Replay Value AU
| Community | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Replay Value AU |
| Date(s): | 2012+ |
| Moderator: | none [1] |
| Founder: | ambiguous (godsgifttogrinds or liquidCitrus[2]) |
| Type: | shared universe |
| Fandom: | Homestuck |
| URL: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Replay Value AU is the overarching name used by fanworks based off godsgifttogrinds' Sburb Glitch FAQ, an ostensible guide to the game of the same name from Homestuck. Most fanfics are hosted on Archive of our Own, although there is also supplementary information on some people's Pastebins, and some Tumblr blogs. There are also multiple roleplays.
Setting
The [Advanced Game Theory] chapter was an excuse to set up a scenario of infinitely repeating games to explain why the FAQ author appears to be some sort of veteran. It just made writing the FAQ more interesting to me. I don't know why it spawned an AU.
-- godsgifttogrinds[3]
The Sburb Glitch FAQ is written in-character, from the perspective of one "grindinglyGodliest", a young man who is an eight-session Sburb veteran.
In this world, Sburb is highly glitchy. Most notably, the Door Beyond the End is broken; as such, the players of Sburb are required to continue playing, "replaying" in place of the players of failed Sburb sessions. They are shuffled randomly, such that one never plays with the same people again.
However, there exist servers in the Ring, and many of these servers host forums, databases, and chats that can be used across multiple sessions. Furthermore, Time players can stabilize connections to these servers so people can connect to them more or less linearly. Most of Replay Value AU is set on these servers.
Replay Value AU is characterized by its focus on worldbuilding, existential horror, and what people do in the face of insignificance. Most Replay Value AU fanfics are written from the perspective of characters attempting to write objective guides, but revealing parts of their personality and history anyway.
Important features of the setting include:
- further worldbuilding to Sburb, establishing it as full of glitches (and full of gamebreakers exploiting said glitches, and then writing FAQs about them)
- an extensive noncanon class and aspect system
- cross-session "timetrav encryption" that downplays/minimizes the role of time shenanigans
- unlike canon, presessions are of indefinite length and the date of Sburb release is often not certain
- slice-of-life in the roleplay(s)
- characters with informed/researched PTSD
RV Classic
| Community | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Replay Value AU ("RV Classic"[4]) |
| Date(s): | 2012-2014 |
| Moderator: | none[4] |
| Founder: | ambiguous (godsgifttogrinds or liquidCitrus) |
| Type: | Roleplay |
| Fandom: | Homestuck |
| URL: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The Sburb Glitch FAQ by godsgifttoGrinds was not actually intended as a full-fledged shared-world AU.[3] However, people began roleplaying in the comments, interacting with each other, and generally establishing a cast of characters.
On May 8, 2012, liquidCitrus created an IRC channel for the people who were roleplaying in the Glitch FAQ's comments.[5] Within a month this became a large IRC roleplay with multiple channels, associated with several Skype chats.
Some logs and fiction based on this version of Replay Value AU are available on rvdrabbles.tumblr.com; that tumblr is no longer taking submissions.
One of the primary recruitment sources for Replay Value AU, especially during the last year, was clickthroughs from its TVTropes page. That page still has links and a tropes-style summary.
I started an IRC channel so we could discuss things and it grew into a two-plus-year-long string of IRC roleplaying with a convoluted canon. It eventually fell apart due to internal disagreements and scaling issues (because RV Classic had absolutely no leaders, you had to get the permission of everyone before launching a plot, and that got difficult as RV became a 20+ person affair).
-- liquidCitrus[4]
Elitism was a common perceived issue - because of the sheer size of the canon that accumulated over time, and the total lack of documentation, newbies who made up things about the setting were frequently jumped by veteran players who told them that they were doing it wrong. There was a partial attempt to solve this by putting together a document of "these are people who know about given sections of the setting, so ask them before doing anything"; this didn't get very far.
Also, there were tone arguments. (Expand?)
RVBoot
After the original Replay Value AU group splintered, several members of the original attempted to make a reboot that stripped most of the canon out. This roleplay was IRC and Skype-based and lasted less than six months.
RV Discord
As A User's Guide to the Apocalypse was published, several members of the original Replay Value congregated in a Discord chat. This chat roleplays sedate character-driven interactions inside the Replay Value universe. This chat has returning characters from RV Classic (about 10 sessions older than they were then) as well as new characters.
RV Forums
| Community | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Replay Value AU (forums) |
| Date(s): | 2012-present |
| Founder: | technicolourCapitalist |
| Type: | Roleplay |
| Fandom: | Homestuck |
| URL: | old forum (2012+), new forum (2016+) |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The RV forums were a second and simultaneous attempt to centralize the RV roleplaying fandom and put it somewhere. However, after a brief period in the summer of 2012, the canon of the forums diverged drastically from the canon of the RV Classic IRC chats. This is probably because the founder of the forums became unreachable.
While RV Classic was running, the forums absorbed people who didn't or couldn't put up with the strict standards enforced by the IRC crowd.
After the conclusion of Homestuck, technicolourCapitalist noticed that the Replay Value boards were still being used, and decided to create new and slightly more functional boards. Then they left.
A User's Guide
| Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | A User's Guide to the Apocalypse ("RV Chuubo's"[4]) |
| Author(s): | liquidCitrus |
| Date(s): | 2015-ongoing |
| Length: | 386 pages (as of December 27, 2015) |
| Genre: | tabletop RPG setting book |
| Fandom: | Homestuck, Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine |
| External Links: | http://eternity-braid.tumblr.com/ |
Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
liquidCitrus (writing as Elaine "OJ" Wang) began writing a tabletop RPG setting book based on Replay Value AU in March of 2015. (While it shows up piecewise on a Tumblr blog, that blog has one author and does not take public submissions for this project.)
A User's Guide uses the rules of the Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine tabletop RPG, a diceless system designed around slice-of-life play and archetypal power sets. The blog has since expanded to write on Chuubo's in general (without reference to Replay Value AU), as well as Nobilis (the predecessor to Chuubo's).
According to liquidCitrus, RV Chuubo's is explicitly "trauma-informed" (based on extensive research on PTSD), and could serve as an allegory for long-term abuse, especially of children by parents. As such, the book contains things like information on the neurobiology of trauma, and tips for using roleplaying as self-exploration.
The book is notable for being one of the few playable tabletop games based off the Homestuck setting.
Notes/References
- ^ liquidCitrus, http://eternity-braid.tumblr.com/post/138318111696/to-be-clear-the-original-replay-value-au-roleplay
- ^ The same writer uses the names liquidCitrus, orngjce223, and Elaine "OJ" Wang. The name liquidCitrus is used throughout this article for consistency.
- ^ a b godsgifttogrinds, http://sburbunofficial.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=gotopost&board=auchat&thread=138&post=2318
- ^ a b c d liquidCitrus, http://eternity-braid.tumblr.com/post/123587917531/would-the-rv-characters-have-to-be-alive-as-of
- ^ liquidCitrus, http://archiveofourown.org/comments/833508