Welcome to the Nexus. The people here are wildly different. The worlds they come from, even moreso. Still, this place isn’t the same as the world you remember, is it?

Maybe you woke up in a tropical beach resort. Maybe you woke up in a desolate wasteland. Everyone’s room is different, but some things are always the same: No one came here by choice, and no one can clear their own room.

With the exception of one person, everyone starts in their own room, which plays out explicitly like a level in a video game. The only problem is that no one can clear their own room, causing the room to reset itself over and over again once its time limit runs out. Uncleared rooms have no exit, and most people have no idea what they’re supposed to do to begin with, making no progress at all. Every time the room resets, the room owner resets too, losing all memories of their room, trapping them in an endless loop. Only through the Nexus, which contains doors to everyone’s room, can the cycle be broken. That being said, no one can escape the Nexus yet either...

Each room is designed by the player who made the character, with challenges and/or enemies that match the character in question. The room’s obstacles will be managed by me and the player who created it. The goal of each room is to avoid or conquer all obstacles and acquire a character’s token before the room’s timer runs out. The token possesses the power of the corresponding character, and can take the form of any object the player specifies. (Within reason) When used by other characters, the token will grant them a portion of the corresponding character's abilities, as determined by the player who created them. (with my help for balancing purposes)

Once a token is touched by one of the room's intruders, no matter how briefly, the door back to the Nexus will open up somewhere nearby. The room is cleared when the token is brought through that door, negating the time limit and connecting the exit door to the room’s entrance in the Nexus. However, if a room’s timer runs out, the room owner will gain a tremendous boost in power and lose all control of themselves, going on a murderous rampage that will not end until either every intruder is dead or the token is brought to the Nexus.

Once in the Nexus, tokens can be placed on corresponding pedestals to unlock a character’s living quarters and utility room. A single door in the Nexus is locked, and has no corresponding pedestal. The prevailing theory is that once all pedestals are filled, it will open and everyone will finally be free…

[hider=The Nexus and its doors]The Nexus is a dome-shaped room with a uniformly light-gray floor, wall and ceiling. The walls in all directions are lined with doors, though calling them doors is a bit of a misnomer since they’re more like door frames with flat walls inside of them. In contrast with the rest of the room, each door frame is colorful, matching the previews of the rooms beyond which each door displays, albeit slightly blurry not unlike frosted glass. Although appearing solid, the doors are intangible, and can be passed through with no resistance. Should one stick their head in to get a peak, they’d find nothing but an empty void, only distinguishable from outer space by the lack of stars or vacuum and the apparent presence of breathable oxygen. Doors only activate once someone has fully passed the threshold of a door, wherein they will soon find themselves somewhere within the door’s corresponding “room”, with no door to return to. Once a room is cleared, the door in the Nexus will lead to the exit door that appeared and vice versa. The preview within the door changes to the view from the exit door and becomes clear. From within the room, the exit door bears a preview of the Nexus, however both of these previews are static, and do not accurately indicate the presence of people on the other side of the door.

Every door in the nexus (except one) has a corresponding pedestal a couple of meters in front of it. The pedestals each possess an indentation in the shape of the corresponding room owner’s token. When a token is placed on its corresponding pedestal, three buttons will appear on the pedestal which each change the destination of the corresponding door. The first button is the default and leads to the character’s room. The second button leads to a character’s utility room. The third button leads to the character’s living quarters. Regardless of which destination the door corresponds to, a character within any of the three destinations will be able to return to the Nexus through the same door they entered from. Although any character can enter the room and utility room, no character can enter another character’s living quarters, and no token can be brought into anyone’s living quarters. In these circumstances, the character or token will react with the door as if it is a solid wall, or be ejected from the door if the destination is changed as they are passing through it. Furthermore, all objects will be rejected by doors to living quarters if they are not within the possession of the room owner.

