Is limited clairvoyance allowed?
Loner
2 Posts
Ooc — Alexis
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#1
Hey y'all! 

I would love to play one of my wolves, Guille, as a "reverse seer", able to intuit information from other characters' past threadlogs/profiles and use that to form her opinions of them.

For example, if I researched another wolf's history and found that they were a pack member and recently fought in the front lines of a border dispute, I could give Guille an intuition about their territorialism and loyalty. So it would write like this:

Though the man approached with a light step, she blinked once, nervously, then again - slowly - in the space between she saw what he had done on the ridge between canyon and grassland. A clash of teeth and a promise to defend his home: kept. 

His easy approach did nothing to mete his dark coat against the brilliant white fog of her murky otherworld, a silhouette now punitive and judgmental. Guille stumbled backwards, jaw hanging open with no words to explain her panic.

But I'm not sure whether this breaks too many rules on powerplay and semirealism. 

I'm also not sure whether it's bad etiquette to read other player's threadlogs without their permission.

If I were to do this, I'd definitely place an explanation on my post signatures to make it clear to other players, and I'd avoid springing this on any first replies to new threads.

I'd love to get opinions on this - whether it should be avoided, whether it's something to be discussed OOC with other players before attempting, or whether there should be more clear limitations!
Mod
11 Posts
Ooc — Talamasca
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#2
It's totally fine to read through a character's thread log, but I'm not sure about the clairvoyance. That pushes too far in to the unreal in my opinion. Unless a character participated in the thread in question there's no IC way for them to know anything about the situation / thread / whatever, so... I think that'd be game breaking.

Happy to let others weigh-in though!
Loner
2 Posts
Ooc — Alexis
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#3
Thanks for clearing things up! I was unsure about the supernatural because I'd read threads with allusions to higher powers/religious ceremonies, but I can see definitely see the line being drawn when it comes to IC/OOC player knowledge!
Sapphique
Pearl
35 Posts
Ooc — Harvest
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#4
Clairvoyance would be considered like a supernatural power, and those are not allowed. Any references to like gods/ceremonies/etc. are all written to be that the character(s) in question believe that some supernatural thing is taking place, but in reality, no such thing is actually happening. Being "clairvoyant" in the sense you're talking about would be considered "god-moding/god-modding" and this is also not allowed. If your character doesn't know something from an IC interaction, you're not allowed to give them the knowledge because you know it OOCly. Hope that clears things up.
*possible temporary character; short posts
Loner
2 Posts
Ooc — Alexis
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#5
I see! Yeah there's definitely a distinction between a character believing in a god VS that god actually existing outside of an idea. I'm new to the site and still trying to figure things out, so that really helps! 

I don't remember if there's a section in the guidebook specifically banning things like spirits/supernatural phenomenon, but it was probably obvious considering that things like opposable thumbs and unnatural pelts are already off-limits lol
Mod
11 Posts
Ooc — Talamasca
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#6
There are a few characters that believe themselves to be spiritually capable, or magical, or to have abilities that otherwise they don't have (Qiao comes to mind). So you can have a character with strong beliefs and you can write as if they believe themselves to be powerful, but in reality (at least IC reality) they don't actually have that kind of power or influence.

Gods are just ideas, spirits could be visible to someone if they're hallucinating or under the influence of herbs if you'd like, but that's about the limit of it. They wouldn't really be involved with a god or a ghost (*except* in the case of one of our site-wide events where we allowed dead characters to visit for Halloween, but that was a one-off thing).
Loner
2 Posts
Ooc — Alexis
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#7
Qiao is so interesting!! I see how her views are clarified through that OOC note stating the conclusions she gets from her divinations are only her own - but that really doesn't detract from the impact of her character!

One of the reasons I got into WOLF was because of Ursus! I found the cultlike aspect of that pack fascinating, and I feel like it balanced the semirealism/supernatural well through the "god" of worship being a real animal. And even in the end, that got subverted when one of the pack members believed their "god" would save them when it was actually just a hallucination!

There's a balance to it, and I totally see how my "clairvoyance" idea veers too much into godmodding to be viable. But learning from characters like Qiao really helps me figure out how to improve it, so thank you!