Plot Announcement: Curfew

[etcircenses]

Over the past couple of days, tributes may have noticed increased activity and discussion between Peacekeepers and that Escorts may have appeared to be on edge. Any attempts by tributes to discover what is happening are quickly shut down, but in the end they don't have long to wait for an answer.

As of today, Tributes will be told via Peacekeeper, Escort, or one of the notices now hung up around the Tribute Centre, the following order:

Mandatory Tribute Curfew

11pm - 7am

For the safety of citizens and Tributes a curfew is now in effect for all tributes. Between the hours listed above, all Tributes must report to and remain within their designated district suites. Any Tributes who fail to return to or are discovered outside their assigned floor between these hours will face disciplinary action.

You didn't think it had escaped the Capitol's notice how many of your little acts of rebellion occurred after dark, did you?

While characters can of course try to ignore the curfew or sneak out after hours at any time it is important that all players be aware that because of the high level of surveillance inside the Tribute Centre this is not something they will be able to get away with and there will be a punishment scale in effect for disobedience.

Punishment scale
- 1st infraction: 24 hour house arrest within their district suite.
- 2nd infraction: Tributes will have their communicators taken away and contained for a longer period in their suites.
- 3rd infraction: Tributes will be 'marked' for their disobedience and possibly imprisoned in a Peacekeeper cell for a day.

If you do decide to have your character ignore and invoke these consequences we ask that you please notify the mods so we can track it. Also please be aware that Peacekeepers will not be gentle when bringing in troublemakers, tasing and bruising can and will likely happen depending on how cooperative the character is.

Alternatively, characters can apply for passes to be out after curfew or spend the night in another District's suite, which will be considered on a case-by-case basis by the mods. These passes are offered as rewards to rule-abiding tributes so be aware that characters with a history of troublemaking will be more likely to be rejected and those currently with brands or cuffs will be denied outright.

As of now this plot is intended to run up to the next arena. Questions regarding this plot can be left in the comments below.

Comments

[pythianjudgment]

Will characters who have been branded be given a plot opportunity to "make up for their transgressions" in some way? I know that my character would be interested in trying to improve her image with the Capitol in order to earn a curfew pass, even just for the Tribute tower, but I'm not sure how to go about showing that in some meaningful way.

[gamemakers]

We'll work on brain storming some things to get that going, it sounds like a solid idea!

[pythianjudgment]

Okay, thank you!

[failbender]

Is this going to be a long-term thing past the arena? Because if it's for just until next arena it seems fine but it would be extremely limiting to doing sneaky stuff and I feel like the constant never-ending surveillance and extreme discipline is more than enough for making that hard already.

There's a point where yes, it's IC on their part but also a little heavy-handed from a "how do we work with this as rpers?" perspective. If this goes past the arena until D13 it'll be hard to work around for anything.

EDIT: Also kinda unfun from a CR perspective of people not being able to sleep in their SO's rooms.

[gamemakers]

We are not currently sure of the scope of it, right now we are waiting to see what people do with it.

Unfortunately there have been issues recently with a lot of characters ICly not responding/being able to respond without breaking IC/OOC knowledge to the environment, so hopefully players having an issues connecting what they OOC know, and what their characters ICly understand, without them having to be drastically punished. Smaller scale punishments like this have been requested repetitively lately on both the HMD and outside of it, including by yourself, and this is one of a few plans we are working with on this end. It is one of several ends we are spreading out from the HMD, and this is only the Capitol part (and only part of it). Things with both 13 and rebellion are going to be coming up soon.

However, it also does leave a lot of time for players to still interact, and will encourage new and possibly unexplored CR with those within your district.

[failbender]

I think small scale punishments make sense but I thought that was for if they sassed off to people or got too vocally rebellious since that was the issue being discussed. A curfew ban seems a backwards way to handle that. They can still sass Capitol people and vocally disagree with the Capitol and this doesn't set any punishments for that.

I can see the appeal of dealing with it as a short term thing in everyone being cranky over it and CR with their district mates but longterm it does nothing to stop people from sassing Capitol officials and the proposed punishments all involve being cut off from CR rather than making it. It'd be different if a few people were stuck in a cell together like in the penny plot or some kind of public punishment that was dramatic for people to react to after and have CR with over, but as it stands, it seems sort of arbitrary, and while it opens a few doors, it closes others and the actual punishments involved don't trigger any CR, they cut characters off.