There is a pedestal in the center of the Nexus with a big red button on it. (Refer to the big red button section for more information)[/hider]
[hider=Living Quarters]Unlike other places accessible by the doors to and from the Nexus, a character’s living quarters have no visual preview, showing only the color matching the door frame. All living quarters start out mostly featureless, containing nothing but a plain bed, with an adjoined bathroom containing a sink, toilet, and shower in a random shade of white or gray. A module on the wall near the door back to the Nexus can be accessed to change the room’s appearance from top to bottom, allowing characters to add or remove furniture, change the appearance of the walls, flooring or ceiling, and generate most foods or beverages. There are also two buttons for cleaning the room and resetting the character’s clothing, The former of which deletes unorganized debris and the latter of which returns a character’s outfit to a pristine, undamaged state. This also has the side effect of deleting any scraps left of the outfit if they are in the Nexus or any room.

The module can be used to move itself around the room, though it cannot remove itself or add more redundant modules.

No items created by the modules can leave a character’s living quarters, with the exception of a character’s “export”. Exports are clearly marked by the module when looking at its food options and will always be a character’s favorite food or beverage. Exports can be created by other characters, but they cannot be taken out of other characters’ living quarters.[/hider]
[hider=Utility Rooms]Utility rooms are (mostly) safe areas devoid of traps and enemies that offer some form of utility for characters. Most utility rooms take the form of a shop, though there are other forms it can take. Players may decide what they want their character’s utility room to be, what artifacts are sold in their utility room if it is a shop, and the general aesthetic of the utility room.[/hider]
[hider=The Big Red Button]There is a pedestal in the center of the Nexus with a big red button on it. If pressed, a window will appear in front of the character asking, “Do you wish to give up?” With two buttons below it labeled “YES” and “NO”. If a character presses “NO”, the window closes and nothing appears to happen. If a character willingly presses “YES”, they will vanish without a trace.

If a player is inactive for too long before their room becomes relevant, their room as well as their character becomes void. If they are inactive for too long after their room becomes relevant, we will assume they die. If the room is not yet cleared, we assume they reset and we don’t see them again until the room is cleared, wherein they are brought back to the Nexus off-screen. (between posts) If the room has been cleared already, we assume they die and return to the Nexus. After that, we will assume they spend most of their time in their living quarters and refuse to come out. If enough time has passed that it is clear there is no intention of returning to the RP, it will be assumed the character presses the button in the center of the Nexus when no one is looking. Character permadeath is only voluntary otherwise.[/hider]
[hider=Gold]When defeated, enemies will dissolve into glowing white pixels and drop some gold. This gold will be automatically collected and divided amongst all nearby characters. Although they are visible, they are intangible, and will disappear once collected. Your gold amount can be viewed in your inventory, though there is no option to remove it from your inventory.[/hider]
[hider=Inventory]Although characters will not initially realize this at first, all characters within the Nexus and its rooms possess access to an abstract inventory. Items can be moved in and out of one’s inventory with only a thought, though it does take a few seconds as the items dissolve into or materialize out of glowing white pixels. The inventory screen does not need to be opened to access one’s inventory, though it can be opened up to display all stored items. Inventory screens are normally hidden from others, though they can be made visible if the option to do so is selected. Each item in the inventory has a brief but informative description. The functions of artifacts and tokens can be discovered this way.

By default, the inventory is limited to 10 items. Multiple copies of the same item occupy different inventory slots and cannot stack. The inventory is capable of storing anything the character can comfortably carry around with them, (They need not be able to carry around 10 instances of it) as long as it is not a sentient living creature. Each piece of an object must be stored separately if the character knows it is divisible. Anything that cannot fit within the inventory has to be carried around outside of it. Since the intent to stow is enough to activate the inventory system, it can be triggered accidentally, especially by those who aren’t aware of its existence.

