FAQ

[tripled_mods]

Frequently Asked Questions

My character's lonely. :( How do they make friends?
When you first join DDD or intro a new character, there are a few simple steps you can take to get your character out there and help them interact with more people. First and most importantly, you'll want to intro them at dramadramaduck. Pick a time when you'll be available to tag so you've got a lot of time to keep the threads going; the more characters interact, the more they'll learn about each other. If possible, don't intro your character during the first few days of a virus. The more popular viruses can result in a flood of posts on journals and the main community, and your character's intro may get lost in the shuffle. General questions to the community can also be a great way for your character to make new friends and attract a wider range of commenters. Broad subjects that everyone has had experience with will be easier for people to respond to and can help ensure that your character gets input from more than just their canonmates. Commenting to other character's posts is also a great way to develop relationships. With some anti-social characters this can be more difficult; try to find characters talking about subjects that interest them or asking those general questions that lots of people have opinions on.

Interactions between players can also be crucial to developing strong character relationships. Don't be afraid to pop into our AIM chatroom 'dramadramaduck' and talk to your fellow players, or to IM members whose characters are interacting with yours. For many, talking about the game is half the fun, and a lot of players are delighted to talk to the people they're playing with. Most of our players have Plurk accounts, as well, and adding your fellow players is a great way to keep in touch. If you're searching for the player of a particular character the Taken Characters List is the quickest way; for general contact information, please see our Player Directory (link here).


I want my character to make a post. Should it go in his journal or on the community?
This is a subject that seems to breed some confusion. As players are expected to keep up with the Friend Add List, posts made in characters' journals should be seen by the majority of players, so the main difference in community posts and personal posts ends up being the post's actual content. When making a post, look at it as if it was something you were about to post. If it's the kind of thing you'd direct to your friends or a diary-style entry that's recounting the events of your day you'd put it on your personal journal, right? If it was a more general subject where you were asking for a wide variety of opinions or something that wasn't specific to just your friends and your environment, then you may put it on a community that's geared toward open socialization.

Posts your character makes can be treated the same way. An open invitation to attend a fighting tournament, or a question like 'What does love mean to you?' might go in the community, whereas a post 'locked' to only two characters, or a question that only canonmates would need to answer could go in a character's personal journal. Basically, if you ask yourself 'Who cares?' and the only answer you can give is 'My character's friends,' their personal journal is probably the best place for it.

How do I locked thread?
The 'locking' system of DDD (in which posts and comments are filtered and viewable only by certain people) is a very versatile tool. Many characters are more likely to talk about some subjects when they don't have an audience (or at least aren't aware of one). Locks can allow them to speak to only specific characters or to keep things private. If you're locking an entire post to a very small group, meaning only a couple of characters will be able to see it, please keep that entry on your character's personal journal; a more general entry with only a portion locked to specific members can still be posted on dramadramaduck.

There are a few types of locks a character can use: a locked post, in which the entire contents are intended to be seen only by the character himself or by specific characters, or a semi-locked post, in which only a portion of the entry is locked. In all of the examples note that the subject line specifies the type of lock. 'Locked,' 'Filtered,' and 'Private' can all be used to indicate a locked post, and the same formats can be used to lock comments as well.

You may also have noticed the word 'hackable' in some of the examples. On DDD there are many gods, god-like characters, and computer wizards with the ability to hack into locked entries. If you want to allow them access to your character's entry you can include 'hackable' by the lock, and if you want it to remain fully locked just label it 'unhackable.' Players of those types of characters must ask for permission before hacking unless a lock is specifically labeled as hackable. If your character has such abilities but the post isn't labeled one or the other, don't assume it's hackable. Always ask the other player for permission before hacking an unlabeled or unhackable entry or comment. That being said, players of non-net savvy characters should keep in mind their character's lack of computer skills when deciding whether a lock should be hackable. A character with no computer experience shouldn't realistically be able to lock a post from a highly skilled hacker. For this reason, some players choose to implement a more accurate label such as 'locked; hackable by gods and skilled hackers.'

The community of DramaDramaDuck has provided its members with a useful method of filtering communication...but this is still dramadramaduck, and the community doesn't always abide by its own rules. Characters should keep in mind that these locks have a tendency to fail at their player's discretion the worst possible time, and the occasional 'failed lock' label can open the way to some very interesting conversations.


