Entry tags:
FAQ
Feel free to ask questions in the comments section!
CONTENTS
[TECHNICAL STUFF]
What is HEY, FREE MAGIC?
How do I join in?
What are the different comms for?
What sort of pace/speed should I expect to be playing at?
How should I tag my posts?
[GAME MECHANICS]
What sort of characters can I app?
What about canon transplants?
What about pets?
What about size? My character is really big/really small!
My character already has magical powers/special abilities. What happens to those?
My character needs X/Y/Z in order to survive.
My character speaks Cantonese/Klingon/whatever!
Can my character die?
What is a shadow deal? / Who are the shadows?
How do I make a shadow deal?
Can my character leave the city?
Does Freesia City have weather/a day and night cycle/seasons?
My character got accepted! Where do they arrive?
I'm indecisive about playing here/I'm not sure my character fits the setting!
What about adult content?
Technical Stuff
What is HEY, FREE MAGIC?
We are a panfandom jamjar-style roleplaying game, which basically means throwing a bunch of random fictional characters into a setting and shaking things up a bit to see what happens. There will be plot organised by mods, but for the most part things will be player-driven.
How do I join in?
You'll need to fill out an application to play here. Click here to go to the Applications post for more information on how to app at this game.
What are the different comms for?
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
heyfreemagic is the main comm for shortform roleplay.hfm_ooc is the out-of-character community, for players to talk OOCly and for mod news.hfm_network is the network community for posts made on the eyeglass devices.heyfreecrack is the crack comm, for memes and meta.![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hfm_mods is the mod journal, and contains all the game information and setting fluff. There's a navigation post here if you need it!We don't mind where you prefer posting. If your character suits lots of network entries and few personal appearances, that's fine. If you prefer posting paragraph-style, we're happy for you to stick to the logs comm - this game is pretty laid-back, and it doesn't matter much where you are as long as you're having fun. However, we do encourage players to try and post on the main (shortform) comm enough to keep up with activity checks. The game just suits it more!
What sort of pace/speed should I expect to be playing at?
HFM is pretty laid-back. There's more of an emphasis on having fun than striving to meet any IC goals by set deadlines, though some individual events may have time limits. Plot will develop at whatever pace people push for. There will be activity checks at the beginning of each month to prevent the game's playerbase from stagnating, but our attitude to those will be fairly lax.
As of September 2015, the game is operating on a 3:1 ratio--that is, for every 3 days that go by in real life, it's been a single day in Freesia.
An activity check post will be posted by the game mod journal to the OOC comm on the first day of every month, special circumstances notwithstanding. You will be required to comment on that entry with proof that you've been playing. This will be further explained on the activity check posts themselves, but generally due to the relaxed nature of this game they will not be too demanding!
How should I tag my posts?
canon: character name
canon: character name [au]
original: oc name
For example:
btas: bruce wayne
homestuck: john egbert [au]
This applies to both the main and logs comms. For more information about posting, here's a handy post!
Game Mechanics
What sort of characters can I app?
Pretty much any character with enough canon basis to form a personality. We will allow characters who only got one episode, characters who don't get much screentime, and some background characters. The important thing is that you use what's available to you in canon in order to write your character's app. If you can make a character believable using what information you have, you can app them!
One player is allowed to play up to 3 characters at once. If you've been reliably handling 3 for a long time and feel like you'd really want to take on a fourth, feel free to discuss it with a mod and we'll think it over.
As a rule for canon characters, we allow 3 canon alternates and 1 fan alternate. That is, up to three different canon versions of the same character, as well as one fanon AU of that character. However, a player cannot take on two versions of the same character. All four must be played by separate people.
An example of all four 'alt' slots being legally played at once:
- Optimus Prime from Transformers Animated
- Optimus Prime from Transformers: Prime
- Optimus Prime from Michael Bay's Transformers movies
- Human AU!Optimus Prime as written by a fan
Characters we won't allow apps for will often tend to fall under the umbrella that is pets or no speaking role.
For example, Soundwave from Transformers: Prime is appable, despite his silence. His minicon Laserbeak is not. Okami's Amaterasu is appable, but be prepared to communicate primarily in barks and brush painting.
On the subject of OCs, they are very welcome! You may have to work a bit harder on your app since we have no other way of knowing anything about them, but if you write a solid app that gives us as much information as we'd need to know a canon character we've never heard of, everything should be fine. Given the nature of the game and its treatment of powers, we're not massively picky about what your OC is actually like, as long as we can come to a suitable compromise when it comes to nerfing whatever magical abilities they may have (in the same manner as we would with a canon character who usually uses magic).