Any item in the inventory can be registered as “Equipped”, albeit only through the inventory menu. This will cause items to materialize outside of the inventory while still taking up an inventory slot. (marked with an ‘E’) Equipped items can be stored remotely (albeit it takes longer proportional to distance) and cannot be stored in the inventory of other characters.[/hider]
[hider=Damage and Death]Rooms often contain dangerous, sometimes fatal challenges or traps. Characters getting hurt is inevitable.

Although characters typically cannot see it, their vitality seems to be tied to an abstract health bar. No one is sure how exactly damage works, but guns tend to be somewhat less fatal within the Nexus, and crippling or lingering injuries are relatively rare. That being said, characters aren’t more durable than they normally are, will still feel pain, and will still die from serious injury or major blood loss. Health slowly recovers over time, though it won’t recover much unless characters stop to rest. Lingering injuries are comparable to status conditions and may not be possible to recover from while within a room, though all injuries can be healed at a [i]certain[/i] utility room or with [i]certain[/i] artifacts.

When a room owner dies before their room is cleared, they will remain dead until either the room is cleared or the room is reset. In both instances, they will respawn at their usual starting location within the room and lose any accumulated gold. However, if the room is reset, they will lose all memories regarding the room, returning to the endless loop they were previously stuck in. If a room is cleared, the room owner will be considered an intruder.

When a room’s intruder dies, regardless of the room’s state, their body will begin to dissolve into glowing white pixels over the course of a few seconds. Soon after, they will respawn within the Nexus in front of their corresponding room and lose half of their accumulated gold.

When a character dies while within the Nexus, they will instead respawn at their usual starting location within their room and lose half of their accumulated gold.

When any character dies anywhere, they leave behind all character tokens in their possession, including those within their inventory. Also, whenever any character dies, any possession (other than character tokens) that are not in their inventory, not registered as equipped, and not in their possession (directly held, worn, or in their physical pockets/bags/etc.) will not respawn with them. Items (including artifacts) that are left behind in a room as it resets will either reset to its original location in the room or be deleted altogether if it did not originate from within the room. While a character is dead, it is possible for their items to be stolen or lost before they respawn. If a room resets while there are tokens within it, all character tokens that do not correspond to that room will respawn on their corresponding pedestals.

When a character respawns in the Nexus, they will not be able to access the room they died in until the room is reset, unless the room has already been cleared. There will eventually be artifacts to circumvent this restriction, but they will be unavailable at first.
[/hider]
[hider=Resets]A room and its room owner reset to their initial state whenever:
-A room’s timer runs out while there are no intruders within the room
-An intruder enters the room while there are no other intruders within the room (resetting the timer for the intruder)
-The only (last remaining) intruder in the room dies

When a room resets, all enemies, traps, puzzles, and the location of the room owner’s token are returned to their initial state. The only aspect of each room that does not reset are any artifacts earned within the room. If a character maintains possession of an artifact through death, they will keep possession of that artifact, and a new copy of that artifact will [u]not[/u] respawn. If the artifact remains in the room after all intruders die, it will return to its original location within that room. If an artifact is destroyed elsewhere, a room reset will cause that artifact to respawn within the room.

When a room owner is reset, they lose all memories of the events that transpired, returning to their initial state. Blissfully unaware of their previous iterations, they will perform the exact same sequence of actions over and over without a single hint of deja vu, causing an infinite loop until intruders intervene. Certain rooms have random elements without intruder intervention, although these still result in determinate paths for the room owner.

If a room is cleared, it will no longer reset, with one exception. When a character is killed in the Nexus while their room contains their token and no intruders, the room will reset, locking off access to the character’s utility room and living quarters. The room’s preview will become foggy again, and the door to the Nexus will no longer link to the room’s exit door. In essence, the room becomes uncleared once more. As this is the only way to reset a room once it has been cleared, this is also the only way to obtain artifacts from those rooms that have been destroyed.

