FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

[therunning]

FAQ
Navigation

WHAT’S THE NAME OF THIS PLACE?

Incerta Tempora!

WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?

It means “Uncertain Times” in Latin!

WHAT’S THAT ALL ABOUT?

Incerta Tempora is a game in an apocalyptic setting! Zombies have overrun the populated world and survival is the name of the game. Because of that, everything from long-term survival to having enough food to last another week are uncertain. Thus: Uncertain Times.

OKAY, SO, TELL ME ABOUT THE SETTING.

It’s the year 2025 and the world is in chaos. Two years ago a new virus appeared along with a new threat: those that died of the virus would rise and walk again, ravenous for the flesh of the living. With no cure, the infrastructures that kept civilization running fell apart as hordes of the undead attacked and devoured.

Later on it was found that people didn’t have to be bit to turn. If they died, they just… woke up again. Everyone was infected. Everyone.

Not every person was lost, however—small communities and holdouts have popped up as time moves on, and while they’re rare to be so fortified as to last long-term, they exist. The main setting is Aqora, a settlement in the California city of Los Angeles. It’s one of the longest-standing strongholds and also one of the most self-sustaining, with a small number of city blocks that surround the Los Angeles Library boxed in by thick metal and concrete walls that have been slowly built up over the past two years.

TELL ME MORE ABOUT AQORA.

Aqora is where your character will start out. It’s mostly safe and definitely fortified, with posts for lookouts, shops and restaurants converted into living spaces and cooking spaces, apartment buildings cleared out, old dirt soccer fields converted for farming, and basement parking structures blocked off.

The rest of the city is entirely overrun.

More information is here, including how characters will communicate with one another!

WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY MAIN SETTING?

To start with, it’ll be the only setting other than planned supply run routes! As the loose plot continues and moves forward, characters will unlock further areas both within the city and outside of it.

HOW DO YOU PRONOUNCE AQORA?

Ah-core-ah.

SO, WHAT KIND OF ZOMBIES ARE THESE? HOW DO CHARACTERS GET TURNED? CAN ANIMALS BE TURNED?

You don’t have to worry about startling the Witch or running from speedy rabies zombies in Incerta Tempora. When you think of zombies for this place, think of The Walking Dead. That’s about right; there are slight differences but nothing worth noting at length.

A single bite is enough to turn a human into a zombie, but a scratch will just make them extremely ill. If they die from the illness they’ll turn, but the bite is a guaranteed death. In fact, dying for any reason will cause a turn - again, as in The Walking Dead, every person is infected.

Animals are completely unaffected by the virus.

IS THIS A WALKING DEAD GAME, THEN?

Not really! It’s just the simplest to pull from and widespread knowledge of it makes it easy to explain: zombies are rotting ambulatory corpses with no other supernatural effect on them, the world is basically ours just with zombies, and everyone is infected.

This does NOT mean that characters from The Walking Dead are natives. They are still newcomers to Aqora upon arrival.

NEAT. HOW DOES MY CHARACTER GET HERE?

In your home world, your character contracts a virus. No matter what happens, no matter what anyone tries, there's no cure. Your character degenerates slowly and painfully until death and the expectation is that they'll head to whatever afterlife (or black void) they believe in. Instead they'll wake up in an apartment building with boarded up windows and a person in the front office waiting boredly with an informational pamphlet, an out of date but sturdy cell phone (think a brick Nokia), and a walkie.

Welcome to Aqora.

WAIT, I CAN APP CANON CHARACTERS?

Sure thing! There’s nothing stopping you. While we’re extremely OC-friendly, we allow canon characters with a few caveats: no doubles and they must have some sort of background to work off of. Canon AUs are fine, CRAUs are not. See: you can app Arkham Asylum Batman and someone else can app Ben Affleck Batman, but if someone has apped 616 Steve Rogers, you can’t app 616 Steve Rogers that’s been in another game for a while.

As for malleable protagonists (i.e. Commander Shepard, the Warden, Hawke, the Courier, etc), they are appable but you must bullet point your major decisions in your application and explain what effect they've had on your character's personality.

