faq
what is this?
A center for ants!? No, uh. A non-judgemental place for a small group of people to write shippy bullshit and panfandom nonsense together. We would classify the game as slice of life jamjar with exploration and psychological horror elements. Events are usually focused on cross-canon CR building and temporary status effects.
The setting itself is called the Clock Box. It's a sentient nexus that wants you to kiss. Further details on it are here.
If you'd like to check out what it all looks like in action, the comms are syndicated here.
how do i join?
Currently, you'll need to get a current player to the invitations page with your name so we know you have been invited. Please don't put pressure on current players by hassling them for an invite, though certainly express your interest!
AS OF OCTOBER 2016 WE ALSO HAVE A MOD INVITE SYSTEM: Players who accumulate 10 comments on the Test Drive Meme may PM the mods with proofs to receive an invitation to the game. Simply send your name and your links to the relevant threads.
Then you're free to reserve and apply as usual.
who can i app?
We require all canons to have been published by a reputable (non-vanity) publisher in one form or another, that has been available in English for at least one week. All players must have watched/read/played their canon.
We require all characters to stand alone as well-rounded human beings without relying on excessive headcanon or guesswork.
While we allow players to app two characters from the same canon, we will be very reluctant to accept an app for a character who canonically has several points of overlapping significant CR with a character you already play (unless you declare intent to drop one to app the other). This will also depend strongly on the player's activity history, particularly cross-canon.
In order to make sure no one canon dominates the game, we currently have a cap of 20 characters from the same franchise. Casts at or nearing this cap will be listed on the application page.
We do accept:
• CRAU, that is, characters apping in with history from a previous game, including characters AUed into the game setting.
• Canon AU, such as the alternate version of Spock created by the Star Trek reboot, or the Tony Stark from the comics in addition to the MCU version, or both Sherlock and Elementary versions of a character, etc. However we advise applicants considering an AU version of a character already in the game discuss it with the player in advance.
• Original Characters! We have a page with more information on OCs and their standards and requirements here.
We do not accept:
• Player-created AU versions such as Rule 63s or using fan fiction as canon.
• Multiples of a character from the same canon. While having both a Clint Barton from MCU and 616 would be acceptable, having two MCU Clints, one a CRAU, would not be.
• Characters whose canon is a religious text (Jesus Christ from Saint Young Men is appable, Jesus Christ from the King James Bible is not.)
• Characters whose sole canon is real world history or myth (Things like Arthur from BBC's Merlin or Iskandier from Fate/ is fine.)
• Celebrities or other real life people.
Please ask if you're unsure!
what about very minor canon characters?
Any canon character that requires excessive extrapolation/headcanon to determine their personality and history will not be accepted.
Because the ratio of 'screen time' to canon information is highly subjective, we will need to determine the viability of a minor character on a case by case basis. As a generalization, if the character you're interested in needs 50% or more of their information devised by you (as opposed to explicitly being stated or shown in canon) in order to seem like a three-dimensional character, you may expect the mods to be critical of your application.
If you have any questions or doubts about how your intended character would qualify, please PM the mods. We are happy to help!
where do i post?
Posts for character interacting in the game setting go in the main community,
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
clockbox, using this format. Characters using the devices can post to the social network app,
lockbox, and put an IC inbox in their journal for one-on-one calls, texts and video functionality.All comments to these two main comms or on IC inboxes that use the Clock Box html will count for AC.
what's ac like?
Formal AC is just a monthly check-in, failing to reply with a regular heads-up that you still want to play your character will get you swept.
There is no initial penalty for accidentally idling out but if it is consistent we may refuse your reapplication, so use the drop post when possible! Three+ months of absence in the game through hiatus, idles, lack of OOC participation and no activity in their character's community tags will result in us giving a player a monthly activity requirement to stay in the game.
To encourage gameplay, however, posts and comments can be tallied up and handed in at check-in times, and turned into points. These can be spent on rewards at the requests page at any time. Rewards include IC advantages such as items from home or temporary powers, as well as OOC advantages such as a role in a mod-run plot or game invites, and we're always open to suggestions.
why is my character here?
A sentient entity of infinite cosmic power has collected them. The Clock collects abandoned places and facsimiles of other worlds and within these spaces it will grant everything your characters' hearts desire.
Check the setting page ways for more information on the Clock, and the ways your character might have arrived in the game.
drops, hiatus, or canon updates?
