FAQs

Frequently asked questions.

What kind of a game is this?
Depends on the week, really. The game is driven by the tests that are conducted by the Doctor, and these are chosen at random. Some of these will be simple or silly. Some will be horror based. There will be gross stuff, death, injury, and the potential for angst, torture, and horror. Having said that, other tests will be humor based. But be aware that your character will have bad things done to them, and some of it will be completely unavoidable.

Also, this game has a lot of physical violence. A lot. The current record for the number of subjects involved in a single fight is 52, and that was not even part of an event. Injuries and death are common enough that we have established systems for them.

There are plots on-going that revolve around escape attempts, who is holding them, and what do they want? What happens when someone is 'terminated'? Not all of the subjects are what they appear, and even the Doctor has motivations that are in question.

Please note, this is a fast moving, active game. We have had days with over 50 posts in a single day.

What kinds of characters are allowed?
Characters from anime, video games, TV, and movies are all welcome. No original characters, religious icons, real people, or political figures. Sorry. If you are looking at a very non-human character (Pokemon, Digimon, that talking cat from FFVII), please contact a mod for approval before applying. If they have two of the following three, we'll probably accept them unless there is a strong reason not to: they can speak/communicate, they can open doors, they have fingers and can type.

Where are they?
The Facility. Facilities, actually, since there are three of them that the subjects end up in at different times. Facility 1 is completely enclosed, there are no doors that lead out and no windows. For all they know, they're on the moon. When apps are processed, the new 'rats' wake up in Facility 1.

Facility 2 is a twin to Facility 1, but more luxurious. There's a swimming pool, decent food, even carpet on the floors. Facility 2 is rarely seen.

Facility 3 is an entirely different world. The 'rats' wake up laying on the ground in the middle of a city, with all of their powers released and their primary weapons returned. The locations vary. In the past they have visited Manhattan (So You Want to be a Wizard), Death City (Soul Eater), Isle Nublar (Jurassic Park), Victorian London (D Gray Man), and Rapture (Bioshock). There are usually some sort of roaming monster for random encounters and gratuitous violence. Facility 3 trips are typically three weeks long.

How do the tests work?
Tests are posted after midnight (EST) on Saturdays (so really stupidly early Sundays). The 'rats' will wake up with whatever effects on Sunday morning. A lot of the interpretation will be up to the writers. How would your character react to waking up blind? Suffering from delusions? A vampire?

Where the heck are the tests coming from?
Wine Glass of Doom. Not kidding. We have one hundred and seventy ideas in a glass, and we're pulling them at random. a grand bulk of our tests come from player suggestions. Have an idea for a test? Add it to the plot suggestion post! There is always room in the glass for more ideas.

I want to play/torture a character. Now what?
Go check the taken list and see if your character is available. If so, add a reserve. Apps are open from 12:01am EST on the 18th of each month and run to 11:59pm EST on the 24th of each month. Apps are processed on the 25th. Due to the limited number of rooms, applications can be placed on a waiting list if there is no room for new characters.

This character has a split personality/alter ego/demon trapped inside of them. Is that two characters? Can I play just the one personality/alter ego/demon?
No. We are defining characters by physical bodies. If the demon is sealed inside of the human, it's part of that character. Ditto on split personalities and alter egos. If they're in the same body, it's defined as one character, even if there are multiple voices.

I want to blow something up/destroy a room!
Go for it! Assuming you found a way to do it, since the characters are at half power and the walls are really sturdy. Damage will remain until the following Sunday, when it will 'magically' be repaired. External walls can be cracked and banged up, but cannot be knocked down or have holes punched in them. It's for your characters' own good.

If your character has really managed to level something (blowing out the ceiling in the first floor cafeteria, leveling the biodome, etc.) and it's something other characters are going to notice, feel free to post a damage report. It lets the other writers know about things that their characters will notice. Just tag them with 'damage report'.

My character speaks English/Japanese/Italian/Latin/Klingon. How are they going to talk to anyone?
Microchips in their brains. Not kidding. There is a common language for speaking, reading, and writing, and a microchip in their brains that's translating from home languages to this common language. It's pretty much transparent, since it's going on within their own brains. It's not Japanese, or English, or whatever, but they can all read it and speak it. With concentration they can switch to their native languages, but it will feel unnatural.

