ALT EVENT NOTES

The Setting
Jonathan Travance is something far more than he was assumed to be. The people of Travance recently discovered not only that he was still alive, but that he suffers from a unique poison that will kill him if it is not cured. He has been secretly slumbering in a secret location for the last fourteen years; contained in a magical vault were time advances at snails pace, created by his one time advisor Klarington Everest.
The people of Travance located this place and upon reaching his body, all inhabitants of Travance collapsed, and were sent into his mind.

You are in a Jonathan Travance’s mental re-creation of the past. You are inhabiting the identity of one of the original settlers of Travance. Your regular PC is a “Passenger PC”, and exists in the back of the mind of your ALT character. Your passenger PC is completely aware of everything your ALT character sees, sais and does. The world itself is a recreation using Jonathans memories, as well as the memories of the original settlers, and as well as the memories of all of your PCs, even if your PC was not around during his time there. Because the re-creation is devised of a pool of so many different sources, it is not always historically accurate, and at times can seem illogical and disjointed.

For people playing already existing characters from the first four years of Knight Realms, These characters despite what might have actually happened in the real world are entering Travance for the first time, together. The only history you have is the one first came into game with as that character, and the only people you know outside meeting them on this caravan are those already established in your pre-Travance histories. Otherwise, all alt PCs are coming into the game at the same time as if it their first day there.

Your ALT character always acts as they normally would in their given situation, unless otherwise told by a ST or unless using a usage of their “Bleed”.

The Bleed
Once a period, the PC may push their passenger PC's consciousness into the forefront of their Alt character. This lasts for five minutes once done. Other Alt characters would view the things being said by you as illogical and strange, though their passenger PCs may fully be aware of what is said, and they may choose to activate their Bleed in order to sync with one another and communicate back and forth about the situation for a brief amount of time.

Meristics
The evidence that would lead to a cure to Jonathan Travance's illness is buried deep within his subconscious, broken up, hidden, and obscured from him due to the feverish and disorienting symptoms of the disease itself which splinters his mind. Travance needs the assistance of the town to help him uncover that evidence, by successfully reliving parts of his memories and retrieving pieces of that evidence, the Meristics. These Meristics are symbolic dream representations of the shattered nature of Travance's own mind. When brought together they will act to realign Travance's memories, and allow the answer to the cure to surface. The key is a Journal within the dream - when brought together; these Meristics will act as a cipher, revealing the evidence inside. A Meristic is a symbolic representation, and so it cannot be destroyed or easily hidden.

How to retrieve Meristics
Meristics can be uncovered in many different ways. There might be one hiding deep within the woods. One might be found on the body of a powerful creature or a simple random goblin. They may be also found near the end of specific memories(mods). The first person who touches a Meristic is given am extra use of their bleed at that specific moment.


Other things

Alt Trinkets and Weapon Cards
Because the nature of the alt event is the founding of Travance, all weapons are basic weapons, and no trinkets are handed out. They only exception to this is using fates.

You will not need an alt weapon card. If your weapon is shattered or if you are killed and it is “taken”, then just take your phys rep to a PC or NPC smith. If you cannot find one, then go to the in-game quartermaster (will be set up were the general store normally is.) and the quartermaster will hand you a new basic weapon from the baronial stockpile.

For Armor, you may use the regular armor card, and have a PC or NPC imbue points into your armor by just writing them on your alt card.

Time Shifts
There will be two time shifts at the event. The first will take place during an in-game meeting around 10AM and the other will take place directly after feast. Both of these will dictate when you upgrade your stats. You must be present for the time shifts, as we will do some important storytelling at those times to signify the temporal jump. If you sign up for the 10am-2PM sat NPC shift, come to the meeting, then go to logistics ready to start NPCing at 10:30

Question about the bleed.....

Do our alt characters know that the bleed happened? Or is it just a 5 minute span of amnesia?

When you use a Bleed, how much of your passenger PC transfers over? Mannerisms, obviously, but what about your character's accent? What about any insanities you may have? Do your skills change during the Bleed?

Your Alt character would act as if the bleed never happened.

Zach, Accents either way don't care, insanities No and skills No.

Would our characters recognize who is the passenger for a particular ALT? Like would I be able to go up to Zach's alt and ask for Tobar if Augustus was bleeding through?

When Bleed is active, it is permissible to roleplay that your Passenger PCs recognize one another through the dream-like embodiments of your ALT characters - as if the Passenger PC is breaking through the illusion of the dream. This could be a vague impression of who that person might be, to a full recognition, depending on how best you think it suits the roleplay of the situation. I would steer away from directly asking an OOG question of who someone is, and let RP dictate whether you fully recognize one another. This mechanic is meant purely to facilitate RP that can carry through the event.

