Stitches

It Sleeps in Delville Heights - Interest Check and Worldbuilding

Of course! I'm more than willing to work with you guys. Once you've been accepted, the town's your oyster; the only reason I'm firm on the no visitors rule is because you'd have to ditch your character after a few rounds, and that sucks. Feel free to drop a sheet here.

It Sleeps in Delville Heights - Interest Check and Worldbuilding

Well you don't have to be born here either. The difference between a visitor and a resident is that visitors are more like tourists. They don't feel that pull, they aren't wanted in the town and after the Horror feels like they've seen enough, it'll start psychologically pushing them away, making DH seem unappealing to the person and annoying them until they leave.

Residents don't even have to have arrived by the start of the story (though they should be arriving imminently, since we only really RP in the town). Residents are lured in by the Horror. They want to live there forever. It's the opposite of a visitor, who arrives on their own volition and leaves after being shooed by the Horror. Most residents don't even get why they did it but they showed up anyway. Most can't leave without looping back to the town thanks to the fog. But some do get to leave, like spores from a mushroom, to seek out new victims and lure them in too.

Edit: okay, I've asked a bunch of other people too about the difference. I think I get where the confusion lies, so I'll put it as plain as I can.

Residents = characters who intend to (or presently) live in the town. They're the ones allowed to stay. In fact, they're not even allowed to leave. You can roleplay your character at any point in the moving process but they will eventually end up in DH to stay.

Visitors = characters who visit the town of their own volition. Outsiders. Typically NPCs. Cannot stay in the town for more than a couple weeks. Unable to get involved in the larger plot nor take part in encounters, because the Horror makes them leave before they discover anything interesting.

Delville Heights maintains its secrecy that way. If everyone was able to come and go as they please, I'd have given it two months before the government quarantined the area.

It Sleeps in Delville Heights - Interest Check and Worldbuilding

Man idk what the fascination is with visitors. They're actually the worst character to play because they can't stay in the town. I'm putting my foot down and say no visitors purely because we need residents here. You can play a newcomer if you'd prefer?

It Sleeps in Delville Heights - Interest Check and Worldbuilding

Good question. I think if some of them feel they can lure in new people, and the Horror (being almost godlike in its abilities) knows they'll come back, then they can leave. Co-GM agrees and thinks that maybe certain residents are sent out for up to years at a time, even starting families, with that inexorable tug to return once they need to find somewhere to 'settle down'.

I'd want to restrict visitor applications if possible and go for residents. Visitors don't have as much of a presence in the story and it'll make things clunky as we progress, because the Horror will almost definitely start making visitors move out once it smells trouble.

It Sleeps in Delville Heights - Interest Check and Worldbuilding

Added a few new locations - a school, a town hall and a jail/police station. Not too sure how to organise the Encounters though. Should I do it by cue, or categorise them into things like monsters, hauntings, parallel universes?

It Sleeps in Delville Heights - Interest Check and Worldbuilding

Oh, this looks super cool! One question though: how common is it for someone born there to leave? The answer isn’t gonna influence my interest or anything, I just wanna know for backstory’s sake.

@Tojin

A wonderful question! One that I don't even know the answer to. Probably very unlikely/impossible, since there's all sorts of weird shit going on in Delville Heights that the Horror goes to great pains to cover up. Which does bring me to another thing I was thinking about - the more one lives here, the more...acclimatised they might be to the things that go on here? Again I reference WTNV for that sort of vibe. Maybe not completely nonchalant, but I think a born local who's never experienced anything else, and can't leave anyhow, might end up shrugging their shoulders or knowing their way around things.

Prompts are almost ready to go, I'll finish them up then head to bed.

UPDATE: Prompts are done! I've decided to go for the same prompt for everyone, and it's just a matter of changing the names and pronouns. Do let me know if I messed up somehow. Tomorrow - more locations and the start of our Encounter list.

Edit edit: @SashaThePanther, thank you for tolerating my mistake of carefully double checking the PM...then copying Luneras over and completely buggering the whole post when I meant to just do a paragraph. It's now super late here but I'll fix it in the morning, lest I continue to screw it up. XD I'll reply tomorrow too.

It Sleeps in Delville Heights - Interest Check and Worldbuilding

I like her! My characters probably going to relate hard to Sav. I'll PM you as well, once I work on Sasha's prompt.

Edit: come to think of it - is she a visitor or a local? Fresh to the town either way, right?

It Sleeps in Delville Heights - Interest Check and Worldbuilding

Well, I wouldn't say he's a "new local" at the start, he's definitely an extended-stay visitor (because he's willing to spend at least 3 months working on his story). He's still potentially a future resident, but that's not his mindset at the beginning, if that makes sense.

Night!

@SashaThePanther

Ahh, now I get what you were aiming for. Ironically enough it looks like, from the sheet there, that the Horror intentionally dragged him over to DH. Probably wants to turn him mad trying to uncover the truth, that pesky godlike entity. I'll rustle up a prompt for you in a few hours and we'll see how you fare.

Holy wowww. I'm delighted and intrigued by this whole premise. Working on a character now!

@lunera

Nice to hear! I'm hoping once I got maybe three or so interested people we can work on adding more to our town. I mean, I got ideas and all, but a big chunk of it would have to do with the cast joining. You can own your own shops, churches, whatever. It'd really bring a lot of life to the town.

Speaking of, Sasha - what do you think about maybe an overcluttered desk in the town hall for Thad? DH uses the radio for most of their news but I can see them taking pity on the journalist and letting him write up newsletters and what not. I don't think they have a dedicated building for journalism so you can go ham on what town hall is like, maybe make a few NPCs to go in it like the mayor and some secretary.

It Sleeps in Delville Heights - Interest Check and Worldbuilding

Ahh I get you. Well, I was going to encourage potential applicants to make new arrivals anyways. Maybe your character's just a new local?

I'll read the sheet and get your encounter ready tomorrow, I'm off to bed now. Thanks for the sheet though!

It Sleeps in Delville Heights - Interest Check and Worldbuilding

Well the only difference between w visitor and a resident is that the visitors are actively pushed out of the town, one way or another. Either they get fed up and leave or something kills them, drives them mad, forces them out by any means necessary. That's because the Horror is busy collecting people without any ties to the rest of society, but that's not even set in stone. Post your CS and let me know why you want to make a visitor and I'll work with you.