Your character can choose to go home if they're able to find their way back to the right door, so dropped characters are considered to have returned to their worlds (or maybe wandered off into someone else's).
This mechanic can be used to canon-update, and can also be used to explain re-applications. Being temporarily lost could also be a good way to hiatus if you'd rather not autopilot. If you can't make a check-in, or you just want a place to let people know you can't get to tags, use the drops/hiatus page to take a hiatus.
Alternatively, a drop could mean this version of your character has died. Death is permanent. A dead character cannot be reapped with memories of the Clock.
We don't require any notification for a canon update, or for your character to have been gone a specific length of time, but we do ask that if their powers change significantly away from what they were when you apped, and you think they may now violate the power limits, you come and talk to us about it.
my character has no desires, terrible desires, or i don't want the setting to shift to their desires, is that okay?
That's fine, as long as you're comfortable with it — sometimes it's fun to inconvenience your characters.
If it's inconveniencing you, the player, however, feel free to take advantage of the fact that the Clock Box has a bit of a mind of its own. It may try to "help" characters regardless of what they want. It's also chaotic and may be incorrect or imperfect in the way it tries to give characters what they crave.
The Clock automatically makes sure that any being it takes into itself is incapable of destroying it (or ruining its fun), so as specified on the application page, some abilities may have to be nerfed, and some desires won't be answered. Powers will not be able to break, teleport or phase through the walls of each location, and area effects (such as noise, explosions, vibrations, weather) will be limited to the boundaries of the location. We often work with our players before acceptance to help revise or adjust powers, so don't worry if you're not sure.
The Clock is sentient, so if your character has telepathy, technopathy, or any other similar sensitivities you may want to come and talk to us for more information.
The Clock will never grant powers that wouldn't have been naturally accepted into the game.
It won't always be guaranteed to take characters where they want to go (this is so the mechanic of being lost and apart from everyone else is possible) but thinking about a location or person might sometimes work.
It won't create brand new areas for them (that is, if the character imagines a palace, they will not immediately find that palace sprung forth from their imagination) but it may lead them to similar areas. Most of the Clock locations are places that already exist. If you want to purchase a location from canon that is available as an activity reward.
It can't create life or bring people back from the dead. There are no NPCs living in its bounds that the player characters know of. Plenty of places show signs of previous habitation. It does seem to have a fair amount of non-sentient life within its bounds, though, from bees to trees to bacteria to elephant colonies.
It won't bring people from home just because the character wants to see them (however it might bring pets, which can be bought on the activity rewards page.)
It is unable to injure or kill its inhabitants. It may provide the knife your character wants to fight with, but it won't stab their opponent for them.
It is unable to forcibly control its inhabitants, so it can't force people to fall in love or do something they wouldn't normally.
There's an item request page for a reason, so feel free to drop us a line if you're unsure. And there are plenty of other characters in the game who can influence the surroundings for you, why not hit them up?
how big are locations? what defines an "area"?
All areas are one space, though we'll allow an occasional additional attachment or two (bathrooms, closets, a hidden passage, a laboratory viewing room, a cinema projector room, a bar's back room, etc.) Mostly, though, if there's a door it's going to lead to a new area in the clock, which is why the rooms found in houses tend to be found individually rather than clustered together like a house would normally be.
Within that limitation, an "area" is anything; indoors, outdoors, a sitting room, a beach, a bar, a park, a church, an industrial kitchen, a screaming void, an underwater city. It can be infinitely expansive and require your character to look for an unexpected door, or it can be a closet.
The Clock will do its best to protect fragile inhabitant bodies: open a door to Mars, and you might find yourself in a spacesuit, or a door filled with a shimmering water surface might have scuba gear next to it.
Anything that happens within an area is limited to that area. If the air is poison, for instance, the gas will not spread out the open doorway. An underwater city will not spill water through the doorway. Superpowers such as earthquakes or explosions will be contained in one area, and the same goes for sound.
Unless it is specified otherwise, an area can be assumed to obey the laws of physics and changes made to an area will remain in place whether or not anyone is in it. This includes leaving items behind, destroying or damaging parts of the area, etc. If you make major changes that others would notice it might be wise to post to the OOC community and/or reply to the location comment on the Settings page with details.
what kind of plot is there?
For now, the plot will primarily revolve around trope-based scenarios and slice of life, as well as any plot generated specifically by the players.
While there is not really an overarching mod plot, the origin and purpose of the Clock itself is a solvable mystery. Mod-run events tend to focus on CR building, using player match-ups. There are also seasonal events for mingling, and a monthly "intro log".
