FAQ

[thecastle]

General Info

What is Ukimiya?

It’s another one of those murdergames that have been popping up lately! It’s a short-term run murder mystery game with a distinct fantasy flair, where 30 characters will get the chance to interact with each other, explore plot, and murder each other of course. The game will be run more mafia style (sevenvices cradleproject) than DRRP if you're familiar, and is expected to last about eight weeks.

What's it about? Well characters will find themselves on a beautiful remote island where they'll stay in an expansive castle and have all their basic needs provided for. The catch? While your host, the Sage is quite generous, unfortunately he has a mission to accomplish which can best be summed up as: survival of the fittest. He's really sorry about that, for what it's worth. At least his Teishu will be more than happy to provide you with some tea to ease your stress while you're here, as it's kind of his job after all.

One important thing to keep in mind is that your character can die over the course of the game, it wouldn't be much of a murdergame otherwise. If you’re not okay with this, it’s suggested you don’t app in! There will be opportunities for the dead to affect the game in their own way from the afterlife, but exactly how is a secret.

How do I play?

Ukimiya is a community based game; weekly logs will be posted by the mod account for mingling and general interaction. There's no network or anything similar, you'll have to rely on face to face interaction to talk to your fellow warriors.

Characters will also have the opportunity to talk to their generous host, the Sage, if they wish but this isn't required. From time to time his servant the Teishu will be available to talk to as well, but he does have an entire castle to attend to so he won't always be present.

What kind of characters can I play?

All characters must be age 16 or older, due to the content expected in a murdergame.

Characters must be human or humanoid, so elves, demons, and even Gods are all acceptable if they have a human form of their own! For example, Nowi from Fire Emblem would be OK as she has a human form of her volition even though she’s a dragon, but someone like Amaterasu from Okami would not. Characters must also be generally human sized otherwise they wouldn't be able to fit into the castle in the first place.

Completely robotic characters are not allowed, due to plot reasons. Characters that are not 100% robotic are fine such as Rhys from Tales from the Borderlands and Genji from Overwatch. We encourage you to check with us first if you have any concerns about character appability.

We do not take OCs and customizable protagonists (i.e, The Inquistor from Dragon Age, Shepard from Mass Effect.)

Is there a canon cap? What about a player cap?

Yes! There's a limit of two characters per canon, and one character per player!

What about powers and abilities?

Gone, sadly enough. Seems like the magical barriers surrounding the island interfere with their activation. The only exception to this is if the skill/ability is biological nature ( i.e. nightvision for vampires), though they would still get nerfed accordingly.

Are there any restrictions on item regains?

✲ฺ Only one weapon is permitted as a regain, and cannot be renewable.

✲ฺ Items that could be used as a weapon such as a baseball bat or wrench do not fall into the weapons category, unless they are modified to clearly be a weapon. Ex: A baseball bat with nails inserted into it.

✲ฺ Electronic devices are permitted for regains, however any communicative functions with the outside world will not function. Additionally, you'll find that there are no plugs or any way to recharge them so they'll be limited in use even if they rely on a battery.

✲ฺ Magical items are permitted for regains, however they will be stripped of all their magical properties. For example, a dragonstone would be reduced to a simple jewel.

Are there any activity requirements for the game? If so, what are they?

Yes, there are!

Activity check each week consists of submitting twenty comments from you in total, over two separate threads with two different characters. In both threads, you'll need to make 10 comments (top levels included). Comment spam only counts as one comment.

Example:

Yuri Lowell
Week 1
One thread- Yuuki Terumi (20 comments in total, 10 comments from Terumi)
Second thread- Isaac McDougal (20 comments in total, 10 comments from Isaac)

Whatever posts are eligible for AC will always be notated in the AC post! However, keep in mind that Investigation and Trial posts do not count for AC.

Voting in trials is also required, place holder votes are also accepted; there is no penalty for voting incorrectly.

Game Mechanics

So how do I get out of here? I was doing something important!

Unfortunately it seems you're trapped here for the time being. You're free to explore and try to figure out a way back on your own, but the Sage will be the first one to tell you that it's a fruitless endeavor. Don't worry though, because there will be an opportunity to return...if you survive. And while you certainly can just enjoy your time here, if you're successful in slaying one of your fellow warriors there's a perk you might just be interested in.

How do murders work?

