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affinity ranks;
✽ AFFINITY RANKS | ||||||||||
Areas of Repute Within Aifaran are some unofficial factions that represent some of the interests or aspects of the city life. These are not ICly recognized groups (that is, there are no guilds or formal organizations representing these areas that a character can approach ICly) in that they have no defined structure, but merely areas of general repute.
Upon application acceptance, each character will receive a randomized set of starter rankings totaling 20 points altogether, which are randomly distributed throughout all the factions using RNG when a character joins the game. This point cap will prevent anyone from being able to max out too many affinity factions at one time. OOCly, each faction has ranks from 1-5 (with 1 being the lowest, 5 the highest), with each rank producing multiple different types of interaction with that group throughout the month. Players can choose to have their characters experience one or more of these instances to happen, depending on what their rank standing is with that respective group. Characters will not be required to experience all instances for all factions in a given month. This Google Spreadsheet is kept current by the mods that can be viewed by the players at any time, so players will always have access to their various Affinity standings at a glance. EXAMPLE: CRIME Rank 1 • Slippery Fingers: You are targeted for pickpocketing on the street! • Get Trashed: Your property (home, work, etc) suffers vandalism. • Shakedown: Your preferred places of patronage are harassed for protection money. Rank 2 • Supply & Demand: You sense eyes on you frequently, and when looking to purchase your usual staples, you find them either out of stock or ridiculously marked up in price. If asked, the shopkeepers will avoid answering the questions, as if they've been intimidated into silence. Rank 3 • Swag Swap: You are targeted for a mugging, but you're offered a cheap set of crystal glasses in exchange for all you lose. • Insurance: You're offered an insurance policy against theft for the month, but if you don't pay up, you may be more heavily targeted. Rank 4 • Mistaken Identity: During what looks like it will be a mugging, the perpetrator seems to recognize you and breaks off the attempt. • Guardian Criminal: Alternatively, during what looks to be a mugging, ANOTHER mugger will intervene, successfully chasing the first offender away from you. Rank 5 • Sudden Windfall: An anonymous person mails you a package containing what is definitely stolen, but likely untraceable, money and luxury items, the contents of which are now yours to do with as you please! Affinity Rank Changes Each month as part of AC, players will be required to submit their rank changes, moving 4 points total per month in any combination of their choosing. An affinity cannot be ranked at 0 or over 5, and all the Affinity ranks must collectively total 20 points - so points being added to one rank must come from subtracting from another rank, etc. Part of the AC requirement is a (VERY) brief description of the character's behaviour that led to the fluctuations in affinity. EXAMPLE AC COMMENT: Character: Bugs Bunny AC Proof 1 (required): LINK AC Proof 2 (optional): LINK Allegiance Rank Changes: +2 Sci-Tech, -2 Faith Notes: Bugs offered to teach a class on network basics to some less-than-tech-savvy elders (+2 Sci-Tech) but flipped off some Ban Om devotees when they wouldn't take a hint (-2 Faith). Affinity FAQ What happens if my character gets randomized Affinity starting ranks that don't make sense? IE; my sweet cinnamon roll gets a high Crime ranking? That's half the fun! ICly, it's explained by characters arriving that don't have any background in the city yet. Since these aren't literal, recognized factions, it's a little bendable. Maybe they're going with a gut feeling. Maybe they just don't like your character's face. Who knows! These rankings aren't static either - they go up or down with each AC, depending on what you want for your character. What if I don't want to use any of the monthly instances for my faction rankings? You don’t really have to if there isn’t anything in there you’d want to play with. Or make up something (reasonably) within the parameters that would be better suited to your character. Why do I have to move Affinities rankings around every month? As your character interacts with the peoples of Khu Ioduan, they will naturally get along with some groups and people, but not others, just as in the real world. Adjusting Affinities rankings is based on how you think your character's choices have been viewed by the various factions in the city. There is no 'right' or 'wrong' standing with the factions, so don't worry about keeping a set number; every option has new opportunities! | ||||||||||
MAY 2019
JUSTICE
RANK 1
• Cold Shoulder: Whether you're joining the search teams or staying in Aifaran, some of the Sentry officers have decided to ignore your existence. Whatever you say to them, no matter how nicely you ask, they just won't respond - though getting angry with them might result in some unpleasantness.
