FREAK OCCURRENCES [FOs]

[/i].

Be it good luck, bad luck, or some kind of bizarre twist of fate meant to rob us of our dignity, life has twists and turns that we never see coming. It's the same for characters in a story -- Lina only guessed Rezo was trying to revive the Dark Lord, she didn't expect to actually be right! So the question comes up: why should roleplaying be so predictable then? True, there's always the unexpected interaction with another player's character that can throw us for a loop, but how about real unpredictability?

Thus, we come to... FREAK OCCURRENCES.

Freak Occurrences (or 'FOs', for short) are a roleplaying innovation derived from one of roleplaying's key inspirations, improv comedy. Like in improv, you don't have the leisure to go back and "retry" something when RPing -- the story gets written and everyone posts their parts of it, each one building on what those before them wrote. It's the 'yes, and...' principle at work; however, since everyone basically knows what to expect at any given time (unless somebody's deliberately messing with everyone else's heads or some such crazy), a little extra spice to liven things up now and then is called for. Thus, FOs.

FOs are essentially suggestions from the "peanut gallery" -- ideas or requests tossed into an Adventure or RP thread for one or more players to consider. Done right, FOs can lead to deeply humorous, dramatic, or moving moments within an RP that might never have existed otherwise; done poorly, they become mere annoyances, either because the suggestions simply don't work or that they were executed without the needed emphasis or flair to make them worthwhile. It's a mixed bag, but so is improv -- FOs specifically draw from audience suggestion improvisation, and although capable of some grand crowd pleasers it can equally be just a complete miss if things don't line up just right.[/ul]

[/i] a true community of roleplayers -- not only can they serve as inspiration, but also as a way to get creative feedback and to teach novice RPers the finer points.

Oh, and did we mention there's a REWARD?

All senior, veteran, staff, and council members may post FOs in any RP thread; every FO will have an AP reward attached to it, and the more creative veteran, staff, and council members may even devise additional goodies to be earned from performing an FO. The typical payout is between 5 and 25 AP per FO performed, though sometimes the amount can be higher depending on circumstance. It's a nice way to push yourself as a writer and earn a nice little boost to your AP, so it's worth paying attention when an FO pops up.

To post an FO, fill out and post the following form, replacing the { and } on the spoiler tags with [ and ]. Otherwise, please leave all the tags intact.

[right][IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y142/SpecterTH/SMFimages/FO_banner_zps5077d505.png[/IMG]
{spoiler=CHALLENGE!}
[b]PAYOUT:[/b]
[b]DESCRIPTION:[/b]
{/spoiler}[/right]

If done right, it should come out looking like this:


[/ul]

[/i] is expected or required to perform an FO, regardless of who posts it. They are optional and if you don't like the idea you certainly don't have to oblige it. If a staff or council member is continually posting FOs for your character to do something ecchi, that IS harassment (and dangerously close to a TOS violation, so please don't do it). You can feel free to report such behavior to a council member you trust and it will be dealt with.

Freak Occurrences fall into two categories: Funny and Serious. Funny FOs are meant to be lighthearted and goofy and are useful for breaking up tension. For example, a funny FO request for Amelia would be "launch into a philosophical rant on how wonderful justice is", while a funny FO request for Xellos would be "find some way to indirectly irritate the other adventurers"; a good generic funny FO would be "accidentally trigger a hidden trap in the dungeon and narrowly escape" (though this could also be played serious; be specific when you can). Serious FOs generally fall into the 'plot twists' category, giving an opportunity for extra depth or action. Examples can include the appearance of random groups of enemy NPCs, puzzles, a request for more exposition about a particular subject / detail, or generally any requested action that isn't comedic in nature. All FOs should be appropriate -- posting an FO for one character to have sex with another character, masturbate, or kill themselves is grounds for immediate probation, likely banning. FOs can be directed at a single character, a group, or left open for anyone to respond to. All FOs, unless otherwise stated, must at least be attempted (or begun in a post) within a real-time week of being posted in order to get the reward. A player cannot post and FO and complete it with any of their own characters -- they may participate, but someone else's characters MUST be actively involved as well for the FO to be completed. Rewards must be reasonable to the request, and staff may step in if FOs are abused. Characters with the Comedian secondary class get double AP for completing funny FOs.

As with all things, feel free to be creative but also be reasonable. And have fun with it, gosh darnit![/ul]