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Edictum is a roleplaying game that includes sci-fi, mystery, and horror elements. Characters are brought to this world with a crime tattooed on their left hand -- and how the world and events interact with those individuals depend on the crime. The game is also going to be self reflective in nature, giving opportunity for character growth and development. Player plots, chaos, and player input is encouraged, as it will be needed to further the plot of the game and make lives "better" (maybe) for characters.
Those that have the misfortune - or fortune - of awakening in this place will have direct influence on the development and expansion of the world through adventures, interaction, and with their very decisions. For better or worse, those that are within the world have committed a crime, and their repentance is the key to make the world a better, more hospitable place. Refuse? Well, the world will respond similarly. The more you fight (for or against), the more developments will occur.
Edictum is a sequel loosely based on Expiation and draws similar influences, and there may be references to the old world of Aldrip, Rumpitr and Ketsora.
Similar to Expiation, characters are being tested. Every event, every interaction, every action is a test of a character’s mettle, their power, their resilience, their ability to adapt and thrive or falter and succumb.
They'll feel some things. They'll feel their back press against solid and cold, and maybe the sensation of claustrophobia will crawl into their mind. They may try to move or struggle or yell, but it's impossible. There's pain-- extreme pain as their senses warp and distort. And then there's a whir, and a whoosh, and they are overcome with a sense of stillness and peace. It’s invasive, forced and disquiet, but they cannot resist.
Until they open their eyes again, in Edictum.
Characters will awaken in a dank darkness of a cave home and the little light that is available can be found in small seams in the stone where blue crystals have taken root and emit a low glow. Characters will awaken on a hard stone slab to an open space that has a rudimentary pit in the middle of the room where a fire could theoretically be built to offer warmth and light.
Those that have arrived will come with the clothing on their backs - if they happened to be wearing any at their canon point - and nothing else. Any items such as weapons, armour, jewelry are mysteriously missing from their person, leaving all characters as derelict as each other in terms of wealth.
On the stone slab meant to be a bed, there are provided items for their usage: walkie-talkies, a stone bowl with 3 days of dry rations, and a mug and a toothbrush. All of these items are breakable or, in the case of rations, can be spoiled.
All characters will have their crime tattooed upon the back of their left hand (or left forearm if they have a lengthy rap-sheet). The tattoo cannot be scraped off, overwritten, or damaged. Your character already has a tattoo there? Too bad, the crime is overlayed over that previous ink.
Once you feel or stumble your way out of the single stone room that you awaken in, the world beyond that cold stone box is not any friendlier in terms of greeting you. This begins the start of your incarceration, but you’re not alone. Others like yourself are emerging from their abodes and there are a select few who have resided here long before you, toiling away who are shadows of their former selves, the very vitality of life drained from them so they are simply going through the motions day-in, day-out. That is, of course, if there is a day-night cycle.
After all, you are all underground. Welcome to the Hub.
Visit the Locations Page for more information.
Visit the Invitations Page for more information and to submit a request.
If a player has an approved invitation, they are welcome to submit their application upon their opening at the mid-point of each application month.
Characters that are dropped can disappear when no one is looking. Players are encouraged to even have fun with this in a “S/he was here one second, I looked away and they were gone” if they choose to. Dropped characters may leave their items behind for other players / characters to take with OOC player approval.
If a player reapplies for the same character in a future application round, they will not retain their memories of their last experience. They will be able to regain these memories via the rewards page, with new threads from their current stay in-game. There is an in-game reason for this, which players/characters may discover along their journey.
➡ Canon characters - canons must 2+ months old
➡ Character relationship alternate universe (CRAU)
➡ The Youth - 15+ or older
➡ Alternate version
➡ Original Characters from original canons
Canon - Mechanical, god or god-like, bestial, and supernatural characters are welcome as long as they have an ability to communicate and interact with both the setting and other characters.
CRAUs - For players who would like their characters to bring in their memories from Expiation, they will find that plot details are hazy. They may remember character development and relationships, but the memories of the actual plot aren't available. This is to give everyone a level playing field when it comes to plot information. As far as other CRAUs go, go crazy! All are accepted.
The Youth - Aged characters trapped in a child’s body are acceptable. Additionally, adults who act like children are still approved to apply. Children characters younger than the set limit (15) will be handled on a case-by-case basis.
Alternate Versions - Different "versions" of themselves (aka, Marvel characters or Legend of Zelda characters) may be apped, but characters that are in a continuous story are not (see: Sora from Kingdom hearts, etc).
Original Characters (OC) - Characters from original player worlds are accepted. They will have to fill out an extended application to add more details of their world, character.
**We do not accept canon OCs. Malleable protagonists like Commander Shepard from Mass Effect don't count, but there will only be one of each malleable character in-game.
Chronic illness or afflictions will come with a character to the point in the canon that they are taken from. The illness will not progress further, and in-game cures can potentially be manufactured.
Dietary restrictions (eg. vampirism, energy absorption, etc) will not be provided for in the setting in the beginning. The rations that characters arrive with will be in the form that they specifically need such as blood bags. Characters will need to make friends with those who can provide them with specific sustenance or forcibly take it.
