending. With that in mind, she set off to the Academy. *This example is heavily condensed. We expect AU histories on applications to be much more thorough. Can I do anything for a setting AU? What are the boundaries? We ask that all players apping AU characters try to make the AU changes as minimal as possible. In general, the only things that need to change are: the continent/country of origin, the relatively-recent influence of the Black Mist upon the globe (as it has passed everywhere around the globe by the start of this game at least twice), and at their canon-point, explaining why your character chose to attend the Academy (were they invited? Did they accept immediately or did they reject the invite? Did they hear about the school and invite themselves and enroll in-person?). Can I use other canon AUs beyond those in the Disney Academy setting? No. The only acceptable AUing is that which is done to fit the Disney and Disney-esque characters into the world setting. How do I fill out the inventory section for either AU characters or transplants? This section documents the major items your characters bring with them to the Academy. In the case of AU characters, this is what they decide to bring from home; however, if a character brings a lot with them, please make sure they're in a position to have all that transported (for example, Lilo would not have the means to transport every last item she owns to the school, where as Charlotte LaBouff can afford to bring piles of suitcases, as she can pay someone to help transport them from home). In addition, please remember that dorms are not the biggest housing spaces (especially in Joe West), so take that into consideration too! For transplants, this documents anything of importance they may be carrying on their person at the time of arrival (clothing, weapons, special items, basically anything note-worthy). Large, non-sentient vehicles of any sort (such as a car or the Black Pearl) are not allowed on campus grounds, though for more logical reasons than rule-related ones; if it can't fit onto the gondola, it can't come up. However, there is a parking garage and harbor by the mainland sky port station for characters who don't want to be too terribly far from their means of mainland transportation. Is this a memory loss game? The premise of this game is not memory loss. When your character comes into the game, they will have their memories intact. AUs may alter memories slightly, but for the most part won't (Kingdom Hearts apps may have more altered memories/lacking memories from canon, given their AU nature; this is the only exception). How do I deal with Kingdom Hearts AU histories? Characters must fit into this particular setting: there is one world, not multiple (excluding canon space locations and planets, such as those in Treasure Planet and Lilo and Stitch, etc.). Though there are other realities, however, those are reserved for panfandom only, aka the canons that do not naturally mesh with the game setting. In addition, there are no heartless; there are only the Black Mist and the Strangelings. There are no nobodies--- everyone must be a whole person and must be physically born in this world. However, fret not! Histories and circumstance can be tweaked so that heartless and nobodies characters are simply people who have had long term exposure within Mist, thus they're unable to properly feel emotions and/or may be slightly insane. Tweaks like this are permissible on a mod-approved, case by case basis. If you have any further questions regarding how Kingdom Hearts fits into Disney Academy, please contact holdonmarge or bibbidi_bobbidi_boo! When can I reserve and apply? AU characters can be reserved for and applied for at any time. Panfandom characters are accepted on an app cycle, as their appearance within the setting is dependent on Black Mist Events happening at the school. As such, reserves will open up one week before the app cycle starts. Dates are available on the Reserve Page. When can I expect an answer to my application? Please give the mods the course of a week to deliberate on your application. Should deliberation take longer than that, we will let you know by PMing the account the app was left on. There are three possible responses applications receive: Accepted (with instructions to complete your "enrollment" at Disney Academy), Pending (in which revisions are necessary, should the apper decide to do them; up to two Pending responses can be given before the application is ultimately accepted or rejected), and Rejected (due to the application blatantly not meeting our standards).

Activity and Etiquette

What if I can't post for some time or what if I'm going through a personal crisis? In which case, we wish you the best of luck! Please, never worry about temporarily stepping away from the game; all you have to do is go to the Hiatus page, fill out the text box and post to the page, and then alert your fellow players with a post to the OOC comm. In addition, if life is hectic, but a hobby not impossible to maintain, feel free to call a slowatus in the OOC! We understand. Players on hiatus for more than a week are exempt from that month's AC. Please see the activity mods for permission if you need to miss a second AC due to an extended hiatus. Is fourth walling allowed, given that many of the characters may be recognizable to panfandom characters and panfandom characters to one another? Fourth walling is bound to happen, but please, use as much tact with this as possible. For example, please don't tell the characters of their histories for no reason other than to do so (in the case of AU characters, there will be some differences to canon, given the AU aspect and canon point, so such telling would probably prove silly and unnecessary anyway). However, having a character startled by recognizing them is completely acceptable! In the end, we hope that with the setting as it is, characters of any kind will come to realize that despite whatever reality they come from, that they are all unique, individual people. What is the policy on backtagging/dropping threads? We are a backtag-friendly game! Without a doubt, we'd rather players backtag than drop threads, as dropping does nothing but hinder player plots, CR, and character growth (and where's the fun in that?). In addition, backtagged threads can be used to count towards AC so long as the comments used for it have taken place within that AC period. In fact, evidence of constantly dropping threads early-on will void AC evidence if posts or threads where drops continually occur are presented. Am I allowed to thread crash? Only if all other involved parties give the go ahead! In other words, ask permission or plot the thread jack first! Can I do something explicit/gory/controversial/NC-17? Yes, but we ask that all material over the R rating is taken to the Hanky Panky Comm. Can I do something cracky? What counts as crack? In the Crack Comm for sure, yes! Crack is anything that puts characters into a situation that is OOC for the setting or temporarily changes an aspect of a character or forces them to be/to do something they normally wouldn't. Posts in the crack comm usually take the forms of memes. For example, aphrodisiacs, body horror, "bad fanfiction" memes, 7 minutes in heaven, forced marriage, drunk text, morning after, forced honesty. There will be relatively few times in which anything that falls under this category will be played in the Main comm, only through magic-based "fun" events (used to help break up the heavy, emotional events). Even then, all characters must react completely ICly, regardless of the content (whereas in crack memes, it's okay to bend the boundaries a bit for the sake of fun). Please remember that everything that happens within the crack comm does not count as game canon. Realistically, there may be some crossing over with some popular crack meme content into the other comms in terms of the more "adult" themes, but only when it is IC for the characters to do so. For example, appropriate characters getting drunk one night, characters sleeping together, characters acting strangely under the influence of their canon's elements, etc. are acceptable within the game canon.

If you have any questions or concerns that this FAQ did not address, feel free to leave a comment below or contact a mod!