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05councilHere's a list of frequently asked questions. Still have a pressing desire for knowledge not covered here? Ask!
I don't know anything about the SCP Foundation universe, what gives?
Luckily, the majority of the SCP Foundation relies on a need to know sort of motif. Any information that you or your characters need to play in this world will generally be told to you as you go along!
Information on the massive world of the SCP Foundation can be found at their wikidot site, tvtropes, reddit, or on Wikipedia. You can also look at the “What You Need To Know” post.
What's game play like?
Game play at Secure Contain Protect is a mix between a traditional Dreamwidth roleplaying game, a sand box, and a dressing room with applications. The bigger over-arcing story is that of the entire SCP Universe and there is no single meta-game for characters to play. While they may find out eventually why they have been brought to this dimension, had their memories wiped and possibly their entire genetic makeup changed, this doesn't have a lot to do with Big Game Plot.
In an effort to make every character feel just as involved and important as another, game play will take place in several ways. First, your character can join weekly or bi-weekly posted and mod created task forces, or Containment Teams, to go on small group missions to investigate, contain and bring home SCPs from the field. Second, they can enjoy traditional role play in the comm by calling/texting/video chatting other characters, conducting research on SCPs, forming their own teams, etc. This can either lead to slice of life game play or kick off some awesome player created events that could lead to destruction and mayhem for a few or all characters! You can also interact with NPCs that will float around from time to time. Third, you can follow the traditional role play of the SCP Universe and create your own game-use SCPs or write one shot works of fiction about your characters (like fan fiction) in the setting. Your time here can be spent however you like so long as you follow the rules, get your reports in on time, and don't piss the Site Director off!
What types of characters are allowed?
We accept either OCs or Canon AU characters only! All Canon characters that arrive at Site-33 will be 100% human, no matter if they were robot, alien or animal in their previous canons. Due to possible K-Class End-of-the-World-Scenarios that may occur if “new hires” are permitted to be or remember who they were, all characters will have their memories completely wiped to go with their possible DNA changes. Any super powers that they might have had are gone too. Upper Management at Site-33 doesn't play around, guys! Please note that characters must also be at least 18 years old. The Foundation does employ geniuses, whiz kids and exceptionally talented individuals but anything even vaguely over the general limits of what a normal human is capable of will probably get said person displaying those attributes an SCP number rather than a personnel ID card. As a result, any underage character will need to be aged up.
Note: we do not except historical figures unless they are from a fictional work. This is because the Foundation doesn't want to mess with its own timeline and would never want to rip Benjamin Franklin or Gandhi from our history just to use as fodder-- We mean new agents, security and researchers!
How many characters can I have at once?
Three.
So explain a little bit about this backstory I have to make up, please?
Simply put, every canon character that enters play has been given a new memory and had the old one wiped from their minds. Their new memories are shells and while full of holes, the human mind has this remarkable way of making people fill in gaps to prevent itself from shutting down. Your character may fully remember their parents and college roommate, but that is only because their minds have filled in details around the bare bones memories that the Foundation has given them.
Where possible, memories are left intact or simply altered. It’s much easier and cheaper than implanting whole new memories after all. A super hero character might remember the names and faces of her allies, but instead of those people being super powered, she believes that they worked with her at her last job in an office for example. A magical creature might have been on a quest to find an item of power in his old life but now, newly human, he believes that he was a teacher who he was into white water rafting and mountain climbing.
Your character’s backstory is entirely up to you. Give them a new name, a new age...or leave them more or less alone with a few sticky details changed. The choice is yours!
For OCs, you can choose to have your character be from this world/dimension OR you can choose to make your character something originally fantastical that has now been brought to this dimension like canon characters. If you go this route, your application must include the original character backstory AND the new, implanted character backstory!
How are the comms set up?
There are only two comms. The main community where roleplaying takes place and the OOC community where out of character discussions take place.
This means that you will write everything roleplay oriented in SecureContainProtect, including the traditional network posts (phone calls, emails, texts, Skype), logs (group or one on one play), blogs, one-shots, new SCP files, etc. Be sure to use the proper and provided for tags!
What’s a K-Class Scenario?
In the SCP Universe, a K-Class Scenarios are typically understood as “end game” for life or civilization as we know it due to an improperly handled or contained SCP. There are various K-Class Scenarios such as LK-Class Species Transmutation Scenarios, CK-Class Reconfiguration Scenarios, XK-Class End-of-the-World Scenarios and ZK-Class End-of-Reality Scenarios. And K-Class Scenario is bad news and the main focus of the Foundation.
K-Class Scenarios may arise from time to time during game play, during which the entire game will be tasked with stopping something catastrophic from happening!
Why are so many files blacked out, [EXPUNGED] or [REDACTED]?
The majority of the writings in the SCP universe take place in the form of SCP Files (that is, the computer records and research notes for each SCP found by the Foundation) or reports on artifacts/locations/humanoids/etc. Each report begins with the containment procedure for each object (the most important part), their description, and the history of experiments or record of capture. Every report is also generally given a clearance level (see the “What You Need To Know” post) for who may or may not see the information. Information that has been blacked out, expunged or redacted is generally done to make the reports look more realistic and also to make them that much scarier since the imagination must fill in the existing data.
