The Palace - Palace Guidebook

Palace Guidebook

A list of FAQs about Keys, Games and The Palace

It might be in a desert palace, dedicated solely to pleasure....
It might be in a lonely castle surrounded by sea....
It might be on a secret floor in a Manhattan skyscraper....
But somewhere, behind a locked door, a slave waits for his Owner.

Only the Owner of the Key to the door can open it.
Only the Owner of the Key may command the slave within.
But what those commands are... only the Owner may decide.

-The Chatelaine

What is the Key Game?

At its most basic, the Key Game is a game that centers around Keys.

Ha ha, nice try, smarty. Seriously, make like a nice guidebook and tell me what this is all about.

Fine, a Key is a male sexual slave held in captivity in a Palace. If it helps in your understanding, try substituting in "sex slave" in wherever you see the word "Key." As for the game: a group of authors and/or artists gets together and each person in the group writes or draws something about one of these Keys. The fics and pics which result from this are mostly of a slash/yaoi nature, but gen/hetero is gladly accepted as well.

What are the rules of the game?

Each Key must first be created; otherwise, there wouldn't be much to write or draw about! When a game is run, there is a call for Trainers, who are the people that create character descriptions for Keys. There are three basic rules to keep in mind when writing these descriptions: the Key must be a male sexual slave, the environment must be enclosed and the Key must be unable to leave it, and the Key must be an original character. Also, at a bare minimum the description must include the Key's appearance, personality and environment. Anything else may be included with these essential sections.

Anybody can become a Trainer, even you! To become a Trainer, a person must first e-mail the head of the game-- most likely the Seneschal --asking to Train a particular Key in the game. There is only one condition that must be met before a person can be given permission to become a Trainer, though-- in asking to be a Trainer, a person must also accept the responsibility of becoming an Owner (see below for details). Once the go-ahead is given to Train a Key, the Trainer has two weeks to submit a full description.

Once all descriptions for a game have been received, the Trainers are ready to become Owners. Owners write fiction or draw pictures for the Keys; only people who have Trained a Key for a game can become Owners in that game. This is to make it easier for the staff to keep track of who is participating in the game; in the past, it has been proven that many, many players are hard to keep track of-- and to keep on track. Also, it means that the game will work more like other fiction/art exchanges, in which each person is linked to one other person in the game. Hopefully, this encourages completion of works.

In any case, Owners may choose any Key from the pool (except their own!) and request to write or draw for that Key. The catch here is that Owners are not allowed to see the descriptions for their Keys until after they have agreed to commit to the Key. This is the Palace's "sight unseen" rule, and is one of the most important aspects of the game. In this guidebook's humble opinion, it adds an extra element of fun.

Once permission has been granted for an Owner to possess a certain Key, that Key will be marked as taken and other Owners cannot select that Key. This goes on until all the Keys are snatched up. If on the odd chance that a Trainer ends up dropping out before all the Keys are picked, staff members will take any remaining Keys and write/draw for them themselves. If even this can't be managed, then and only then will there be a call for Owners who did not previously Train a Key.

Owners have one month to submit a completed work. This many seem short, but the encouraged length of written works is 2500 - 5000 words, with 750 words being the minimum. One month is plenty to finish something that short.

Speaking of which, if an Owner wishes to do a long, multi-chapter work, said Owner must prove that they are going to follow through and finish the work in a reasonable amount of time. This can be done by the Owner showing multiple examples of completed long works, and telling us how long it took to complete them on average. The staff must be completely convinced of an Owner's ability to keep up work on a long fic before granting her/him permission to do so.

Alternatively, an Owner may first submit the required short fic in the required month, making sure it can stand as a self-contained work, and then work on additional chapters after the completion of that. The only thing we ask if you do this is that you only submit these additional chapters after the work is finished. You may post the chapters individually on places like the ML, the LJ, or your own website/blog, but in order to be archived on the Palace, you must reach a definitive "The End".

The penalty for not submitting something in the one month time limit is that the Key will be taken away from the Owner and put up for adoption by someone else. In the past, this rule has been laxed or even outright ignored (often for years at a time), but now that the Palace is in this new incarnation, measures will be taken to make sure that the rule is enforced. If an Owner abandons her/his Key (meaning that the work will not be completed) at any point, the Key will be similarly put back up for adoption.

