pyracy | FAQ

thelong18th is a small, private, and most importantly, multifandom game set just post the events of At World's End. Cutler Beckett's dead, the Dutchman now has Will Turner as a captain, and life has gone back to normal - as much as it ever does.

Or has it?

Characters are showing up from different times and universes, people coming back from the dead, green flashes left and right at sunset...It's a right madhouse of strangeness.

Events are monthly and will come to characters (assuming there's no opt out) no matter where they are in the world, and run the gamut from silly and strange, to downright horrifying. Sprinkled in are the occasional player plot, and any and everything you want to play in a time of corsets, flintlocks, and tallships. With mermaids and ancient gods on the side.

I want in.
Great! When reserves are open feel free to drop someone in. We also do a test drive every month. We'll be glad to have you.

So what kind of canons are we down with?
All of them. Look, I know, a lot of people play characters that might not...Be immersive-friendly. We've got two solutions for you:

001. Fuck it, I'm a walking skeleton/giant robot/talking bipedal bunny. Deal with it. Admittedly, in this case, townsfolk might run screaming at the sight of you (as the average individual in this universe is unaware of the strange daily goings on) and you might find yourself on the wrong end of a flintlock or sword, but hey. I ain't mad, I ain't gonna stop you. You do you.

OR:

002. The gods that have pulled characters into this universe realize this, and have given your character an option. Did your character find a snazzy little ring in their pocket when showing up in the forest? They did? Slip that baby on and no one's the wiser. You now look like everyone else.

The choice is up to you.

CRAU, AUs, whatever, bring them to us. The only point I want to stress, is that is a character be sufficiently developed enough to stand on their own, through canon. For a PotC example: Pintel and Ragetti are both developed enough to stand on their own, without each other, and without their crews. The captain of the ship Elizabeth and Will both ended up on in different points in time is not.

What about Activity Checks?
None beyond a check in! We're super low pressure, because let's be real. Ain't nobody got time for huge ac checks. I'm in my last year of undergrad before grad school, most of you guys are in college, or work, and we all have lives outside of rpland. I get that, so I ain't gonna stress you.

When AC rolls around, a post will go up. You comment with some dumb thing, idk I like funny gifs. If you want to make use of the rewards system, tally up and link your threads (I'll provide a handy form). I'll keep those tallies in a spreadsheet, too, so no worries, I got you, bbs.

That's it. That's all ac is going to be.

As for hiatuses, gonna be busy for a while? It's cool, I understand you. Take what time you need, but be sure to let me know, and for how long. Since we're super low pressure with no real ac, you got three months if you need it. Otherwise, if you pass the three month mark with nada, well...You know how it goes, gotta open that slot up again for someone else.

So why is my character here?
Ah, now you're asking those hard questions. ICly, they don't know. They come to in a dark, tropical forest on a slope. Going up is impossible, it's too rocky, too treacherous. So they head down, and find themselves in Tortuga, that pirate port of all pirate ports. And, in the case of modern and future timed characters, hundreds of years in the past, face to face with a town full of drunken pirates and other assorted sailors and people, including prostitutes, shopkeepers, plantation owners, shipwrights, and other assorted sundry characters.

OOCly, it boils down like this: In the Pirates universe, if a pantheon of gods exists in mythology, it actually probably exists in reality. What does that mean? The Greek, Norse, Egyptian, Aztec, Incan, and beyond are all very real. And very bored. Most of their cultures have long since vanished or stopped worshipping them, and they have entirely too much time on their hands than is healthy.

What does that mean for your character?

It's simple. Because these gods are very real, and very bored, they've started a game, right here, in this time, when reason supposedly trumps all. When the 'immaterial has become immaterial', you might say, except for the very few who are aware there is more in the world than than they've personally seen.

When a character is pulled into this world, into the forest above Tortuga, they are given a brand. The full nature of this brand is discussed further below, but suffice to say it looks something like a tattoo (and placement and style from an assorted selection can be chosen upon apping in). That brand is special, and if examined, will definitely ping as magical. You, dear newcomers, are now pieces on the board for these bored gods. There are wagers among the pantheons, behind each group and each piece, and you have been hand-selected by these gods to participate in the game without your knowledge or your approval.

They have rules, of course: No direct meddling, no pulling characters from afterlives without a form of payment, no breaking anyone else's toys. They may follow these, and they may not. It's however their whims decide.

Who are the actual players? For now, that's to be revealed at a later time, but it spans many cultures and times throughout history. Pray you got one of the merciful ones.

What's this about brands?
Basically it's a magical tattoo. Fun, right? Yeah, not so much. They're what keeps your character linked to the deity that chose them. Their...Direct red phone line to your character, you might say. You choose the design and placement, though it's the design that's important, as it indicates what deity is your character's 'patron'. For now, who is what isn't being revealed.

And yes, every character gets a brand if they've been chosen for the game. That includes Pirates characters. They get a new tattoo they didn't have when they went to bed the night before. And for them, just to be especially nice, it's going to sting like a fresh tattoo, as well.

c:

But what the brand also does, outside of linking patron to player, is initiate the events. Got a brand? No matter where you are in the world, the event will happen to you. Most people aren't aware there is actual magic or supernatural things in the world, so obviously these things can't envelop everything, and also the gods aren't strong enough to do that any longer. So the events will simply come to the characters.