This opens one door for CR but limits in a lot of other respects without actually solving the sass problem that was brought up.

[etcircenses]

Punishments for small talk are being worked out with mods as well as rebel avenues (so that more people will know what is feasible for their characters to get away with on small scale, and to encourage larger scale plotting).

In the meantime, this is meant as an opportunity for tributes to get on Capitol's good side, which will then further allow freedom as well as stamp down on some rebellious speaking when characters seek to appeal to capitol.

It will foster District CR but it doesn't stop tributes from interacting during the day or even using their communicators during the night. On an IC level, we don't feel as though Capitol would give pause over separating couples, but on an OOC level feel it might spark threads for said couples dealing with their separation as well as reaching out to other tributes in that absence for comfort and the like. Or it may encourage said tributes to try aligning with capitol for the sake of seeing their loved one. As said, there are still plenty of opportunities for tributes to interact during the day as the curfew only lasts for eight hours at night.

[failbender]

That does sound good if those other things are being done alongside it.

I think the only thing I'd suggest is tweaking the punishments a bit? Punishment 1 allows for district CR which is fine as is. But Punishment 2 wouldn't really effectively do much more than punishment one in making people thread more with district CR. And punishment 3 sounds like total isolation.

If punishment 2 were tweaked to have something else that prods more CR like IDK some kind of public shamey aspect or something, and punishment 3 maybe allowed for people being punished to talk at the same time in the cell, that might counterbalance the being locked off from CR in the game as a whole better.

Especially punishment 3. From the way it's worded, it's not possible to tell if it's solitary. From an in universe perspective solitary would make sense. From an ooc rp perspective it doesn't really further CR or do anything but cut the player off from rping. If people get in trouble around the same time and wind up branded and stuck in there, the ability to thread in the cell like they could in the penny plot would be good. ICly it's less punishment than solitary but ICly it'd also let the Capitol overheard their conversations so there's plenty of IC excuses.

I don't know if it's meant to already be set up that way but it doesn't mention it so I thought since it was progressively cutting them off from others that it'd be solitary. If it's not, that'd be great.

[etcircenses]

In this particular case, the aim was not for tributes to disobey. The goal was, with having punishments that were unpleasant for characters, said characters would be more likely to comply with capitol or at least not speak up.

While public shaming scenarios would be unpleasant for characters, it may give a high appeal to players, which would then promote more to have their characters speak up and be disobedient, which was a noted problem. This is so as to dissuade capitol back-sassing both OOCly and ICly.

This said, public shaming type scenarios are being looked at for future ideas in plots unrelated to this one, in which such CR can happen.

As for solitary, it would not be long-term. It would a short-term punishment lasting only a day.

[failbender]

Okay, I think I get you now. The punishments are meant to be boring not just icly but oocly so it discourages people from acting out and the mods are coming up with ways people can channel it to better places with the capitol plot threads you're working on putting together.

The limitations are there for tone and some aspects like the punishment aren't meant to be entertaining or provide other CR options, just be boring, but then that means people will channel things into plotting.

[etcircenses]

Yup, exactly! We're going to be putting up some plotting seeds and the like as soon as we can, and we would like people to be channeling their characters' frustrations in that direction.

[failbender]

Okay, that's fair.

I was just concerned because it closes some doors so I was trying to see what all ways we could get CR out of it but if it's meant to have some CR benefits but mostly to shunt people in the direction of other doors that are opening for plots and CR that's very reasonable.

Thanks for explaining.

[iflipmyhair]

Does this curfew extend to talking on the communicators?

[etcircenses]

Tributes will be able to use communicators as normal through curfew hours!

[ka_sera_sera]

Are they not allowed to after curfew, then? If they try will the communicators work, and will they have the same consequences that they would have had if they'd tried to leave their floor?

[etcircenses]

Apologies for the previous comment being unclear, we meant that communicators can be used at all times with curfew hours referring to the 11pm-7am period. So even if tributes are separated by district at night they will still be able to converse as normal over the network.

