FAQ: Banked Applauds and Guaranteed Successes

[Iluna]

Banking Applauds

Q: How often should I bank my applauds?
A: We ask that you bank your applauds when you've accumulated 50 of them. The system will send you a reminder. You may bank more often if you wish, though.

Q: Why 50?
A: We have a "top ten" applauded list, with a cap of 50 (type "applaud #top" to see it). Banking your applauds at 50 keeps that list rotating and gives someone else the chance to see their name in lights. Plus, the muck has been around for several years now and some characters have accumulated many, many applauds. Banking them frees us up a little room in our database, and over many characters those little bits of room add up.

Q: Where do applauds go when I bank them?
A: The number of applauds is saved in the database, but the text of them is deleted. If you want to save all your applauds, make a text file on your computer, type "applaud #mine", and copy-and-paste them before banking.

Q: How do I see how many applauds I have?
A: By typing "ta #check" (stands for TradeApplauds) or just "ta".

Spending Applauds - Stat Points

Q: Do I have to have an IC justification to gain of point of mist /sanity / a stat?
A: It helps if you do. It also helps you decide which stat to take. Maybe you've been wandering the mists and learned your way around them a little more, or you've been studying magic, or weightlifting, or maybe the various situations you've ended up in have sharpened your reflexes or made you a little older and wiser.

Q: Can I take a point past the max for any given stat?
A: No. If your special caps you at three (or two, or four) points in a stat, you can't use applauds to go beyond that.

Q: Can I take a point in a new stat I don't yet have?
A: Yes.

Q: How do I know what my cap for a given stat is?
A: The system won't let you take more ranks of a stat than your special allows. It will stop you. If you take a new stat, and it is one your special is handicapped in (that is, your max in that stat is two, not three), the first rank taken in that stat won't have a dot beside it at all.

Spending Applauds -- Guaranteed Successful Actions

The mists are a fickle power, sometimes choosing not to grant the requests made of them through magic, and sometimes lashing back at their wielder without warning. Once in a while, however, in cases of extreme desperation or necessity, it is possible to stack the deck in your favor by offering a little more of yourself, to guarantee that your plea to the mists will be answered.

If you've burned your mist points in combat and your assailant is closing in for the kill, it can be the last push of adrenaline that lets you teleport a few yards away to safety, or drag yourself to the hospital with your last ounces of strength. It can be the desperate power that allows a mother to lift a boulder three times her weight to free her trapped infant; or the intense focus of someone enchanting a magical ring for their beloved, who cannot risk having the spell go wrong; or the frantic search of the inventor whose ultimate weapon has just been stolen, who knows that he only has one chance to catch up to the thief in time to save the world.

This is called a guaranteed success, and it is obtained by 'spending' ten of your hard-earned applauds. It is intended to be reserved for critically important feats; for situations where you know you only have one shot, and it's not one you can leave to chance.


Q: Is it cheating to spend applauds for a successful action?
A: No. We would not have specifically built it into our system if it were against the rules to use it.

Q: What classes of actions can I use a guaranteed success on?
A: Anything. It doesn't have to be a magical feat, it can be a physical feat as well. You could even use a guaranteed success to open that stuck pickle jar if you really wanted to, but we'd recommend running the lid under some hot water or prying the vacuum seal with a knife instead.

Q: What level of actions can I use a guaranteed success on?
A: Any level up to ten, or its equivalent for a physical feat. Doesn't burning applauds on that pickle jar seem silly now?

Q: Can I use a guaranteed success to kill someone?
A: Technically yes, but it would be a pretty blatant abuse of the power to do so, and you'd probably find a sudden lack of people willing to RP with you if you did. Would you want to scene with the character who killed someone instantly and didn't give them a chance to defend themselves?

Q: That makes sense. So, when IS it appropriate to use a guaranteed success?
A: There are two main uses for these, mentioned briefly in the examples above, and in more detail below.

Q: What's the first one?
A: The first is as a last resort in a combat situation. You can spend applauds on either a mist handling or a physical action. If you're going to do this, make it a show stopper. You've got a guaranteed success at just about ANYTHING. Make it something that counts.

Keep in mind that if you use your applauds for an offensive action (i.e., focusing and using up the last of your body heat to hurl a level 8 fireball at someone in desperation, or taking one last swing with your sword), your CREATION of such a thing is the success. Your opponent still has a chance to block its effect on them, as they would with any other handling.

We suggest you save your applauds for defensive moves instead, for when all other avenues have been exhausted and you need a guaranteed escape. Teleport a short distance to safety, turn yourself invisible, dodge that point-blank bullet or pull down a wall between you and your attacker. In practical terms, why waste all your energy on that fireball, when you could be saving your own skin instead?

Q: Okay. What's the second one?
A: The other intended use is for a guaranteed success on a non-combat action or mist handling too important to leave to the chance of a failure or backlash, but too pivotal to the RP to handwave and just agree that it worked. For example, healing someone from the brink of death or turning them into another species, removing all traces of yourself from a crime scene (that can be a single action if you use magic to do it), placing a powerful enchantment on an object, sneaking past that sleeping hellhound on the way to its treasure… or, I guess, if you REALLY need those pickles.

Q: Aside from not instant-killing people, is there anything else I shouldn't spend applauds for?
A: Yes. The use of applauds to get into an action-slinging match is very strongly discouraged. Ideally, in conflict situations, a guaranteed success should be your final resort, the last ditch action that uses up all your reserves to neutralize your opponent or pull you out of harm's way. They're not meant to be a reserve arsenal for when your mist points run out. You don't get more than one last chance, so please don't use more than one guaranteed success per scene. Use one, and use it carefully. If someone abuses guaranteed successes in a scene, let the Wizstaff know.

Q: Is that "not more than one per scene, total" or "not more than one per character"? I mean, if someone uses an offensive guaranteed success against me, can I block it with one of my own?
A: Yes, you can. Remember, it's the creation of the offensive action that's guaranteed, not its result. If someone hurls a guaranteed fireball at you as their last ditch action, YOUR last ditch action can be to guarantee that it misses. But let it stop there. They should be out of energy, and you should be to safety.