First off, following discussions and member petition, we're making another adjustment to the character eligibility rules as follows:
The big change here is the inclusion of Pregame-only characters. After consideration, we decided that their inclusion fits the Second Chances philosophy in several ways. Many handlers have submitted characters who, for one reason or another, they were unable or unwilling to bring to the game proper, but who—through their previous acceptance—were also rendered ineligible for reuse. This opens the door to those folks if they want to give the concepts another whirl.Revised Character Eligibility wrote:The following characters are eligible for Second Chances versions:The following characters are ineligible for Second Chances versions:
- Any character from Main who is dead and who did not win or escape and did not feature in a past version of SC. Characters who are rolled may not be submitted before their deaths are completed on Main.
- Any character from a Mini or AU focused on an elimination-based death game who died in that game without winning and did not feature in a past version of SC, except BRAU characters or characters from AUs whose hosts specifically disallowed SC use at the start of the version. Note that this includes characters from versions without rolls, profiles, etc. so long as they are recognizable.
- Any character from a Main, Mini, or AU focused on an elimination-based death game who was approved for the game but ultimately did not enter the game and was left as a Pregame-only character.
In the event of conflict (a character who somehow meets criteria for both eligibility and ineligibility), ties break to ineligibility.
- Any character who won their version, regardless of whether or not they subsequently died or what form their victory took (ten-kill winners from TV and any sort of co-winner are thus out).
- Any character who escaped their home version or otherwise survived the game.
- Any BRAU character.
- Any character from an AU which is not an elimination-based death game. Note that featuring death and eliminations does not alone qualify a game as an elimination-based death game. To qualify, a game must be primarily focused on death achieved through the elimination of the cast as a core mechanic. In unclear cases, Mini staff (not AU staff) will serve as the final arbiter.
- Any character from an AU whose host requested at the time of launch that characters from it not be eligible for SC.
- Any character from RPs not officially hosted by Main or Mini (ex: Mercy Street, Arena, REvo, anything in Other RPing)
- Any character who featured in a past version of SC and had in-character posts interacting with other characters, even if they did not enter the game proper (characters who were submitted but never posted with may be used for later iterations of SC), except as allowed by special circumstances.
This does open up a technicality where someone could submit a character for Second Chances who was approved for some past version but never posted with, then resubmit that character for another version after their SC run. After consideration, we decided it's not really a big deal to us if that happens (though that resubmitted character would, of course, be ineligible for use in later SC versions). That said, if you're thinking about doing this with a character from Main, we suggest you talk with that staff team first in case they hate the idea and will declare the character ineligible for resubmission due to their presence in SC—if that's the way the cookie crumbles, it's super fair, entirely out of our jurisdiction, and you've been warned.
Note that we're also allowing Pregame-only characters to be used as NPCs or Meanwhile characters without going through the whole critique process. Doing this will make them ineligible for reuse in later version, though, so think carefully before you act. Additionally, with the addition of Meanwhile and Pregame-only characters, we're firming up our rules in this area and prohibiting characters who obviously exist in the universe from being reused later. Plan accordingly.
What's that, you say? What's this about Meanwhile characters? I'm glad you asked (or tolerated me GMing you into asking for the sake of segueing two independent announcements smoothly
).I'm happy to announce that, after discussion, we have decided that SC3 will feature a Meanwhile section. Most of you are probably at loosely aware of what this is—it started out as my pet project back in V5 and has since flourished and become a standard part of the SOTF experience... but has never come to Mini, mostly due to the continuity difficulties when applied to settings that diverge notably from reality. SC3, however, does not do this, and so it's actually fairly straightforward to implement.
Presented below is our current draft of the Meanwhile rules. Please note that these are not final and are subject to change. They also diverge from the traditional Meanwhile rules in several important ways (particularly when it comes to character eligibility) so please do read them carefully. If you have any questions or comments, we're always listening, and since Meanwhile won't launch until the game proper does, there's ample time to iron out any wrinkles.
The NPC Roster referred to will be a place where handlers can submit characters they're establishing for use in Meanwhile/Pregame but who are never intended to enter the game; stay tuned for more info on this when apps open properly.
So, there we go. Meanwhile will arrive for SC3. Characters who could potentially be used in other SC versions must be approved, either like any other character or through the less-strenuous NPC Roster, but anyone ineligible for the actual game (winners, escapees, etc.) can just be tossed in, as long as you created them or got permission from their creator. You need permission if you want to go back to stuff related to SC1 or SC2 characters, but otherwise it's pretty open-ended.Meanwhile Rules wrote:Hey, Mini! Welcome to the all-new Meanwhile section for SC3. The Meanwhile board is a place where handlers can explore the stories taking place around the death game—the families and classmates left behind, the reactions of those touched directly and indirectly by the game, and the parts of the world where the tragedy does not command all attention.