RANK 2
• Ignorance Ignored: You unknowingly purchase an item that is illegal or sourced off the black market, and a pair of stern-faced Sentry appears to confiscate the item. They inform you that ignorance of the law is not an adequate defense - but since you really had no idea what you were buying, they let you off with a citation and a small fine after a few hours of questioning.
RANK 3
• What Did You See?: You witness someone running away from the docks and flag down a Sentry officer to let them know. They're currently being trailed by three other people who have reports too, so while they try to get everyone's statement it's-- challenging with each person trying to talk over the other. By they time the get to you, they're weary and a bit gruff.
• Papers Flying Everywhere: While out for a walk, a young man in a great hurry collides with you, sending papers and rolled up plans all over the street. Anything you were holding that wasn't well secured goes for a tumble, too. It turns out he's a clerk for the Alliance legislature and are Very Busy, but he helps gather up your belongings and offers to buy you tea or coffee as an apology.
RANK 4
• Minor Infraction: You run afoul of one of the archipelago's more bizarre ordinances, but it's something relatively minor. The Sentry officer who informs you of your little mistake decides to let you off with a warning and no mark on your record. In fact, they offer to take some time to explain some similar laws so you don't get into trouble again, and it turns into a lovely conversation. You seem to have made a friend!
RANK 5
• Choice of Assignment: If joining the search teams this month, you'll be given your first choice of assignment, both location and team. You're popular - a lot of Sentry officers seem to want you coming with them, for some reason.
• Keeping Peace: Scuffles keep breaking out near one of your preferred places of patronage or residence and are getting worse. Two Sentry officers, along with a member of the Alliance legislature, show up one day to talk to people about their concerns, including yours, in order to help calm everyone down. It works - no more fights or arguments happen for the rest of the month!
CRIME
RANK 1
• This is a Stick-Up: You're held at sword-point in an alley and ordered to hand over all of your money. If you do it, you'll be unharmed. If you don't, or if you fight, be prepared to get scraped up - although your assailant doesn't seem to be an expert swordsman, luckily.
• A Bit of B&E: You return to your home to find that someone's stolen something from you! Nothing of too much importance, and nothing irreplaceable, but it's still worrying. Better replace your locks.
RANK 2
• Yes, This is Microsoft Support: You’re swept into a street sales pitch by a smooth-talking kedan for yimo repairs, and he charges you two cobalts to fix something he’s declared quite broken. It takes several hours for you to figure out that it’s a scam...and by then the shapeshifter’s made off with your money.
RANK 3
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: You managed to break up a lovers quarrel in the park, but now there’s a Kin’nal who is utterly smitten with their ‘saviour’. Unfortunately for you, your subtle hints and body language are not universal and they keep misinterpreting your signals. A flat ‘no’ should do the trick. Unless you’re into this kind of thing.
• Bodyguard, or Backstabber?: A stocky Muin who looks like his face went through a meatgrinder offers you services as a bodyguard. He's clearly tough as nails, but he'll also grow angry if you refuse and storm off with an assurance that you'll wish you'd said yes. Over the next few days, you might spy him out of the corner of your eye on several occasions - or was it just a trick of the light?
RANK 4
• The No-Bunce List: It looks like you’re about to be mugged by some tough-looking Arybar, but they take another look at you and seem to decide against it. For whatever reason, you’re on the no-touchy list for now.
RANK 5
• Local Sheriff: The Sentry plans to arrest you - whether it's deserved or not - but as the officers near, you're surrounded by three or four gang members who stand between you and the Sentry. They quickly give up on the chase, and your protectors inform you that the local turf leader is keeping an eye on you.
FAITH
RANK 1
• I'm On a Boat!: You’re out on a little skiff in the harbor, minding your own business, when the weather suddenly sours and the sea goes storm-tossed. You’re all right, but it’s a near thing. Any followers of the Kaka’i religion will be wary of you for the rest of the month. You were very nearly food for their goddess; it’s probably bad luck to interact with you.
