Core Rules

Shadow Accord Player Rules
Version 2.0.1

This page, and the ones that follow it, are the online version of the Shadow Accord Player Rules, version 2.0.1. They combine the original version 2.0 Player Rules with the Addendum and Errata. They have been imported in to the Wiki format for usability and reference. The official release of these rules can be found on the Rules page.

Any section in Orange, or surrounded by an Orange box, is a direct quote from the Shadow Accord Player Rules. Wiki and Hyper-links and minor formatting have been added to assist in navigation.

Continue to Core Rules (Page 2)..

Credits

Developed by: Chuck Arnett, Marc DeArmand, Trevor Kidd, and David Snider Chief Editor: David Snider Additional Editing: Rebecca Weathersby Early Concept Work: Chuck Arnett, Andrey Stroilov QA Lead: Marc DeArmand Community Manager: Trevor Kidd Manual Layout: Massimo Loi, Matthew Brown Tag Layout: Taylor Alcock Ritual Layout: Mike Lamphere, James Wade, David Snider Latin Translations: Edite Foreman Best Damn LARP Community All of you guys! Thanks for helping us beat this document into shape. © 1990-2013 White Wolf Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved

General Rules

In this LARP, most interaction between players is not governed by rules. In order for your character to do something, you must do it. To comprehend Latin, you must know the language. To search through someone’s belt pouch, you must open it and look through the items inside. You move, speak, believe, perceive, feel and sleep as your character sees fit, provided that your character uses knowledge and supplies available in early thirteenth-century England. However, the rules that follow will affect your ability to perform certain actions. Some actions are dangerous or impossible for people to perform, such as drinking another person’s blood or throwing lightning bolts. These actions will have rules on how to perform them if they are allowed in Shadow Accord. As a side note, please be aware that this document was created by people who make mistakes, and these rules will be used by other people who make mistakes. You might find a bizarre loophole that allows you to do something completely absurd. We would ask that you point this out to the Rules Team and refrain from using the loophole. You might also run into a situation where a player makes a minor error in a situation where their powers or abilities would otherwise work fine (e.g. transposing two words in a sig call). We would ask that you roll with the punches and do what is best for the story instead of rules lawyering. Above all, be a good sport, and understand that we all have to work together to make this game happen.

Character Rules

You may play a single player character all weekend unless: Your character dies. An NPC removes your character from town. Your character is marched out of town under guard to be delivered to NPCs. In either of the last two cases, an ST will determine when your character can be played again. If you are looking for a change of pace, and have played at least two events, try contacting the STs to see if they have an NPC role for you.

Active Character Rule

In order to play a character on the forums, you must have either played them at the last game you attended or have approval from the character guides. Please refer to the roleplay forum rules for more information on playing online.

Unofficial Event Rules

Roleplay that happens between regular events and outside of the official NWLarpers forum is considered "unofficial". While such roleplay can and does affect the narrative of the world we play in, it is not supported or arbitrated by the staff of Shadow Accord so long as it does not violate rules on metagaming. We recognize that there is a lot of varied roleplay that takes place outside of official spaces, and we want to allow room for that continue. To that end, we have compiled a short list of guidelines — not enforced but strongly encouraged — to be a responsible player in our community. If this is your first time reading the rulebook, you may wish to skip this section and come back when you are ready for unofficial play.

Unofficial Live Event Guidelines

Be informed about the rules and make sure any guests you bring are informed as well. This mainly applies to live events, but private roleplay can be a good safe place to teach others how to play well with the rest of us. Do not introduce characters into unofficial play without talking it over with a character guide. Again, mostly to be respectful to other players at a live event, but also to help you start out with a fully formed character. Also, please only bring characters to a live event that you plan on bringing to a regular official event. Do not bring new players to a live event without introducing them to the character guides. Be kind to your friends. Make them aware of the resources at their disposal. Don't bring a character to a live event who is an unwanted interloper. It isn't possible to kill anyone through unofficial RP, so if your character is, say, openly a servant of the Wyrm, then don't go to Moot. It disrupts other people's game if they have to deal with that sort of character without being able to do permanent harm. If you do bring such a character, be prepared for a hasty exit. You should respect other players' wishes if they choose to run you off. Lastly, don't be a time-traveling accountant from the Americas. Please, only play characters that fit in the setting we have created for this game.

Player-Made NPCs

Players may create Non-Player Characters (NPCs) that are attached to one of their player characters (PCs). These characters must follow the following rules: Player made NPCs may have knowledge that would be allowed to the PC they are attached to per that character’s current faction, lores purchased with freebies, and general real world history. Player-created NPCs may gain knowledge through roleplay with the PC they are attached to as well as other characters in the game. Player-created NPCs can only interact with one PC owned by the player they are attached to. Player created NPCs can’t be played at Official SA Events (Events and SA Forums) but they can be played in other text-based roleplaying (Email and other unofficial forums).

