Gameplay mechanics

=G A M E P L A Y. M E C H A N I C S ;=

Power dampening ;
Characters with supernatural abilities will find those powers made less effective upon arrival in Sacrosanct. This restriction remains regardless of whether the character is on the station or on Asphodel, and regardless of how long they are in-game (excepting, of course, periodic powers events). To put it simply, the same certification stamp printed on characters at the subatomic level also dampen whatever physiological link they have to supernatural abilities. Characters capable of massive nuke-sized fireballs might only be able to set a building on fire; powerful psychics might only be able to read thoughts within a certain radius of a subject. Tech abilities and equipment may also be powered down if a) the science is bogus (like sentient mitochondria) or b) the tech affords too much of an advantage (like Lain being able to rewrite human memories).

If your character has a great deal of extraordinary and game-breaking abilities, such as teleportation, time manipulation, magic, telepathy, a gun that blows up planets, etc, or anything that puts them at a significant advantage over every other character in the game, we are going to ask for your own suggestions on power limitations on the application, to be approved by the app team. We expect every character to have their ways of triumphing and every character to have ways of being defeated, even if said character was the most powerful individual in their original setting. This goes for heroes as well as villains. We want to see your suggestions for limitations because you, the player, would know best how to level down a character without making him/her/it unrecognizable or unplayable. You are welcome to lock abilities, downgrade overpowered weapons or items, or even AU weaknesses that don’t exist in canon, for example playing a vampire character that suddenly finds the blood of willing victims sustains him/her far better than the unwilling. For powers like teleportation and telepathy, we have in the past asked players to keep these abilities confined to whatever Zone or city the character is currently in. Another suggestion for power limiting would be a ‘shot limit,’ where some ability that used to come naturally to the character in canon suddenly becomes extremely difficult and physically taxing and can only be used so many times a day.

As a rule of thumb, if your character has any kind of destructive ability that would damage the station significantly, like a hull breach, or kill another character without them being able to stop it, you want to limit that ability. Blowing up buildings is fine as any involved characters may be able to escape such damage. Instant kills and blowing up entire cities are not fine.

If your character has ANY kind of ability that would directly affect another character in a way that can’t be countered, for example a telepath who always knows where everyone is all the time, you the player MUST ALWAYS OOCLY ASK PERMISSION of the other involved player(s) before your character uses that ability in-game, and this is regardless of whether or not that ability has been limited already. An example of an ability that CAN be countered is super strength, and this would not require OOC permission from other players to utilize. Mind powers, reading the future, telekinesis, and abilities like time manipulation cannot be countered and thus require OOC permission before they are used in-game.

In appropriate cases, the app team reserves the right to recommend greater power limitations than what has been suggested by the player in the app.

Non-human characters ;
Are generally appable. In some cases, Sacrosanct's quantum teleporters will adjust a character's physiology to make them more compatible with the station's environment. Na'Vi, for instance, would be able to breathe oxygen, while Cortana, an AI, might be given a mechanical body or some kind of mobile platform to insert her disk into. As usual, ask a mod if you are unsure how a character will be affected by Singularity's setting.

Using the network and logs comm ;
For network posts, please specify in the subject line if a post is text, audio, video, hologram, website or game (as in, taking place in one of Sacrosanct's two MMOs), and if the post is public or filtered. For the logs community, logs can be written in either prose or action format, and be any combination of messaging, gaming and physical interaction.

Filtering and filter hacking ;
By default, all privacy filters offered through Sacrosanct's security settings are strong enough to divert most hackers. Characters should have canonly demonstrated (or strongly implied) technological ability to hack through filters, and players must get one another's permission to do so.

Game time ;
To put it simply, game time depends on player activity. There is no one day = one day IC kind of counter. However, there are certain deadlines imposed on things OOCly regardless of how much time has passed ICly, with the assumption that the amount of time passed is comparable. An example of this would be the one month limit placed on Asphodel visits before characters' station certification expires (see Station Habitation).

Events ;
Every now and then, mods will announce events, many of which will be plot- or status-related. Some will affect all characters; others will be opt-in.

Activity checks ;
Happen every other month on the 15th. These are fairly lax for now, and mostly involve just showing us that you're around, but they must be completed to remain in the game.

Economy ;
There is no real (official) currency in Singularity. Instead, Hypatia and the Underworld use a credit and trade system. Jobs performed award a character work credits which in turn give them greater privileges and a nicer lifestyle on Sacrosanct. Some jobs offered in the Underworld do not deal in credits at all, but item awards or trades. You can learn more on the Job Board.

Job Board ;
Contains jobs available through both Hypatia and the Underworld. The Underworld listings are provided as an OOC reference; characters will ICly have to find and gain acceptance in the Underworld before players can claim any jobs from them. Hypatia's listings are available from the start, provided characters still have their station certification.

Station Habitation ;
Upon entry into this universe, Sacrosanct scans each character's complete atomic structure and uploads it (just as it does when characters use teleporters). It also stamps characters' particles with a unique certification signature, which are checked and validated at every teleporter, and when characters pass through security doors (like to and from the shuttles). If the station logs characters as remaining off Sacrosanct for more than one month (by OOC measure), their certification will be suspended in Hypatia's records, and characters will not be allowed to return to the station without contacting Hypatia asking to be recertified... which may or may not come at a price.

Death ;
When a character dies, they are respawned from the last teleporter they went through. Likewise, if characters attempt to leave Asphodel's orbit in a shuttle, the shuttle will be remotely detonated after 48 hours, the same moment Hypatia uses characters' subatomic certification stamp to trigger spontaneous discorporation, after which characters respawn at their last teleporter. While there is no actual penalty for the first few deaths, to keep track of things, players need to report them on the Deaths page.