Generally speaking, staff will take a light hand with this subforum, but due to this there are a number of specific rules and guidelines you must follow, as described below.
In this section, you may RP characters outside of the typical high school students featured in the death games proper. They can be any age, in almost any life circumstance... with a few exceptions.
For SC3's Meanwhile, you may RP family members of any of your SC3 characters, as well as friends and other individuals established in their profiles who are not in the game itself, unless they are characters who could be used in another version of SC or who were at one point or another submitted by somebody else in a different game.
You may not RP family members tied to characters from previous SC versions (SC1 or SC2) without the permission of the original handler. SC1 and SC2 were written before this section existed, and sometimes characters have sensitive or personal aspects in their backstories that handlers may not be comfortable seeing widely explored (or handlers may simply not have intended to grant perpetual, open-ended rights to aspects of their characters spanning beyond the duration of a version). If you do get permission (or if a character from a past version was yours to begin with) you are welcome to dig into that stuff, however. Permissions for this should be noted in the SC Permission Archive following all the usual rules for that, including duration. Any characters submitted for SC3 onward are assumed to come with perpetual Meanwhile permissions unless stated explicitly otherwise, since we're announcing this before anyone submits characters and it means less bookkeeping for us. That said, since this is dropping soon before apps open, if you've given someone permission to use a character but get cold feet about the Meanwhile component specifically, you can revoke permissions for that by contacting both the handler in question and staff within the next thirty days, even if apps have already opened. After that cutoff, everyone knows the score and should hand out permissions accordingly.
You may not RP any character who is eligible for use in an SC version as a character unless they were approved by staff during the application phase, or later in the NPC Roster. This rule is to prevent the pool of characters from being casually depleted, and to make sure that all characters in the SC canon are sent through at least some iteration of the application process. You may RP any character who was approved but who you ultimately decided not to enter into the version proper.
You may RP any character of yours who is ineligible for SC use, perhaps due to surviving their game. Changes should be made where necessary such that these characters fit into the SC world, but you are not required to adhere strictly to details from their original iterations. This is purely for fun. These characters do not need to be submitted to the NPC Roster, but you still can if you want to.
You may not RP characters of notable regional or world importance without authorization from staff. These things have the potential to ripple into the broader plot and cause issues, so we like to keep a closer eye on them. This is not to discourage you from asking, but we may request specific details and/or decline permission depending on how it interfaces with our direction for the universe.
Characters used in this section should not be directly tied to/associated with SOTF. There is one built-in exception to this rule: if you have hosted an AU or have an AU approved in the queue and would like to feature the villains of your AU (or other key plot characters), potentially having some relationship with the AT/SOTF (as was seen in some of the SC2 announcement fluff), hit us up! We'd love to work with you on this, and will in fact let you run some of this as announcement fluff if you so desire. If you have other SOTF connection ideas, you're free to ask us about it, though we do not guarantee we'll approve everything (or anything).
You may not use Meanwhile to preview characters for future SC versions, even if you already have rights to the character(s) in question. Rights may be revoked, and there's no telling when the next SC will occur in-universe, so the timeline would be difficult.
Realism and continuity rules are in effect here, just like in other aspects of the game. Regarding continuity specifically, note that in this case, no part of the game is broadcast until three weeks after the disappearance of the students.
To get everyone on the same page, we're providing a brief outline of the community/world response to the disappearance. Immediately following the disappearance, the government addressed the issue, acknowledging the probability of it being connected to the SOTF attacks. A candlelight vigil was held at Aurora Bay High School, and all classes were cancelled for the remainder of the year; all students, regardless of their year, were given credit for any untaken final exams and the school quietly passed even those members of the senior class who would otherwise have been lacking in credits or grades. Counseling was available for all students, and for family members of the missing. Media attention was high, but the city government was fiercely protective of the families, shielding them from any unwanted harassment.
If you have any ideas for scenes or events which would impact a wide number of characters/family members, we ask that you run these by staff first. We're generally pretty open-minded, but want to make sure that nothing you do mandates a reaction from other characters/forcibly encroaches upon their storylines.
We also reserve the right to declare any aspects of Meanwhile, from small details to full threads to the entire subforum, non-canon if necessary. If, for example, the students managed to somehow corrupt all footage of the game, this would mean that no proper broadcast could occur, and any thread relating to watching it would become non-canon. The game itself is our top priority, and nothing done here will be allowed to limit the potential on the island. That said, we hope to have no cause to use this tool.
Aside from that, things are pretty open. In Meanwhile, activity is not enforced. There are no thread limits, and there is no character application process (except if you're using a character who would otherwise be eligible for SC proper). You do not need a character in SC3 proper to participate in Meanwhile, and participation is entirely optional. Enjoy!
Feel free to ask any questions here, and remember that we reserve the right to edit (or cancel!) this as we see fit.
