[RESOURCE] Management Q&A

[Daekie]

If a character has a youma prosthetic, are they then counted as a half-youma? I know Eris was not, but she's a Corrupt Senshi and they can't be half-youma anyways, so I'm talking more Captain Tanzanite-style.

I.E: Captain A loses an arm to an enemy and receives a youma arm. Would they only have one arm in civilian form, would the youma arm appear as an unusual-looking human arm when powered down, or would they now be technically a half-youma and incapable of powering down?


A character with a youma prosthetic is not counted as a half youma!

Receiving a youma graft is different from becoming a half youma; if a character becomes a half youma, their starseed is affected by the youmafication process and their powered signature and abilities change. If a character receives a youma graft, it is simply a prosthetic that does not impact the faction rules they are expected to play by. In a youma graft, the starseed is not affected—only the body. All youma grafts are different, so depending on player intent there may be more things to take into consideration when plotting for one. If a player has any questions or wants to ask about a specific type of graft, the best thing to do is PM the mule!

A few general things to keep in mind is that a half youmafication results in one complete being; the ‘youma side’ and the ‘powered side’ are a single entity. A youma graft or prosthetic can be at odds with its ‘host’ and can reject the forced bond. This usually results in the character feeling pain, in the prosthetic actually acting out in some way, or in failure and ‘death’ of the prosthetic while attached. Typically the character will have control over their prosthetic but the grafting process is not perfect and is actually condoned by the Negaverse. As an organization, they do not attempt to graft youma appendages and will punish agents who are performing these secret, under the table operations.

Youma grafts are considered incredibly dangerous and often not worth the risks, particularly when the Negaverse has resources that would allow them to provide the most up to date prosthetics the scientific community has to offer, in addition to Mauvian technology.

Because youma prosthetics have been physically merged with a powered character, they remain while the character is powered down, however they are often visually different from the natural host in some way (such as, extreme scarring on a limb, or an eye that is a different color than the character’s natural eye). While in civilian form, the energy signature of the prosthetic is suppressed and it will act like any non magical limb or organ—to a degree. Often there is some difficulty in getting a prosthetic to function while in civilian form; the prosthetic may feel heavy, cause pain, generally not function, may become twitchy (or, in extreme cases, may sometimes act out on its own).

Youma grafts are not something to be taken lightly and can have severe IC consequences; all youma grafts or prosthetics must first be approved by the mule before they come into play; if a plot is approved we can discuss with the player the specifics of their desired graft!  

[Daekie]

I know it's still all a very new mechanic, but does a Dark Mirror Senshi finding a crystal in Mirrorspace need to be roleplayed out or would we just need to mark down in their journal when they found a crystal/what kind of crystal it was?

Additionally, would backdating claims for crystals be permissible since IC the meta finished in late August?

While finding each crystal does not need to be roleplayed out, you should still be referencing your character finding them in roleplays so they aren’t accumulating crystals while you aren’t actively playing the character. Players should not backdate finding crystals prior to their OOC release—just so we can easily keep up with who is finding what; for this reason, we’d like for characters to only start finding crystals as of October! We do encourage players to keep a log of when they found a crystal, and include which crystal they found in an easily accessible location such as their journal!  

[Sweenys_Revenge]

Is a starseed yank on a civilian a battle or a regular? The RP in question, Hopeite yanks a civ's starseed, and there is very minimal fighting back.

This would be a regular; powered requirements need two powered individuals fighting to be counted as a battle.  

[Ivynian]

OOC Rules are clear that characters cannot recognize another character without permission.

This question pertains to the IC mechanics, barring the OOC jockeying around in a plot to make sure that a plot isn't broken.

IC, Mauvians always give off a faint aura, and have no 'civilian' glamour, with their emblematic forehead stars. If a powered-character-in-civilian form (whether senshi, knight, officer, or otherwise) is at someone's house, a party, wherever, and comes across a Mauvian they've never met, IC-ly speak would they recognize the creature as a Mauvian? Again, OOC permission would be required for it to even be plausible, but in the case of just IC-in-world mechanics, are Mauvians identifiable on sight as Mauvians to characters who have seen and met other Mauvians?

In this instance, it would be like a powered character in civilian form coming across a powered character they could identify by sight—for example, if a Senshi was in their civilian form and ran into a Cosmos Knight, they may be able to recognize the character as a Knight of Cosmos based on the fact that they were wearing Cosmos symbols. They would not be able to know their name or any other information, but based on appearances alone they could infer what they were. In this same instance, a character who has met Mauvians and knows that most of them have a forehead star (the exception being the Mauvians that have a Court symbol in place of their star) could assume any cat with a star-like marking on their forehead is a Mauvian.

