Mod Announcement: Character OU/AU Slots, Canon Cap, EDIT for Puella Magi and Persona casts

[animusmods]

Hello, Animus! We are bringing you a couple of changes!

Starting next application cycle, we will be allowing three slots per character--that is one OU and two AU versions per individual character. This will be handled basically identically to how we handle the two versions we allow now, so we don't really have to say more than that. All the rules about apping AUs and OUs still apply to these.

However, because this has the potential to really inflate some of our casts, we have instated a canon cap. The cap has been set at thirty characters per canon. This is easy to check: just go to the taken list and you'll see the current number of characters in each canon underneath the canon's name.

Reservations will be capped similarly: we will not allow more reservations than there are slots for those reservations. Speaking of these, reservations will have the first shot at open slots: if there are two open slots and we get three applications, the last of which was reserved, then that reserved character will get one of the available slots provided it's accepted. This only applies before reservations expire; that is, you have to have your application submitted before the third of the month. After reservations are taken care of/after they all expire, slots will be handled on a first come, first serve basis. In the event of a character being asked for revisions, we will wait three days for the revisions to come in before filling the slot with another character.

Now, where does this leave your cast? For most of you, you're fine--there are only three casts approaching this cap. However, if you are in the Persona, Homestuck, and/or Fate/ casts, this may apply to your cast quickly. Currently (note this does not count new characters who have not been added to the taken list yet) Homestuck and Persona have 24 characters and Fate/ has 21; this puts these casts within reach of the limit. Please be aware of this when enabling and applying into these casts, thank you!

EDIT: Persona and Puella Magi players, your canons have been consolidated. What does this mean? This means that Puella Magi Madoka Magica and Puella Magi Kazumi Magica canons are now one thing: Puella Magi. Persona cast, this means Persona 1, Persona 2, Persona 3, and Persona 4 are are now all under the Persona Series cast. No tags have been changed. This means your casts have a higher number of characters toward the cap--Puella Magi has 10 cast members while Persona has 24--and it also means you fall under the rules about casts. You cannot app more than two characters from the same cast. If you are already playing more than two characters you may keep all of your characters. You will be grandfathered in; it wouldn't be fair to you guys to take them away. What this does mean is that if you drop them you will not be able to pick them back up again until you are playing fewer than two Persona characters.

Comments

QUESTIONS

[animusmods]

Re: QUESTIONS

[bloodyashes]

Do the Madoka Magica spinoffs (Kazumi Magica and Oriko Magica) count towards the overall Madoka limit?

not that Madoka has enough named characters to fill the 3o anyway, was just wondering

[animusmods]

Currently they don't; if we started getting a lot of Puella Magi we might consider combining the casts but for now they're all separate. What's considered its own canon is based on the taken list: if it has its own entry, it's its own canon.

[starofpleiades]

Is there any particular logic to why, say, Fate/Stay Night and Fate/Extra, which are completely separate universes, are counted as the same canon while, say, Persona 3 and Persona 4, which are shown to be in the same universe (via Persona Arena and other material) are not?

I think either way is fine, but there should really be some consistency in how canons are treated.

[animusmods]

In some cases it has to do with canon familiarity and in other cases some are grandfathered in as separate.

Persona 3 and 4 were not formally connected, at the time the casts began, beyond some loose shout-outs when the casts began, as Persona Arena hadn't come out yet and the casts were generally separate. With the Puella Magi casts I believe we were under the impression they had completely different casts and were more similar to how Final Fantasy works.

The Fate/ series often uses instances of the same characters over its various series and versions, which is what got it qualified as a single overall canon.

I could combine the Puella Magis into one overall Puella Magi cast; I would have to talk to Pixle about the Persona casts because it would then get into the matter of if Persona 1 and 2 count as well, if it would just be 3 and 4, etc.

[starofpleiades]

Okay, I can see how that could happen - just so long as it's addressed now that it actually has the potential to matter. Things should be consistent, not grandfathered in.

[animusmods]

The Puella Magi casts have become one Puella Magi cast now.

As I said, I'm going to talk to Pixle before I alter the Persona casts, but the most likely result of this would be all Persona casts merging into one Persona cast as a whole, upon which time they would be at 24 characters.

[precto]

I'm mostly just curious so I'm not going to dig into fair/unfair, but as an extension of this question, does this mean large casts across multiple, similar/branching canons will be consolidated into one if they get too large? I mostly bring this into mind because of the Fate/* canons in comparison to the Madoka canons.