This community does use actual SCP reports that characters can and will access. Blacked out, expunged data or redacted information will be used as road blocks and your characters can and should be react accordingly. It should be assumed that those with higher clearance levels can see the missing data.
What does Site-33 look like?
Located under Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia (a real world building known for housing Al Capone and which is now a museum and a season haunted house), Site-33 is the home base facility for all characters and is itself an SCP. The exact number is blacked out and no one with clearance level below those possessed by 05s may access it. The Foundation prides itself on the safety of all employees however, so one can assume that residing and working within the walls of Site-33 is not dangerous. The first 3 sub-levels are open to your characters. A more thorough description may be found in the “What You Need To Know” post, but the layout of the rooms change inside of Site-33 and so an accurate map or floor plan of the facility is impossible to keep up to date.
Characters will live and work in this facility, though if their work schedules permit (or mandate), they are capable of going out into the city or even across the globe. Field agents typically work outside of the facility but can return for rest days, to regroup, to go to meetings or touch base with researchers. Researchers and security officers are generally based inside of Site-33, but have opportunities to join Containment Teams to travel off-site. No one from upper management is holding characters prisoner. If they want to visit the Italian Market or the Northern Liberties neighborhood in Philly, or take a vacation to England, they are allowed! Of course, characters might find themselves at the mercy of surveillance or administered class A amnesiacs upon their return should something happen to them that management doesn’t care for…just like every other member of the SCP Foundation below the 05 Council.
What's the world like in this dimension?
This game takes place in THIS world, THIS dimension, the one you and I and all players occupy. It happens current day, current time. Obama is president of the United States, there are iPads and Android smart phones. Northern Norway is cold, there are snakes in Florida, and geisha still roam the streams of Kyoto in Japan.
All employees of the Foundation have access to computers and smart phones (the Foundation gives you the choice of the iPhone 6 or the Galaxy Note). They use these devices to communicate as you or I would, but they are far more secure and the networks they use are probably the most secure in the world.
That said, just because your characters are living in this current world, that doesn't mean that they don't have access to or see incredible things!
What’s Activity Check like?
All personnel are required to submit to neural scanning and memory backup protocols for which they must visit a Foundation psychologist and produce reports of their activity during the last month. This can be done by linking threads you have participated in or writing up a small, 3-5 sentence paragraph outlining what your character has been up to, what SCPs they have worked on researching or containing, where the Foundation had sent them for work, and/or how their love life is going (for purely medical reasons). There is no current thread quota, word count, post count or anything like that to this game! As long as you submit a monthly report, you’re good to go.
That said, do not squat on a character. Do not consistently thread drop. Don't leave potential team mates hanging! It is very easy for upper management to decide to terminate your position, let you join the ranks of the D-Class personnel, or accidentally flood your room with deadly neurotoxins. All termination notifications, class demotions and accidents are final and may come without a warning.
Simply put, participate as much as you'd like, just be mindful of other players. If you find yourself less active than you want to be during some sort of group activity, there are loads of IC ways for your character to bow out. For instance, you can have your character receive a call from a higher up, request a leave of absence, use their vacation time, or be recalled to the lab to work on a dangerous SCP.
Can my character die?
The life of a Foundation employee is a dangerous one. Deaths can and do happen...and they are almost always final. If they weren't, the Foundation wouldn't have needed to drag you out of your dimension and make you human, right? The Foundation has access to vast and unimaginable store rooms of SCPs and other artifacts that may or may not have afforded the medical staff with all sorts of cutting edge ways to keep you from dying from afflictions that might prove fatal otherwise, but you should always be cautious. Since it's inception, agents, researchers, security and even lowly clerks have been killed in the line of duty or by playing with the vending machine on Sub-Level 3.
So what happens if you want your character to die? Well, they stay dead. You are welcome to re-app the same character with an altered backstory if you feel like the Foundation could have pulled him or her from a different dimension, but neither your character nor their former Foundation friends will remember them. Class-A amnesiacs are a bitch man.
What happens if you don't want your character to die? Well, that's simple. No character or other player can kill your character without your permission. Your character is as safe as you want then to be just as long as you complete your monthly neural scan!
Does this mean that we can have more than one of the same character in the game at the same time (with different alternate versions)?
Hey, hold on there. This is the SCP Foundation but that doesn't mean they can explain away why four people have the same face and personality! At this time, only one of each character may be in play at any time, even with different back stories and changed names.
I don't play someone from a drawn medium and my character is portrayed by the same actor as another character in the game!
This is a little sticky. Face twins are always amusing but the Foundation can't have too many of you guys running around. For one, it makes ID card security impossible. And it's just too darn confusing!
For live action characters that share an actor with another character in the game, please contact the mods (05council) for a case by case decision or mention it on your reserve so that we can work with you on making this fun for everyone!
