Thicker Than Blood Upcoming Plot

[gamemakers]

1. Some of your character's loved ones will be brought to Panem for a giant televised reunion special! For one special week, your character will be allowed to play tour guide to a handful of their family, friends, arch-nemeses or comrades. With the cameras recording their every move and broadcasting it, they'll be taking their loved ones around the Capitol, into a mock 'mini-Arena', and for a short overnight trip out to the Districts.

I will be asking you guys to NPC for each other. A plotting post will go up for this closer to the date, but I wanted to put this plot idea out there early so people could start generating ideas. While I won't be going around enforcing this, I hope that people will work around a reciprocal system, where if another player NPCs for them, they're willing to extend the favor in turn. You're also free to NPC even if you aren't participating in the plot otherwise.

'Loved ones' can be construed pretty liberally - for example, Magneto could get Professor Xavier, Enjolras' 'loved one' could be Grantaire, or Maximus could get Commodus. It's limited to anyone the Capitol might conceivably be able to spin as someone important to the player character or vice versa. Loved ones can also be canonically dead characters - for example, Lily and James Potter.

We highly encourage people to NPC the characters who would never get apped or played in-game, such as unnamed parents and siblings, obscure minor characters, villains, or otherwise impossible-to-play types, and to play out threads that you may not otherwise ever get a chance to play in-game. We also encourage people to use this as a chance to test-drive characters they may want to app in a future cycle. Please feel free to use this as a chance to run your own mini-plots within this plot. I would like to give you lots of room to run.

At the end of the reunions, NPC characters will be safely returned to their homes. Whether your character believes that is up to you.

2. If actually bringing in NPCs of your character's loved ones would be game breaking, we are offering an alternative. The Capitol will be providing 24/7 television coverage not only of the reunions, but of the characters who have been 'left out', with never-before-seen footage! I'll be selecting 6-7 characters, closer to the date of the plot, for the Capitol to do big, televised exposés on regarding their lives before being brought to Panem. You are also welcomed and encouraged to write your own exposés, but for time management reasons I, personally, can only take this many characters and will be working closely with the players for how to present them. I'll especially be looking to work with new players and OCs for this.

For this section, we welcome people NPCing with each other to write out flashback sections or writing them out on their own. I'll be creating a format for people to post their exposé in. Naturally, the Capitol will put a spin on it - for example, the exposé on Venus will portray her as a heartless killer, their little sociopath princess, who murdered her family when she was a child because she was always that bloodthirsty. This can also be a way for characters to find out about developments in their canon beyond their pull point, including up to the point of their deaths, or an excuse to expose deep dark secrets in the least flattering light possible.

Characters can and should be a little concerned that the Capitol's reach seems to be extending into other worlds so much.

THIS IS NOT A PLOTTING POST. Questions can go below, but there will be several posts regarding this as we approach the event. The plot is anticipated to last 2-3 weeks and to happen sometime in late April or early May.

Comments

[tis_allgood]

Is this limited to Tributes only?

[gamemakers]

Any character the Capitol would reasonably want to spotlight. So Tributes, high profile stylists, mentors, so on.

[pythianjudgment]

If one of the 'loved ones' can only communicate telepathically, but the power serves no other purpose than communication, would they be allowed to keep that power while in the Capitol?

(The specific example I'm asking about is Terezi's lusus. She's a dragon, and it's implied in canon that they relay words through telepathy.)

[tis_allgood]

Thanks!

Also, considering some logistics: are 'loved ones' only allowed to be NPC'd by other players? If you wanted to play the NPC for your own character would that be allowed?

[privilegecheck]

Would it be all right if we asked friends out-of-game to NPC our characters' loved ones?

[deafscythe]

seconding this one

[gamemakers]

I'll talk to the other mods, but for this moment we're going to say a tentative no.

[gamemakers]

You can NPC your own characters!

[gamemakers]

She'll get some sort of speech-translation device to make it auditory.

[69problems]

If you do, will you need to have a specific account for them, or could you just use your usual account and note that they're there?

[pythianjudgment]

Okay, that works! Thanks. ouo

[libertin]

Do NPC's need their own accounts? 8D

[gamemakers]

They can have them! We'll also set up an NPC account for players to communally use too. Just let a mod know about the account so we don't go "who's this goon?".

[gamemakers]

Either works!

[earthborn]

Can you give an example of what would constitute 'game-breaking' in this context?

[gamemakers]

Game-breaking would be, for example, a character who would no longer be playable (for whatever reason) if their loved ones were brought in - for example, if your character would have a nervous breakdown, if it would derail all the development you had planned, or so on.

[gamemakers]

We actually have changed our minds! You can invite out-of-game players. We'll give you more details on this as it approaches.

[gamemakers]

Yes, you will be able to invite out-of-game players.

[splendid_roman]

How do their loved ones think they've got there? Would it matter if the characters wouldn't take their loved ones on a tour, or would they be 'encouraged' to?

[gamemakers]

More details on this will be coming later, but characters will very much be 'encouraged' to take them on the tour. The nature of the characters' arrival will be announced with more details shortly.

[carnagecarnival]

If the "loved one" in this case, a lusus/parent, was a kinda big (sentient!) sea-goat monster, would capitol be able to perhaps supply:
-A big muzzle (like the way R from "Warm Bodies" has a muzzle)
-A significant amount of meat? (Especially fish?)
-A non-chlorinated (he has gills) pool, or if not, a way to get a fair bit of water brought to the beastie. Maybe a hose?
Alternately, If he could be shrunk down...

(To make clear, it can (somehow) move across land and so be shown around the city if it must be, but im saying that it doesn't particularly like to move on land so that it will not have the energy to rampage or anything so destructive like that. It would also have supervision at all times during the week.)

I really really want this to work out but I want to make sure it can be doable within capitol. Would there be any way we could swing this? (If not, I will try and work on back-up plans.)

(ANOTHER ALTERNATE OPTION: could the sea-goat be given temporary place in the aquarium?)

[gamemakers]

Yes, all of those could be supplied.