Playthings Manor

Playthings Manor is a society designed for Playthings – androids, dolls, and other lifelike, controllable toys – to be fully at the command of our Visitors.

Purpose and Philosophy

The Manor is intended to provide structure to facilitate play involving the following themes:

• Synthetic characters such as androids, robots, dolls, and other lifelike controllable toys, in a clear role as Playthings.
• Power dynamics between Visitors and Playthings, with Visitors having the right to control Playthings, including nonconsensually for the Plaything character. There should be no question here as to whether this is moral or legal; save those arguments for other environments with different expectations.
• Full respect for player consent. Every player has the right to opt out of roleplaying anything they do not want to play. We also encourage (but do not require) players to negotiate OOC before starting a scene.
• Roleplay involving multiple avatars and their players. We’re not here to sit on poseballs with AFK avatars, but to collaborate on fun, exciting, sexy stories combining the visual aspects of SL with the text that we can write.

Playthings Manor Overview

The Profile Board at Playthings Manor lists all of the Playthings currently available at the Manor, along with their current status. Click the name of a Plaything on the board to get more information about it.

All Playthings on duty at the Manor are made available for Visitors. Specifically, each Plaything is programmed to obey any order given to it by a Visitor, to the best of its ability. Some Playthings will obey mindlessly, happily or even eagerly, while others may be reluctant to obey or even resent being commanded. However, all Playthings are here for your use and enjoyment, and their thoughts and feelings are every bit as available for your enjoyment as their bodies are. You are free to order a Plaything to do anything you’d like it to, regardless of any opinions the Plaything might express.

In many cases, you can even control a Plaything’s feelings, memories, and desires by a simple order, although some Playthings’ minds are less malleable. However, all can be made to behave in almost any way you desire.

Playthings may be enjoyed at or near the Manor, may be taken elsewhere by a Visitor, and may even be sent elsewhere on its own to carry out a Visitor’s instructions.

Play involving Visitors enjoying Playthings can happen at any time, but we know that there are lots of obstacles to this, from players just not being present at the same time, to a tendency to drift into random OOC conversation, to a reluctance to take the initiative to actually interrupt something and give orders. With this in mind, we’re introducing Open Houses. Please click through to see how they work.

Becoming a Plaything

Any technological or magical synthetic character (construct) may become a Plaything at the Manor. The majority of Playthings are assigned to serve there by their owners, but some do choose to serve, for reasons of their own.

To become a Plaything, purchase (or have someone purchase for you) a Plaything Directive Module (PDM) from the vendor below the Profile Board. Attach it to your HUD. If you’re an android or robot, you can think of this as a chip that enforces your obedience to Visitors.

Initially, most of the buttons will be unavailable. Click the “Profile” button to get a link to a web page where you can provide some basic information about your Plaything character, which will be made available on the Profile Board at the Manor when you are available. Once you’ve created a profile, click the “Update” button in your Directive Module HUD, and the other buttons will become active. You can ignore them for now, however; they were designed for a previous conception of Playthings Manor. We anticipate releasing an updated PDM in the coming weeks. (This will be announced in the Playthings Manor group. Owners of a current PDM will be able to upgrade at no charge to the new one.)

Playthings can display a wide range of behaviors! When not ordered otherwise, a Plaything can talk, move around, and interact with Visitors or with other Playthings. Some Playthings are stiff and robotic, but others are highly emotional. A Plaything can sass or make demands. It can be excited, sullen, sexy, timid, friendly, standoffish, cheerful, or sad. When given an order, it must obey, but it can obey eagerly, lazily, resentfully, timidly, clumsily, or skillfully. Each Plaything can and should have its own personality and that personality should be reflected in the way it behaves at the Manor.

OOC Notes

AFK Play

The Manor is NOT intended for AFK play. We strongly encourage players of both Visitors and Playthings to be present, engaged, creative, and interesting when playing.

