Announcements & Minutes

This page is for listing current announcements that have been sent to the White City mailing lists by the LARP Organiser - new rules proposals and setting proposals are introduced on a provisional basis and posted here for at least one week so that people can look over them and email the LARP Organiser with any comments, criticisms and objections they may have before the proposals are integrated into the system and setting information detailed on the website. This page also includes records of the minutes of official OURPGSoc meetings where those minutes relate to the White City LARP.

Proposed System Changes - June '07

ASHEN CLOUD - will now last 10s, rather than 30s.

FORESTALL THE PYRE/COMMEND TO ASH - creatures of glass now count as unnatural. (Errata: so splinter men, vitrimorphs and glass sentinels, can now be commended to ash, and damage from them can now be forestalled). FORESTALL THE PYRE - In line with what seems to have been standard practice, damage from blood and wind magic counts as natural, as does magic inflicted as part of 'purify' or equivalents. (Errata: so apart from monsters of glass and undead, damage from Storm of Shards, Cloak of Razors, people using Channel the Shattered Plane, Purge, eyes burned out by the Light, and Coils of Flame can all be Forestalled).

BLOOD VENGEANCE/BLOOD BLESSING - to be used once/adventure. The only thing that Blood Vengeance can't really do is *insta*-kill characters - they will always get at least 30s of 'thrashing around in agony' time.

LIGHTNING: can be used up to #fatigue hits per adventure.

CLARITY: Lets you see, where otherwise you would not be able to. You can see in the dark, and while under the effects of Bind the Eyes. You can see through all non-glass illusions (should any arise), and you see the 'natural' form of shapeshifters, superimposed over their current form. You will also be able to see spirits, even if you don't have Exorcist. Of course, anything you do see under the effects of this spell tends to be tainted by horrible visions from the Shattered Plane, which should be roleplayed. The spell may occasionally produce *useful* visions, though don't count on it. Actual impediments to vision, such as walls and Ashen Clouds, are not removed.
(Errata: so, you can't use this spell to get round Ashen Clouds. Also, note that being able to *see* spirits does not let you Eyes of Glass them, unless and until you enter psychic combat).

CHAIN MAGIC: Instead of 'one use of each chain per level', substitute 'one use of each chain per level of chain magic since it was acquired'. So a 2nd-level chain sorcerer gets one use of the silk chain and two of the chain of iron per encounter, and a 4-th level chain sorcerer gets one use of the chain of gold, two of the chain of silver, three of the chain of silk and four of the chain of iron.

BIND THE ARMS/LEGS: (errata) people with Strength 4 and above can break these chains with a couple of seconds straining. The same goes for a combination of people with strength 2 or above and total strength 4 or greater. Also, those with Escape Artist 5 can wriggle free.

BIND THE EYES: (errata) 'Clarity' allows the caster to 'cut through' this chain. Actually cutting out one of one's own eyes will also nullify the spell and prevent the chain's reapplication for the rest of the encounter.

BIND THE POWER: only works on the form of magic that intially triggered the binding. Also, it requires an effect specfically targeted at the chain mage to be activated. (Errata: so Ashen Cloud, Cloak of Razors and shattering the sorcerer's chains explicitly don't work, being struck with a bolt from a Tempest does).

BIND THE WILL: (errata) People with five ranks of Strong Willed can shrug this chain off after a couple of seconds struggle. 'Five ranks of Strong Willed' does not necessarily mean 'currently possessing 10 psyche hits'.

PURIFICATION: remove the healing effect. Ordained Light priests don't take the burning.

NEW LIGHT SPELL: EPIPHANY (3RD LEVEL, THRESHOLD 25): the target of this spell has their mind filled with blindingly brilliant visions of the Light and the Light's glory. Frankly, this is much more than most people can handle. It deals the target a psychic quint. People dropping to 0 psyche in this way pass out and dream of beautiful Light. Entirely mindless creatures are unaffected.

Repeated applications of this spell on a particularly weak-willed or susceptible individual may gradually convert them into a follower of the Light (Player's decision for a PC, GM call for NPCs, but this is neither a quick nor a sure process. Also the Light, in its infinite wisdom and complete lack of sympathy with humans, will be highly displeased if subjects of this process are just driven mad rather than converted).

GLORY GETS DROPPED

TRANSCENDENCE: the transformation process is quite dazzling, and the Light sorcerer may if he wishes call 'everyone pay attention to me!' For a few seconds, everyone must do so.

OLD STYLE INCANDESCENCE GETS DROPPED - NEW VERSION (THRESHOLD 30): the Light Sorcerer's person, weapons, and armour are infused with the Light, making him into a shining beacon, and causing him to move in perfect unity with the Light Within, particularly when smiting his enemies. For the rest of the encounter, the Light sorcerer may fight and raise the Light at the same time. Keep count as best you can, calling numbers when you have the chance to remind everybody what's going on.

DEFEND THE DREAM PALACE: remove that last sentence!

SKILLS

OBS - remove the bit about dying after a few seconds.

Main-Gauche - now available to rangers and thieves, as well.

Necromancer - to be removed.

Cloistered Bretheren of Chains - going back to being a 0-cost quirk, including the free 'Learned'. Those currently possessing the skill, to get the special, and their 7xp back.

Exorcist: to become a sorcerer skill.