However, none of the staff are unreasonable and if a Trainer or Owner, for any reason, is unable to fulfill the above requirements but still wishes to finish work on the Key at some point, then all they have to do is get in contact with the Seneschal, Scribe or Page and negotiate a reasonable time-frame.

For more information on the specifics of Training and Owning, please check out the Key Trainer and Owner's Pamphlet.

What happened to the old rules? You're throwing away the legacy of the game!

To be short and to the point: the old rules just weren't working. The way Key Games have been set up until recently, there was no sure method for making sure all the Keys were going to get a piece of work to their names. In the last few batches of Independent Keys, fewer than half of the Keys had anything started for them and far fewer had anything actually finished (or even worked on steadily). The statistics were better for the earlier Myth and Magic game, but not by a lot. This new method of organizing the game was inspired by the Christmas Keyfic Exchange, which had overwhelmingly good results when it was run (a 100% completion rate; that's a Palace first!)

True, there will be fewer long epics to enjoy with these rules, and we all know how popular epic Keyfics like the Quartz Key and the Taurus Key are. But at least this way more of the Keys and the people who Trained them get something by the end. One of the most constant complaints about the site and the game has been that hardly anything is finished, and so many Keys are left dormant due to inactive Owners.

What is the history behind the Key Game?

The Key Game was originally created by Katherine, one of the original members of the YSML, several years ago.

After the Key Game was established and gained popularity, it was organised by The Chatelaine, who ran the official games of the Carven Keys and Zodiac Keys, and set up "The Palace," the ultimate resource for Keyfiction on the net.

Other people have also written Keyfics individually, or in small groups of friends, simply because they liked the idea. These fics are classed as "unofficial," but are no less entertaining!

In early 2001, the Palace effectively disappeared from the Internet due to personal reasons of the Chatelaine's. In the wake of this disappearance, Tabris17th and Raven took up the Key banner in an effort to co-ordinate all the writers who still wanted to participate in the Key Game, especially those who still owned Independent Keys (official Keys which didn't belong to a themed game). They also ran the Day and Night Keys game.

At the beginning of January 2002, the Chatelaine agreed to hand over the responsibility of running the Palace over to Tabris17th, who took the name "The Page" to reflect the theme of the site. Everything from the IKeys site was integrated into the reborn Palace, plus almost all of the old content from the original Palace (some fics might still be missing; if you know the whereabouts of old fics that aren't archived here, please let us know!)

In December 2004, Tenchi Kaze and Miika simultaneously ran the Christmas Keyfiction Exchange (which was the inspiration for the new game rules) and began work on the Palace's newest incarnation and layout. It was also around this time that The Page, Tenchi (now the Seneschal) and Miika (now the Scribe) all became about equal as admin staff.

Tell me more about becoming a Trainer. Can I submit a Key description outside an official game?

You may submit a non-themed Key description at any time. These Keys will be put in the "Independent Keys" section. They are official Keys, and will be put up for adoption immediately. Preferrably, individuals may only submit one new Independent Key description per month.

Independent Keys used to be released in batches and presented the way a normal game is, but with the new game format, releasing the Independent that way would most likely prove difficult. Better that they get snatched up and written for quickly than simply perpetuate the problems that caused the rules to be changed in the first place.

Tell me more about becoming an Owner. Are Keys available outside official games?

Check out the "Available Keys" page for Keys that currently need Owners. Independent Keys and Lost Keys are the only Keys allowed to be picked up by just anybody outside a game setting.

How often are official games run?

Games will be run infrequently, depending upon demand. After a game is run, a period of time needs to elapse before we will consider running another (likely a little under half a year). This is to make sure that all claimed Key descriptions are returned, and all Key fics/pics are begun within the one-month time limit. That way, we can reclaim any Keys that get abandoned in this time, and make sure they all have good homes before we start anything new.

People are always welcome to put their name on the reserve list for any particular game. This means that if a Key from this game is abandoned, they will get first pick at it. Alternatively, you may put your name down for future games, which means you will have first choice for Keys the next time a game is run.

What are the Lost Keys?

