FAQ
Please note that information on this page is subject to change in response to feedback or otherwise, so check back on this about a week before reserves open!

▶ General Info

What is Bannerline?

Bannerline is a two-week murder mystery style murdergame that takes place in the glamorous, the mysterious and the magical Cirque de l’Ardeur. Characters will find themselves holding a ticket and drawn to the circus somehow.

Setting-wise, the game will capitalize on the circus theme while also hopefully bringing a few more eccentric locations to the mix, with a nod to The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. Can't be mysterious without at least a few enigmas present, can we?

As a murdergame, please be aware that your character may die during the course of the game. In addition, this is a scapegoating murdergame, which means there is the possibility that your character may be voted off even if they were not the culprit. However, the dead will have their own role to play, so don’t think that there still won’t be plenty to do! In addition, please be aware that achieving a golden end is not guaranteed.

How does the game work?

Good question! The game alternates between weekday mingles and weekend murder mysteries. The game runs on a 1:1 IC:OOC day ratio, and the weekly schedule looks like this:

Monday-Thursday: Mingle (12 PM EST), event on Wednesday
Friday: Investigation (6 PM EST)
Saturday: Trial (12 PM EST)
Sunday: Execution (12 PM EST)

At the start of the week, the mods will post the mingle log on the game community where characters will have the chance to build CR and participate in events. When Friday rolls around, characters will investigate the murder of their fellow abductee(s) in preparation for Saturday’s trial. During the course of the trial, characters get to discuss the case and cast their votes for whoever they deem responsible for the murder(s), who will then be executed.

As this game is only two weeks long, there will be a case for both weeks. However, there will also be an Endgame post on the last day of the game (Sunday) to finalize the ending, whichever one that might be. Note the Endgame portion of the game will involve an IC choice, but the wrapup is not intended to take up the whole day.

Wait a second. I noticed you didn't mention anything about a motive announcement up there.

That's because we won't have motives in a traditional sense! As part of the game's premise, each character will be offered the chance to regain something they once lost. This can be as simple as a missing wallet or something less tangible like a lost memory. The circus doesn't discriminate, and all who can be drawn in by the allure of magic and mystery are also welcome. More details on this can be found on our Applications page.

Okay, got it. But speaking of dates... when will the game start and when will it finish?

The game will start on Saturday, August 13th, 2022 at 12:00 PM EST and is set to run for approximately 2 weeks, ending on Sunday, August 28th, 2022.

How do I apply?

Good question! First of all, reserves are mandatory for apping in, and they will open at 3:00 PM EST on Saturday, July 30th, 2022. Reserves will stay open until the end of the app period or until we hit our cap. At this time, reserves are only open to those on the mods' plurklists (Limon Basil ilfoie, Fishy fishytasty, and Nick creatorofathousanduniverses) or anyone who has received a direct invite. If there are open spots 48 hours after reserves open, we will open them to friends of friends. We will also allow one proxy per person, so if you have a friend who would like to join but is unable to make the reserve time, feel free to submit a reserve on their behalf!

The application post will be opened at the same time as reserves and will close on Friday, August 12th at 11:59 PM EST.

Speaking of caps, what is it? And are there any cast or canon caps?

We have a character cap of 25 slots (not including mod characters), and a cap of one character per player. If we do not hit the cap, we will run with as few as 15 players. As for cast caps, we’re limiting it to 2 characters per canon and 3 characters per franchise. This means that series with individual continuities contained within them will share the 3 character cap even if the characters do not all come from the same entry in the franchise. For example, that means that only 3 characters from the Final Fantasy series would be allowed, regardless of whether or not they originated from the same game.

Who can I app?

Characters must be 16 or over, with a mentality to match. However, we have a maturity clause section on our app if players want to make a case for characters that are 14-15 years old. Allowances will also be made for cases where the character appears 16 or over and has the mentality despite it not being their actual age (e.g. robots like 9S from Nier Automata, clones, etc.). Characters also need to be alive at the canon point that they are being taken from.

In addition, large characters will be shrunk so that they can make use of human-sized facilities, although you can still have your 8-foot tall person bump their head on the ceiling or something; we’re thinking more along the lines of Transformer-sized characters that wouldn’t even fit into a building.

Furthermore, we do not take OCs, AU versions of characters or customizable protagonists.

Finally, if you aren’t sure that your character(s) fit the applicability guidelines, please contact us and we can discuss your choice(s) in more detail!

What happens to my character’s powers?