Strength: Rank 1 - You can snap smaller ropes, rip out of the clutches of *entangling* monsters, break down ordinary doors with some time and effort, and carry other people, as long as they aren't heavily armoured. You can also call +1 damage for one encounter per adventure.
Rank 2 - You can run around while carrying somone, carry a big man in heavy armour, or carry two ordinary people.
Rank 3 - Instead of +1 damage once per adventure, you get +1 damage blanket.
Rank 4 - Great Weapon users get +1 damage. Run around while carrying multiple armoured people. Throw unarmoured people a few yards. Break any non-magical rope in existence. Break chains (including the chain of iron). Smash though any door short of a reinforced fortress door or metal vault, in a few seconds. Rip up young saplings and break limbs off trees for use as clubs or staffs. Pull a sizable cart. Push a large tree over, given some time. Wrestle a bear.
Rank 5 - Twice per encounter, you may shatter someone's weapon or shield (after you have succeeded OOC in hitting it). They can call a parry against this. Once per adventure, you may perform a mythic feat of strength. This might include manning a battering ram to smash open fortress gates singlehanded, bringing down a temple by pulling out a supporting pillar, smashing down a wall, throwing a boulder hundreds of yards, and so on. For more prosaic system benefits, you can call an extra rank of damage or mighty blows for one encounter, or call double damage for one blow. People who have obtained strength 5 through use of strength potions do not get this mythic feat.

Strength for potion alchemists and troll-blooded: potion alchemists may now buy strength according to their warrior OR scholar rank, whichever is higher. Troll-blooded may buy strength as though their warrior were 1 rank higher than it is.

Cosh: to cost 6xp.

Throwing weapons: skill to cost 4xp, you may now throw as many weapons as you have physreps for.

Throwing Weapons Master (4xp per rank, 5 ranks, thief and ranger): makes you more of a ninja with throwing weapons. For each rank you have, you may throw one weapon per encounter with a +1 damage bonus. This is not used up until a weapon physically connects (OOC) with an opponent. If they Dodge it, however, it is used up. Also, at ranks 3 and 5, you get +1 damage on *all* thrown weapons.

Archery: now to cost 8xp rather than 14. Also, without weapons master, you will only ever do through singles.

Archery Weapons Master (6xp per rank, 5 ranks, warrior and ranger): makes a deadly marksman out of legend, etc. ad naseum. For each rank you have, you may shoot one arrow per encounter with a +1 damage bonus. This is not used up until an arrow physically connects (OOC) with an opponent. If they Dodge it, however, it is used up. Also, at ranks 3 and 5, you get +1 damage on *all* arrows.

No more superior quality bows.

Ambidexterity: will grant users an extra parry, and *another* extra parry if their second weapon is superior. Obviously, both of these are lost when the character isn't using a second weapon.

Shields: those with shields can call Parrys (not physically parry) against missile weapons and Storms of Shards.

Blind Fighting (Warrior, Ranger, Thief, 1 rank, 10xp): you are adept at fighting when you can't see. This is partly due to a cunning use of hearing (and to a lesser extent the other five senses), and partly due to that old genre standby, the warrior's sixth sense.
You receive no penalties for fighting in reduced light; and can even carry on fighting when entirely blinded, with the following conditions. You may not call Dodges but can call Parries and damage. Ranged fighting, however, is still completely out, and you shouldn't react to things and people more than a few metres away from you (unless they're making a lot of noise). Circumstances in which the bonus from this skill apply include (but are not limited to) at night, fighting in an Ashen Cloud, and having your eyes bound. In certain circumstances, GMs may rule that excessive noise effectively 'blinds' even Blind-Fighters.

Stealth: reduce re-stealthing time for 1&2 to 20s. It will now be the case that people can call 'spot' on someone within a couple of metres (use a big polearem or make Gareth lie down in the mud if in doubt) IF the spotter has survival for the relevant environment, OR if they have reason to suspect someone will be ninjing up on them at about that time. (Note that 'my PC always expects the unexpected' is not good enough; there must be specific reasons to think someone is about, eg you've been warned, or another member of the party has just collapsed from a Blood Curse with no obvious source). Anyone can call a spot from any distance if they see the Stealther make an attack with an obvious source (eg a backstab, a thrown weapon, a storm of shards, an open assault with a 6' nagatana, whatever).

Also, GMs should think a little about available cover. The default is the OOC cover, but GMs may rule that the IC cover differs. This should be something simple like 'you will always/never have full/half/any cover in this encounter'.

Finally, Stealth now covers IC sound as well a sight.

Blather

Rank one: you're convincing and sympathetic. In roleplaying situations, people will tend to react the way you want them to, and may believe things you tell them if they're not too incredible (a quick OOC note to clarify the kind of reaction you want may help). Each rank beyond one slightly increases this effect.

Rank two: helpful trivia. Knowing the right things to say is half the art of the con. You can call the GM over and ask for some helpful trivia that will ease over the conversation you're having (GMs remember you may need to tell the monsters if you've just made it up). This should be roughly the sort of thing you could get by sitting chatting for a few hours in a local bar, or swopping gossip with the local washerwomen, etc. It certainly *will not* replicate any Arcane Lore skills.

Rank three: distraction attack. When someone's talking to you, as long as you can keep talking reasonably continuously, you can tell them OOC to 'keep looking at me', and they have to, as long as nothing big happens to draw their attention away (such as ongoing screaming or being attacked).