Pokemon are appable, but they will not get any magic. They will keep four of their usual attacks, and will suffer/benefit from all their usual type (dis)advantages in relation to Freesia City magic (please use discretion, and try to adhere to what other Pokemon players agree on in regards to type).
Fan-OCs are acceptable, provided they are well-rounded and not, for example, created for the specific purpose of complementing/romancing a canon character.
What about canon transplants?
Yes, we accept them! This refers to characters who have gathered a lot of character development and personal history in another game, and would like to carry all of that baggage over to HFM.
Characters that have been transplanted from another game will remember everything that happened there as if it were a part of their own normal canon, and will be treated as fan alternates. If apping a transplanted character, remember to include all relevant game history within your app - just specify clearly and write it as if it were a part of the history section.
What about pets?
If a character ISN'T APPABLE, and would class as a 'pet' or minion or whatever for the character you want to play, then feel free to write your character's app with a pet in mind and we'll probably allow them to bring that pet along. The 'pet' (we use the term loosely) must be a character that will NOT basically equate to playing two characters at once. They should be treated like an accent/prop to your main character, not a separate character themselves, although if you want to have a 'pet' spy on another conversation or split from your character to do their own thing occasionally, we'll allow that as long as it's not too common and not an excuse to play more than your character limit.
If in doubt, comment about it here or send us a message and we can discuss it.
What about size? My character is really big/really small!
The absolute maximum height for a character is around 50ft. Anything bigger will be scaled down to that size or smaller (sometimes depending on the average sizes of things in their canon). The absolute smallest a character can be is around hamster-sized. If you're uncertain or need advice, feel free to contact a moderator. Your character won't be resized if they already fit within the size boundaries.
Powers are not relative to size. A 50ft-tall character will still have exactly the same force behind their magic as one that is around the size of a hamster - until and unless they practise.
My character already has magical powers/special abilities. What happens to those?
This is a difficult topic due to the wide range of powers and abilities and other canon mechanics that already exist, but on a basic level, you can assume that a character's powers have been nerfed completely and given something else if they don't fit into the existing categories, and tweaked to fit if they're close.
As an example, a character that could control time will now find that their powers do not work at all, and will have to get to grips with a different power that is given to them.
A character that could summon fire demons will now find that their summoning does not work, but they will be given fire-based powers and can learn to manipulate those to make fire constructs. It's not quite the same, but it makes more sense to Lux to try and at least try and make the magic suit the individual.
For more information on magic, click here.
My character needs X/Y/Z in order to survive.
Lux is a benevolent deity, and it can generally be assumed that if your character needs something special in order to survive, he will make sure they have it. If your character can only breathe water, for example, they'll be given water magic and/or when they first arrive they'll be submerged in the river or the lake. If your character only eats magical space rocks, they'll be able to find those magical space rocks in the city's strip mine. If they're harmed by direct sunlight, there are plenty of places to hide during the day - but light magic may also hurt them, depending on the specifics.
We encourage you to find solutions to things yourselves so that you're totally happy with them, in case we don't know your character's canon well enough to come up with a good compromise, but we're always available to talk things through and see if we can give a good suggestion. If you have any doubts or concerns, let us know and we'll do our best to help!
My character speaks Cantonese/Klingon/whatever!
The local deity has you covered. Everyone will speak whatever language they're most comfortable with, but due to the ambient magic, everyone else will hear and understand them in a common tongue (we'll be asking you to write everything in English, unless there's some really special exception). Basically, as a simple way of putting it, everyone now has perfect comprehension of English in addition to whatever other languages they speak, and will hear others speaking in English even if they're actually speaking Japanese or something.
If a character really intends for words to come out in a different language, it will sound that way. For example, if your character really concentrates, by sheer force of will they can force themselves to be heard in their chosen language.
If two characters really want to converse with each other in Elvish, they can do so and only people who can understand Elvish will understand that conversation. Make sure to specify if your characters aren't speaking casually, and remember that it takes a little effort to dodge the translation magic on purpose. Going around deliberately speaking Klingon all day is going to be a little draining - and not very much fun for everyone who doesn't speak Klingon. The language fix is there to make sure everyone is interacting smoothly, but we will allow plotty language shenanigans as long as everyone involved has no objections.
Can my character die?
Yes, but they'll get better. At least to a point.