In-Game / Out-of-Game

When acting like your character, you are considered in-game (IG). Everything you say and do will be taken IG if you are within game boundaries, whether you intend it or not. You are expected to stay IG whenever possible, from the moment you complete check-in until the close of game, including any time you must walk to out-of-game areas or to storyteller camp (ST Camp). When you are not acting as your character, you are Out of Game (OOG). To indicate that you are OOG, wear an orange headband, hold a boffer weapon against the top of your head, or cross your fingers and hold them up so players can see. The following are acceptable reasons to be OOG during an event: Asking staff a game or rules question after trying to find the answer in the rulebook. Asking a player about the effect of an attack on you. Your character has been killed. Using a power or ritual that allows you to be OOG. Reminding a player of proper rules use. Injury or illness (please let a member of deco and safety know). Tending to a personal issue. There are other acceptable reasons depending on the situation. Out-of-game jokes, comments, or talking about how cool your character is are not acceptable and you will be asked to stop. Designated OOG areas include: Check-In from 6 to midnight on Friday, the parking lot, off site, ST Camp, and bathrooms. Any belongings left under a bunk or in a container marked with an orange ribbon will also be considered OOG and may not be touched by other players. You are not permitted to store valid IG items this way if you intend to use them with the current character during the current event. In-game boundaries for official Shadow Accord events will be specified by site information on the official website, and by the host of a between-event gathering for unofficial events. If your character exits across a town boundary, you may go OOG to play an NPC or possibly interact with other NPCs off-screen, as per ST policy.

Disguising

In our game people cannot use faces alone to discern each other’s identities, because the majority of people play more than one character. This creates difficulty in discovering that someone is pretending to be someone else. To help compensate for this we require that characters pretending to be someone else also attempt to disguise themselves in some fashion. If you are playing a character who has disguised themselves or is pretending to be someone else, you must substantially obscure your face such that you are unrecognizable. A mask, extensive makeup, or a full-face covering will suffice. If in doubt, please consult with a member of staff.

In-Game Information

Character Knowledge – The sum of all knowledge acquired by a character through his background and in-game interactions. Powers such as Insight can be used to force a character to tell the character-knowledge truth as he knows it. The player of a character forced to tell the truth by such an effect may not lie, mislead, distort the truth, or otherwise avoid answering questions with the complete truth as his character knows it. Characters may only lose character knowledge through use of IG effects such as Forgetful Mind. You cannot decide that your character forgot something that you as a player can remember. If you honestly cannot remember certain information whether in or out of game, then do your best. Character State – Many sensory powers, such as Sense Faction or Sense Taint, compel a player to reveal information about her character as known in game terms, regardless of whether the character knows such information IG. Information appearing on a player’s character sheet counts as character-state information, as do current health, energy, presence of taint, and other such metrics. Out of Game Knowledge – Any information gained or acquired by you as a player from out-of-game sources cannot be taken in-game via any character you play, unless explicitly allowed by the rules.

Game Terms and Signals

Signature (Sig) Calls

These are OOG statements used to inform other players that you are using an in-game effect. Sig calls that do not have a visible component (such as a sword swing or packet thrown) are not visible IG. Wherever a skill or power description includes a quoted call, you must say it loud enough for the target player to hear it, with proper diction, and in a tone that sets it apart from normal speech. You must allow at least one second between sig calls, if they are targeted at another character. It is the duty of the attacker to ensure he says the complete sig call as accurately as possible. If the target is unable to tell what power is being used on her, the attack is considered invalid.

Lexicon

Skill - Specific skills that your character knows, such as Blacksmith or Fortune Telling. Attack - A damage, mental, or status power, or any other effect explicitly designated as an attack. A damage effect doing 0 damage is not considered an attack for the purposes of ending other effects. Boffer - An approved and safe padded weapon. Caster - The person activating a power. CG - Character Guides Character - The persona adopted while at game. DaS - Deco and Safety Team. Effect - Result of any power, skill, attribute, merit, or other rules-based function. Flub - A signature call that is unclear or uses an incorrect delivery method. Haunt - A confluence of emotional energy from which Wraiths can draw Pathos. IG - In Game Merit - Specific exceptional traits belonging to characters. Natural Weapon - A black, non-tagged boffer weapon representing fists, claws, or tentacles. No Effect - The response when your character is immune to a rules-based action. Node - A Gaian Glade or Blight from which Shifters can gain Gnosis. OOG - Out of game. Generally indicated with the color orange. Packet - A soft bag of birdseed thrown to indicate the target of certain damage and status attacks. Player - The person who is acting as a character. Power - A supernatural ability. Resist - The response when expending a resource, such as Energy or Willpower, to ignore an effect. Sig Call - The statement made out of game to indicate an effect is being used. Attribute - A power, enhancement, or weakness that you gain as part of a supernatural faction or sub faction (e.g., Blood Oath) ST - Storytellers or Storyteller Camp Target - The subject acted upon by a power. This must be someone other than the caster of a power unless stated otherwise in the power’s description.

Headbands, Hand Signals, Etc

Used to indicate your current status: Orange Headband – Out-of-Game (OOG). Orange Ribbon – Items in the marked container are OOG. White Headband – A white headband is worn to indicate that a character is in the Umbra. Characters in the Realm cannot normally see characters that are in the Umbra. Blue Light – In addition to a white headband, characters in the Umbra may carry a blue light. This should be doused or hidden if entering the Realm. Black or Silver Full-Face Mask – Form of Vapor: resistant to damage and status. White Unmarked Full-Face Mask – A caul that only a non-cauled Wraith can remove. Fingers Spread across Face – Invisible and cannot be perceived without Cloak Sight. Crossed Fingers – Temporarily Out-of-Game, usually to ask a question. Two Fingers Placed on Temple – Using telepathic communication. Boffer on Head – Out-of-Game. Arms Crossed over Chest – Hasty Escape: resistant to damage. Hands Spread to Either Side – Using a power that affects everyone within mental range. (10 ft.)

Continue to Core Rules (Page 2)..