Player Consent

The Manor believes strongly in player autonomy and consent. No player should be pressured or expected to participate in any play they don’t want to participate in. Choosing to play a Plaything character does indicate that one is generally consenting to being approached for non-consensual play, but it does not waive one’s right to opt out of play. Please communicate out of character ((inside double-parentheses)) or in IMs to discuss what you are, or are not, willing to have happen.

Playthings Manor and ACS

Although the Manor is being developed by the same player behind ACS, it’s intended to be an independent facility with its own purpose. We hope to do some redevelopment in the future to clarify this. Rest assured that you do NOT need to buy, use, or even like ACS equipment to be welcome as a Plaything or Visitor at Playthings Manor.

Transformations and Captures

Playthings Manor is not about:

• Transformations: if your goal is to roleplay being converted into a Plaything, the Manor isn’t your destination. But if you want someplace to be used after your conversion, it might be!
• Captures: If your goal is to get captured and forced to serve as a Plaything, don’t just wander around looking helpless and expect someone to capture you. But if you ask someone for that explicitly and OOC, they might agree.

More About Playthings

All Playthings are synthetic creations (not living beings) in the general shape, size, and proportions of adult human beings. Some Playthings look indistinguishable from a human or other living being; some are largely humanoid but have visible evidence of their synthetic nature such as controls, indicators, joint lines, or open panels; others have a more classic chrome, plastic, steel, or otherwise clearly inorganic appearance. A Plaything may be of any gender or none.

Some Playthings use control systems such as an ACS Central Control Unit, Nanite Systems core, Community Doll, Nekobot core, or Obedentia ex Machina, but no such system is required.

Most Playthings are not owned by the Manor. However, if you see a Plaything on duty at the Manor, you can trust that its owner has made it available for your use and enjoyment. Some owners may impose additional restrictions on their Plaything’s behavior beyond Manor programming, which may affect how you can use a particular Plaything. The Plaything should inform you of any such limitations if they become relevant.

Unless otherwise notified, Visitors may safely make the following assumptions about Playthings. Please check their profiles for indications otherwise.

• You may freely give orders to the Plaything, including orders involving nudity, sexual and/or non-sexual touch, interaction with yourself and/or other Plaything or Visitor characters, and so on.
• You may touch the Plaything sexually or non-sexually, dress or undress it, and change its appearance in any other ways it may make available.
• If it has accessible controls, you may operate them.
• You may disregard any complaints or objections the Plaything may offer about your treatment of it (as long as those complaints are clearly not OOC).

Inanimate Playthings

Some Playthings may be wholly or partially inanimate some or even most of the time. These may include deactivated or frozen androids, malfunctioning robots, and wound-down clockwork dolls, as well as mannequins, blow-up dolls, statues, and portraits that can be temporarily animated, among other creative possibilities. As long as a character can be rendered animate when a Visitor desires to do so, it can be a Plaything.

Obviously, an inanimate Plaything shouldn’t be expected to obey an order requiring it to move. However, when animated, the Plaything is just as constrained by its Plaything programming as any others, and must do as it is told to the best of its ability.

In Character Limitations on Plaything Use

The following are rules established in character by the Manor. If all players involved consent, they may be violated in character – and in character consequences may apply, such as being expected to pay for repairs to damaged property, or being banned from the Manor in future.

• A Visitors may not damage a Plaything, nor use a Plaything to cause damage or injury. (Playthings may not obey orders that would result in such damage.)
• A Visitor who takes or sends a Plaything elsewhere is responsible for ensuring its safe return to the Manor once finished with it.
• The owner of a Plaything may establish other restrictions on the use of the Plaything to protect their interest in it. All visitors should respect these limits.

Feedback is Welcome

Playthings Manor is always open to feedback. While there are some things core to the concept that we’re very unlikely to change, we definitely expect to make some changes as we see how the idea plays out and, in particular, how it works in conjunction with the creative ideas you all will bring to it!

The best ways to share your feedback are to contact Alexander Chelton (mrchelton) in world, or send a message via the ACS Helpdesk.

Location

Visit Playthings Manor in Second Life at Coghaven at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Coghaven/111/195/31.