[ka_sera_sera]

Okay, thanks! Sorry, I tend to be easily confused. XD

[fintastic]

Will there be any kind of announcements in the training center that curfew's getting close? I'm thinking, for example, if someone is doing some training and lost track of time, would they announce five minutes til curfew or anything like that? Alternately, if someone is rushing back to their room at 11:01PM, will they get in trouble? Just curious, since it could be something fun/interesting (OOCly) to play with, and wondering how attentive she'll need to be!

eta, sorry one other thing. Would the curfew be super top secret, or something that might get out to the public? (Sorry, I have a lot of oddly specific plotting ideas!)

[gamemakers]

Splitting these up!

1) An announcement would probably go through!

2) If they were clearly heading back they would not end up officially "punished" but there would be nothing to stop them running into a peacekeeper who wanted to put the fear of Snow into them and harass them into thinking they're punished, if that seems like a fun thread for you!

3) not super top secret, but they wouldn't broadcast it either. Because of that, it would be entirely believable to run into gossip in the Capitol like "Did you hear the tribute center is being sprayed for intergalatic bed bugs? That's why no tributes are out partying!" and "I heard they've all been caught by a crazy religion those trolls are teaching and need to be home at night for their blood stone circle meetings."

[fintastic]

That all sounds terrific! Thanks! And our blood stone circles are colorful and delightful tyvm.

[gamemakers]

The prettiest blood stone circle.

[earthborn]

How does this curfew apply as relates to things like the bidding system, for which I have always seen it as implied that overnight stays might be common?

[gamemakers]

That would be dealt with on a case by case basis when bidding plots are submitted to the mods.

[earthborn]

What about when these things are presumed to have been handwaved, and interactions would have been between vaguely defined NPCs and player characters?

I'm not objecting, please understand, I just want to know what the limitations are, so that I know what's happening to my character.

[gamemakers]

No worries! With the new change in bidding, bidding is only to be used as a plot element with in the context of a specific mod approved plot.

[earthborn]

Is this to be understood in-character as a change in official policy surrounding the leasing of tribute time, or is this more along the lines of a dearth of consumer demand in the face of recent events? More plainly: are they not being requested, or are they not being allowed to be requested?

[gamemakers]

This is a relevant detail,and we were coming more from the ooc angle. let me take it to the mods and get back to you. For now if it comes up before you hear back, assume they just aren't getting requests lately with no really explanation why.

[gamemakers]

Ok, so we discussed this, and decided, given the plot with Eva, that the Capitol is just being very picky about who they let bid.

They can hear bits and pieces of this down the grapevine, or just think they're not being bid on, however it works best to be played out IC.

[confidentially]

Will the curfew apply to mentors?

[gamemakers]

Yes. "Good" mentors will, however, have an easier time getting passes.

[aintyourdad]

Is there going to be a specific place we can go to "apply" for a pass? Is the pass just like a one-night thing? Can longer-term or more general passes be applied for?

[gamemakers]

We're setting up a place players can apply for passes! We may have both options, or only one night passes, we are still discussing.

[burningdaylight]

Potentially silly newbie question, but my character would want to stick close to familiar faces as much as possible -- what sort of consequences might he face if he resists the idea of being separated and heading back to his own district? Is it like the 24 hour house arrest mentioned above for folks defying curfew hours, or something else? Thanks!

[gamemakers]

Sorry for the delay in responding!

He'd still face the same consequences as everyone else, even though he's new. The curfew is only from 11pm-7am though, so his mentors/escort/stylist may try to convince him to just give in and accept it.

If you'd like to work out something specific though, please let us know and we could work out a special plot or something if he does want to try to defy the curfew!

[burningdaylight]

Awesome! I'll definitely get back to you guys if that becomes the situation.

[oopsright]

If a character visits another character's suite just before curfew and doesn't leave until after curfew is well over (10:30PM goes in and leaves minutes after 7AM), would Peacekeepers be...notified? Or would that go unnoticed?

Are the Tributes's rooms checked to make sure the Tributes are in their assigned suites? Or is security THAT high and each Tribute's movements are tracked, every minute, every second?

Just to be clear.