Soon to be revised and updated.

Essential Adventurer's Training

Basic training is essential for every novice who intends to fight in FLRP. Fortunately, you have a kind webmaster to guide you through the pitfalls of Nocturne - so here it is, the beginners guide to FLRP...

FLRP is Fantasy Live Role Playing. It's just like a tabletop roleplaying game such as Dungeons and Dragons, except that it's "live". What this means is that rather than the game being played "around a table" with a group of players and a GM, we play in the open air, with life-sized "weapons", fighting real opponents! Of course, the weapons are actually padded replicas and are light and safe, and the "opponents" are your friends who are helping out to run the game as "Monsters". This is a Fantasy game, and is medieval in flavour, with swords, sorcery, dragons, elves, feudal kings and gold coins (usually chocolate ones).

The main attraction of FLRP is the fighting aspect. As a result, there are strict rules on safety and conduct in the game, which will be explained below. After that, there are the brief rules on combat, and also instructions for timing commands.

Handling Weapons in Combat

• Never, ever strike at your opponents head. The head is not considered a target by the rules for the reason that head hits could be dangerous. Blows should be aimed lower than the shoulder at all times.
• Never thrust or stab with a weapon. The padding on the tips of FLRP weapons is there only to prevent the inside core from coming through the tip; it is not sufficient to make the weapon safe for thrusting attacks. All weapons should be used for swinging/slashing attacks only.
• Always pull your blows. Whilst the weapons you will use are padded, they can still cause a bruise if you swing too hard. A blow from you weapon should be solid and it should connect, but it should not cause your opponent to limp away afterwards.

Other Aspects of Combat

• Never, ever punch, kick or otherwise strike your opponent in anay way except those which are covered by the rules. Use of martial arts is strictly forbidden by the Nocturne Committee.
• If you are using unarmed combat, always strike with the open hand and always pull your blows.
• Never grapple your opponent unless they consent to being grappled, i.e. a "physical". You should always ask if your opponent accepts "physicals" before you grapple them.
• If you are fighting your opponent into a tricky area of ground or a bush, call a Time Stop (see the Timing commands, below) so that they can avoid the obstacle and move to a safer area. Similarly, if you are in such a position call a Time Stop.
• If someone is accidentally injured (such as by an accidental head shot) stop fighting until you know that they are fit to carry on. In the event that they are not, call an experienced GM over immediately.

Conduct

• You are representing the society when playing Nocturne out of doors. As a result, it is up to you to behave well in the eyes of the public. Never be rude to, attack or otherwise harass a member of the public.
• If a member of the public should happen upon an encounter, a Time Stop should be called and the way cleared allowing them to pass. Play should be resumed only when they have left the encounter area.
• If the Police or other public servant appear during the encounter, play should be stopped immediately. Do not attempt to explain to them what you are doing; find an experienced GM who is able to explain exactly what our activities involve.

THESE SAFETY RULES SHALL BE ADHERED TO AT ALL TIMES.

If you are familiar with any RPGs that involve combat, you'll know that there is always some system to keep track of how much damage a character has suffered. It's the same in FLRP, but for obvious reasons this system has to be as simple as possible. In combat all you will have to do is remember how many times and where you have been hit, and at the end of a fight the referee will call a "Time Out" and record the damage on the Battleboard.

Damage

All damage is measured in integer values, called Hits. The Hit is used to denote damage to monsters and player characters during the game. Most weapons inflict one Hit per blow, but some do more damage - a "double" would inflict two points of damage.

Unarmed Combat

Should a player be disarmed, he can still fight. However, he now does halves, in addition to any bonuses. Monsters, on the other hand, generally do singles when unarmed. This reflects the fact that they usually have claws, spiky bits or some other form of nasty natural weapon.

Damage to monsters is straightforward. All monsters met on adventure will be given a number of hits - this is the number of hits of damage needed to kill them. Some monsters may be immune to some types of weapons.

Damage to characters is handled slightly differently. The Player Character (PC) has five locations - two Arms, two Legs, and a Body. An unarmoured, unskilled character has one (1) Hit on each limb, and two (2) on the body. On top of that, the character adds the points for Armour. Each point of Armour adds an extra Hit to each location it covers. For example, a brave warrior wearing heavy leather armour (3 points) everywhere would be able to take a total of four blows to an arm or leg, and five to the body. Armour is explained more below in the section on Surviving Combat.

