New Player's Guide

First of all, welcome to From Dusk Till Jawn! This game is a Discord-based role-playing game using the rules and setting from Onyx Path Publishing's Chronicles of Darkness books, set in a fictional version of Philadelphia. We support the Chronicles of Darkness 2.0. The purpose of this guide is to provide a high-level overview for new players.

Getting Connected

RP takes place on our Discord server.

The staff and admins of FDTJ began in the MUSH or "Multi-User Shared Hallucination" community of telnet-based games, but we have made the decision to move to Discord to be more accessible to a wider selection of players.

Start-Up

• Set up a login on our Ticket System - there's a Guide at that link. Tickets are used for communicating with game-runners/staff, submitting new characters for review, etc.
• Please read our Courteous Practices, Site Policies and Game Conventions. We have tried to put together pages which don't just review the Policies but also the social expectations of our game.
• You can find the pages for the various spheres (game lines) on the left-hand menu of the wiki.
• We require a wiki page for approval of your character, so getting started on that is a great way to finalize your ideas!
  • You can use any of the basic templates in use, or create your own, as long as it follows the Wiki Guidelines linked on our front page.
  • The only exception is the template used for NPC pages. We specifically use this very plain layout so that NPC pages are distinguishable at a glance from PC pages.

Game Systems

We can't know when humans first started telling stories, or why. But it's a safe bet that the first tale tellers used their craft to explain the mysteries going on around them. Indeed, some of the most ancient stories that are still told today grapple with the biggest mysteries of all — life, death, creation, redemption and the ongoing struggle of good versus evil. The Chronicles Of Darkness is a Storytelling game, because it's an opportunity for you to participate in the deeply human endeavor of telling stories.

The stories told in this game are set in the World of Darkness. It's a place very much like our world, sharing the same history, culture and geography. Superficially, most people in this fictional world live the same lives we do. They eat the same food, wear the same clothes, and waste time watching the same stupid TV shows. And yet, in the World of Darkness, shadows are deeper, nights are darker, fog is thicker. If, in our world, a neighborhood has a rundown house that gives people the creeps, in the World of Darkness, that house emits strange sighs on certain nights of the year, and seems to have a human face when seen from the corner of one's eye. Or so some neighbors say. In our world, there are urban legends. In the World of Darkness, there are urban legends whispered into the ears of children by invisible spiders.

In the world of From Dusk Till Jawn, there is no coronavirus. This is our escape. The pandemic never happened here. In that same vein, large calamities from real life -- mass shootings, wars, etc. -- do not exist in our continuity as they do in real life. Bad things happen, but we're not just importing the shared trauma of the daily news reel and reacting to it.

• Chronicles of Darkness, God Machine Update (note: we don't use the actual God Machine at all.)
• Changeling: the Lost
• Mage: the Awakening
• Vampire: the Requiem
• Geist: the Sin-Eaters

Learn More!

Game Setting

Where: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

When: Present Day

The Main Page has a series of links just below the header which will lead you to information about the setting specific to the game's spheres.

Basic FAQs

What is the language/behavior rating of the server?

This is an R-Rated Server. This game will explore themes that are not suitable for children and young people. By signing in to this game you are confirming that you are at least 18 years of age. The staff of the game are not responsible for verifying this fact and reserve the right to remove characters or players from those of any age who seem unable to cope with the mature setting. Because this is a mature environment we expect staff and players to behave in a polite and cooperative manner with each other at all times. All characters must be, act, and appear to be 18+ years of age at all times.

Tell me a little about your game's culture.

Find a little bit about Our Philosophy and Game Conventions here.

Are you open?

Yes. We support Changelings, Vampires, Mages, Sin-Eaters, Mortal, and Mortal+ characters. We have no plans at this time to add other splats: the game has been running for years at this point and we're pretty settled with our current lineup!

Are there House Rules?

Yes, and all are collected on the Rules page, gathered by sphere.

What's the Character Creation process?

First, you should familiarize yourself with the sphere you are interested in joining. Pay particular attention to the Joining section of each page:

• For Changeling characters, read here.
• For Mage characters, read here.
• For Vampire characters, read here.
• For characters involved in Civil Society, read here.
• For Mortal and Mortal+ characters, read here.

Then, you will need to understand how to use our ticket system to submit an application.

Next, you will need to follow the application guidelines for your sphere:

• For Changeling characters, read here.
• For Mage characters, read here.
• For Vampire characters, read here.
• For Mortal and Mortal+ characters, read here.

For all spheres, we require a Player Profile set up on your userpage with at least your name and pronouns and your character names(s) and their pronouns. The rest of the information is suggested but not mandatory.

Once you have a sheet, a background, and a wiki you can submit your character for approval using our ticket system. So make sure you set up an account.

Our thanks to Haunted Memories, from whose excellent documentation we have borrowed a framework for some of ours.