• Accidental Blasphemy: Did you know it's exceptionally taboo to wear red in this specific place? Well, it is. You're getting sternly disappointed looks for a week every time you're in the area, and are "asked" to make an offering in recompense.
RANK 2
• Mischievous Spirits: You swear that thing you were looking for was just here! You catch a glimpse of it while turning around, but it isn't there, and you can hear the sound of faraway laughter. This continues for a good day or two before the fortune spirits take pity on you and leave the item back where it was in the first place.
RANK 3
• Curamija Rodeo: You're tapped to help round up some curamijas for upcoming Kaka'i rituals. This is considered an honour by the Kaka'i, and agreeing will carry both a material reward and also a level of prestige within their ranks, but they'll shun you a while if you refuse.
• A Soupçon of Doubt: Something you said made a member of Ban Om question their own faith. For a time they were angry with you, giving you nasty looks whenever you crossed paths. Though after a week's time they leave you a note of which the gist is basically the doubt you instilled in them allowed them to think more deeply about what they believed, sought answers, and managed to strengthen their convictions. There's a pretty tortoiseshell hairpin in the envelope as a gift.
RANK 4
• The Gift of Charity: You take pity on a beggar and give them some rhinn. A Tifauiti saw you, and they give you three times what you gave for your kindness.
RANK 5
• Mindfulness Exercise: You're invited to a guided meditation session with either the Tifaut or the Ban Om. After you're done, you feel refreshed, as though your body and spirit have been energized. Maybe it's your positive aura or maybe it's a deity intervening, but improving your Talent just got easier and anything you put concerted effort towards goes off without a hitch.
COMMERCE
RANK 1
• Something Fishy This Way Comes: You're walking down by the piers when someone dumps a bucket of chum… directly onto you. It takes days to make the smell go away, and in the meantime shopkeepers will sometimes ask you to leave the premises because it's bothering their other customers.
RANK 2
• Tone Deaf: A merchant you're trying to haggle over goods with doesn't respond to your prompting question at first, and then when you repeat yourself they explain - loudly - that the droning noise last month messed with their hearing. All prices are as marked, no discount or haggling for you today, sorry.
RANK 3
• Spare Change: Someone dropped an entire string's worth of rhinn! It's almost all cobalt pieces, too. No one immediately around seems to be missing something. You can opt to keep it, and there may later be a visit from some officers inquiring if you saw anything that day; or you can take it to the nearest Sentry station. In the latter case, expect a call some few days later with a reward-- half the string's value, plus a future favour from the Erol'a Crest who dropped it. Never know when you might need those connections.
RANK 4
• You Look Just Like My Grandson: says the owner of the new clothing shop you decided to try. This seems improbable, since she is, in fact, an Arybar; it transpires that some years ago her family adopted a Dreamperson who looked very like you, but who no longer dreams in Aifaran. No matter your demurral, she'll insist on giving you the family-and-friends discount every time you come back.
RANK 5
• Dream Job: You're hired for a position that's perfect for you, and it comes with a nice paycheck and benefits!
• Gearing Up: You're recognized as a Dreamfolk,and whether or not you're joining the search teams this particular retailer has a deal for you. They'll give you steep discounts to wear some of their branded outdoor gear, and let people know where you got it. It's good quality, so even if you're staying in Aifaran you'll get your money's worth for being a walking advertisement.
ARTS
RANK 1
• Kicked to the Curb: You got booted from a concert for something someone else did! And that was quite a lot of money you had spent on tickets too.
• Bead-dazzled: The Dreaming just saw fit to drop several heavy bags full of decorative glass beads on your head. It's quite a stash but the concussion really wasn't worth it.
RANK 2
• Street Art: Timing is everything and boy were you in the wrong place at the wrong time - the Sentry is pinning some street graffiti on you and you just got a heck of a fine. On the other hand, a group of off-beat artists now find you an inspiration and buy you a few beers and try to talk shop with you. They’re friendly enough and any attempt you might make to tell them it wasn’t you is met with a ‘sure, sure, that’s what you have to say, wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more’.