Rank four: the master of disguise. You know enough about dress and speech to realistically disguise yourself as a native of any region you have visited or bought a 'learned' skill about. This includes dress, speech patterns, accent, skin tone, and a few useful words and phrases in the local argot (actual languages need to be learnt sepeately, with a 'Learned' skill). This disguise will also totally conceal your own appearance. There are some limitations: looking like someone of the opposite gender will only stand up to the most cursory of inspections, large changes in your apparent size are basically impossible, and impersonating specific individuals will only work if the people you are trying to fool have never met that person or heard detailed descriptions (or if they're excessively stupid). You can apply disguises to others, but can't really get them to 'do the voice' (or indeed the walk, etc) properly. A few hexa per adventure will provide you with the materials for a basic disguise, more detailed/expensive trappings may cost more.
*Without* this skill, disguises are limited to the level of 'put on a cowboy hat and boots, talk in a funny accent and pretend to be American oil entrepreneur millionaire' level. They might conceal your own appearance, beyond that only very stupid people will actually think you are what you're pretending to be.

Clarfication on Blather 4 - those who lack it most certainly can disguise their own appearance (since all that requires is a sock over the head with holes).

Rank five: total believability. People tend to believe whatever you tell them, unless (i) they have direct evidence to the contrary, (ii) they've been told otherwise by someone else with Blather 5, or (iii) they've caught you out on lying to them multiple times in the past. How they act as a result of your lies, on the other hand, is up to them. (Note that the one exception to total believability is statements like 'Absolutely the only way for you to react is...'). You *can* manipulate someone's mood (tell people OOC: 'blather 5, I'm trying to make you angry' for eg, and preferably play out *how*) in the hope of altering their response, though.

Unlawful Entry/Escape Artist (6xp per rank, 5 ranks)

A sort of combined skill, this: Unlawful Entry gets you into places people don't want you to be, Escape Artist gets you out of places people want to keep you. Note that neither particularly keeps you quiet (that's Stealth) or lets you climb (Edificeer).

Rank One: slip out of badly tied ropes. Pry open windows and stuck doors subtly. Lift a latch with a stick, that kind of thing.

Rank Two: pick a bog standard lock, as long as you have the right tools. Pick out the easiest (not necessarily the same as 'easy') route into a non-secure location (eg a regular joe's house).

Rank three: tunnel out of any secure location where it is at all feasible, in reasonable secrecy (Shawshank Redemption style). Pick good locks as long as you have time and tools, and bog-standard locks in awkward circumstances (bad tools OR having your hands behind your back).

Rank four: pick out the easiest (see above) route into a secure location (eg the De Courci Palace). Pick a bog-standard lock whatever the circumstances. Wriggle out of the most elaborate knots imaginable. Pick a good lock with bad tools or awkward circumstances.

Rank five: wriggle out of any physical bonds, including the Chain of Iron. Pick any lock made by the hand of man (and yes, since you are a legendary-level thief, GMs may occasionally throw legendary-level bullshit like 'it was actually made by a woman' at you. It would still have to be a pretty amazing lock, though!), whatever the circumstances.

PSYCHIC COMBAT: from now on, those being defeated will wake up at the end of the encounter with 1p. If they are exorcised after being possessed for a very long time (ie days), they may recover on half psyche hits.

POISONS

Poisons! A bit like a custard pie in the face, really. Hilarious when they're happening to someone else, less so when it's you. I wonder when Innocent are going to bring out a Scorpion Venom smoothie? But I digress. All sorts of poisons can be found in the White City world, but there are two basic divisions that are of immediate concern to you, the player. Those are, Fast-Acting and Slow-Acting Poisons. The difference lies in whether they take effect fast enough to be noticable within a normal encounter or not.

Slow-Acting poisons don't. There is no need for a call to take care of them, since it won't be relevant in the same fight in which you get hit. The GM will explain the effects if you've been hit by one during battleboarding, and then you can deal with them (or not, and suffer the effects in later encounters), or will decide on the consequences if you've hit an NPC with one. Slow-Acting poisons have all sorts of effects: maybe the hideuously infected bite of the Komodo Dragon is slowly killing you to death, perhaps you're beginning to hallucinate that your companions are Cloistered Bretheren sent to kill you, maybe you proceed to vomit your guts out and go into the next encounter seriously weakened. Either way, the effect can usually be offset by a Purification (potion or spell)(if the effect results from ongoing poison in the system), Blood Cure etc, an antitoxin (ditto), or at GM's discretion by a Herbalist.

Fast-Acting poisons do, so they need a call. There are two calls for fast-acting poisons.

'Paralysis' or 'paralysing [amount of damage]': the poison just makes the damage act like any other kind of paralysing damage. Specifically, the first time in an encounter you take a flesh hit from paralysing damage, your character's limbs start to seize up. From then on you have about a minute of free action before you should stop moving around. You may want to roleplay your character slowly paralysing towards the end of the time. Every subsequent flesh hit from paralysing damage approximately halves the remaining time.

Put this clarification of paralysing damage in the damage description, too.

Regardless of how much paralysing poison you've taken on board, a Purification or Blood Cure totally clears you up. Additionally, a Herbalist can clear up most paralysis cases (unless GM rules otherwise) in about 30s of work. Characters who have no help getting over paralysis will take hours or in bad cases days to recover. If something else doesn't get them first.