If/when your character dies, they will be resurrected, but their powers will be gone for three in-game days. They'll also be a little weakened at first, and it's advisable that they spend those three days in a safe place, regaining their strength.
The second time they die, they'll be noticeably weaker than the first time. The third, they may simply need to spend the whole first day sleeping. The fourth, they'll be in really bad shape, and so on...
There are no permanent deaths unless you as a player are ready for your character to die off. You'll have to drop them at this point, and you won't be able to app them again (though someone else can).
Characters that have been dropped without perma-dying can be re-apped by the same player later on, and may retain their prior memories of this place if you so wish. Make it clear in an app if you're re-apping a character who has been here before.
What is a shadow deal? / Who are the shadows?
Please read this post about the shadows for more information, and here's another post on making shadow deals.
How do I make a shadow deal?
Please read this post!
Can my character leave the city?
No. There's an impenetrable barrier around Freesia City, and it reaches high into the sky and deep beneath the earth. It's a perfect sphere, and completely impenetrable. Nothing your character can do, whether magical or otherwise, will allow them to pass beyond it. Luckily, it also keeps the shadows in. Maybe that's the point.
Your character may see beyond the barrier, which is translucent and kind of rainbow-shimmery just like a big bubble, but there's not much to look at. The land beyond is a barren desert, and there's nothing to see in the distance but land and sky. Objects thrown at the barrier will bounce right off.
For a map of the city and an explanation of what else is in it, check out this post.
Does Freesia City have weather/a day and night cycle/seasons?
Yes. There are four seasons - spring, summer, autumn and winter - and these are pretty much as you'd expect with regards to temperature and weather. Day and night are on a 24-hour basis.
Aside from the seasons, weather mostly controlled by magic (and the rule of cool). Provided your character is in another part of the city to everyone else, feel free to have your post open to rain or sunshine as you see fit - the magical energies in this city can make for some weirdly localised weather!
Your character won't recognise any of the constellations in the sky, but there's a sun and a moon. It's impossible to tell how big they are, but the moon follows a cycle, and anyone affected by the lunar cycle will be affected accordingly.
There also may be some seasonal game events. More on this as it develops...
My character got accepted! Where do they arrive?
We encourage you to play around with this, but in case you're not sure where you want to start off, Lux is fond of his rooftop garden on the Spire. Your character is likely to wake up there first (provided they have no special requirements for being alive), and this will give them a nice view of the city and its surrounding bubble barrier. Feel free to have them wake up somewhere else, though!
I'm indecisive about playing here/I'm not sure my character fits the setting!
Test drive memes will be posted to the crack community. Feel free to join in there to get a feel for things!
What about adult content?
Absolutely no smut within our game's boundaries. Our age limit is 15+. Please be aware of this, and of other players, and try to keep content PG. We advise players to be sparing if they must roleplay any heavy violence, and place especially nasty scenes behind a cut.
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Weapons are just as allowed, but their abilities would be hampered. They won't cause harm to the Nox or, courtesy of Lux, other players or the force field around the city.
Anything likely not brought would be things that are larger than the city itself.
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Also, I saw the note about the pacing, but I'm looking for an IC:OOC number, namely because it helps me plan things; what's the IC time to OOC time ratio?
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TL;DR - yes, Wash's armour can most certainly come along, but if there are any hidden overpowered/deadly features, they'll be quite ineffective against shadows and other players. Otherwise, there should be no problem.
Since backtagging and forwardtagging are both allowed, the time ratio can basically be stretched or squashed to fit the players' needs, as long as you can make sense of a timeline if you put the posts in order. All we ask is that it would make sense if you read back. There's no set 'exchange rate' currently and this will probably continue being true until and unless the pacing picks up enough to facilitate it, at which point we'll put our heads together and work one out.
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Would anything passive with it being in effect, like strengths/weaknesses? I'm assuming no.
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I see on the FAQ it mentions Pokémon. However, given that it seems to be under the OC section, I was wondering if characters with Pokémon can bring one or two?
I assume everyone's more or less in normal forms unless stated otherwise?
(that was actually entirely unintentional but shhhh)
That section was meant for if the character themselves were a Pokémon -- Mewtwo or the like. OC Trainers would be most likely not be able to bring their own--if there was an especially convincing argument for one (ex. a blind trainer who absolutely needs a Psychic-type to get around), their powers would likely be weakened except for their purpose. They'd be considered a pet.
Normal form, yes! Unless the player specifically mentions otherwise on the application, and then they'd be locked into any special form for the game. Is there a specific kind of form you'd like to ask about?