Which is how they can all read the stuff in the rec area. Phrases that don't translate well end up in the original language (honorifics, profanity, greetings, exclamations, etc.).

Please note, none of the subjects actually know there's a microchip. They just communicate along and occasionally go 'this is really weird'.

I want to modify my laptop/the TV/furniture/build something.
Short answer, yes. But any modifications of machines/laptops needs mod approval. Beforehand. This includes your elite hacker breaking into things. Odd shenanigans on the network need mod approval. Please refer to the hacking system to see what posts can be broken into, by whom, and how to make sure no one breaks into a post that you don't want hacked.

Within the limitations of your character and the supplies at hand, you can modify things. This does not mean your character from Feudal Japan can write complicated code, or your sweet school girl can rip things up that are bolted to the floor. Very, very securely. Think team effort of trained weight lifters securely.

It does mean that a talented computer person can get command line access and write some code. There's nothing to hack outside of journals, but with a lot of time and work, your character could write a simple program or game. It depends on the skill and the amount of time devoted. For our inventors/scientists/engineers, power sources are in short supply. There are no outlets. It looks like everything is running off of battery packs. Also, no matter the skill level or how many times a character does it, if your character opens an access panel on a machine, they stand a 50/50 chance of electrocution. Bad enough to knock them back and make them wish they had not done that.

Also, please note the rules on resets: If the item is outside of your character's personal room or is inside of their closet, the item will be reset to it's original condition and be put back in it's original place. If it is in the character's personal room, than it will not be reset. This is OOC information that characters will have to figure out on their own.

Can my character hack posts?
Short answer? Sure, if they can pull it off. We have a system for hackers, which can be found here. If your character is a hacker in canon, they would have been assigned a rank when they were assigned a room. When making a post that is locked to someone, add a percentage to show how hard it is to hack. This will determine which hackers have the skill to break into it.

Keep it reasonable. Your computer expert will be able to lock posts down well, your ninja from feudal Japan will be pretty bad at it until they are taught by other subjects. This is an area where characters can improve through game play. Hacker ranks can be updated for characters that are making a serious, concerted effort to improve.

Can I have a yaoi/yuri pairing?
Of course. Yaoi, yuri, gay, lesbian, bisexual, threesomes, or any combination thereof.

What happens if we die?
Good rule of thumb? Don't. It would annoy the Doctor to lose a subject.

If your character dies, the body disappears. This cannot be stopped. You'll need to contact the mods to see how many days your character is out. This will be at random, and cannot be sooner than the next Sunday reset. Maximum is 10 days (since we're using a ten sided die). Also, when your character is returned, they will have vague, hazy memories of massive amounts of pain, as though they were treated without any kind of painkillers, and there is no guarantee that all damage will be repaired. Just that the subject will be alive. Also, there is a one week recovery period where the character will have no supernatural abilities and they will rank a 1 on the fight system. Meaning that our resident bat wing chihuahua could beat them. Please keep this in mind.

The policy on death is driven by the game's plot, and is subject to change as the plot progresses.

Something insanely cool just happened in canon/I just got caught up. Can we do canon updates?
Yes, we do allow canon updates. When this happens, the character disappears from the facility for forty-eight hours. When they return, they will remember everything from their first time in the facility, along with whatever new canon knowledge they have picked up. It's handled like they were sent back to their home world for however long, then returned to the facility.

Any scars or lasting damage done in the Facility will disappear with a canon update, since the body will be updated to the new point in canon.

I was in a previous game with my character, can they just switch worlds/keep their RP history?

It's generally not our first choice, since it can make things complicated, but if you have a compelling reason, contact a mod and talk us into it. Please note, that you'll be convincing us it's a good idea, not asking for permission. This is a situation that requires pre-approval by a mod before the app is submitted. If we agree, the writer will be required to submit a write up of the character's additional history in their app, and that write up will be required to be posted to the character's profile if they are accepted.

Where is the Doctor? How much can s/he see?
The Doctor is not in the facility. At all. But there are hundreds of cameras and microphones to allow s/he to record the results, and s/he can communicate through posts and speakers at his/her whim. Assume anything posted can be read by the Doctor.

The characters know nothing about their situation when they arrive, but ICly, they will be updated pretty darn quickly by the other subjects. The information they have is conflicting and very confusing. Just the way we like it.