If a character has an arm or leg damaged so that it goes down to or below zero hits, then they cannot use that limb. If they go down to zero or less on the Body, then they fall unconscious. If a location goes down to minus 2 hits, then they are in danger of the limb being crippled without medical attention. If a limb is reduced to minus 4 hits at once, it is hacked off completely! If the Body is reduced to minus 4 hits, the character DIES.

Surviving Combat

Obviously, you don't want your character to die at the first encounter! There are plenty of ways in which you can have your PC sustain a lot of damage through prolonged fighting, and still survive.

Armour

No-one would go out adventuring naked. As mentioned above, strapping on Armour adds extra "hits" to locations. Armour is essential if you intend to play a fighting character! A little armour is usually worn even by non-combat types in dangerous places.

Note: Some skills don't work, or work less well, if you are wearing anything heavier than Light armour (1-3 points). See the Skills section for details.

Armour Repairing may be done if you have the appropriate skill. In this way you can get back some of the "Hits" lost through combat damage to your armour by using the skill after a fight.

The other defensive skill that will save your character's life is the Dodge. You can get Dodges by buying the Dodge skill, and whenever you want to avoid a blow you may choose to dodge it. Unlike Armour, a Dodge just avoids the blow completely - however powerful it was, the dodge avoids all of the force of the blow.

On top of buying armour and Dodges, you can build up the raw physique of the character by buying Stamina. This skill adds to the actual hits of the character, giving it extra strength in a particular locations. So buying a level of stamina could give a character two hits to the right arm instead of one, for example. Naked adventurers abound.

After all of the methods to prevent damage to your character, there is healing which will restore lost "Hits" after a battle. Healing can come as a result of skills such as First Aid, or the use of magic spells such as Cure Light Wounds, or potions. It is a good idea to have at least one character in any party who has some healing powers (though that does not preclude them from having other talents, be they magical arts or fighing ability).

Dealing Damage in Combat

Damage is divided into "Hits". A normal blow from a weapon will deal one "Hit" of damage. Some monsters and PCs can deal more damage, however; for example, a warrior weilding a two-handed sword might do 2 Hits of damage every time they land a blow. In order to let the monsters know that you are dealing more than one point of damage, you must make a "call" every time you land a blow.

If a monster is dealing extra damage, then they may also call "double", "triple" etc. depending on how lethal they are.

Damage Types

Some attacks do more than just a set amount of damage. Below are a list of the standard damage effects and their appropriate "calls". All examples are for a creature normally doing 1 hit of damage or Single.

In FLRP, we use several different "Time" commands to indicate when we are in character or out of character. The objective is to make the game flow as smoothly as possible; however, sometimes this just isnt feasable and the party must be brought to a halt while the next encounter is prepared. Such Time Outs are also called in order to work out damage to party members.

In most cases on adventure time runs normally, a spell that lasts five minutes will last for five minutes by the referee's watch. However, there are a number of special cases where normal time will be suspended. Players, monsters or refs may call these at any time.

Effects are generated by magic spells or monster (sometimes supernatural) abilities. Some effects cause direct damage (e.g. a Lightning Bolt cast by an Elementalist), others cause some particular problem to befall the target (e.g. Blindness), or occasionally are of some benefit (a Cure Light Wounds, for example).

Spell Casting

Elementalists and Lorewardens cast Spells (either Elemental or Divine Magic). In all cases, in order for the spell to take effect the player must recite the verbal component of the spell (such as "By My Power I Strike Thee With A Lightning Bolt").

Any spells cast without a verbal component (i.e. by just pointing at the target and saying "Lightning Bolt") may be ignored by their target!

Innate Abilities

Some monsters have innate abilities which do not require verbal components (such as a Wraith's innate Fear attack). In such cases, the monster should call out "Innate" after they say the spell effect (e.g. "Fear, Innate!").

Duration of temporary spells

Spell durations vary. Some spells which produce direct damage effects are instantaneous. Others may be permanent or last a day. However, there are a number of offensive and defensive spells which have a short duration. If no other time is specified, assume the following durations:

• For an attacking spell such as Fear, Paralysis or similar effects: 10 seconds
• For a spell cast on a person to protect them or increase damage: 5 minutes (or one combat)
• When casting a spell, the damage or duration of the spell should be a part of the verbal component, e.g. "Lightning Bolt, 6!"

For more information, contact the FLRP organiser here.