If a room is reset in this way, the room owner’s initial state changes, and they will retain all memories from before this reset. If the room resets from then on, they return to this initial state. Because of this, their endless loop also changes, and they may obtain their token without the help of intruders, once they find out that the room has reset. Unfortunately, exit doors do not appear if the room owner touches their token, and thus they will be trapped within their room without the help of an intruder. If they can collect their token once however, they can do it a million times; it’s not like they’ll get tired of things they can’t remember doing. A character’s sense of time can become greatly skewed as a result.[/hider]
[hider=Abilities]Everyone in the Nexus has them, or at least, most of them do. Some characters come from worlds where they’re as natural as being born, others come from worlds where they are the only ones with these abilities. Some people are born with their abilities, others have them awakened or even bestowed. Each ability in the Nexus is unique in some way, and the rules behind one ability may even be directly contrary to the rules behind the ability of another character. Whatever the case, they give characters within the Nexus an edge against the many challenges rooms present.[/hider]
[hider=Artifacts]Magical objects that can be found within the Nexus and its rooms, their effects are akin to that of abilities, providing a variety of effects or granting their wielders various powers. They vary greatly in efficacy and typically aren’t as strong as most abilities. Still, it is possible to obtain several of them and use them in tandem, greatly increasing one’s power and versatility. Be careful with them, as they can be broken, consumed or lost, although their individual properties vary.[/hider]
[hider=DMing a room]Players will be allowed to DM their room with me, if they so choose. DM stands for “Dungeon Master” and it refers to controlling the “dungeon” and the challenges therein. Whenever players move forward the DM needs to describe everything they need to know about the room to be able to confidently take action in it. This includes everything observable; everything they need to know to solve a puzzle, everything they need to know to avoid a trap, and every path they are able to take to move forward. You’ll need to do this any time a character enters a place the player has no knowledge of. If you ever lack the confidence to do this, you can leave it to me, but I want to give players an opportunity to describe their own creations, since they are likely to be able to do it the most justice.

A degree of “powerplay” is inevitable when it comes to DMing. Characters may trigger traps or do inadvisable things around enemies, and sometimes players will have to “take the hit” or even die without their consent. DMs should take a player’s abilities and artifacts into consideration, but I want players to respect when a DM deems a maneuver to be too unrealistic for the situation. If players want to avoid this, try to include what your characters are specifically supposed to be prepared for, such as being ready to duck. Vague language such as “being on alert” does [b]not[/b] tell a DM that they will have such a specific twitch reaction to any slightly unusual sound. Furthermore, just because a character is ready for something does not mean they can necessarily avoid it, and it will ultimately be the DM’s call.

It should go without saying, but abusing DM status for personal gain or to target a specific character breaks rule #6.[/hider]
[hider=Rules (other than RPGuild standard rules)]1. Remove the instructions on the character sheet from your app, they should not be on your finished character app, this happens often and it bothers me every time.
2. I have the final call on character/token/artifact/room balance. You can’t perfectly quantify the value/difficulty of abilities/challenges, so balance will always be a subjective matter. I need people to be accepting of that.
3. Please read through all the hiders before asking questions about the mechanics of the RP. I don't mind if people miss some things, but a lot of questions left unanswered by one hider are often answered in the next hider(s).
4. Remember that your enemies in-character are not your enemies out of character. Conflict between characters is not a bad thing and can lead to a more interesting story overall.
5. A certain level of spelling and grammar are necessary. Although not a common issue at all, it occasionally ends up as a huge communication barrier if it's bad enough.
6. Treat others fairly and nicely, please.

More than one character is fine, though secondary characters are going to be lower priority in terms of room clearing.[/hider]
[hider=Guidelines/How2post]First of all, just as a forewarning, this RP is iterative in nature. Characters can only join the RP in earnest once intruders enter their room and find them. Although I’d like to encourage splitting up when the group is big enough, it may still be awhile before your character’s room is entered. If you’d like to leave the RP before then, please let us know, and we can pretend their room was never there to begin with.