What's with those observations that go up each week?
As a signal that one experiment has ended and the next is starting, the Doctor will post a list of observations. This is IC information, and the characters can read and react. Sometimes the Doctor will even post back. Don't take the observations too seriously, they're primarily used to make the characters react and are often exaggerations or outright lies, but we also use them to track activity.

Writers can submit suggestions for observations each week, if there is something they would like to see for plot reasons or just because it's far too much fun.

What's with the collars?
Every subject will wake up with a seamless, rounded metal band around their neck like a collar with their room number engraved on it. It's about 1/2" wide, more like a necklace than a thick collar. Your character can slip a finger underneath it, it's not tight, but it's not coming off any time soon. Very smooth and hypoallergenic, so you shouldn't have to worry about chafing or allergic reactions.  You will not be able to break this band, at all, so don't get it stuck on things.

Collars will change colors for certain events, so keep an eye out for collars going black or gold. A few characters will be given a blue collar when they are accepted, due to needing to drain excess power off of them. Typically, if your character is a 10.0 on the fight scale, they get a blue collar.

What if someone is on hiatus?
If a character is on hiatus, and the writer has made no specific plans for where the character is, they are considered 'catatonic'. This means that the character is not in the facility, but their room is still waiting for them with all of their belongings. Please note, there is IC evidence that characters that are catatonic are being experimented on (with no painkillers or regard for their health), but the characters will only have vague, hazy memories of pain when they wake back up. Migraines and body aches are also a common side effect.

The current hiatus policy is driven by the game's plot and is subject to change as the game progresses.

What happens if someone drops?
They just disappear. If someone new apps the same character, they can decide if they want the other characters to remember them or not. If the same writer returns with the same character, they are able to retain their memories from their first visit, assuming no other writer has apped and played that character since.

The policy on retaining memories after a drop is driven by the game's plot and is subject to change.

What can my character do?
Depends on where the subject is. In Facility 1 and 2, assume 50% of what they can usually do. Super powerful characters have extra restrictions placed on them during the app approval process. So yes, your ninja an scale the walls but no summoning of giant snakes, your alchemist can do basic conversions but no huge cannons, and shinigami eyes work but the Death Note does not. General guidelines can be found here. Please ask any questions during the app process so everyone is clear.

In Facility 3, full powers are available and the character's main weapon is returned. Please use common sense, do not god mode (when doing anything to another character using powers, check in with the other writer), and mod-approval is required before any apocalypse style powers are unleashed on the populace. Most of the time we're good with it, but we need to know ahead of time that we're going to have a bunch of dead rolls to do.

How do we post?
Post to the community, a_facility, for all in-character posts. These are in first person and represent the journal system in the game. Logs go to a_facility_log, and these are in third person and describe scenes and actions between characters. Plotting, notices, and anything else goes to a_facility_ooc.

Where's the friend add/remove?
There isn't one. For a variety of reasons, including keeping both the mods and writers sane, The Facility is played entirely in communities. The only things found in journals are profile information and constructive criticism posts. There are no friends lists to maintain, but feel free to friend other characters' journals. There's no rule against it.

How do I get started?
Once your character is accepted and all set, post! Ask questions! Meet your suite mates! And, of course, deal with whatever torture the Doctor has come up with. We will typically put up a suite log in the week apps are processed, to give everyone a quick jump-start of interaction. These logs allow characters to randomly mingle with their roommates.

What the heck does the Doctor's user name mean?
A Skinner box is the basis for the game, also (and more accurately) known as an operant conditioning chamber. Yes, one of the mods has a degree in psychology.

What the heck is a TA?
A TA is a 'technical assistant' for Facility. They're part of the staff. These brave souls assist the mods with running the comm. The TAs are your fellow players who know the rules inside out and upside down. You can contact them with questions about the plot, rules, observations, advice, damage rolls, death rolls, and all of your general game play needs. They also keep an eye on things, and will nudge you if you need to change a post or if you forget to lock something/tag something.

What the heck is the waiting list all about?
There are 160 rooms in the facility, meaning that we can't have more than 160 subjects. If there are no rooms available, accepted apps go on the waiting list to wait for a room to open up. This is run as first come/first served based on when the app is completed. On certain occasions, roomless subjects are just dumped in the biodome so they can start interacting in the game.