Every week an inventive will be posted to entice characters into murdering one of their fellow warriors. After that characters will investigate to collect clues to help them figure out who the culprit is, which will be followed by a trial to find the guilty. Suspects will be selected by the Sage to help things along a bit, but don't expect much help from him beyond that. Once everyone's voted and the results are tallied, an execution of the individual who received the most results will take place.

What's the schedule like?

The IC/OOC schedule is 1:1, so keep this in mind before reserving as murdergames run at a fast pace!

On Sunday, killers and victims will be rolled via RNG. There’s no opting out or free passes, except in the case of extenuating circumstances, in which case you’ll be slotted in for the next week. When possible, killer and murder preferences will be honored. After that the schedule is as follows:

Incentive @ Tuesday 12 pm EST
Investigation @ Friday 6:30 pm EST
Trial @ 1pm EST Saturday

Trials run until 9pm EST; immediately after votes will be tallied and execution will follow.

So what happens if we vote for the wrong person?

Well, the Sage won’t kill you all if that’s what you’re worried about, and some poor soul would get scapegoated and killed. Wouldn’t that be terrible? Oh, and the successful culprit gets invulnerability, having proven themselves to be an outstanding warrior.

Don't worry though, all the cases will be solveable and you'll have 8 hours to work out who dun it! There will always be the chance the killer may get away with it, but that adds to the fun, no?

Can we have private conversations between characters?

While you can have private conversations either the Sage or the Teishu, private conversations between characters is not a feature of Ukimiya. That being said, if you think that something is better suited to being kept off the mingle log (romance, canon spoilers), you are free to have them just give us a heads up. You're also more than welcome to lock a portion of your top level to a specific character, such a prompt that takes place in one of the rooms at night.

✲ฺ
I have another question!


Feel free to leave us a comment here, drop us a PM, PP, or contact us individually! Lum can be reached at leyfi, and Limon at gibarta.

Comments

[curryparty]

SO HERE'S A RATHER SPECIFIC QUESTION RIGHT OFF THE BAT

I have a character in mind who is from a series that avoids any mention of age despite also having an entire chapter centered around birthdays, so basically all ages are guesswork. This guy is extra odd, because he is fairly small but also in the exact same grade and classes as the guy next to him, who I would guess to be about sixteen based on design?? His grades are described as "pretty good" so it isn't likely he skipped any grades, and it's definitely a high school equivalent, so.

Would it be too much of a stretch to app him in with the assumption that he's sixteen on that basis, or would you prefer characters who are more definitively 16+?

[thecastle]

Hello and thank you for your interest in Ukimiya! Could you tell us a bit more about the character and canon?

[curryparty]

The canon is Hibiki's Magic, a setting in which all magic requires some sort of sacrifice to cast (usually the own user's life, soul, voice, time, memories, etc.) and largely deals with the consequences of using these spells, as well as how the characters inevitably try (and/or fail) to cope with any and all potential trauma that comes afterwards. It mostly aims for bittersweet stories, but many of the backstories that lead to it involve things like very young children being experimented on (as well as outright turned into monsters due to said experimentation), the overall aftermath of war, misguided attempts at coping with the deaths of loved ones, and so on.

Asuma here is a student studying magic himself, although his story is more specifically about him watching his friend descend into madness as he pushes himself to research despite his own magic causing his brain cells to deteriorate with each spell. So... while he hasn't seen death up close, Asuma does have a personal understanding of the weight that comes with magic, which quite frankly can (and often will) lead to the death of the user.

[thecastle]

Thank you for the clarification, as neither of us are really canon familiar. Based on the experiences and canon we think Asuma is OK to app, as long as you list him as 16 in the application.

[curryparty]

Not surprising, it's not a terribly well-known one. Thank you so much!

[moes]

Hi there mods, quick question in regards to age suitability; would characters who have lived longer than their actual physical age still be applicable?

[thecastle]

Yes, that would be fine and the character would be applicable! :>

[notimmortal]

Regarding regains, would items like small electronic devices work if the canon uses magic as a fuel instead of electricity? Think like a cell phone, but the battery has magic energy stored in it instead of the chemicals we use.

[thecastle]

We've reviewed our past allowances for items, and since we've recently made the executive decision that all items that have magical properties will be stripped of them, the electrical item in your case would not function seeing as it is powered by magic.

[devilsphysician]

Another Regain question: Would something that usually comes in a set like say a first aid or surgical kit count as one item, or will pieces be considered separate?

[thecastle]

Something that would come in a set would count as one item!