Gamebox Rules

[mysterium_mods]

Rules

Please take the time to read these fully. Any changes or updates to the rules will be announced on the OOC comm so that all players are aware.

• No godmoding or info-modding

The only character whose actions you may control is your own. Though there will certainly be occasions when it is up to players to NPC townsfolk or shopkeepers who their characters encounter, you may not control the actions of any other player's character without their express permission. This includes actions in combat: your character may throw a punch at another, but it is ultimately the other player's decision whether the punch connects.

Remember that no character, no matter how powerful, is purely invincible, especially in this setting. You cannot simply circumvent or ignore the consequences of your character's actions because you prefer to avoid the repercussions of how you've played of them.

Info-modding, which means allowing OOC knowledge to bleed into IC knowledge and inform a character's actions or opinions, is also expressly forbidden. If you can't think specifically where or when your character would have learned a piece of information, then you should check to make sure that they do indeed know it. The mods will ask players to retcon actions or threads that proceed from knowledge that a character would not actually have access to. If in doubt about whether your character would know a given piece of information, please check with the mods.

• Stay in character

Of course everyone has their own interpretation of a character and variations are inevitable. That said, players should make every effort to represent their character in ways that are consistent with their canon characterizations. We have a crack comm (miscterium) for playing out bits of absurdity and general goofing off, so please do make use of it.

• IC ≠ OOC

Please keep the border between in-character and out-of-character interactions, utterances, and knowledge clear. Don't superimpose a character's personality onto their player, and don't use your character as a mouthpiece to air your views with impunity. In-character actions will have in-character consequences. Out-of-character actions will have out-of-character consequences.

• Playercesting

Try to keep any interactions between characters you play to a minimum. In general, it is best to leave them implied or inferred, though if you want to write ficlets about them that is fine.

• Good Conduct and Good Citizenship

We expect people who play here to conduct themselves as adults and to be ethical in their interactions with fellow players. That means both respecting differences of preference, desire, as well as being thoughtful and self-reflexive, keeping in mind the enjoyment of others as well as one's self. And, of course, it means not harassing other players.

We think of all this as a matter of "good citizenship." If you are having a conflict with another player in a matter that pertains to the game, please don't hesitate to bring it to our attention. If you ask for our help, we will do our best to arbitrate and help to resolve the issue, though keep in mind that players are expected to conduct themselves as adults and that we are not going to act as anyone's parents.

• Activity

There's no activity check here. The gamebox is a place for low stress RP. We appreciate you telling us if you are dropping a character. If you haven't been active and someone else would like to play your character, we might contact you to ask about your status.

• Fourth-Walling of Cthluhu Mythos

We realize that many of Lovecraft’s creations (Cthulhu not least of all) have become popular mass culture icons and that some characters might well be able to justify making references to Lovecraft’s fiction. However for the sake of game atmosphere and the integrity of the game world, fourth-walling with regards to H.P. Lovecraft or any element of his world/ Mythos are not allowed. This includes characters slyly or secretly being in-the-know, but just keeping tight-lipped about it all.

For practical purposes, no character entering the game will have any knowledge of Lovecraftian fiction. You can imagine that any such knowledge or awareness has been fully erased from their minds upon entry to the world, leaving behind not so much as a trace. (If you absolutely positively could not play your character without them breaking the fourth-wall to make references to the Mythos, they are probably not a good match for the atmosphere of this setting.)

• Avoid Anachronisms

The game takes place in an early 1920's American setting. Please keep in mind historical accuracy when envisioning and describing the environment, its infrastructure, culture, and technology level. This may mean doing a bit of internet research into the era to make sure that you're keeping the tech level appropriate. Of course there will be times when needed historical info will be too obscure or specialized to be garnered from what google or wikipedia can provide. In those cases, use good judgment in trying not to break the setting. If checking up on historical facts and developments sounds about as much fun for you as a root canal, then this gamebox might not be a good match for you.

• You Can’t Hack the Thing That Should Not Be

Mysterium Tremendum is not a “Lovecraft Lite” setting, which means that NO character, no matter how powerful in canon, how clever, how resourceful, or how skilled, may punch out Cthulhu. Characters may, however, find that they have broken their arm punching out Cthulhu.

General Notes, Disclaimers, and Credits

Lovecraft was in many ways very much a product of his time, and the world of horrors he created bears some undeniable marks of racism, xenophobia, and Orientalism. There is both a fear and a fascination with the mysticism of the Other in Lovecraft’s Mythos. In fact, in some ways, it is the encounter with Otherness that most explicitly marks the dread of mysterium tremendum in Lovecraft’s works. The mods certainly do not condone any of these racist or xenophobic panics. We see them as a mark of both the historical moment and the fictional corpus of Lovecraftian horror, and thus don’t seek to erase or prettify them. Of the many horrific things that there are to encounter in Lovecraft’s world, these forms of prejudice may be the most enduring and the most quotidian, and it falls to each of us to maintain a critical consciousness of them and of the legacies they still bear out today. ~ Given the breadth of texts dealing with Lovecraft’s mythos and the challenge of such a vast body of work, the mods have drawn liberally from Chaosium Books tabletop RPG Call of Cthulhu and its sourcebooks. Many (though not all) of our maps are owing to these texts.