RANK 3
• Poetry in E-Motion: Posting your poetry anonymously on the Xaxa has garnered quite a few fans. Unfortunately someone else is taking credit for your work.
• Nightlife: You've been invited to an art showing at a gallery - unfortunately the pieces aren't very good and everyone is way more interested in the vintage wines being served. One thing leads to another and you wind up partying with Aifaran's arty socialites, waking up the next morning with a wicked hangover and having adopted seven Inan.
RANK 4
• The Eye of the Beholder: The Dreaming just dumped a famous piece of art from your world right into your lap. This thing is worth millions if not outright priceless. Though if you go to get it appraised, you’re told it may be worth a maybe a cobalt or so.
RANK 5
• Calming Strokes: There's something about your work that has had a calming effect on the incredibly anxious citizens - a welcome reprieve from all the fear and uncertainty.
SCI-TECH
RANK 1
• Account Suspension: Your network or Xa Xa account was flagged for suspicious behavior similar to the rash of accounts spreading rumors last month. Although it's not permanently gone, getting it back takes most of the month, and you'll be on 'probation' for another month after that.
RANK 2
• Warning Sticker: While out on a walk, you come across a bottle of… something. It has a warning sticker on it that's mostly inscrutable, but has lots of exclamation points and images on it that suggest this contains unpleasant chemicals of some sort. The only thing you can read is "Call Zemke!", which is less than helpful.
• Counterfeit Double-Cross: Someone handing out TheRePes shoves one into your hand with a slightly disconcerting grin and a short rundown of how the device works. Later, when you try to follow their instructions, you realize that the device not only doesn't work as advertised, it actively causes damage to anything electronic in a ten foot radius.
RANK 3
• Biscuit Science: An enthusiastic chemist has decided to branch out into baking, declaring that baking is just food science, after all. They've asked you to be a taste-tester; free pastries and cookies abound! Careful, though. Some of those biscuits look suspect.
RANK 4
• Instant Darkvision: Well, night vision is more like it. An engineer and entrepreneur gives you a prototype pair of night vision goggles they've just created that has all sorts of neat add-ons like a rangefinder and a way to connect it to your yimo. It's a bit clunky but it works, so it may be helpful for anyone going with the search teams. Or just going outside the city at night!
RANK 5
• Transit Pass: Someone in the Skyway must like you, because a pass is mailed to you that's worth a month of free rides. There's no name on the envelope, but it's 100% genuine. Your commute just got a little easier.
METAPHYSICS
RANK 1
• Mad World: Getting too close to the thriving lightening trees may cause your talent mark to act out oddly, making you cast partial or heavily enhanced spells at random.
• Rosebud...: After falling asleep, you have a very vivid dream that spoils the ending of a book/film/podcast/radio show/video game you were looking forward to. Unfortunately the Dreaming doesn't do spoiler warnings.
RANK 2
• Moonlight Favours: Staring at the sky too long at night isn't usually a bad thing - at least until the moon looks more and more like the eye of some giant sea monster. You blink and it winks, and suddenly it's the moon again. Anyone who was watching with you thinks you might have gone round the twist if you bring it up.
RANK 3
• Magical Advisor: Some of the local Sinayg want your advice and input on some stonework they're doing. As a reward, you get to watch them listen to the stone and speak to it in turn -- and, of course, have a lasting effect on the city. They might even work your name in.
• Illogical Extreme: Somehow the localized physics in your immediate proximity have gone topsy turvy - down is up, left is right, inside is out and hot is cold. It’s deeply disorienting, but fortunately it only seems to happen when you’re indoors. Although opening the icebox may start a fire.
RANK 4
• Night at the...: Filling in for a security guard at the Aifaran Museum, the evening may start off slow but soon the various dioramas and mannequins come to life and you all have zany adventures together through the night. When you wake up at the security desk, however, it's hard to say if it wasn't all just a dream.
RANK 5
• And The Winner Is...: Having entered a raffle (either knowingly or unknowingly), your name is selected as the grand prize winner, providing you with a small, enchanted household item - so perhaps a self-sweeping broom, a tea kettle that somehow knows when you want it to boil, or linens that zoom outside under their own power to shake clean all by themselves.