06. Action Threads & Death

[TimeCraked]

Action Threads

An Action Thread, or ‘AT’, uses the same general rules as any other thread, but, whatever is happening, it’s serious enough that everyone in it is at risk of dying. An Action Thread might be called to create, meaningfully alter, or destroy a location or sub-board, or even to try to kill someone for good.

Action Threads have a boon, in that you get additional gains at the end. Action Threads are open for 48 hours after they have been declared, after which people are locked out from joining. Thread members have a 48 hour window from the last post to respond in posting order before being skipped. If a member hasn't posted within 48 hours of the last post, they are subject to attack and could even be defeated or killed at the discretion of the other players participating.

For continuity reasons, if you enter or are otherwise in an Action Thread, you cannot join any new threads (except for Time Slip and Genjutsu World threads). If someone is attempting to turn a non-AT into an Action Thread, everyone in it gains the ability to escape freely and easily, even bypassing Escape Prevention jutsu, and will be obligated to if they’ve joined threads after that one.

[TimeCraked]

Death

Death by Damage - Sometimes, in the heat of battle during the fierce conflict of a death-enabled Action Thread, a character dies. Whether you suffered one too many attacks and bleed out at the end, or the ephemeral black flames of Amaterasu just vaporized you, the result will be the same. Your character has died, and on New Era, there are very few ways to counter-act or reverse such a thing.

In a lethal Action Thread, if someone’s attack brings someone else to 0 health, or they reach 0 health some other way, they will be killed unless the attacker specifies another intent when they make the attack. However, not all Action Threads are lethal, such as that meant to found a Village. Event Threads are a type of automatic, staff-created Action Thread that often have their own specified rules, such as regarding the thread’s lethality.

Afterlife - If you die, you will go to the Pure Land by default. If you have minions or followers remaining in the thread, they can continue fighting even after you die if you wish, though you can also have them freely leave in a way that Escape Prevention jutsu will not counter (summons will be automatically unsummoned). The Pure Land does not have any substance of its own; at least, not any substance that you’ll remember for any longer than you’re seeing it. Rather, the Pure Land reflects your past experiences and a collective imagination left to itself: you gain normal XP from Time Slip and Genjutsu World threads, as does anyone you thread with in them.

Revival - Death is not always entirely permanent. There are a few very secret, very old jutsu that allow the revival of the dead; but usually, this comes at a great cost. While those jutsu have yet to be attained by any modern shinobi, the most prominent method in which a shinobi escapes death is as a Chakra Ghost by spending 5 XP. You permanently replace your clan features with those of a chakra ghost.

A character can only be resurrected in one way. If you come back as a ghost for example, someone who unlocks the mysterious Edo Tensei kinjutsu cannot bring you back using it, and vice versa.

Scooping - If your character is dead but you want to write being alive again while retaining some of the mechanical effort that went into the character, you can Scoop them. When you do, that character is no longer playable, but you convert all of their jutsu, ranks, and lasting XP purchases back into XP, fully refund all of their remaining Ryō items back into Ryō, and give 80% (round down) of each to a new E-Rank character of your creation (though of course you can spend these currencies in character creation. This is intended primarily to allow players who do not wish to play in the Pure Land to rejoin the main board with the bulk of their earnings upon death, albeit at a substantial loss. You can also scoop a character without them dying, though this is done at a reduced rate of 60% instead of 80%.

If you have a living follower when you die, and that follower isn’t in an Action Thread, you can scoop your old character into them, instead. You will still need to apply for them as a character, which means you’ll need to replace their old minion traits with clan traits, though they’ll retain all of their jutsu. If you do, investments made in that followers will not be counted towards your totals but, before the % is applied, the XP cost of reaching the follower’s rank is deducted.