'Poison', or 'Poison [amount of damage]'. The actual 'Poison' call represents some nasty corrosive substance that will screw up the area of the body it's applied to. Specifically,any time 'poison' damage reaches flesh, the relevant location immediately takes an additional Triple. This kind of poison works with brutal speed; if you didn't have an antitoxin in your blood when it hit, no amount of magic or herbalism is going to stop it working. All you can do is start healing up the damage.

So that's how poisons work. Some monsters produce poisons naturally, and some NPCs like to come to combat with their weapons ready primed. As a player, you may be thinking, 'Well sometimes fire must be fought with fire and yadda yadda yadda I want more cool damage calls for my PC.' Sale of poisons is pretty much illegal in most civilised areas but that doesn't stop them being available for the right price. Keep in mind that although *buying* poison isn't particularly difficult, *doing* things with it usually requires Poisoner: Application (without this skill, anything you may achieve will be strictly at GM discretion). For those able to apply poison, the principle is that you rub it on before or during an encounter, then let the GM decide the result after the encounter (for slow-acting poisons) or start making the relevant calls (for fast-acting ones).

A slight subtlety is whether you are using melee weapons or ranged weapons. For ranged weapons, you need a dose of poison for each individual shot, on the other hand the necessary doses are cheaper. Melee weapons are just dosed once, and then stay poisoned for the rest of the encounter; on the other hand the relevant poison doses require all sorts of fixing agents and wotnot and really need to be slathered on, so they cost more. Anyone trying to pour arrow poison on to a sword will find that it's mostly come off before they actually get to hit anything with it (this slightly dodgy IC logic is necesary for game balance).

Errata on poisons: if you really want to, you can put a ranged weapon poison dose on to a melee weapon, or vice versa. Ranged weapon doses come off melee weapons the first time they connect with a character (whether dodged, parried, etc.), but if they reach flesh they take full effect. This will mostly be useful for backstab monkeys. Melee weapon doses on a ranged weapon will faithfully stay on for the rest of the encounter, assuming that arrow/knife can be retrieved.

Also, no putting more than one type of poison on a single weapon.

Another thing PCs are often interested is antitoxin. Antitoxins remove the current effects of one kind of ongoing toxin, or (if you took the antitoxin since the last encounter), cancel immediately the effects of one new dose (including the 'poison' call). You can only be under the effect of one antioxin at a time. Feel free to shout 'antitoxin!' when you've just used one, to let everyone know what's happening.

In any case, costs are as follows, per dose.

Slow-Acting Poisons: 10Hx melee/4Hx ranged, 5/2 with Prepare Poisons or Herbalist
Paralysing Poisons: 20Hx melee/8Hx ranged, 12/4 with Prepare Poisons
Corrosive Poisons ('poison' call): 20Hx melee/8Hx ranged, 12/4 with P.P.
Antitoxin: 8Hx, 3 for those with prepare poison.

Also, there are three PC skills relating to poison.

Poisoner: Application. You need this to anything vaguely competent with poison. In particular, you need this to apply poison successfully to a weapon (anyone can slap the death juice on to their sword, but without this skill it just tends to drip off). Poison applied to a weapon tends to deteriorate, so you'll need to apply the poison not long before any encounters you intend to use it. Any poison added to food without this skill will be in some way obvious (the food stinks of ear wax or goes magenta or something), although depending on the food and the intended victim you may get away with it anyway. And so on.

Poisoner: Preparation. This lets you brew your own poisons, with the advantage that you need trust no-one, and get your poisons cut-price. You may prepare poisons and antitoxins for the costs listed. Your poisons can be applied to weapons (assuming someone has the application skill), giving access to the calls 'paralysing' and 'poison'. You can also create slow-acting poisons with a variety of effects (note that mind control is explicity EXCLUDED from these effects). Rare and hard-to-obtain ingredients may let you create more exotic poisons (check with larpo/head GM).

Herbalist: herbalists have much more restricted abilities with poisons. They can only make slow-acting poisons, and these cannot be applied to weapons (eating/ drinking, or an enema is pretty much your lot). Also, unless they have the Apply Poison skills as well, they will suffer all the usual difficulties with applying poisons. Herbalists can also cure some difficulties relating to slow-acting poisons (GM discretion), and with 30s of work can purge Paralysis from an individual.

Finally, beware the poison immunity monster special. That means that a monster is too big, too hardy, too alien, or too already dead to be affected by your poisons. Like the name suggests, it means that the monster will just ignore any poison calls you make.

HERBALISM

The effects a herbalist can produce are broadly suggested by the list of herbs below. A few more concrete suggestions include:

+ First Aid skill is increased by one rank, this *can* take it over 5.

+ The herbalist can prepare slow-acting poisons (see the poisons page), although these are only suitable for ingestion (or equivalent).

+ A herbalist can often reduce or remove the effects of slow-acting poisons (GM discretion).

+ A herbalist can also, with 30s of work, remove the effects of paralysis.

+ The symptoms of diseases can be alleviated.

This list is not exhaustive. It is generally assumed that by spending a few hexa at the beginning of an adventure and keeping her eyes open while travelling in the countryside, a herbalist has enough herbs to produce most herbalism-based effects on demand. However, for certain extreme circumstances (that is, if the use of Herbalism has become a Plot Point), the acquisition of specific rare and powerful herbs may require a special journey.