I'd like to use another character from my character's canon for a post/RL/whatever. What do I need to do?
Sometimes a plot or aspect of character development can require the participation of other characters from your character's canon. When that particular character you need isn't a part of DramaDramaDuck, that can be a problem. But all is not lost! If the character's participation is absolutely necessary, temporary use of a canon character might be allowed, but the use of a canon character that isn't claimed is subject to mod approval. If you want to use a canon character on a temporary basis (including simple 'hijacking my friend's laptop for the lulz' posts), you must ask the mods for permission first (which can be done here), as any actions the temporary character makes might affect the way someone plays that character in the future.


What if my character lives in a time before Al Gore invented the internet?
A lot of the characters on DramaDramaDuck come from pre-internet days or worlds where the internet may never exist. Players have come up with a variety of means for their characters to access the nexus of dramadramaduck, from a 'magic book' that writes back at the character who uses it to a scrying pool. One character even had a laptop conveniently dropped on her ship by a passing member.


Time-lines? What time-lines?
On DramaDramaDuck there are very few limits to the way you can play the game. Time lines here can be extremely fluid, and 'What time-lines?' has reached the status of a running gag. Posts and subsequent comments are generally considered to occur on the same day, but backdating posts and comments by putting 'Back-dated to so-and-so date' in the subject line is a common practice, allowing people to work conversations around viruses and events or get things done that they weren't able to post earlier because of time constraints/RL issues. Posts can also be future-dated in the same manner. All comments in RL logs are obviously assumed to be occurring in the same period of time.

Regarding time-lines for characters who share a world, all canonmates are usually considered to be in the same time-line, so it's a good idea to check with any existing canonmates to verify what point in the canon they're playing from. On occasion players have chosen to pull their characters from points in canon that are separate from their canonmates, but this situation can easily become complicated and is best avoided if possible. As for canons which take place in a few days, or characters you don't want to age too far if you end up playing them for years, the flow of time between worlds is generally considered pretty wibbly-wobbly - if you want to pause a character for months at a canon point that should take an hour to get through, go for it.


How does my character get a worldhop?
Considering the number of uber-long-distance relationships and swinging events going on at DDD, it probably won't be long before you'll need one. Thankfully, the community is happy to provide! If you'd like, your character can have a worldhopping device granted to them along with whatever they use to access the community. It'll be a simple little cell phone-sized thing, and will take them to any world that they want to go to (though if it's another DDD character's world, you must get OOC permission first!). A ten-minute rate limit restriction comes along with these, though-- which means that in fights, they won't be able to dodge blows by worldhopping back and forth.

If you want to make things a little more complicated for your character, however, you also have the option of not automatically giving them a worldhopping device of their own. If you go that route and your character ends up wanting a worldhop, there are plenty of hoppers who'll be willing to oblige--including some who're so willing, we may as well paint them yellow and call them a cab. Obtaining a hop is usually fairly painless. All a character has to do in most cases is post in the main community asking for a ride; for those who have worldhopping friends even a personal journal entry may suffice. There's always a chance the service may come at a price, of course, but for a trip across the multi-verse it should be worth it...right? In some situations, like events where hoppers are standing by, worldhops can also be assumed without any requests actually being made.

In addition, you can always blame the community's stance for worldhops: "there ain't no party like a DDD party cause a DDD party is mandatory". OOCly, of course, you can opt out of any event, but if you have an antisocial character you want to get out of the house that wouldn't choose to come to a New Year's bash or a comm-wide beach trip, well, they might find themselves there anyway, in a swanky dress or board shorts as the situation dictates.

How does my character give a worldhop?
In addition to the method described above, orldhoppers can come in two ways: characters with canon basis for inter-dimensional travel, and characters who are granted the ability by another member of DDD. If your character has some means of teleporting or traveling through dimensions they can probably worldhop. (This also applies to characters with access to devices that can perform such travel, i.e. the TARDIS from Doctor Who or the Gummi ships from Kingdom Hearts.) If your character doesn't have any canon basis for the ability, there's still a possibility that they'll be able to obtain it during the course of their time on DDD. Occasionally someone who's able to grant the ability (like Dark from DNAngel, whose feathers confer many abilities, including teleportation) may do so for a friend...or for a price. If your character is about to give or be given a worldhopping device from another player character (meaning other than a community-granted one), you must get mod approval first. Anyone who is plotting to obtain worldhopping abilities for their character without any canon basis must run it by the mods here beforehand.


Mommy, where do viruses come from?
Viruses on dramadramaduck don't always have a source. Sometimes one of the resident gods will claim responsibility. Other times, SHODAN, the sentient computer that inhabits the community, will receive the blame. Although at the community's inception most viruses had a cause, these days, the viruses are generally accepted as simply the result of whatever strange, unnamed force has brought the community into existence.

