Rosenblum Hall

What is this?

While it may not be a vending machine, the School Store can give you treats in exchange for the coins in your rooms! Who runs it? Who knows! Maybe you'll know eventually. But not right now!

Wait, coins?

Yup, coins! In character, there's no good explanation for why they show up, but every once in a while a number of old coins appear overnight, neatly stacked by a character's bedside table or windowsill. Out of character, these coins are your reward for meeting and going above and beyond the call of duty in terms of threads! For every five comments from your character in a thread (multiple increments in one thread for multiple coins ARE allowed up to five, or 25 comments), you can link that thread here and be rewarded with an appropriate number of coins!

Up to ten coins can be redeemed per comment, but not per regain period - multiple comments are allowed, more than ten just becomes a little unwieldy on the mod end. Please do not edit your comments to add more coins! Just make another, it's fine. Generally, regains will be processed twice a week, but if there are delays or changes we'll let you know.

Can I get stuff from home back here?

Not yet! It's not like we asked for any in your app, after all.

Do coins expire?

Nope! You can keep backtagging a thread on Week 1 until the final week and turn it in then, it's your call.

What if I expire?

In the unfortunate event of your character's planned death, I highly encourage you to turn in coins anyway! Your characters final coins will be distributed as possible between their threading partners.

Are there threads that don't count for coins?

Any thread in an investigation, a trial, or private threads with NPCs is disqualified from counting for coins, but most everything else is fair game! You can even use threads both for AC and regains!

Can I submit a thread again if I already got coins for part of it, but it got longer?

Yep! Just make sure to note so, and start the thread when you link it just after the last multiple of five - don't want any of your comments going to waste, after all!

The following rules are written out on official Burnbriar office letterhead by typewriter, and several copies are available in various locations throughout the Hall.

RULES OF THE GAME

1. The players will remain within the boundaries set forth by the Headmistress for the duration of the game. The boundaries may be expanded or reduced as needed.

2. Lights out will be observed between 10PM and 7AM. The Guidance Counselor will be available only by room phone during this time. The game is still in progress at all hours.

3. Please do not sleep outside of your provided rooms during lights out.

4. You are permitted to search and investigate the entirely of the space within the game boundaries, and may utilize anything found therein. This includes passages to out-of-bounds areas.

5. Violence against game organizers is not permitted. This includes but is not limited to: The Interim Headmistress, The Guidance Counselor, and any associated staff.

6. Damage to the facilities is not permitted outside of an attempt to engage Rule Seven.

7. To win the game, kill another student. However, please note: once you do, there will be an investigation and trial, so make sure to be sneaky about it!

8. The Interim Headmistress may add or remove rules at any time.

9. Have fun!

Hey! What is this?

Welcome to Rosenblum Hall, the first round of Murdergames with a Twist. MWAT is the general branding name for any and all one-off gimmick games that I, Lyndon, plan to run! Due to how experimental parts of it are, it is only open to my plurk timeline, though this may not be the case for future rounds!

Okay! What’s the deal with this one?

Great question! So, the idea behind Rosenblum Hall is that 1. All the characters are teenage girls and 2. They are all AU’d into a weird private school on the East Coast of the United States of America that’s going to evoke a bunch of Gothic Horror Stuff! Also some teen drama and YA novel stuff mixed in there, but spooky is the main vibe I’m going for.

AU’d?

Unlike most murdergames, which bring characters together from different universes and backgrounds, Rosenblum Hall is born out of me asking the question “Okay, but what if it was just like. The Breakfast Club.” Upon applying, players will submit the standard background+strengths/weaknesses/sample sort of app, but will also be expected to explain how their character fits into the game setting! How does that JRPG knight background translate into being a private school student? Is there a niche you want your character to fill in a standard teen story?

Okay, we’ll come back to that. Where does the game happen?

All logs will be posted to rosenblumhall, our main comm! TDMs and memes and anything else can be posted to or accessed at withatwist, and... that's it! Unless you die and go to the deadland comm.

As far as ooc communication goes, there will be a general MWAT discord set up by the time the game starts, but we highly encourage communication over plurk and other channels as well, since we know game discords aren’t a perfect method of communication and can throw some people off!

Can I get a refresher on how murdergames work?

Great question! So the main comm is where pretty much all of the magic is going to happen. Every week there will be a new log with toplevels for each day. Any given day, you can feel free to put up a comment in reply to the day's toplevel with what your character is doing, providing a few prompts for other players to bounce off of, and they can reply to you for that sweet sweet cr! Be sure to tag around to other players' toplevels too, if you get a chance. You'll want plenty of coins to feed the Vending Machine, after all!

So far so normal, right? Well, the other main ingredient in a murdergame besides, well, the game, is the murder! The first week is all sunshine and rainbows and getting to know each other in the face of impending death, but from the second week on, Friday is given to murder! There will be an investigation posted at 12pm EST, where characters get to wander around until they find a body and then look for clues towards who might have done the murder! Then, on Saturday at 12pm EST, the trial will be posted! Everyone gets to go to the trial room and argue it out until they find the murderer! Then the next week they get to do the whole thing all over again! Unless of course you get tapped to be part of a case, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

Can I play more than one character? What are the caps like?

As a mod, I’m the only one running multiple characters - as players, you’re limited to one character per player, with a cap of three characters from any one canon! This is bumped up from the standard two to make sure there is still variance, but also to allow for pre-existing cr to exist between groups of characters as a starting point if desired.

What kinds of characters can I app?