ALCHEMY

+ Strength potions now act as follows. They raise strength by two ranks, unless the user has strength 0 normally, in which case they get three ranks. Strength cannot be raised above 5 in this way, and people reaching rank 5 through strength potions do not get the mythic feat of strength. Stength potion alchemists may buy strength according to the highest of their levels in warrior and scholar. Also, the effects of the strength potion wearing off are now: "Once the potion wears off the character is weakened - any Ranks of the Strong skill they have are ignored for the next Encounter, and if they don't normally have any Ranks of the Strong skill then their damage is reduced by one rank for the next encounter (singles to halves, halves to ZERO, as usual)" rather than "Once the potion wears off the character is weakened - any Ranks of the Strong skill they have are ignored for the next Encounter, and if they don't normally have any Ranks of the Strong skill then their damage is halved for the next Encounter." - this to avoid a couple of esoteric situations in which 3/2 or 1/4 calls could result.

+ Poison: no longer an alchemical potion.

+ Anti-Magic potions: as long as you have taken a potion since the end of the last encounter, it will counteract the next instantaneous spell cast on you from that magic type. Shout 'anti-magic' to let everyone know that this is happening, and that the storm of shards has just harmlessly sprayed off you, or whatever. You cannot be affected by more than one anti-magic potion in this way. Ongoing effects are merely supressed for the length of the adventure.

The rarely seen anti-Name potions are a little weird. Come talk to the Head GM if it becomes relevant.

AND A NEW RULE ON ALCHEMY...

As Andrew C has pointed out, the current rules on selling off your own alchemical wares allow for a certain amount of abuse. With a laboratory, you can brew (your rank in Alchemy)x4 potions in downtime, and in principle flog the lot at the markup listed on the site.

In principle, our (purely hypothetical) syphallitic alchemist Ariboth, who is scholar 4 and has Travel Potion alchemy, can make 16 Travel potions per downtime for 48 Hx, flog 'em for 240Hx, and walk away with a cool 192Hx per downtime. By comparison Wealth 4 nets a character 120Hx per downtime.

So the new rule (to go up on the Alchemy page and skill) is this:

Characters can sell off the potions (and poisons) they've manufactured in downtime for HALF (round up) the listed cost (that is, the cost for people without the skill). IC because you're an adventurer, you don't have the connections and trust to sell things off at 'reliable merchant' prices.

If anyone playing a Merchant ever feels like using the relevant price-altering skills on this kind of trade they can come to me and I'll wring their necks make a ruling.

MAGIC ITEMS

SWORD PLUS ONE

The first and most massively important thing to be said about magic items is this. There is no such thing as a magic item. There are swords carved out of the bones of dragons, talismans made from the chains worn by the first of the Cloistered Brethren of Chains during the Binding War and flutes made from reeds cut from the banks of the River of Whispers and anointed with the tears of blind men, but there are no "magic items". Magic items are unique, each and every one. They are also rare, most people go their entire lives without seeing one. Player Characters will probably be luckier in that regard, but nevertheless the creation, location and use of magical items is not a trivial thing.

MAKING MAGICAL ITEMS

To make a magical item, you need one of three skills: Magic (to rank 3, in a power that has something to do with the item you want to make), Alchemy (to rank 4, one of the potions should have something to do with the item) or Ordained (with Rites at least 3, and would you believe it, the thing you're ordained to would need to have some sort of connection with the item you're making). You must also have an appropriate Arcane Lore. You also need to be able to afford the raw materials, as if making a Superior Item of the appropriate type. Making magical items is a five step process, which begins here...

On an OOC basis, magic item ideas must be run past the larpo/head GM.

CONCEPTUALISATION

The conceptualisation of a magical item has two steps, which can be carried out in either order. One is to work out what the item will do, the other is to work out how it's made. These can be worked out in either order because it's up to you whether you think "Hey, I wonder what a blade forged in dragonfire and cooled in the River of Shadows will do?" or "Hmm, I wonder how I'd make a talisman to protect me from the Vitriarchs...". The most important thing to remember in the Conceptualisation stage is that there must be an intimate connection between the effects of the item, the nature of the maker, and the process of creating the item.

FINDING

The first step in making magic items - finding - is to choose and find a suitable material or materials to make your item from. The material should be suitable both to the magical effect you're after and the form the artifact is to take. When it comes to working out the final power of the artifact, you'll total points gleaned from all three stages of construction. Points from the finding stage are based on the material and are as follows:
* 0 Points: Mundane materials; steel, wood and the like.
* 1 Point: Prepared mundane materials. Alchemically purified steel, ritually blessed wood. Bone and blood.
* 3 Points: Significant materials. The wood of a tree struck three times by lightning, the bones of a necromancer, the blood of a noble man born of humble roots.
* 7 Points: Extremely significant materials. The wood of the oldest tree in the Western Forest. The blood of a dragon.
* 13 points: Truly unique materials. The wood of the First Tree. The heart of a dragon. The eye of a god.

If there is more than one material involved in the construction of an item then you add the total value of the most significant item and half the value of the second most significant item (round up). An item of human bone and dragon's blood, for example, would be worth 8 points.

Any item worth 3 points or more must have been found on a larp.

FORGING

Or whittling, weaving, or whatever. In fact, the actual shaping of stuff isn't enormously dramatic, therefore for the purposes of Stuff What Will Happen on a Larp, Forging takes the form of additional 'fixing' type steps that are carried out on individual components of the object, before it is completed (eg sharpening the blade of a sword on the first rays of morning, thank you T.Pratchett). See below. You can also pick up points for the following:

Binding Up Within the Item A Great Part Of Your Power: If you're a Sorceror you can get +3 points for every level of Magic you tie up in the item - these levels of magic become unavailable to you if the item is destroyed or you lose possession of it. To the surprise of literally no-one, your enemies will tend to find out about this sort of thing in visions and divinations.

