The Rules

A/N: Hi folks! Shame, here just giving a heads up that these rules were initially formatted in my word processor and this site unfortunately doesn’t that formatting, so I’ve had to make do. There will be a TL;DR in case this chapter is a slog to read, and I’ll try to explain the rules as they come up in case people skip this chapter. But you’ll probably be less lost if you do read the rules.

TL;DR for the rules: Each week, the contestants must work together to successfully market and sell a new sex toy. If they meet quota three weeks in a row, everyone goes home, paid out their salary. There will be traps placed all around the city. If a contestant is eliminated, they are still trapped working, but are replaced by someone else from the real world to take their place. Different roles earn different amounts of VP and BP each day.

Those are the broad strokes, but I recommend reading the fullrules.

Hi, I’m Destiny, receptionist, Head of all Departments, and co-host of this special season of Harem Hotel! You probably have a LOT of questions, and we hope to answer all of the ones that matter.

The premise of Harem Hotel is familiar to most of our audience: a group of lovely contestants compete for top spots in the harem of a single master, undergoing magical transformations along the way. But this season has a bit of a twist!

Harem Hotel, Corporate Edition!

In this season, contestants will be competing not for their place in a master’s harem, but instead for their place in the cutthroat corporate world of Harem Incorporated, a multi-googillian dollar company with its headquarters based in a Seattle Washington where the rain never stops, the streets stay empty, and everything is owned by a single parent company.

Now: pay attention, because here’s how the rules are going to work. Some may be familiar, most may not. Especially to our contestants, who the rest of this instructional video will be targeted to.

[The video fades out, transitioning to an image of Destiny in front of a corporatized logo for Harem Hotel. Cheap synth music underscores the transition, fading into the background.]

Hi, and welcome to your new home. Here at Harem Incorporated, you’re like family. We know you’re excited to get to work! But before you do, we have to lay out some ground rules so you understand what’s expected of you, what your responsibilities are, and what kind of corporate culture we are trying to nurture here.

Show Makeup

Each week, the team will be responsible for the marketing of a new exciting—and often kinky—product. How well the product does on the market will be measured at release and determines the performance of this department.

As an individual, your success will be rewarded with both your salary and earned bonuses, both measured in Victory Points, or VPs for short. You will also receive a salary and earned bonuses of Bonus Points, or BPs.

Bonus Points are the closest to what you would think of as money. They can be spent on things like food and clothing. But also on things like boons or special modifiers to help give you an edge over other players

Victory Points can be considered as a measure of your Corporate Standing. The more points you have in relation to other employees, the less harsh your punishments may be and vice versa.

If your Victory Points reach 100, then you will be granted a special position and can expect to fear neither termination nor demotion. This will be explained in our section on Punitive Measures

If your Victory Points enter the negatives, you can either choose to resign or to go into debt. While in debt, your punishments are harsher and come more frequently, commensurate to your level of debt. This will be explained more in our section on Punitive Measures.

Everyone has their part to play in a successful launch. Each employee fills a role that determines their wages, level of access, and how they play the game. More roles will be unlocked as the game goes on, but for now here are the ones relevant to you:

Team Member—Starting wage: 1 VP/day, 500 BP/day, 1.5X overtime. Assigned to projects in order to design a marketing campaign. Given bonuses based on individual and team performances.

Secretary—Starting wage: 0 VP/day, 0 BP/day, no overtime. Unpaid intern who helps the Manager with scheduling, note-taking, and coffee/lunch runs. Given bonuses based on individual performance. Can still earn VP and BP through bonuses. May earn VP bonus for actions already performed if it is with the Manager. Limited to once per day.

Manager—Starting wage: 5 VP/day, 1000 BP/day, 2X overtime. Assigns employees to tasks and determines strategy for marketing campaign. Hosts performance evaluations for each employee at the end of each week to determine bonuses. Manages team assets. Must earn 200 VP before being granted special position. Receives double the amount of punishments for failed performance goals. May attempt to deflect a punishment onto a subordinate. If unsuccessful, double the intensity.

Earning, losing, and spending VP and BP

Aside from their salary, there are many ways for an employee to increase the size of their wallet!

Bonuses

Bonuses are single time payments made to an employee, usually in exchange for good performance or finding a rewards card.

Rewards cards are hidden all around the city, but most especially within the building. Touching a rewards card will immediately activate it granting you VP, BP, or any number of boons. These rewards can range from reversing a transformation, undoing a termination, to granting you enough VP to get promoted. But be careful! For rewards cards are identical to Punitive Cards.

The most common way to earn VP is by performing sexual acts around the office for/with your coworkers. The value of which is commensurate with its intensity.

Any act that is performed on the manager will award double points.