So in other words, if you know for a fact Zach's ALT has the Passenger PC of Tobar, and suddenly he's talking in a Romanian accent, its safe to say your own Passenger PC would recognize that as Tobar breaking through the illusion of the dream for a moment.

When we use our Bleed do we call it like a skill?

Unless I'm overturned by my fellow storytellers, I'm going to say no. I do not believe that was the intent, as it should purely be a roleplaying mechanic expressed through that means, rather than oog signal.

How are the alt's expected to react during another player's bleed?

ex: would my Alt decide "this person is talking crazy, i'm going to bring them to the authorities/a physician/cut them down" or would it kind of glaze over the abnormality of their interaction as if it never happened?

This is dream world, not real world, so i would assume our actions are semi predestined, thus even if our instincts would make us step in, our actual linear existence in Travance's mind would force us out of those kinds of conflicts?

OR should we be careful who we bleed around?/Should we treat bleeders as insane anomalies and deal with them as our alts would accordingly.

Bleed is a weird idea, I admit, and it is probably best done in a small group setting, or right after a specific event that you may have witnessed that would raise the attention of your 'real' character's self. I must always remember that the way I think things will go is almost always wrong But one of the ways I imagine Bleed happening:

*Group comes across a major clue, but no-one seems to notice it but Margie, who normally plays Sophia, who is currently playing an Oaf named Bea...suddenly Sophia wants to make sure other passenger PCs sees this clue and points out the clue to the others, and says, "Look everyone, there is a meristic, hanging from the goblinoid's neck!" Then recedes back into Bea. The other passenger PCs note the meristic, and their respective personas think it's really weird that Bea was able to talk so fluently, but maybe not too weird, since they don't think that meristic is a word, except one scholar who says it's something about counting, but they all laugh because Bea can't count past one! None the less the Coasthavener Gypsy thief Robert, who is currently playing a real Gypsy Elf thief named Bobby (cause he wanted to try something different) steals the meristic, and later on, in private, his passenger PC bleeds to read it and memorize it to the best of his ability.*

Separate question:

We have an illiterate Alt with a literate PC. Can our Passenger PC comprehend.
We have an illiterate PC with a literate Alt. Can our Passenger PC comprehend.

There was already a ruling on skills not crossing forward, but what about backwards? I just want to know how this specifically would be addressed.

The Meristic can always be comprehended because it is symbolic of a hidden piece of information and not an actual written word.


For your previous question, Glaze over the abnormality, which is more or less what I believe Mike said in his example.

You can keep a Meristic on your body, and even pass it around, despite the fact that your ALT character dosnt truly recognize it. Your passenger PC is always aware of its presence, your ALT character is not truly aware of its presence.

In-Game Money

In-game money is going to be handled in a.... very... different way... for the alt event. Even though Market Faire is not officially a thing... if anyone was planning to make real food and sell for in-game money, please do so, and please just role with the alt monetary system we have put in place and at the end of everything you just need to find me and ask and I will give you the appropriate gold voucher deposited into your bank, that you would have gotten for your food normally.

Thanks

My problem with "glazing over" the abnormality is that, in all likelihood, something is going to come up that's impossible to glaze over. For example:

Bob decides to play a very different character than his usual PC, who is a devout Gaian. He decides to play a priest of Aguarra. While torturing someone during his mass, he decides to use his Bleed. In the next five minutes, he frees the sacrifice and attacks everyone attending the mass.

Don't get me wrong, I'm really excited and I think this is a really, really cool mechanic because of situations like the one I just mentioned. I just want to know how to handle a Bleed that significantly affects the IG scenario.

You could just... not do that.

Using the "bleed" is your choice in every situation. If you think its really going to ruin "everything" and greatly effect your RP for the rest of the event... just don't do it. Yeah it could lead to an awesome moment for just you... but you should use some discretion and be smart with your uses of this complicated ability.

With great power comes great responsibility. Just be smart.

Dave explained it best. The concept of Bleed was to allow your passenger PC to coordinate with other passenger PCs in regards to the Meristics... since your passenger PC knows this is a dream world, there is no advantage to killing anyone... it would be pointless evil

For people starting with Recipes, do we start the game (or time shifts) with any Compounds or Essences?

I'd like to pose Geoff's question, only with smithing materials (specifically Rank 1 mats)

This was not discussed so i do not have an answer, but if this is not answered by this evening (as it is the day of the event) I will be sure to bring it up to the STs and have a decision for you both before or at sign in.