Using Significant Tools: Can give you a +1 or a +2, depending on the nature of the tools.

FIXING

The final stage in the creation of magical items is the fixing, finishing the thing off and binding both of the previous steps together. Points from fixing come from the significance of the action used to fix the artifact. The fixing is the coda to the whole thing, and symbolically marks the beginning of the life of the artifact. The nature of the fixing will touch the entire nature of the artifact. Remember, the fixing sets the fate of the item in a big way. If you kill somebody with it you've got a terrible and baleful thing, if you use it to feed the hungry you have something benevolent.

# 0 Points: No significant fixing. The item is forged normally, tidied up and used.
# 1 Point: The item is anointed with tears or with blood. The item is prayed over or alchemically treated.
# 3 Points: The item is cooled in one of the Rivers of the North, or in human tears. The item is taken to the Burned Realm and buried in the ash. The item is used to kill a man.
# 7 Points: The item is cooled in the tears of a God. The item is taken to the Glass Tower and used to catch the reflection of a Vitriarch. The item is taken by another man and used to kill its creator.

Anything worth 3+ points must take place on a larp (for this or 'forging' stages). To get the 7 point bonus, the fixinng must actually be the *subject* of a larp (again, for this stage or for forging).

ACTUALISATION

An item, once found, forged and fixed, will have somewhere between 0 and (potentially) forty-something points invested in it. Items come in roughly five levels of power:

0-10 points: items of this level mostly do flavour stuff or give very minor advantages, along 'superior item' lines or slightly better.

10-20 points: okay, now it'll be noticablely quite useful. Bonuses along the lines of a couple of the lower ranks of a skill are quite in order, or an alchemical potion-like effect that manifests once per encounter.

20-30 points: items at this level will be useful on a regular basis, providing effects similar to mid-level (2-3) level spells, at least once per encounter, or equivalent effects.

30-40 points: At this level, you get into seriously puissant "owning this thing will change your life" territory. Permenant alterations to skills and abilities are the order of the day.

40-50 Points At this level, it's the One Ring.

Shard Knives: about 25

Ash-Blessed Swords: about 5

Vengeance: about 35

CHANGING A PRIMARY CLASS

To do this, you will need to do three things. Firstly, have some levels in your new primary class. Secondly, convince the Head GM/ larpo that your character has recently been acting much more like a member of the new class primary class than the old one. Thirdly, pay 10xp.

You cannot get more than 5 levels of secondary classes by any means. if you want a primary class change that would violate this, you have to lose levels from your new secondary class until it fits. You lose the relevant skills (unless you could have them through another class you have, obviously).

First Aid - May '06
The First Aid skill currently reads:
"You know how to provide emergency assistance to the injured. You can heal one Body Hit (and one Body Hit only) to a location which has lost no more Body Hits in total than your Rank in this skill. You can only heal injuries which have been inflicted during that Encounter, and no location may benefit from this skill more than once per Encounter. Furthermore, each use of this skill uses up medical supplies (bandages and the like)."
"Lost no more body hits in total..." refers to the number of hits the location had lost before the application of any other healing. One cannot use other forms of healing to bring the wound up to a level where First Aid can be used on it.

Psychic Combat - October '04
Real time or instantaneous? Well, both, sort of. Setting aside the physical manifestations of psychic combat people had to endure on the campaign this year, Psychic combat is supposed to happen very quickly during a semi-Time-Faff type situation. The only people moving should be those with the Exorcism skill who can run to intercept or help out the combat going on. The time taken for them to run to intervene representing the minute time taken for them to get involved in the combat.
Also, it has been pointed out that using the weapons you have In Character in the physical world can lead to an unfair advantage, but as the GM always practically has the opportunity to direct the monsters to the characters they want I don't see this as a problem unless you are, for example, a physical pacifist who is ok beating things up with your mind. So I'm going to say that anything entering or being forced into Psychic Combat can request up to a short sword length of weapon.

1. Voting in the new LARP Organiser (LARPO).
2. Proposals for the new Society Game.
3. Report from the Christmas Party.
4. Any other business.

• Meeting opened 12:35

• Item 1: Voting in the new LARPO.
  Candidates for the position were Rich.
  Ellie asked Rich why he wanted the position.
  Rich said that he would rather say what he was going to do with the position.
  He suggested an additional campaign in Hilary Term, to do with the Second Binding War.
  He said that he would continue in the same vein as before, shifting the board by inches rather than miles, that he would look at the magic system including Dream magic and magic items, and encouraged the meeting to vote for him rather than reopening the elections, because that would suck.
  Ellie pointed out that the position would come up for re-election next term anyway.
  Rich finally added that he was already handling the weapons and turning up every week anyway.
  Ellie asked if there were any questions.
  Rei said that currently the only daggers she used belonged to Chris N, and asked if the club had its own daggers.
  Helen said that there were six club throwing daggers.
  Rei said that she wanted fighting daggers.
  Ellie said that some club daggers were available, and that Chris' should be but haven't been seen since Natalie resigned.
  12:38 - Ben joined the meeting.
  A vote was held on who to elect as LARPO.
  Vote: Voting was unanimous in favour of Rich.
  Ellie said that Rich was now the official LARP Organiser.