Before a character’s room is entered, you can describe what they do in their room before every reset if you’d like, but since they generally cannot change what they do without an intruder, do not expect to be able to post a lot with them.

In general I’d like to do the rooms in ascending order of difficulty, with order of seniority as a secondary factor. If you’d like to make an incredibly difficult room, I want you to be cool with having to wait for us to get to it.

Anyways, as for actual posting, don’t be afraid to step out of line. I’d prefer an RP where everyone was out of control over one where people were afraid of doing something wrong or “low-quality” and ultimately did nothing.

There is no post length requirement. Short posts (even "one-liners") are fine by me as long as you give people something to work with. When people say they don’t like short posts, they usually mean they don’t like having nothing to respond to, but it is possible to prompt people with a single sentence and also possible to leave them with a conversational dead end with a wall of text. If you want others to respond to you in-character, make it explicit either in or out of character, (preferably both) else they may not realize you are waiting on them. If you aren’t prompting another player, try to move forward in some manner, and when you do so, it is not necessary to ask everyone around you for confirmation that they are ready to move forward with you, you can just write it and assume they will follow. If you specifically want them to go first, you can simply write it contingently. (i.e. "When they do X, I do Y") If you have a cool plan, don’t be afraid to share it so that the people it involves can help make it happen.

Don’t be afraid to let your character get hurt and die, even if you have the option not to. Sometimes failure is more fun(ny) than success. Besides, permadeath is strictly voluntary in the Nexus, and you don’t have to wait for others to die before hopping into another room, even if the death penalty keeps you out of the room you died in.

If a room resets for any reason and you're basically going to repeat the same actions, you are free to abbreviate your actions, skipping the details, to quickly return to where you left off. I don't mind people doing the same in terms of grinding as long as it's kept within reason; your character should have amply proved their ability to perform these things off-screen, and it should be for a specific goal your character is trying to accomplish, not just for the sake of decadence. Even the most dedicated and greedy characters have limits to their patience. I'll be roughly keeping track of gold drops.[/hider]
PM me your character apps. I would like to keep tokens, rooms and utility rooms a surprise.
[hider=Character Sheet][b]Name[/b]:
[b]Gender[/b]: ♂/♀/?
[b]Age[/b]: If your character’s race dictates that they age at a different pace compared to humans, specify their relative maturity. You don’t need to if your race matures at the same pace until fully grown.
[b]Race[/b]: Humanoids only. Include any advantages or disadvantages your race would have compared to humans, and try to be specific. Balance only concerns your character as a whole, so it’s fine if they have no downsides. Different characters come from different settings, so your character’s race does not have to be the same as another character’s race, even if they’re superficially identical.
[b]Appearance[/b]: If you’re having trouble finding a suitable image, I recommend Pinterest, though a description is fine too. I recommend against real-life images, if only because it clashes aesthetically.
[b]Equipment[/b]: Your character didn’t exactly plan on ending up here, so it shouldn’t be anything they wouldn’t normally carry around. Their weapon of choice is fine, if they have one. Only items with mundane effects are allowed, unless you wouldn’t mind it being held against a character’s overall balance. (Such items can still be stolen or lost) Ordinary clothing does not need to be included here.
[b]Personality[/b]: General vibe, attitude and proclivities
[b]Background[/b]: Briefly describe your character’s world of origin and (optionally) your character’s life before ending up in the Nexus.
[b]Favorite Food[/b]: This is also the only item your character is allowed to remove from their living quarters. This can also be a beverage.
[b]Ability[/b]: Anything within reason is allowed and I’ll work with you to balance it, if possible. Aspects of your ability must be cohesive or otherwise related to each other. Be as specific as possible, especially when it comes to upper limits and applications. Being able to breathe fire is not the same as being able to control fire. There are no restrictions other than general balance and what works in an RP setting; your character’s ability does not need to be in any way related to your character’s race or background.
[b]Weaknesses/Limitations[/b]: You’re free to make this contrived, (i.e. a character’s kryptonite) though if so, make sure that it relates to your ability or race in some way. Your character does not need an overt weakness, but every ability needs limits.
[b]Theme[/b]: A theme song for your character and/or room. Both are optional.