If so, is there any arbitrary number they have to reach or will it be done on a case by case basis?

Because, to be honest, consolidation should probably start now as opposed to some random point down the line. Otherwise, a lot of complaints could be raised.

[animusmods]

The general rule is repetition of characters--you can see this in how we ended up making the Zelda cast one cast, while originally they were separated into their various games. Puella Magi is a bit of an anomaly because at the time we were under the impression it was more similar to how Final Fantasy as a series works; I could combine Puella Magi into one canon knowing this now.

In general once a canon has been placed separately it doesn't get changed unless absolutely necessary to minimize confusion for the players, as combining canons can lead to tags and AU numbers swapping around. I could go and consolidate the Puella Magi cast right now, though--it would be more fair to you guys.

[precto]

I didn't really think of how the tags could change. That'd definitely be a big problem to get past.

But thanks for explaining that.

[animusmods]

It's something we've done before (with the Zelda cast), but it isn't something we like doing more than necessary. Still, I have currently made Puella Magi into one cast and will be discussing doing the same with the Persona series with Pixle, who's more canon familiar than I am (this is Mel).

[warriorscribe]

I've noticed a complaint or two on my plurk timeline that this could prevent characters from being represented at all. Because they seem to be keeping to their plurks instead of bringing it up over here I figure I'll ask for them: will there be any considerations made for instances where this will block a completely unrepresented character?

[animusmods]

The minimum amount of individual characters that could be represented in one canon with this system would be ten, and that's only if all three slots were used for all ten of these characters. This situation could happen for extraordinarily large casts (Homestuck, for example), but this is the compromise we have to have so we don't get entirely overrun by large casts to the point they are the majority of the game.

While we don't believe this will be a major problem, if it ends up being one we will take steps to deal with it at that time.

[angramaintsu]

This came up in a discussion Plurk and while I think I understand the basics of it, I'm just asking for clarification. Sorry for confusing Fate/Shit, I'll try to make it as simple as possible with these explanations.

Will the first person to claim OU be the "OU" and the second one have to be an AU?

For example, there's Illyasviel von Einzbern who is her own character in Fate/Stay Night, however she has her own spin-off manga where she's a magical girl in Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA. Both are official, but since we already have a F/SN Illyasviel, would one from F/KL have to be considered AU? An example to look at right now is that we have an OU Saber by Saber Alter (which is legitimate), but if someone wanted to play Saber from the prequel Fate/Zero, they would have to be an AU since our OU spot is already claimed correct?

A second question which is more in terms of reserves/applications: when it comes to claiming the first "OU", will it be based on who has the reserve first? For example, a Gilgamesh player from the prequel Fate/Zero places a reserve, but someone who plays Gilgamesh from a later installment in Fate/Stay Night night reserves after. Will it be first come, first serve on reserves? On that note, if the F/Z Gilgamesh fails to put in the application for OU once the reserve expires, would the F/SN Gilgamesh be able to claim the OU after?

Please don't hate me, I just want to clarify since I was making based assumptions in a Plurk SOBS FURIOUSLY

[animusmods]

Generally the main storyline is considered the OU (so the one with the Holy Grail wars and stuff). In the case of branching storylines usually what we do is have the one considered the true end be the main storyline, but as Fate/ seems not to follow this the branched storylines operate on a first come, first serve basis for OU versus AU.

With Saber versus Saber Alter these are considered two different characters along the lines of how in the past we had a Battler and a Black Battler from Umineko, both of which were AU. Were a Fate/SN Saber to app she could be OU.

In the case of Fate/SN versus Fate/Zero both could be considered OUs; the OU/AU distinction would come in with apping a character from Fate/SN (for example) from two different routes--heaven's feel versus unlimited blade works, for example.

[angramaintsu]

You're really going to hate me by time I'm done.

Does this mean that the Saber Alter we currently have would be shifted to an AU if an OU Saber were to put in an application or would the mod team allow two OU Saber characters in this case? I know this is a really strange thing to ask for clarification from, but have you seen how many damn Sabers this franchise has that look alike it's better to have the cast aware of it in case of potential applicants looking to join us.

[animusmods]

We would allow Saber Alter and an OU Saber to both be OU.

[interspace]

This is probably obvious (and late, as I should check the OOC comm more often), but is it safe to assume that the cap like this will not count toward original characters despite all of them being under the same banner?