The bonus will only be awarded the first time an act is performed with each coworker, after which no points will be awarded for repeating acts with that coworker

The Secretary may earn VP for repeated acts, but only with the manager and only once per day per act.

Raises

Raises are a permanent increase in an employee salary. This can be rewarded for good performance, activating a special rewards card, or getting promoted. An employee may even be willing to adopt new responsibilities or complications to their job in exchange for a raise. An employee may always request a raise from their manager who will negotiate with them.

An employee may also want to spend their hard earned BP on comforts and the like.

Shops in the city accept BP in exchange for all goods and services.

There is a company website where things like rewards cards, punitive cards, role cards, and much more may be purchased.

Nothing in the breakroom is free. Taking any item in the breakroom charges your corporate , even if you could not afford the item.

Punitive Measures

Unfortunately, sometimes mistakes happen. And those mistakes have to be corrected. Typically punishments are executed due to poor performance or bad behavior. Often these are prescribed by corporate authorities and a manager cannot decline to enforce them. However a manager is always free to punish an employee for any reason they see fit.

If an employee feels they were punished unfairly, they may make an appeal to HR. If HR finds the punishment was not just, they will reverse it and punish the manager. If they find the appeal unwarranted, they will punish the complainant.

Punishments exist on a sliding scale, ranging from [Harmless], [Minor], [Moderate], [Severe], [Extreme], and [Evil]. Where [Harmless] punishments are innocuous and [Evil] punishments throw you on the floor, kick you while you’re down, piss on you, and then lock you in a timeloop of those seven seconds for all eternity.

Transformations

The primary form of punishment is via magical transformations, usually of a sexual nature. Transformations are typically unique to each player and tend to follow a theme voted on by our lovely audience. Usually these are physical transformations, but they might also transform your responsibilities, hours, living arrangements, or role!

These may be either temporary or permanent.

All transformations not from a Punitive or Rewards card are voted on by the audience. Typically three transformations will be voted on and the one with the most votes will be executed.

In the case of ties (where two or more leading options are within 2% of each other) all tied transformations will be applied.

Assignments

You might be reassigned to a less glamorous task temporarily or permanently. You may also have additional assignments stacked on top of your usual workload.

Loss of privileges

You may lose access temporarily or permanently to certain privileges the company provides you, including your corporate apartment.

Resignation

If an employee wishes to resign, they may do so at any time by submitting a letter of resignation to the Manager.

If an employee resigns, they are immediately given a punishment of at least [Moderate] severity. Then they are reassigned to a new position at the discretion of Ms. Makarovka, our CEO.

Likely this means remaining in the office.

The employee will retain all transformations and modified responsibilities, however they will no longer be subject to future transformations.

The resigned will have their wages converted solely into BP and will no longer be measured by their VP total. They will no longer be able to activate reward or punitive cards, nor will they be able to buy rewards at company shops.

All VP, including debts, will be transferred to their replacement upon arrival.

When an employee resigns, their replacement is teleported from the real world into the office. They will receive a number of transformations equal to half the amount of transformations the employee they are replacing had at the time of the replacement’s arrival. Rounded up, of course.

The replacement will then be considered a contestant and employee.

On replacements:

All employees will have a picture placed on their desk indicating who their replacement would be in the event of their resignation/termination. This picture must be displayed at all times either on the employee’s desk or cubicle wall where it is clearly visible.

Termination

If an employee’s performance is consistently or sufficiently poor, a manager may request permission to terminate an employee.

Terminating an employee follows the same process as resignation except:

The motion for termination is given to the employee at the time.

The CEO and Head of HR must approve or deny the termination after the employee has been notified.

The employee receives 2 transformations of at least [Severe] severity, plus one of [Evil] severity if they have a negative VP value.

Their replacement receives half their VP value or, if the employee was in debt, double the debt.

In addition to receiving half the number of transformations as the person they are replacing, the replacement will be given an additional punishment, selected randomly.

[Destiny walks back on screen chuckling, gesturing to the block of text behind her.]

Wow! That’s a lot to , huh? Well not to worry, as a copy of these rules will be posted in the breakroom in a place that is clearly visible. There’s also rules that we will not be covering in this presentation, as they were included in your employment contract. You can find these rules in your employee handbook.

Finally, don’t stress about your old world, as a hundred years in this space is equal to a single day in the real world. If the company ever manages to reach sales quota three weeks in a row, you’ll all be sent back to the real Seattle with whatever wages were negotiated in your contracts paid out in full. That means if you work for ten years in this world, then ten years of salary would be paid out to you the second you return to the real world. Not subject to tax, of course.

To conclude this orientation, we are going to be revealing each employee’s transformation choices. Each employee will be assigned three possible transformations that our audience will vote on, each representing a different possible theme for all later transformations. During the 1 hour of voting, you all will be free to mingle and become familiar with your new family!