There is, of course, an opt out for any event you might not want to fuck with, and in essence, icly, it's like your patron god pushed your character behind them and said, "Nah, not this one."

So what all can my character do again?
Short answer? Whatever the fuck they want.

Long answer: Has your character held a deep, lifelong dream of being a pirate? Now's their chance. Only they may find out that instead of ideas of romance with busty, corseted wenches and singing shanties and drinking rum all day, the truth of piracy is a lot of boring same old same old with a few spurts of intense fighting for about an hour before back to the same old again. And no baths. And food that's mostly okay but quickly runs to crappy. And sleeping in a hold in a hammock with sixty other guys who haven't had a bath, who might have gas, with maybe some chickens or goats for that authentic touch.

Or they can be a merchant sailor, which is pretty much the same, but instead of stealing things, you're trying to keep them.

Or a Navyman. For King and Country and all that shit. Or maybe you're better suited for the EITC. That's fine, too.

Perhaps you want to just chill with normal people in a normal town. Listen, when I say you can literally live out whatever your character's heart desires, you can literally do that. The series itself is about pirates, yeah, but here we're rolling slice of life, horror, jamjar, and everything in between all in one. You can have as normal or exciting of a life as you want. Want to sail to the colonies and start a new life? Go for it. The sky is the limit.

What's this about payment for resurrection?
Because we all know the Pirates universe hasn't figured out #yolo yet, let's be real. There are two ways this is used:

001: If you app a character post-death from their canon, that's totally cool. But, because this is Pirates and a price must always be paid, your character, when they come to in the forest, will have a direct sense of purpose and an idea of something they need to do. They won't remember making the deal, necessarily (unless you want them to), but they'll remember the what. How soon they accomplish that what is up to you.

002: If your character dies in game, it's cool. No permadeath here, the gods like their playthings. But to bring you back, they'll want something in return. And to return, you have to agree. In this case, without exception, you will remember making that deal. However, up until the deities' reveal, you won't know with who.

In both cases, the tasks may be randomly chosen, or they may be custom-made for your character. Some are big. Some are small. All will leave characters that have one from a god with a needling sense of something to be done until it's accomplished.

What does my character have when arriving?
What they have on them physically at the time. This doesn't include things like power armor, so. Sorry Fallout kids. Sorry Tony Stark. But things like guns, knives, clothes, bags, bits and bobs...They'll have all of that. Some of it might even prove to be useful.

What you will not be provided with is a guaranteed source of income or housing. You have to find that on your own. But hey, you didn't come to in that forest alone. Time to band together and brave this New World together, right? Maybe some of you have a skill that's actually marketable in the 18th Century. Better make friends fast.

How does this network work exactly?
PotC is a canon that includes many things, and one of those things is magic. Not just the magic of Tia Dalma/Calypso. Not just the kind that keeps the captain of the Dutchman's heart beating in a literal chest. And not the kind that causes Aztec curses. All kinds.

And one of those kinds of magic allows mirrors to be used as a viewing device. Audio and video, you might say, both are usable through it, and while in canon the one specific instance it's used makes it one way, here it's a two lane highway. Your character will find they have one, that it's unbreakable, and that they can, when peering into it and thinking really hard about it, contact a specific person (or the group at large, if they wish). It allows conversation over massive distances, or those times when climbing out of your hammock to have to talk to someone on deck is just a lot of work.

Look, it's your four hours off, you've earned it, sailor.

What AUs are accepted?
First, we take rule!63 versions of characters. Which means a genderswap. For instance, instead of Hector Barbossa, meanest man you'll ever meet (sometimes), you'll find Hectorina (it's a real name, seriously) Barbossa, known as Rina Barbossa, tall Amazon pirate captain and the only woman you'll ever meet meaner than your mother-in-law.

Disparities in different versions in canon are also allowed. MCU!Tony Stark can exist right alongside Marvel 616!Tony Stark (and God save us all). Kingdom Hearts versions of characters against canon counterparts. That kind of thing.

And lastly, CRAU characters. If you have a character that had a lot of development in a game you're just not ready to let go of yet, you can bring them here, with the extra field in the app to give us a little background on how they're different from their canon self.

What about powers?
For the most part, characters keep their powers. Only in the instance that they're world-breaking would they be nerfed or limitations placed upon them. ICly, it's because the gods don't want your characters challenging them. OOCly, please don't break our sandbox. A good example would be, for instance, DBZ characters. No super saiyan, keep your monkeying around to your damn self.

However, it's wise to be aware of the fact that the average citizen of the world simply isn't really aware more than what they can see exists, and will not react favorably from power displays. Those things are better kept hush-hush.

You said app, tho.
I did say app. It's tiny, though, nothing to get panties in twists over. Basically I'm just asking for some links and a little bit on how you view your character for when custom god payments come up. c:

But is there a plurk emote, tho?

Geez, you guys sure don't ask for much, do you?

I have a question you slacked on.
Then leave a comment and I'll stop slacking.

I don't like the thing. Change the thing.

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