These are Keys that have been abandoned in past games and Independent Key batches. Owners have either directly abandoned their Keys and informed the staff of this decision, or the Keys have been left alone for so long that they might as well have been forfeited. These Keys are listed on the Available Keys page, and they are always on the lookout for new homes. The same rules from the games apply to using these Keys: 2500-5000 encouraged for fics (750 words minimum), one month for completion or the Key is reclaimed.

Can I submit a Keyfic?

Please feel free to submit any Keyfic you would like, we host them all! If you have a fic from either a past official game, or an unofficial story, we would love to host it for you. The more fic we get, the better the archive becomes!

Can I submit a link/site?

Of course, we'd love you to! We would love a chance to update our links page. As long as it is somehow relevent to the Key Game, go for it.

How often is this site updated?

Approximately once every month or two months. Pretty much, it depends on how quickly our writers and artists are writing/drawing, and how busy the staff are in real life. The more stuff people send (even just encouragement ;) the quicker updates tend to come (in theory). We try to answer all e-mail within a day or two, but sometimes real life catches up with us, so we beg patience if you don't receive a reply immediately. It will get there eventually!

How do I contact you?

To make suggestions, ask questions, or give any sort of feedback about the site (we love feedback! ^_^), e-mail the staff. For the addresses below, replace [at] with '@' and [dot] with '.'. Ah, anti-spam measures, how we love thee.

key.palace[at]gmail[dot]com - For any matter relating to Keys, the Games, or the Palace. Do not send e-mail to the old palace_page address!
tenchikaze[at]gmail[dot]com - The Seneschal's (Tenchi Kaze's) personal address, for anything you'd like to discuss that doesn't directly relate to Key admin stuff.
miikarin[at]gmail[dot]com - The Scribe's (Miika's) personal address, for anything you'd like to discuss that doesn't directly relate to Key admin stuff.
tabris17th[at]hotmail[dot] - The Page's (Tabris17th's) personal address, for anything you'd like to discuss that doesn't directly relate to Key admin stuff.

Alternatively, you can leave a message in the Palace Guestbook. The Guestbook is checked by the staff at regular intervals, and any questions asked there will be answered here on the Information page (if the question is of relevance to everybody); via personal e-mail (if an address is left :-), or in the Guestbook itself (if no address is given).

How can I contact other Key people?

There is a Keyfiction mailing list, thanks to the persistance of Hyakinthus; though, it is not as active as it once was. This list is for posting Keyfics, getting feedback and opinions, and discussing anything and everything relevant to the Keys. A great place to share enthusiasm and get inspired, if you're having trouble getting things written.

The homepage for the mailing list can be found at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/keyfic/
(you'll need a yahoogroups account to join) This page also contains the message archive for the list. Alternatively, you can simply send an e-mail directly to:
keyfic-subscribe@REMOVEyahoogroups.REMOVEcom
and you'll be automatically subscribed.

Next, there is also a Keyfiction LiveJournal community for those whose blogs reside on that service (if there is a Keyfic community on any other blog service, please let us know!) This can function in much the same way as the ML, though is more like a message board in that sense. It can be found at
http://www.livejournal.com/community/keyfic

And finally, as mentioned above, the Guestbook can be another way to get in contact with other people interested in Keyfic. Please also feel free to leave messages for other readers (for example, listing your favourite Keyfics, or requesting a beta reader) and of course, all visitors are encouraged to read the Guestbook themselves.

Why the name changes?

Why did Tabris, Tenchi and Miika decide to use the new names "The Page," "The Senschal" and "The Scribe" respectively? Tabris was the first to make this change, and did it for two reasons. In her words: "Firstly, I wanted to stay in theme. I wouldn't have felt right taking the name 'The Chatelaine', but needed something similarly feudal. 'The Page' just kinda felt right - it's my job to serve - to help out all the people who want to read and write Keyfic. Secondly, as anyone who has seen Neon Genesis: Evangelion will attest, "Tabris" is the name of the Angel of Free Will. It seemed a little ironic to use a name of freedom, when I'm running an archive of slave-fics. ^_-" Tenchi and Miika have followed this name change choice to stay in theme as well, and from these new names, as you have probably noticed, new characters have sprung up.

Thank you for taking the time to read the information page! If you have any questions that haven't answered here, please send them our way
(key.palace[at]gmail[dot]com) and I'll do my best to answer.

[The original content for this section was written by the Page. Additional content and revisions were written by the Seneschal.]