Many members have dared to ask this same question; there have even been a few, brave souls who endeavoured to cut the viruses off at the source! ...Bad things happened when they tried, of course, but their foolishness bravery will always live on in the epic legends of DramaDramaDuck.


I have a super awesome idea for a virus/event! ...What do I do with it?
Run with it! The OOC comm is always open for plotting and brainstorming posts. Just remember that if a virus or plot involves things that require mod approval, you will be responsible for getting that approval before you set anything into motion ICly or OOCly. The mods reserve the right to stop a plot that we believe violates the rules of the game.

Where do I go to tell someone what I think of them?
Constructive criticism can be one of the greatest gifts a player can get. Suggestions on characterization can be extremely important for a player's development, and most of us can't reach our full potential without treading those stepping stones to improvement. If you've got some concrit to offer, you can either post it to the player during the bi-monthly How's My Driving post (see Section 6 of the Player Guide), or you can post it to the concrit post that most players have on their characters' journals. (These are listed in the Concrit Directory. If you haven't added your concrit post yet, be sure to comment there with your link!) For more information on giving concrit, see 'concrit' under the 'Glossary and Helpful Terms' section of the Player Guide.


How do I make the perfect DDD secret?
DDD secrets (see Section 5 of the Player Guide) should be no bigger than 600x600 pixels; a little bit of leeway may be allowed, but try to keep it within the size limit. Your secrets can be text only, have a picture as a background, whatever you want. Pretty much anything goes. You can take a look at our past secrets posts or check out any of the many secrets communities on Livejournal for some ideas.

These secrets are supposed to be from the viewpoint of your character, but even if your character's not a fantastic graphic designer you can still make them as ~pretty~ as you want to. As for their contents, the secrets post can be a great place to vent some hidden guilt, confess a forbidden love, or vilify an enemy.

Gag secrets are also allowed. Have something you want to say but your character wouldn't say it in a million, jillion years? Submit it anyway! The more flail-inducing, the better.

Is there a question you'd like answered, but you don't see it here? Feel free to ask in a comment!

Comments

[baaaaseball]

I have a character that I would like to app, however, the history portion of the app for them is impossible to do, as their canon has almost no continuity, outside of some side mentioning of previous cartoons by some characters in later videos, and the characters themselves do not have any real history. They're just kind of there.

Is there any way I can still app them?

[thekidsare0kay]

We've had characters sort of like that before, I think. What character is it?

[baaaaseball]

Homestarrunner from Homestarrunner.com

[thekidsare0kay]

OK! I'm not familiar with that canon, but I'll bring it to the rest of the mod team and we'll see if we can give you some guidance.

[baaaaseball]

Thank you! I appreciate any help I can get.

[thekidsare0kay]

OK, it sounds like the character's situation like Daffy Duck's, so you might want to take a gander at their application and see what they did. Basically instead of a history section, you can do a general overview of what he does with his time and what kinds of shenanigans the character generally gets up to.

[baaaaseball]

Alright! Thanks again!

[lotuslegend]

Hiya! I have a question about what would be considered world-hopping abilities, annnnd I figured this would be the right section to ask?

Canonically, Reimu here guards the Hakurei Border, which separates her world (Gensokyo, the "Fantasy Realm") from the Outside World (aka our own world, the "Mundane Realm"). Her life force is tied to it--if she dies, the Border collapses and the worlds spill into each other; her shrine (basically, her house) is also the physical gateway between the worlds: one shrine exists in Gensokyo, one shrine exists in the Outside World.

Would this actually count as world-hopping abilities, or no? :|a

[thekidsare0kay]

Hi! Best place to ask this would be over here, so the person who normally approves and considers worldhopping requests can see it.

[lotuslegend]

Ah, sorry about that! D:

[iwontforgivethis]

I have a question about the history section on the apps.

If someone is apping a character from an early point in the canon, just how much of the history section needs to be completed. Do we just need up to the point we're apping from, a good portion of it, or do we need to have almost the whole thing/the whole thing outlined?

[thekidsare0kay]

It really depends. If you're taking them from the very beginning, a two-line history taking them up to the point you're starting from wouldn't be enough. I would say that it's important to show us that you know the canon, but there's no need to outline the whole thing. If you can thoroughly explain their history before the canon, and give us an idea of where it's going, that's fine.

Also keep in mind that we don't need the history section to be really detailed, and it can be in point form. It doesn't need to be a million pages with all of the minute detail, but a good overview that shows us you know your stuff, and gives us the context we need if we're unfamiliar with the canon, is what we're looking for.

