JULY INFOPOST

[vestigemods]

JULY INFOPOST

► HELLO, VESTIGE!

Hello, current and future members of Vestige! I'm ridiculously glad to have y'all here, it has been a hot minute since I've been able to properly Inflict Horror On (Semi-)Innocent Players and I'm ready for it.

For those of you who already have your apps in: You're amazing, gold star. For those of you who don't, that's completely fine - the event this month is especially late so as to offer more padding for new folks to trickle in and show up belatedly on the intro log, so there's legitimately no rush on that.


WHAT ARE THE MONTHLY INFOPOSTS?



Good fucking question - these infoposts are basically going to be a short monthly briefing for the ambient contents of the Containment Zone for the month. This includes things like weather, wildlife, and ambient horrors, plus whatever else seems to fit. It's also a place to toss up some announcements so y'all know what's going on vis a vis the OOC side of things. Sometimes they'll include the events if they're bigger/month-long events, but not often.



ABOUT YOUR MOD.



A bit about me and my modding style, since I only kind of touched on it in the FAQ -


• I'm Trace, hello! I'm your solo mod, and I head-modded The Box for ~1.5 years. I currently play Lalli Hotakainen (skittering) + Wei Wuxian (mannerless), whom you may have seen around on the TDM.
  
• I'm not here to tell some crazy awesome story, I'm here to create a fun place for y'all to play. This means that most any requests or ideas you have, I'm almost definitely going to be on board with and can probably even help brainstorm how it might implement into the game if you'd like. This also means that I'm pretty lax on setting details in the name of fun threads - if I've said 'the wildlife seems pretty chill this month' but you want the IC drama of a bear attack, you play that fuckin' bear attack, etc.
  
• Also worth noting is that while I might slip into a professional voice sometimes (old mod habits die hard), you can expect most of the mod info to be in the same conversational tone as I use in large parts of the FAQ.
  
• The last key note is that I'm on the business end of a strong attention deficit and nearly everything I do at current seems to have some ridiculous obvious mistake (e.g. saying the wrong month names in dates, or most recently, having the first dozen people fill out Taken list HTML with the wrong font name in every field). I have people looking out for those, but I wanted to give a general heads-up in case you catch one before my people do.

So! On to the actual infopost -


ANNOUNCEMENTS OF VARYING IMPORTANCE



• Vestige now has an official plurk! Follow vestigemods for Plurk-based game updates as often as I can remember to provide them. (Yes 'mods' instead of 'mod', it's easier than paying to change it if I ever end up with a team.) And I do recommend following rather than friending, who knows when the fuck I'll friend you back with it.
  
• The intro log will go up tomorrow, not tonight, in order to get a few more housekeeping things done first (see below).
  
• The housing page will go up sometime tonight/tomorrow - it will be somewhat bare-bones for now but will include a variety of housing options so y'all can actually have a good mental image of what you're RPing. As mentioned (I think??) in the FAQ, housing isn't currently limited or first-come-first-serve for options, so there's no need to rush over there to claim anything.
  
• I'll also be putting up a mod contact page in the next day or so, since it's already linked in the navi. It'll be screened, etc etc. - but the game is fucking tiny and you're honestly welcome to contact me directly (noita + trace#8911) if you need anything or have any questions.
  
• You can expect a trifecta of fun pages to appear on the navigation throughout this month whenever I get to them -
  
  
  RESOURCES.
  • A lite version of Box's Resources post, with a lot less tallying. This page will basically be for special requests - things like weapons, drugs, items from home, Alarming Mystery Items, etc. Basic items like food and such will be covered in the monthly infopost (see below for that).
  
  
  HORROR SUGGESTION BOX.
  • ...is there something Alarming or Horrifying in your character's canon? Or maybe you found something on the internet/a creepypasta/sixpenceee that you want to Inflict On The Masses. This can be anything semi-relevant - monsters, items or occurrences that facilitate psychological horror, even Semi-Alarming Items/Incidents (not outright horror but also not necessarily pleasant). Go nuts.
  
  
  PERSONAL HORRORS.
  • ...got some extra time this month, or just an itch for some Distress? Comment here for a personal horror for your character. You can totally suggest any ideas you might have for them (you know your character better than I do!) but otherwise I'm going to draw from your app's Extra Credit + whatever I have an itch to inflict on someone.
    
    All of these will be announced in the game discord/plurk when they go up.
JULY IN VESTIGE


INTRODUCTORY CONDITIONS.



This will all be reiterated in the actual intro log tomorrow, but I wanted to note a few things here too for clarity!


• The game opens when I post the intro log, and from then on, you're free to use the logs/network comms as you choose.
  