If you have an idea for a plot but couldn't run it using your characters, drop us a line here on this page. We are willing to allow active players to temporarily bring in NPCs for the duration of running a plot (such as a villain for PCs to kill or someone with love potion superpowers.)
Also give a yell if you need direction of any kind!
where does my character live?
Anywhere you want!
From the beds of an abandoned hospital to the branches of a tall tree, characters are welcome to use whatever is around them in order to live. We love to see innovation and creativity in this area and encourage you to chat with other players for inspiration.
You can handwave a character having all their basic necessities or you can play up the survival aspect as characters wander. If you prefer psychological horror, being lost or trapped and having little control over the surroundings is a strong underpinning theme of the game.
The more a location is used, the more "reoccuring" it becomes for other characters to stumble upon (which is the in-game explanation for people being more likely to use locations listed on the location page as a setting.)
Some characters have purchased canon locations from home, or their own apartments to use as a home base, so there is a developing set of locked or regularly inhabited places. These can be found in the locations list.
is this a sex game? do i have to write out smut?
No. If you and your thread partner want to handwave or fade to black rather than get explicit, for whatever reason, that's cool. We're not going to chase you down and make you describe some orgasming genitalia to stay in the game.
That said, this is a sex-positive game, designed to allow people plenty of room to play around with shipping tropes. There will be sexual content. If you're squeamish about fictional characters getting down and dirty, this really probably isn't the game for you. We expect every player to respect every other player's kinks and ship preferences, as well as abiding by the rules.
my character isn't a normal human! they're a —
So long as they can't break the setting (by reality manipulation, magically teleporting everyone home, for instance, or by being too big to fit through the door) then we are fine with them. However if you’re apping a character with abilities powerful enough to break the setting, or who are physically incompatible with a regular environment, you will need to consider adapting them and there is a section in the application for those changes. The Clock obviously provides an easy way to nerf or humanize your characters to make them playable.
As mentioned in the FAQ question above regarding character desires, we’re here to find a solution that both fits the game and meets your interests as a player; if that isn’t doable, consider the character in question may not be the one for this game.
The Clock will also meet any dietary requirements or similar needs (perhaps chains for a werewolf once a month) however nerfing is at player discretion. If it would be more fun for you to play your Mass Effect alien or Twilight vampire as being turned into a regular human, it's perfectly allowed and you can mention those changes in your application.
Drop us a line if you want to discuss a specific scenario.
i have a question that isn't answered here
Unsurprising, we in no way covered everything. Go ahead and reply to this post with your question. We'll link it, and the answer, here:
• What apps and programs can we make for the devices? And other information about hacking and the OS.
• Does the game have a fourth wall policy?
• Do characters pick their usernames themselves?
• Does the lockbox app support audio files?
• Can characters change their username?
• How far can characters fly in outdoor areas?
• Will the Clock provide illegal drugs?
• Can multiple keys to one location be bought on the AC Rewards page?
• Can I use fan translations as canon?
• Do I have to fill out a form before canon updating?
• Does Clock Box accept mythological OCs?
• Can characters who don't speak English communicate?
• Does the device follow characters?
• Do characters arrive fully healed of old injuries?
• Does rescue ease mental malaise?
• Can the one week rule be one week before acceptance rather than a week before submitting the app?
• What's the status on NPCs?
• Can animals move between locations?
• Are involuntary arrivals cleaned as well as healed?
• Can the device be broken?
• Do the doors change size?
• Should we contact the mods for canon updates with power changes?
If you need to contact the mods with feedback or private questions, or for any other reason, you can PM this account or PP our mod plurk, or alternately send an email to clockgods @ gmail
If you have a suggestion for the game or a future plot, feel free to also use this post! Comments are screened.
something about this makes me angry.
Them's the breaks. If you're looking for a similarly relaxed game we reccomend
eudio, or any other number of the really excellent small, interesting and unique games linked on ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
app_this_plz
no subject
no subject
Characters may recognize each other from popular canons at player discretion. We would advise anyone worried about it toss up a permission post, but please check with the other player before breaking the fourth wall.
For minor references or items from characters' worlds (DVDs, action figures, etc.) we would advise playing around with knock-offs of canons, such as Admiral USA comics or Galaxy Wars films, even if the canon is not currently in game.
Let us know if you need any further clarification,
The Clock Box team.