You get one (1), as a treat. Players will have a choice of what power their character gets to keep, but please note that some powers that may be considered OP for the setting may be nerfed at mod discretion. We also reserve the right to ask players to swap to another power if we feel it really cannot work with the setting. Can't have the scales tipped too far in one direction, after all! If you aren't sure about if the power would work or not, feel free to contact us about it so we can discuss!

Also, if your character has any special needs or accommodations, feel free to leave a message on this post or message the mods about it so we can discuss options.

Is there an Activity Check (AC)? What does it look like?

Since this is slated to run for two weeks, players will not need to submit AC. With that said, we do expect players to be active and around (especially during trials!), so please keep that in mind.

If you are unavailable for one of the weeks or do not feel that you can maintain a steady level of activity for both weeks, we ask that you please do not reserve.

In addition, since we will not be tracking activity through AC, we will not have an AC rewards system.

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▶ Game Mechanics

How do murders work?

Good question! We'll be using a murder proposal system for this game, which means that any player is free to sign their character up for murder each week. We will have a form for you to fill out on our Murder Proposals page, but the expectation is that you come in with an idea or scenario of how your character would murder, along with a few potential victims. The deadline for any murder proposals on a given week is Tuesday at 3:00 PM EST.

We will then contact you if your proposal is accepted for that week and discuss the details with you before putting you in touch with your victim(s) in Plurk, after which everyone will be able to put together the case details. A draft of the case will also be due on Thursday afternoon (6:00 PM EST) so that we have time to check it over and provide feedback, with Thursday night being a hard deadline for the final draft. You may still make some last minute changes if needed, but please give us a heads up so we can make sure the correct evidence is distributed.

ICly, characters will no longer be down to clown and forced to fall asleep during murder nights. Players can submit a post to the screened Thursday Night Check-in post to track where characters end up on murder night, otherwise it will be assumed they stayed in their quarters for the night. More details can be found on the post itself!

If there are a large number of proposals for the first week, be aware that you may be added onto a murder queue and have your case shifted to the second week. Generally speaking we will contact all case participants by Tuesday evening (EST) at the latest, and if you are chosen as a victim, barring extenuating circumstances there is no opting out. We also reserve the right to request changes to your proposal based on game conditions. In the case that there are no proposals queued up for that week, the mods will decide who gets to be involved in that week's case, on the basis of victim/killer preferences on the app. ICly this will be cautioned against, for reasons, and on an OOC level we highly encourage murder in order to best maintain the momentum of the game.

What will the investigations be like?

Every Friday at 6:00 PM EST, the mods will post up an investigation log where players can tag in with a location to search for the victim(s). Once the victim(s) have been found, a mod-posted body announcement will go up with a brief autopsy file (a là Danganronpa style), and location top-levels will be posted to help streamline the search.

Once the location top-levels have been posted, players are free to divvy up the investigations ICly and OOCly. Incidentally, evidence will be missable since mods will not be posting a “location clear” note to indicate that all evidence in the area has been found, so search carefully!

Tell me a little more about the trials.

Trials will take place every Saturday starting at 12:00 PM EST and will last for 8 hours maximum, although we will end early if all votes are in and discussion has finished. Characters will be working with a suspect list that will number half the remaining cast as viable culprits. In addition, the mods will post a top-level at the start of the trial where all evidence can be declared, and there will be additional top levels for NPC announcements and interactions. After that, characters can freely discuss how they thought the murder was carried out and by whom, culminating in a vote for who gets to be executed for the deed. Note that any living character can be voted for and scapegoating will be permitted. Incidentally, voting isn’t strictly mandatory, but things might not end well if everyone tries to abstain...

In addition, we will have a room search mechanic available to allow characters the chance to potentially find extra evidence that may be useful for solving the case(s). More details on this mechanic will be provided in the first trial.

In regards to the NPC(s), they will be around in case any clarification, privacy screens or heckling is needed, so feel free to bother them.

Lastly, the executions will take place the following day, on Sundays at 12:00 PM EST.

Can I volunteer to be in a case?

Of course! Feel free to contact us through the mod journal, Plurk or Discord and we can work things out with you!

What are these mid-week events anyway?

As the game is only going to be running for two weeks, we've scheduled in a mid-week event each Wednesday to facilitate plot distribution and to provide a little something for players to do in addition to the usual mingles. These mid-week events will be open for all players to participate in and will take the place of our usual area explorations!

Are there going to be any roles?

Nope! We want to focus on the trial mechanics this time around, so not this time.

I have another question that hasn’t been mentioned here!

No problem, you can always leave a comment on this post or contact one of us (Limon Basil ilfoie, Fishy fishytasty, and Nick creatorofathousanduniverses). and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible!

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