Disguises and Personae

From The Domains of Dread

In The Domains of Dread, players control the intended presentation of their character as viewed by other characters—generic name, portrait, voiceset and examine descriptions—through the personae system, whose NUI menu is invoked using the !persona [switch/drop] [shortname or opcode], short alias !p [s/d] [shortname or opcode] chat command standalone. The individual functions of any given persona are described below.

Generic Name

A character’s generic name is a generalized descriptor used for them when their name has not been set by other players using the !name [name], short alias !n [name] chat command which will instead display the provided when the character is selected or moused over.

Portrait

A character’s portrait controls which graphical portrait is shown when selected or moused over.

Voiceset

A character’s voiceset controls what sounds or voice the character uses when attacking, being hit or using the voice callout system.

Examine Description

A character’s examine description controls the text provided to other players when they are examined, describing particular facets of appearance that would not be conveyed solely by their game model. Examine descriptions should not be used to convey information that would not be apparent from looking at the character.

Editing details about personas beyond default is performed when inside the out of character experience, not in the world.

Persona Slots and Usage

When a player edits persona slot 001 or default, this is assumed to be the character’s unforced, undisguised persona. Put another way, the default persona is what will be revealed when the character has a disguise fail or stripped. Therefore content in the default slot should be truthful to how the character presents themselves in any context outside of conscious, deliberate disguise.

All characters have access to an additional, special persona slot 002 or event. This slot is specifically for instances where social costuming is expected such as galas, costume parties or masquerade balls—if a character is examined while in their event persona, their given name (if set by the examiner) will be printed to the system log but their generic name/portrait/voiceset/examine description will remain unchanged. It is not affected by the character’s Deception skill or any other modifiers which may alter the effectiveness of their disguise, as they are not fictionally disguised as such. Generic names may be uniquely set for the event slot but should adhere to the style demonstrated by the default options.

After persona slot 001 and 002, all further slots depend on the character’s Deception skill—for every 5 hard ranks in Deception a new persona slot will be made available, minimum 1. By using !persona switch [shortname or opcode], they will assume the persona in that slot and become disguised. Using !persona drop will change their persona to whatever was set prior, typically default but players may for example set up a character in deep cover by switching to slot 003 then switching to slot 004—using !persona drop in this context would set the character back to slot 003, not default.

Disguises are subject to their own rules and considerations, per below:

  • A disguise will set a character’s observable NR to the target unadjusted NR of their real race and origin regardless of their undisguised NR—for example a disguised elf will be set to Disfavored in Barovia even if their undisguised persona has earned Neutral NR there. Put another way, NR gains and losses are local to the persona slot, not global to the character. This should not be abused against the spirit of the server, per the Game Rules, such as switching to a persona slot immediately before performing an NR-affecting action to “absorb” the NR impact.
  • A disguised character cannot misrepresent their race as different from their real race. Humans disguising as other kinds of humans, such as a Gundarakite disguising as a Barovian, are acceptable. Caliban who are sufficiently covered—eg, their target unadjusted NR is Disfavored instead of Hostile—do not have to give away that they are caliban in their description when disguised, however.
  • A disguised character may be assumed to be conditioning their voice and other physical traits such that they may alter the pronouns of their persona freely. Dyeing hair and changing the head model within reason is acceptable. The height and body model should not be changed to suit a disguise.
  • Characters who pierce a disguise will know that the character was attempting to disguise themselves, but may not know who the character really is depending on the roleplay context (eg, different attire and a hood/mask). It may be assumed that they will know who they found if the undisguised character is unhooded and/or unmasked.
  • Disguising oneself is a hostile action and those who pierce a disguise may react accordingly, per the Character versus Character Rules. Wearing a social costume from the event persona slot is not a hostile action.

By default, players cannot alter the name associated with a character’s disguise slot (thereby creating a new identity) for 7 days IRT once a slot has been named. They may change any other details about the persona slot when inside the out of character experience.

Detecting Disguises

A prospective detector rolls the following when they use the !undisguise chat command selecting the prospective disguised character: 

d10 + Intuition +/- proximity modifiers +/- miscellaneous modifiers

If their roll beats the DC set by the disguised character’s Deception skill after any other modifiers, they will have pierced their disguise. The disguised character’s former generic name and set name (if present) plus their former examine description will be printed into the detector’s system log.

Common factors which would make a character easier or harder to undisguise include:

  • Distance from the detector (imposing a negative modifier based on how far they are away, up to +0 at the closest);
  • Whether the detector has attempted to undisguise them recently (negative modifier if they have tried recently);
  • How covered the character is (the more covered, the harder they are to undisguise);
  • The presence influence of any spells which heighten or lower Intuition.
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