• Remainder of agenda. Meeting closed 13:12

1. Announcements of people standing for LARP Organiser.
2. How the LARP Organiser should deal with suggestions from people.
3. Buying club items for the 2nd week LARP event.
4. Using uncored knives for stabbing.
5. The Merchant experience level system.
6. Headshots.
7. Deputy LARP Organisers.
8. Any Other Business.
   • 8a. Chain Magic.
   • 8b. Light Magic.
   • 8c. Phys-rep Clarifications.
   • 8d. Don't Throw Weapons.
   • 8e. Death.

• Meeting opened 11:35

• Item 1: Announcements of people standing for LARP Organiser.
  Ellie asked if anybody was standing for LARP Organiser (LARPO).
  Xan and Rich both announced that they were. Joe humorously suggested a cage match.

• Item 2: How the LARPO should deal with suggestions from people.

• Ellie read an email from Ben, who was unable to attend:

  "Unfortunately I won't be able to make the EGM, on account of GenCon, so I would be grateful if you could raise the following question.
  Basically I think a key requirement for the next LARPO is that they need to be willing to accept and support other people's ideas even if they personally disagree with them. Hence I would like you to ask any candidates for the position what they would do if someone had an idea for a major piece of LARP plot that they disagreed with. I think that they should be willing to let it go ahead, and see what the rest of LARP thought about it before trying to ban or block it.
  A second minor suggestion would be that it would help reduce any accusations of favouritism or cliquism if a simple rule was instituted that no one (except the Campaign LARP GM) should be able to run a second LARP before everyone else who wanted to run a LARP had been given the opportunity. This need not be rigorously enforced, but it would be helpful if people who felt that their ideas were being arbitrarily blocked by the LARPO could have some defined right to run LARPs involving their ideas.
  In summary, what I think is most important for LARP is that it remains an open system to which anyone can make additions. While there need to be some clear rules for GMs, to keep the setting and system consistent, I think the ideal should be to minimise them."

  The two LARPO candidates were asked if they would ban plot that they disagreed with outright. They both said that they would not.
  The two LARPO candidates were asked if they would enforce Ben's suggestion for reducing accusations of favouritism and cliquism.
  Rich said that he would.
  Xan said that it seemed like a rule for something that should be covered by common sense.
  Wart said that he agreed with the general rule, but pointed out that if only a small number of people were prepared to run a LARP then only a small number would do so.
  Ellie pointed out that this was covered by common sense, as Xan had said.

• Item 3: Buying club items for the 2nd week LARP event.
  Helen's proposal was:

  "With most of last year's players back in town and (I hope) mostly intending to come to LARP on a regular or semi-regular basis, we've got quite a bulk in numbers. If I have my calculations right, we were regularly getting 9-12 players for vac LARPs, and if everyone who came before comes again that could easily be pushed up to somewhere around 20. Add in Freshers and other miscellanoi who're interested in playing during term (I have a few), and we've suddenly got quite a crowd - 10-15 is looking more like a minimum estimate than a maximum, at least for the first game or two.
  Now, I don't really have the numbers in my head offhand, but there's a part of my brain that's saying to me that even with Richard's gear and peoples' personal spares, we won't have enough weapons without starting to use the old duct-taped club kit again. When I had a look at the duct-taped kit myself a while back, I noticed a lot of small flaws in several weapons that would make me think twice about passing them at a safety inspection if I were GMing - loose cores, striking surfaces way too hard, various bits of damage, etc.. Besides which, it would be really, really cool if new players' first experience of the club would be with entirely well-made and professional looking weapons."

  Ellie asked if Rich could go out in the next week to buy club items.
  Helen asked if we could especially get them by next week.
  Peter asked what kind of club kit we had and Helen told him.
  Julian said that a wider selection (axes, etc.) would be nice.
  Rich announced that they wouldn't be available by next weekend, then changed his mind and announced that they would.
  Ellie said that if the weapons weren't got before the next LARPO was voted in, it would become their responsibility.
  Julian raised the subject of club armour.
  Helen said that there was some, but more would be nice, and Darkblade would do discounts for bulk orders.
  Ellie agreed, but said that weapons should come first.

• Item 4: Stabbing with uncored daggers.
  Jen said that uncored daggers could be used for this safely, even if not designed for it.
  Helen said that she believed they were unsafe, as the point of an uncored dagger is smaller than a human eyesocket, and accidents could happen.
  Wart also pointed out that stabbing bends daggers more than throwing with them, so they could become damaged.
  Peter and Helen temporarily discussed dagger-fighting issues irrelevant to the meeting.
  Ellie asked the LARPO candidates what they would decide.
  Xan said that a) it was a lot less confusing to have a blanket rule of 'no stabbing' and b) the motion used for stabbing is more dangerous, as with slashing motions a blade can bend back if swung too hard, but with stabbing motions there's nowhere for the extra force to go but into the person you stab.
  Rich agreed, saying that at one point while dagger-fighting with Ben he had connected quite fully with him.
  Helen asked if he enjoyed it.
  Rich said that he had lifted him off his feet.
  Ellie said that as the Candidates agreed, stabbing with uncored daggers was to be forbidden.