[iwontforgivethis]

Alright. Thanks for getting back to me so quickly!

[quixotically]

I'd like to check to see if a character is applicable! The character in question is the Courier from Fallout: New Vegas; the reason why I'm asking is because they fall under the category of "malleable protagonist," which some games count as an OC and others don't.

In case it needs to be explained further -- the Courier is a character that the player gets to decide what they look like at the beginning of the game, as well as their skill set. The Courier's past prior to the start of New Vegas is hinted at and one event is highlighted in the DLCs, but aside from that, it's up to the player to come up with that information. Whereas silent protagonists like Link are typically defined by their actions, it's harder to use that kind of logic with a malleable protagonist like the Courier, as the player also decides what the Courier does and what they say based on what's available in the quest and in the dialogue option. While Fallout has a three-part morality alignment (good, evil, and neutral), very, very little in the Fallout universe is black and white, and so even a good-aligned Courier can be completely scuzzy. And, as a bonus, unlike even the Shepards of Mass Effect, the Courier doesn't even have voiced lines, so a single dialogue option can mean different things based on the inflection.

So, would a character like this be applicable here?

[tripled_mods]

Unfortunately, that does seem to delve more into the realm of canon OC characters. If there was enough solid canon information that could lend to a solid personality. Since DDD is a game that's very much based on talking with other characters, we would ask that you apply for a character that has a more solidly available canon personality.

Thank you!

[everyonesconfidant]

Hello! Two questions. First, when applying, can I use sections I've already written for other games? (I think the plagiarism guide said this was okay so long as it was mentioned that the sections were used in other apps, but I want to double check just to be sure.) Second, can I use a journal that has been in another journal-based game (but isn't in that game anymore)?

[tripled_mods]

1. Yes, you can use sections written for other games as long as you were the one who wrote them originally!

2. You may as long as it is not actively involved in the game. I'd suggest that you use tags to mark the older game's entries if you haven't already.

[former_endboss]

I think it would be best if I just asked this straight up-This journal is for Mir_teiwaz_Artonelico. Normally, I play her from AFTER she already has had significant character development. But I'm thinking of doing something different and apping her from when she was still a villian, still stuck in stasis, and plotting to kill everyone and everything.* That is to say, Mir at the START of her canon, the first Ar Tonelico game. Which she was the final boss of.

So she would spend about a year in game completely non-mobile, locked away, aside from maybe hacking a thing now or again to have a virtual presence, or sending her minions to attack people if she gets the chance due to an event or some weakness between worlds. There is one point where she might have a chance to do serious damage, but we'll cross that bridge if we come to it. She will eventually be released after partially reforming-but she'll still be a huge jerk and might go out of her way to terrify people by grabbing a worldhop and showing up unannounced.*

ETA: I just realized there aren't any actual questions here! Okay so, just how openly hostile can she be without someone trying to take her down (probably failing), and secondly, she has some weird physiology that means that if the connection to Ar Tonelico goes down, she has hours to live, at most, so will the Community keep that open for her if she leaves her world?

*for a given value of everyone and everything. Mostly, she just wants to kill humans.

[embersandashes]

OKAY SO I know we ended up talking with you about this elsewhere, but apparently I never actually replied to this comment here. Sorry about that! Were all your questions answered back then (eight months ago oh god I suck), or do you have more that you want to go over?

[former_endboss]

Well, I just wanted to be doubly triply sure that she won't be cut off from the magic and turned into a puddle at some inopportune time. That's quite the way to go.

[tripled_mods]

Yeah, that's understandable. :P What exactly is the Ar Tonelico?

[former_endboss]

It's a space elevator/strategic weapons system/factory/Internet backbone server/magical tower of the gods. It's a lot of things, and it's so big that not only do people live on it, but there are forests and farms growing on it. There's a staicase that can take you from the top to the bottom, but that means climbing for literally miles up into the sky. And you know, getting past the locked doors that almost nobody has clearance to open anymore.

[tripled_mods]

Hmmm. And access to it keeps Mir alive?

[former_endboss]

Yeah. Mir's body is entirely artificial and created by magic, and if she doesn't get a 'keep alive' signal every six hours or so from Ar Tonelico, she dies instantly. It's a feature, not a bug, intended to keep her species under control.

ETA: That signal has a limited range btw, so she can't go everywhere in her world she might want to. That does impose some limits on her actions in canon.

[tripled_mods]

If you get to a point where you want her to leave her world, I'm sure we can work something out! One option could be that the community itself could keep her alive.