The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of!

[these_balls]

They say that good things come in threes, and this one is no exception; for the third year running, it's time for:



SO WHAT EXACTLY IS POKEMON PROM?

In a nutshell, Pokemon Prom is an event we tend to run right around this time of year, in which someone in Johto/Kanto throws a big party and invites everyone in the region to it for the sake of getting dressed up, putting all the characters in the game together in one place, and generally having a good old time with it.

However, in the interest of keeping things exciting and fresh, we'll be running prom slightly differently from the way we have in previous years, so please make sure to read this entire post carefully!

FIRST THINGS FIRST: WHERE AND WHEN IS THIS THING GOING DOWN?

For various IRL reasons including the fact that our usual dates for prom also fall on Easter weekend this year, we've decided to push prom back a little to run from April 17 through April 19 — a three-day event. As for where it'll be taking place, well, that's a little more complicated.

For the first time, Prom will not be held at Claire and Lance's Super Classy Elite Four Exclusive Vacation Retreat in Scenic Tohjo Falls; the place got sufficiently destroyed last Halloween that Lance isn't really in the mood to host all of you back there anytime soon. However, there will be a centralized venue for it, and it will be taking place...in your dreams.

IN OUR DREAMS?

That's right! This year, instead of Claire and Lance getting together to throw a massive real-world gala event, we'll instead be running a dream event that culminates in a big fantasy get-together on the final day of the event. So you'll still get your prom; it's just coming in a slightly different and more fantastical form than usual.

HOW IS THE EVENT GOING TO BE RUN, THEN?

Good question! As a three-day event that culminates in prom on the final day, the event will proceed roughly as follows:

On April 12 and 13, a few days before the dreams begin, the regions will be blanketed in faintly glowing feathers that characters can pick up and add to their inventory! Having one of these feathers will be your character's ticket to participating in the plot, so if you intend to have them join in the fun, YOU MUST HAVE THEM ACQUIRE ONE OF THE FEATHERS. This can be handwaved if necessary, and it won't be particularly difficult to find them, so how they get their hands on one is up to you!

As of April 17th, all characters in possession of one of the Mysterious Feathers™ will experience an extremely vivid dream — the content of which will be left entirely up to the player! We'll be putting up a log in route_1065 to act as the hub for any dreams that people may want to post, largely because the vivid dreaming is only half the fun! You see, during the period of dreaming on April 17th, any character holding a Mysterious Feather may visit another holder's dreams. Thus, the log will double as a place for people to play out interactions within their dreams, lucid or otherwise!

Though characters will wake up from those dreams on April 17th (and have an opportunity to take to the Gear Network and discuss them if they like), this will change come April 18th, when all participating characters will fall into a brief coma. So sorry if you happened to be somewhere inconvenient when you fell under the spell; you might just wake up with a stiff neck when all this is over.

On April 18th, participating characters will be asked to tailor their dreams to the experience of walking or traveling to a faraway place; they may run into other dreamers during the interim, but the general flow of gameplay should be directed toward experiencing the urge to go somewhere, and following that urge to its destination. We'll provide a log in route_1065 for this as well! Unlike before, characters will not wake up between April 18th and April 19th; their journey isn't over, after all!

Come April 19th, the dreamers will arrive at their destination: a great grand dream castle waiting for them at the end of the long journey, filled with music and revelry. Sounds a little bit like the Twelve Dancing Princesses, doesn't it? So maybe you should go dance!

The party that takes place on April 19th will be this year's Pokemon Prom event — with a twist! Understandably, since it's taking place in dreams, characters aren't quite as confined to things like reason and physics as they would be in the real world, which means they're likely to be in for a positively magical night!

Come the morning of the 20th, all characters will awake from their dreams, having just spent a (hopefully) wonderful evening out having a grand old time partying on in their dreams. They will be permitted to keep their Mysterious Feathers™ as a souvenir, though the items won't do anything afterward, save for maybe help to ensure a good night's sleep on a night when you really need it.

SO, TO RECAP?

APRIL 12 and 13 — Mysterious Feathers™ fall from the sky!
APRIL 17 — Day One of Dream Plot; participating characters may post and wander into each other's dreams while asleep on this day.
APRIL 18 — Day Two of Dream Plot; participating characters will have a dream that involves travel of some variety, or of needing to get to a faraway place.
APRIL 19 — Day Three of Dream Plot; participating characters arrive at Dream Prom, get their groove on, and have a great night out in their dreams.
APRIL 20 — Dream Plot ends; participating characters may keep their Mysterious Feathers™, though they will no longer confer the ability to wander into other people's dreams.

DREAM CASTLE, HUH. ANY RELATION TO NIGHTMARE CASTLE?

SO ABOUT THIS DREAM-HOPPING THING. AM I LIMITED TO ONE DREAM?

We're going to ask that your character only have one dream that night, for ease of simplicity, though the content of that dream can be pretty much whatever you want.

In terms of tagging around, your character is allowed to visit as many other people's dreams as they want. Have fun!

CAN I GET TOGETHER WITH ANOTHER CHARACTER AND PUT UP A SHARED DREAM?

Unfortunately, no, but they're welcome to come visit you once you're dreaming!

ARE WE GOING TO GET A FLOORPLAN OF THE DREAM CASTLE?

You are! However, unlike previous years and party events where we've supplied you with a fairly thorough description of where you're going, Dream Prom is going to be a little more...well, dreamy! You'll have a general layout of the place and some staples for what you'll be able to find there, but being a dream, the environment will be somewhat mutable to the whims and expectations of the character experiencing it!

...So basically if you think the flowers should be blue but someone else wants them to be pink, you're both right. Dreams are weird that way.

WHAT ABOUT MY POKEMON? CAN THEY BE IN MY DREAMS/COME TO THE PARTY?

Only if they've also touched your Mysterious Feather™! OOCly, we'd ask that you please limit the number of Pokemon you bring along with you to three.

CAN I PARTICIPATE IN ONLY PART OF THE EVENT?

We'd prefer that participating players and characters committed to all three days of the event, so please take that into consideration! I.E., if you participate in the first day of dream-hopping, we'll expect your character to be involved with the subsequent two days of the event as well.

WHAT IF I DON'T WANT TO PARTICIPATE AT ALL?

That's fine! It's an optional event, and you're not required to participate by any means. However, if you're not planning to play, then we're going to ask that you please do not have your character pick up one of the feathers when they fall, as those are solely for the people who are going!

Also, for the handful of days that the wayward dreamers are knocked out in their comas, you'll still be awake! And...surrounded by people in comas. Sorry about that!

IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE I NEED TO KNOW?

We're reserving this space for announcements and questions that might come up in the comments of this infopost, that we feel warrant mass visibility. Please keep checking back here every so often to see if we've added something!

I STILL HAVE QUESTIONS!

Feel free to ask us about them here!

Comments

[in_praetego]

Follow up question to that! Will it follow that if something's done to the feather, it would affect the dream? Like say if it was burned or cut or something?

[these_balls]

That's fine, yes! You're welcome to be creative with it, though the feather itself should remain mostly intact; some nicks and superficial damage are fine, but don't chop it in half or run it through a woodchipper or anything. o/