• Characters are no longer in the Loop (from the TDM). Their memories of the loop feel oddly dreamlike, like one's memories of a time when they were sleepwalking or on a lot of Vicoden - awake, but not quite hinged in reality either. Your choice if they keep the scars and/or any items they found in the TDM. If you'd rather they not remember the Loop at all, you can totally go that route too.
  
• All characters wake up with a smartphone, able to immediately connect to the network in voice/video/text capacities. It's sitting on them or in their pocket or beside them in a really obvious 'this is yours' kind of way or something, all that matters is They Have One.
  
• Network functions are available immediately but usernames are fucky. (See the whole-ass drop down below called 'NETWORK: USERNAMES ARE FUCKY'.)
  
• Upon waking up, characters have access to the entire Containment Zone for their perusal, including the cabins, the lake, the gas station, and the miles of fenced-in woods. No fog or other factors will inhibit them in exploring if they so choose.
  
• In each cabin + the gas station, characters will find informational pamphlets regarding their current situation. This will cover the absolute basics, and will at least give characters a foundational knowledge to work with starting out.


WEATHER.



It's fucking July. It's hot. It's swimming weather. The lake might even be safe to swim in.

To get technical - think 75°-85°F on average with a couple of 90°F days, with it cooling off to jacket weather after dark. Luckily, it's a semi-dry heat, so you only have to endure it when you emerge from the trees in such places as the lake, the gas station, or some random ass woodland field. Precipitation comes in mild rain 2-3 times throughout the month, but never for more than a few hours.


WILDLIFE.



The animals, for their part, are acting pretty normal this month - wary but not overly aggressive. It seems like one of the captive bears has a couple of cubs, though, so watch out for that disaster waiting to happen.

For plant life, a particularly potent subspecies of poison ivy lurks amidst a field of wildflowers along the eastern barrier. That shit will itch, swell, and even blister for a miserable couple of weeks. The Technicians may or may not have a betting pool on which of you ends up tripping face-first into it.

I also recommend not eating too many of the blackberries(??) growing on large thorny vines along many of the cabins. They won't kill you, but not for lack of trying: Those who eat them will find that their mouth and upper throat go numb (how strongly depends on how many they eat). Might be best to cut that shit down.


RESOURCES.



This month is mostly standard 'backwater woodlands gas station' fare at the gas station, heavy on nonperishables with a decent supply of non-food items (first aid supplies, batteries and flashlights, condoms, etc). Items of particular or unusual interest:


• Ice cream! Pints of it. Flavors vary by the day, from boring vanilla to less boring non-vanilla to some real weird shit. Enjoy your fun(?) in the sun with a cold dish of ice cream.
  
• Fresh-cooked taquitos (straight outta 7/11) appear at sporadic intervals on the hot food roller in batches of 20. The longer they roll, the inexplicably harder it is to resist the urge to eat them. Please, eat them before they go bad and you can't resist.
  
• Switchblade knives with springs that fail at extremely inopportune moments.
  
• T-shirts/tank-tops with some sort of questionable writing. Choose from one of these great examples or find one of your own!


ANOMALIES.



A somewhat concerning tree sits at the far end of the field across the street from the gas station, at least 200 yards past the barrier. It's far enough away that you might almost think that a flock of birds perch on the branches - but the shapes of the figures are just slightly wrong for it.

This can be witnessed throughout the entire month of July. They watch, but... that's all they seem to do. It doesn't even seem like they leave the tree at all. I wonder what their deal is?



NETWORK: USERNAMES ARE FUCKY


The FAQ talks about network usernames (choose your own, or else it's @name.name) - but for the entire first week, that doesn't apply. Instead, characters who use the network will find that their 'default username' is something mildly-to-moderately insulting about them (or a sore spot of theirs, or a reveal of their secret identity, or just generally something they don't necessarily want). It's entirely up to you how severe the damage is, or whether it's even properly insulting as opposed to kind of amusing in a laughing-at-themself kind of way.

Any attempt to change it will be met with a notice that new users are unable to change their network ID for seven more days (or however many are left), and to please in the meantime utilize the randomly-generated network IDs they have been provided. Once the seven days is up at midnight on July 10th, your character can either choose their own ID or let it default to @name.name.

This will also be detailed in the intro log, and you're welcome to include network shenanigans on your intro top-levels, but you can also just slam into vestigenet itself with this.





If you have any questions, toss them into the top-level below! And again, thank you all for joining me on this fun horror adventure. :')

Comments

MOD QUESTIONS

[vestigemods]

Drop 'em here if you've got 'em.

[shivving]

Hello, would Joel be able to find some kind of backpack or bag at the gas station? He's gotta stock up on those supplies man :(

Thank you!!

pretend this is the mod journal

[mannerless]

Fuck yep, do that shit. (Bonus points if it's hideously patterned or some sort of obtuse color, but you can totally find a regular everyday backpack or w/e too.)

[shivving]

oh you know it's gonna be awful