Everything below this point needs to be removed from your app before posting it in the character’s tab, or anywhere for that matter.

[b]Token[/b]: Describe your character’s token, including the shape, how it’s meant to be used, (can it be worn?) and what abilities it imparts or effects it has. The abilities should be derivative from your character’s. They can impart negative effects if you so choose.

[b]Room[/b]: Describe your character’s room. Your room contains a world of its own, and should be mostly based on your character. It does not need to be anything like your character’s world of origin. Be sure to include the following:
[list][*]General environment.
[*]Any structures within the room, including buildings and unusual landmarks. If your room has many, you need only describe important structures. If there are very few structures in your room, describe where to find them. If your room has none, be sure to mention that.
[*]The placement of your character’s token within the room, and obstacles the intruders need to overcome in order to reach it. Your character’s token must be somewhere in your room at all times.
[*]Puzzles or Traps in the room. I’ll work with you on making sure it feels “fair”.
[*]The length and display method of your room’s timer. By default, most room timers will have a simple radial timer on the sun, though you are free to change it for stylistic or mechanical reasons. You don’t need to be specific with the amount of time characters have, though you still need to give a ballpark approximation. Be careful if you intend to make the room a speedrun or survival challenge, since players need to immediately and constantly know what to do in the former and need to know how to get food, shelter and clean water in the latter.
[*]The starting placement of your character (a.k.a. the room owner) and what they do throughout the duration of the timer. Try to avoid solving the obstacles of your room with your own character. You should also describe how your character acquires artifacts in their equipment section, if you gave them any.
[*]Starting placement(s) of intruders.
[*]Designated location of the exit door
[*]The nature and placement of the room’s enemies. Do you want them to swarm the player like Zubats, or are there none of them to be seen? You don’t have to be specific about enemy designs, but they should share a general theme. Try to give an example or two.
[*]Any NPCs in the room. NPCs are allowed, but they are explicitly created by the room and not allowed to leave it, and somewhat limited in terms of higher-order thinking. (Think video game NPCs) If you’d like to include them, specify their general behavior.
[*]Any artifacts in the room other than those in your equipment section. All artifacts need to be approved by me and should be added as a reward for an appropriate associated challenge. With the exception of artifacts in your equipment section, ALL artifacts in your room, if any, should be meant for intruders, not for your character. If they don’t appear to be, they won’t be allowed. For example, if all possible recipients don’t benefit from the artifact nearly as much as your character could, it’s likely they’ll end up with the artifact one way or another. I recommend being conservative with them; your room does not necessarily need to give out artifacts at all. NPCs should not have access to artifacts unless they are bosses, since players will likely steal them. As with character abilities, be as specific as possible with what they can and can’t do.[/list]

All rooms need to be clearable by a normal human being, although it’s fine if it would be extremely difficult for them to do so. If you want to build puzzles around external artifacts or character abilities, that’s fine, just include an alternative solution somewhere.

[b]Utility Room[/b]: Most utility rooms will take the form of a shop that sells artifacts, though if you’d like to introduce a different room, (e.g. a bank, a storage, a minigame, etc.) you can choose to do so. (Though some kind of gameplay-relevant utility is mandatory, i.e. there is something to be gained from the minigames) You are allowed to decide the utility room’s general aesthetics. If it is a shop, you can make up artifacts for your shop to sell. (Limit of 5) I will determine the artifact’s price based on its usefulness, though there is an upper limit on how useful they can be. (Feel free to suggest them anyway) If you can’t decide on what to put in your shop, you can leave it for me to decide, though once the shop’s inventory is revealed to the characters, it cannot be changed.[/hider]