WAIT, I CAN APP ORIGINAL CHARACTERS?

Yep! Absolutely. We accept almost all kinds of OCs barring canon OCs. See: No Harry Potter OCs. An exception is something like old WOD or D&D: those do not count as canon OCs as they’re simply using an OC building format.

We also accept OCs of native characters but on a case by case basis as discussed with mods.

BUT MY AU IS DIFFERENT! IT HAS (INSERT DIFFERENCE HERE) AND I WANT TO APP IT!

We don’t care. A good rule of thumb is this: If the creators of the media made the AU, you can app it. If you did, you can’t.

DO MY CHARACTERS KEEP THEIR POWERS?

Short answer: no.

Long answer: no. Characters will be stripped of all powers upon arrival. They will essentially be a baseline human.

BUT MY CHARACTER ISN’T HUMAN.

Cool beans. They have to be humanoid at least. Elves are fine, Transformers and talking animals are not. Humanizing of non-humanoid characters is possible on a case by case basis as discussed with mods.

WHAT IF MY CHARACTER DIES?

You're out of luck. Death is permanent here because now your character is a zombie. Someone else can app the same character though, due to TIMELINES. Feel free to run into yourself!

DO I GET TO PLAY A ZOMBIE?

Alas, no. A character dying is a permadrop. You cannot re-app the same character again, so choose carefully.

MY CHARACTER IS DEAD IN CANON. DO THEY STILL HAVE TO DIE OF THE VIRUS?

Nope! They can die earlier of the virus or die their canon death, it's up to you. Either way they're waking up in Aqora.

MY CHARACTER IS IMMUNE TO BECOMING A ZOMBIE/HAS AN EFFECT FROM THE VIRUS IN THEIR CANON, DOES THAT CARRY OVER?

No. To put it succinctly, any immunity/effects they have from their native strains will remain but it is wholly different from and will have no effect on the virus in-game.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I DROP NORMALLY?

Your character goes home! Back to life, yes. They don't have to die again to return, but if someone ELSE apps them then their version needs to die.

OKAY, FINE. HOW DO I APP?

Easy peasy! Head over to the applications page and put in an app!

HOW DO APPS WORK?

Applications are currently always open. Applications will be either processed as they come or in a batch at the end of the week depending on how busy the mods are and the current state of the game. Once an application is approved, you can start to play!

HOW MANY CHARACTERS CAN I APP AT ONCE?

One per month.

HOW MANY CHARACTERS CAN I APP TOTAL?

Two.

I WANT MORE!

Cool, you have to prove for a span of two months that you can already handle what you have, then you can app another. Max cap is four.

HOW OLD DO I HAVE TO BE?

Grown. Because of the adult themes, you have to be at least 18. Characters must be at least 14. Kids are in the apocalypse too.

WHAT KIND OF ITEMS CAN MY CHARACTER BRING?

Only what they have on them at the time, which can include weapons if you don't get crazy with it. Mods reserve the right to nerf weapons as needed. Wands are useless, anything else only has what ammunition characters arrived with. Careful who you let know about what you have: anything useful is commandeered for community use.

WHAT ARE THE AC REQUIREMENTS?

Easy! It’s any of these:

10 network comments
5 log comments
1 open network post
1 open log post

Any one will suffice, but you can’t combine multiple threads for comment counts.

WHAT IF I CAN'T MAKE AC?

You take a strike. You get one strike. You must make AC the month after that or you'll be automatically dropped from the game barring circumstances discussed with the mods, i.e. IRL emergencies. Take a hiatus instead of a strike.

HOW DO I TAKE A HIATUS?

Easy! Head to the taken page and fill out the hiatus form. You can take one month at a time, so choose carefully.

HOW DO I DROP?

You can't. You're stuck in the apocalypse forever. If it's a perma-drop, kill off your character in-game and then head to the taken post to fill out the drop form. If you might bring that character back, just do the latter half.

WHO ARE YOU?

It is a mystery.

OKAY, I’M BORED. IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE I SHOULD KNOW?

I don’t know! You can ask any questions you may have here in this post.

code bases by tricklet