Great question! Generally speaking, you’re good apping characters between 14 and 18 years of age, with the option to age down characters who are a few years older or age up characters a year or two younger max. All characters also must be female, though obviously gender is a spectrum and so trans/nonbinary characters are fine. If you’re on my plurk timeline, I’m assuming you can probably be trusted. However, I’m going to say no genderswaps of male characters just to stay within the intended bounds.

The AU clause means that appropriate canons are pretty widespread, but there are still some limitations! The most significant is that original characters are allowed, but setting native original characters are not. Basically, make sure you’re pulling your character from another universe, even if they aren’t going to know about it!

Playable characters from video games where the player shapes their personality will be allowed provided you can provide a definitive worldstate in your app!

Characters based on extant real people such as internet celebrities or actors are not allowed - we're fine with you bringing in Fate/ John Wilkes Booth or whoever, but you can't show up playing Linkara. WOW this rule is old. I’m going to add a reassurance that RPG characters from virtual tabletop games or whatever are fine, app away from CritRole or Dimension 20 or like. Drawga? Anyone else remember Drawga?

CRAUs are not allowed! Nothing against them, but for this game they're just not gonna gel.

What can I do with AUs?

So! The world of Rosenblum Hall is reasonably mundane outside of the school - while characters are free to believe in the supernatural or claim to have had supernatural experiences, and those may be things the school plays on, magic and ghosts and whatever are about as unproven as they are in real life. I want to make sure that everyone has relative freedom in their AUs for characters in terms of content, but try not to go too over-the-top, I guess? That said, anything in your AU backstory is fair game for me to play with when spooky stuff happens, so keep that in mind as well!

As far as differences between your character and their original version go, things are pretty flexible as long as your character would be in some measure recognizable to someone familiar with their canon self, whether that’s physically or mentally or whatever. However, if you make major changes, I ask that you note them in your app for my reference.

Characters are free to come from any nation and background - hell, if you want to make up a small European country for your fantasy character to hail from, go nuts! Ironclad parts of the setting are available here, but beyond that, once the au workshop goes live, you’re free to go nuts! You’re allowed to add minor detail to the campus, but please run any of them by me/the mod team for approval, since that affects the campus.

You’re free to add faculty/staff as needed for your AUs with two major exceptions: the headmistress of the school and the current and former guidance counselors.

How active do I have to be? And why should I be active?

Well, each week at AC time, you'll be expected to turn in ten comments from your character, from a maximum of two threads! If you let us know you're not making AC it won't be a big deal, but if you don't let us know beforehand or you miss two weeks, your character is getting slated for death either in a case or an execution, depending.

As for why you SHOULD be active, that's where regains come in! For every thread of five comments from your character or more (multiples of five comments in a thread DO mean more regains!), your character will receive a token for a small, randomly chosen item from the school store! This could be… well, all kinds of things, so going out and getting that cr gets your character stuff to play around with! Pretty neat, huh?

How's this going to work, app-wise?

Well, once reserves are in, we'll open up an AU Workshop so that you can bounce ideas off of each other and form pre-game CR! Due to this, apps will be open for two weeks before the game opens, rather than one! You'll see more about how this part works when we get there.

Wait, walk me through the behind the scenes of the murder thing?

Well, every Sunday or so, one or more culprits and victims will be rolled (or chosen, in the case of volunteers) by your mod and tapped to start putting a case together (earlier than Sunday if more than one body is expected to hit the floor). That process is pretty simple, and we can go through it when we get there together! If you are picked as culprit and cannot be present on Saturday, please let the mods know as soon as you are tapped and he will reroll, with your character slated for death the next week. There are no full opt-outs.

Are there any Content Warnings I should be looking out for?

Yes, okay! So, apart from anything you guys bring in (which, you know, you are responsible for tagging for, we will take seriously), the game does include some general content warnings outside of the usual murdergame cws!

Namely, cw unreality, loss of autonomy, mentions of abuse, discussion of minor death, mentions of period-typical homophobia and sexism (1900s and 1700s), religious themes

If you have questions about any cw in particular, please reach out privately and I'll see what I can tell you! The game's plot will not include any discussions of sexual assault/abuse, terminal illness, or suicide.

Wait, what’s going to happen to my character?

Good question! Let’s take a look at the next section here, shall we?

IC FAQ

I’m sorry, what’s happening now?

Hello, students! It’s winter break at the end of 2023 here at Burnbriar, and the campus is mostly closed! You 25 students are the poor bunch stuck here over the break, but once this incoming storm clears, that should be relatively uneventful… right?

But it’s not going to be?

🙂

Due to the weather, you’re going to be placed temporarily into Rosenblum Hall until the storm ends! Problems with the roofs at the main halls, we’re sure you understand. An office and lodgings have even been set up there for your temporary chaperone and advisor, the new guidance counselor!

… Except for how, when you wake up after going to bed on the 21st… it’s the 21st again. And again, the day after. And the storm outside won’t let you leave.

I sure hope no one takes advantage of this situation!

For sure. Just ignore whoever the mysterious stranger addressing you all over the hall intercoms is. It’s probably nothing.

Is there a way to improve my situation?

Sure there is! As that voice will be all too happy to let you know, if you kill someone and get away with it, you’ll all be free to go!

Murder? That doesn’t exactly look great on a college app!

It’s fine, just spin it as adversity you overcame! Besides, it might be worse if the motives on Tuesdays are allowed to stand for too long…

And we’re all supposed to what? Just kill each other in one old building?

Well… yes and no. As you progress through the weeks (and the cases), more areas of campus will open up! Some of which you might not usually be allowed into, even!

So it’s just us here?

Yep! You and the Guidance Counselor are the only people in the building, and maybe the only ones on campus... well, the only living ones, anyway. Internet and cell service are also down! You know, because of the storm. No other reason.