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Most adaptations of TMNT have a lot of similarities between them that play out like variations on a theme, and one of those themes is Casey's relationship with his dad. Standard operating procedure is that Casey is close to his mom and distanced from his dad. Sometimes they're estranged, sometimes his dad is dead, whatever, they just don't really get along.
The adaptation that I've pulled Casey from just avoids this all together. His dad has been mentioned, and the very few details we get are that he "used to be a hockey player" and that he taught Casey to skate. His mom isn't mentioned at all, and only hinted at when he discusses his friend April's mom, and acts uncharacteristically sad in a manner that suggests she is probably dead (like all moms in that series)(and I can elaborate if needed). His little sister has no information on her at all, save that she exists. Often, for all intents and purposes, 2012 Casey's family doesn't exist for the convenience of him being a free agent.
Now generally, when I need to pull bits of Casey's backstory in PSLs and such, I take it from the IDW TMNT version. That one is admittedly pretty heavy: IDW Casey's dad became an alcoholic after his wife's death from cancer who physically and emotionally abuses him, becomes leader of a notorious street gang, and allies himself with Shredder, the big bad of the series, even though that means Casey has a bounty on his head. Now, I normally cut this down to just the dad's alcoholism, the mother's death from cancer, and change the physical abuse to emotional neglect. I do this because I feel the two versions of the characters have a lot of matches in their psychological profiles: insecurity, recklessness, directionlessness, and a general prioritizing of the turtles over his biological family, but 2012 Casey seems to be far less outwardly sad, which in this context suggests he's been mostly left to take care of himself and he really doesn't seem to realize it's a problem.
I didn't include this in the app because I don't usually like to add too much headcanon in proper game apps, and I also didn't expect it to come up that often. Aaaaand then it did, in a big way, with a planned character arc where Casey discusses this with Greg Universe while he's in a bar.
What I guess I'm asking is for permission to add this into Casey's backstory, possibly under the "Anything Else" tag because it isn't technically cannon, and I was also wondering if you had a preference for how I should handle these situations in the future.
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Greg won't be able to directly pay with precious metals but he could also pawn them in the commercial district in order to earn money.
None of these are likely to pay well but if Greg's patient he could easily save up enough money for a cheap van, especially since essentials like food are easy to get for free.
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The confusion comes in that he is obviously subject to his own rules (he can die, and they cycle through many nights where the girl they're trying to save either kills them all in a fit of thinking they're out to kill her, or through various accidents trying to prevent her own death), and yet the ending has him carrying out the girl who is now bleeding to death (and who has set the place on fire to force everyone to leave the world of the play--something they could do at any time at the cost of returning to her death)... While Mastermind is applauding their efforts. No one has yet been able to figure out how because they are explicitly the same character--it's assumed the author forgot one of the details. I've played Mastermind, often taking the form of the dead girl, for the sake of solving the discrepancy of him somehow being in two places at once, as a sort of split-off thing meant explicitly to handle the rules and answering the wish of the girl living.
...It's a confusing novel, I'm sorry. I can take this to PMs if you want further detail.
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This Lavi is an AU version wherein he was experimented on and orphaned before being taken by an old man named Bookman. The experimentation gives him some powers such as being able to turn into a Phoenix. This gives him some fast healing and an easier control over his Innocence, which is a hammer that is able to grow/shrink in size, and control elements based on seals.
How would this work out upon arrival, and would his Innocence work as well?
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His Innocence can presumably be taken along as part of his inventory, but he wouldn't be able to damage the Nox or other players with it, though it would otherwise keep any inherent magical/supernatural qualities.
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It also shouldn't take too much technical know-how from the characters' perspective. We can all assume there's just a button or checkbox for it somewhere.
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Also, I assume a scooter that transforms into a jetpack would probably be overpowered, but I figured I'd check just to make sure.
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As for the second thing - actually, a jetpack scooter should be fine! The game is pretty full of weird stuff as-is, so it probably won't give much unfair advantage. Also, be aware that technokinetics may be able to use their magic on it in a variety of ways. It's most certainly within game boundaries.
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and makes things go "pop!"/sends them to an alternate space by catching them in a literal trail of magical glitter and sparkles but that's less of an issue; paralooping can be gone without, which is fairly integral to the character--to the point of we see them using no other form of locomotion or even coming in real contact with the ground. -headscratch-no subject
NiGHTS would be able to retain their flying ability, but yes - no paralooping.