Depending on how many Mauvians the player has met, they may be able to infer if the Mauvian is Order or Chaos aligned, but this would be tricky unless they have met numerous Mauvians and are aware of the difference in star colors. It is also possible that the character may think they have found a Mauvian, but could mistake a patch of colored fur for a star. The only way to confirm it is a Mauvian is if the Mauvian player elects to have their character reveal themselves, or the civilian could power up and read the energy signature, but it would be incredibly likely that an experienced character could ICly infer that they are dealing with a Mauvian if they see a cat with a star on its forehead.  

[Daekie]

If a name is offlimits for being a gemstone without a mineral but there is a celestial body with that name, would a Senshi be permitted to take that name normally?

This depends on the gemstone in question, as some gemstones are also locked for canon reasons. We may also ask that Senshi not have names that could be easily confused as a Negaverse name; if you have a specific name you would like to use, please PM the mule so we can work things out!  

[Shazari]

The recent DMC meta now allows DMC senshi to access a shared faction-only area where each of them can develop their territory as they see fit, including growing plants.

Given that DMC senshi are now being permitted to grow offworld plants that could presumably enable them to remain in their faction-only area indefinitely, will staff consider lifting the long-standing standard that senshi and knights are not allowed to successfully grow edible vegetation on their homeworlds, or will that standard remain in place?

We were under the assumption that this information was covered in the Deep Space Information subforum, however this question has brought to our attention that the information was not updated when we thought it was. In the (hopefully) near future we will have a completely updated information thread regarding all Deep Space/Homeworld related things to help make the information readily available to everyone. In the meantime, we have reviewed previous MQ&A Questions that were answered about plants being grown on homeworlds and can share those answers now!

Senshi and Knights are able to and have been allowed to grow edible vegetation on their homeworlds. We have approved a good number of plots over the years related to homeworld vegetation and have asked that if people are designing plants to do anything other than offer sustenance, they shoot the mule a PM so we can discuss specifics. Homeworld plants should remain on the homeworld unless there is approval to try and grow them on Earth, and Earth plants can be planted on the homeworld—however, we do ask that players please keep us informed if they are working on this sort of thing.
Some planets make more sense to have plant life than others, so we do ask that people keep this in mind when plotting these things; for example, an extremely hot and fiery planet might not be able to grow Earth crops, but it might have its own natural set of plants growing.

Right now, no character should be able to live off of Earth/in their faction specific locations indefinitely. There are handicaps in place for the factions to prevent this from happening, and while we can work with players who need to spend an extended period of time away for plot purposes, we are not opening up the ability to live off planet indefinitely to any faction. If you would like for your Senshi or Knight to have edible food on their homeworlds, this is possible. Please just shoot the mule a message to describe what plant life you hope to have on your homeworld and we will be happy to work with you!  

[Nuxaz]

How much magical protection to extreme weather, such as winter chills and hot summer days, do the powered outfits provide?

There is some wiggle room here! Some players prefer to play that their character’s uniform offers very little protection from natural weather, but if players choose to, their uniforms can provide decent protection against extreme weather. If they were wearing a multi layer outfit on summer, they may still feel cool wearing their uniform and if they are wearing a uniform that exposes a lot of skin during winter, they wouldn't need to feel like they were freezing. Powered uniforms will generally provide protection against the weather for a guaranteed short period of time (such as patrolling over night) without any issue, regardless of what uniform they are wearing. Extreme conditions, such as those on homeworlds, may need to be PM'd to the mule for more information, but as long as they are powering up on Earth they should be able to comfortably operate in any weather situation while powered up (unless the player chooses otherwise).

Powered uniforms can only protect against natural weather (and offer no boost against elemental magic) but the extent of this is mostly up to the player.  

[Nuxaz]

If a corrupt guardian cat is not there for a corrupt senshi's awakening, is it possible for them to find a cat and receive the name along with their henshi pen? Or even at a later date regardless of whether or not they have a mineral name?

Absolutely! A Corrupted Senshi can be awakened and given only a mineral name; they will need to meet up with a corrupted Mauvain very shortly after awakening so they can receive their Henshin Pen, but they do not always need to receive their Senshi name at that time. Some players choose to have the cat have difficulties identifying their Senshi name either forever or just until a later date/plot point, so this is dependent on player preference. You will need to get your Senshi name approved before claiming it if you didn’t already have it stamped!  

[Nuxaz]

Are Starseeds still part of the Negaverse quota or have they shifted away completely to energy orbs? Are Negaverse agents encouraged to retrieve them at all?

Negaverse officers are encouraged to retrieve starseeds when convenient; after the attack on Negaspace, their starseed cache was depleted by the Knight and Senshi and so they are still trying to stockpile to replace what they lost. Because obtaining starseeds is more dangerous, non-replenishable, and because some agents simply don’t have the stomach for it, there isn’t a set quota by the Negaverse—however a General may assign their subordinates a set number to retrieve if they like.