Special items required for survival will be allowed. These items can be damaged or broken over the course of the game and events. They may also malfunction for in-game reasons.
Characters whose powers operate by an external source (god, mystical object, science, etc.) will not start with that source available upon first arrival, but through rewards, they may regain access.
Characters whose powers are innate (mutants, supernatural creatures, etc) will arrive with their powers intact; however, any objects that controls, directs, or filters those powers will not. They may be purchased through rewards.
For all powers, the caveat being that characters utilizing their wonderfully destructive or creative abilities on another character (minus NPCs) needs to do so responsibly. We are in the game to have fun, so please respect others who may not wish to partake in the uniqueness of another’s fantastical gifts.
For those that want to canon update their characters from new material (such as a new chapter or a new season), they must wait one month from the new material release before updating. Further information and the request can be found on the update page.
Your character lives in a cave with a box of scraps.
Are there non-playable characters (NPCs) around? What are they like?
Yes, there are NPCs who exist and primarily own the few shops that exist. The shop owners haggle half-heartedly, but neither will they simply give an item for free. If their items are stolen or they are abused, they will engage no further and offer no wares to said individual. There is also a correlation to crime against them and punishment.
They also shuffle along with little vibrancy going through the motions of existence, living one day into the next seemingly without joy, laughter or even strong emotions. They do not fight with each other, nor are they particularly collaborative. They engage in conversation minimalistically, offer only cursory information, and never stay in one place long unless it is tending their shop.
Is there a network to communicate on?
Well… sort of. There are walkie-talkies, but the underground cave systems vastly limit their performance compared to normal. Outside of the 100 meter range, there is just static. Walkie-talkies come with ten channels and characters can ask for someone to switch to a different channel for a less cluttered conversation. Of course, anyone else can also switch to that channel and eavesdrop, troll or otherwise be bothersome.
Currently there is no “private” setting. Thankfully there are lots of nooks and crannies that characters can meet up for secret meetings. Think of it like the nineties! Pass notes, whisper in the dark, or meet face-to-face. Perhaps someday there will be an actual network!
What’s Deja vu?
It’s a feeling of having already experienced the present situation. It is best described as an illusion of a memory where the time, place and context of a situation is uncertain. Perhaps one feels it entering a room, seeing a particular object, speaking or hearing a phrase. Everyone at some point in their lives can admit to such a sensation; it’s as instinctual as it is seemingly random. Is it an echo from the past? A sign of the future?
In Edictum, deja vu is common, almost unnaturally so. Where one may experience this sensation once or twice in their lifetime, these memory illusions occur often enough that perhaps someone will take note. There is no rhyme or reason for the occurrence from one time to the next or one person to another; all experience it randomly yet potentially at a frequency of once a month.
There’s talk about evolution. What does that mean?
This game is, by design, meant to adapt and change both in size, scope and setting. It will quite literally evolve over the course of events and with character’s actions, so the player base and their characters will contribute to the changes in the setting and future events. They may be rewarded or punished depending on how they handle themselves, their exploration and engagement with the world and how they interact with each other.
There are set points in time or following certain culminations of action that will cause a shift in the setting. Mission success and failure, calling in aspects of one’s world, and the morality of one’s actions will drive this evolution.
For more information and to log an in-game death, please refer to the death page.
Question about crimes
For example, the two characters I am considering are Teela from the Elantra novels and V from the Order Of The Stick webcomic.
For Teela, she is Barrani and while she has done a lot of what we would consider crimes - murder mostly - in her world they are considered under the racial laws of exemption. (Teela, along with most of the other characters is an officer of the law so we get a lot of details on this) and the laws say that so long as no one none Barrani comes forward saying they were harmed by the commission of a crime (or are found dead) then her case would be remanded to the Barrani caste court, and in the caste court murder isn't a crime, it is politics. She was also involved in at least one war, so there are also war crimes, but again to her people they were legal. So which things would count as crimes with regards to how long her list is?
For V, V is an adventurer in a D&D world, so a lot of what V has done would probably be illegal in most modern countries if they could figure out how to legislate magic, but as an adventurer... V's actions are in line with a chaotic neutral alignment, though there are moments where chaotic arguably skews closes to evil. And one episode of actual evil. But V is working on it. Mostly.
The most common "crime" for V would be repeated castings of a spell called "Explosive Runes" which is a spell inscribed as the words "Explosive Runes" that when read, explodes. It is V's favorite "prank", and honestly having "Explosive Runes" being marked on the back of V's hand is a hilarious thought to me.
Which goes to the other question for V. V is a literal stick figure character. V's arm is a black line, V's hand is a black line and 2 black curved lines. How would V's crimes show on V's hand and/or arm?
What V looks like, for reference. though some art has V's arms and hands drawn the same way but in the same colour as V's face or close there to. I will admit most if not all my icons have the black arms and hands.
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As for V, his crime would be written in very small text to fit on his stick arm. It would also be in either glowing ink or white ink that shows up blazingly obvious, even if everyone needs reading glasses to read it.
I hope that helps!
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