• Item 5: The Merchant experience level system.
  Wart summarised his email, saying that Merchant progression was not interesting enough, and that another option for them to do interesting adventuring things should be added. Getting the next level by waiting for money to come in was not, he said, interesting.
  Ellie said that this was something for a LARPO to decide, and asked the candidates.
  Xan said that as it currently stands on the website, one of the problems is that it can be much more expensive (up to 9 times as much) for some Merchants to advance than others, depending on their starting level of Merchant and their starting level of Wealth, and that he would be willing to take on board ideas.
  Rich said that it was not ruled within the system that a Merchant couldn't pay people to guard him during an adventure, and that he would be willing to award a level to a Merchant funding and organising a LARP by himself.
  Wart said that if this were the case, it should explicitly say so on the website that this would happen.
  Rich also suggested that the ruling for getting new levels of Merchant should be 'Have X levels' and not 'buy another level'.
  Xan also pointed out that Nobles and Merchants both use Wealth as a means of gaining levels: under Rich's suggestion, a low-level Noble Merchant who got several ranks of wealth early on could then go up several levels without doing anything new.
  Wart made a suggestion to make Wealth a Class skill of Nobles and Merchants.
  Rich pointed out that this was deliberately not the case, so as to avoid adventuring becoming a zero-sum game.
  There was a long and unimportant discussion about whether adventuring should be a zero-sum game, which is omitted for brevity.
  Ellie pointed out that this was a decision for the next LARPO to make.
  Helen asked the candidates what they would think of restricting or removing the Wealth requirement for higher levels of Noble.
  Rich said that there was certainly a case for that.
  Xan agreed.
  Rich also said that Dan had an idea about using Lands, and that he would consider this or suggest this.

• Item 6: Head Hits.
  Peter said that all the LARPs he had been to before have allowed - but not encouraged - head shots, and that there should be rules for it if it happens.
  Ellie said that it had been brought up before and individual exceptions to rules are hard. In addition she pointed out the large amount of people wearing glasses.
  Helen said that as a trained fencer, it was difficult to avoid doing headshots, and that it would be even worse for the trained fencers in the group to avoid headshots if they were not banned outright.
  Wart said that possibly the reason for the ruling in the LARPs Peter had been to was that the Oxford LARP team have no problem with people using their heads as shields.
  Peter said that he'd not had any such problems.
  Vicky pointed out that the Oxford LARP team had many new LARPers, who would be discouraged by the possibility of headshots and could present a danger if allowed to make headshots.
  Ellie said that headshots still happen by accident and aren't pleasant.
  Helen suggested an explicit ruling forbidding headshots be put on the website.
  The two LARPO candidates said that they were against headshots, Rich adding that the ruling would add too much confusion.
  Rich added that he was considering allowing LARPers playing a specific monster to be headshotted with their permission, which would be announced during the safety brief and allowed a maximum of once per LARP.
  Wart said that this should be done with the players' consent and as an exception rather than the rule.

• Item 7: Deputy LARP Organisers.
  Helen summarised her email, saying that as being LARPO was a lot of work with more and more people getting involved in LARP, the LARPO should be able to appoint deputies.
  Ellie agreed.
  Helen said that they should not be able to speak with the LARPO's voice, but be able to do admin.
  Arthur said that the Deputies should be announced, along with what jobs had been assigned to them, on the mailing list.
  He also expressed concern that it made LARP more like the Society Game than a group shared world.
  Helen said that the intention was not to appoint positions like 'alpha-GM' but for the DLARPOs to carry out the LARPO's duties and not have the same rights. She said that the Deputies should not run the game, but merely should shoulder some of the burden.
  Ellie agreed with Arthur's first point.
  Xan said that he thought the fear that this will make LARP more like the society game was unfounded as the position of the LARPO and his/her deputies would remain an administrative and organisational one; GMs to run games would still be drawn from the group.
  Jen said that the main difference would be that the Society Game GMs have access to secrets, and LARPOs don't.
  Joe pointed out that this was already done through the LARP webmaster, and said that there was no need to formalise it.
  Ellie suggested clarifying this.
  Rich said that according to the OURPGSoc Constitution, the LARPO was able to appoint people anyway.
  Helen suggested the position of LARPO-to-English translator.
  Ellie said that the Deputies should not have decision-making authority.

• Item 8: Any Other Business

• Item 8a: Chain Magic.
  Joe said that as it stood, the system allowed you to be a Priest of Chain Magic, which made no sense as the Bound Ones were not worshippable.
  He also suggested moving Exorcist away from the Priestly skills.
  Helen suggested solving it by having the Ordained status for Chain Sorcerors represent initiation into the Cloistered Brethren.
  Wart pointed out that the Brotherhood were in a relationship with gods - but that they kept them locked away, rather than worshipping them.
  Vicky said that she saw Chain Magic as a humanist religion, that saw people, not gods, as the centre of things.
  Joe agreed, saying that that was his take on it, but that a decision needed to be made.
  Helen said that as it stood on the website, the power for Chain Magic came from the Bound Ones.
  Joe said that Dan, when writing the system, intended to have the Brotherhood be a specialised branch of Name Magic.
  James interrupted, asking if this discussion would be better placed on the mailing lists.
  Joe said that as an open system, it needed to be discussed.
  Wart suggested making it common knowledge that Name Magic existed, so that people who had not been involved in Name Magic LARPs were not at a disadvantage.
  Ellie interrupted, saying that this discussion was what the lists were for.
  Jen seconded this.
  James thirded it.
  Rich said "And God so loved the world he did not send a committee", pointing out that LARPOs existed so that a committee did not need to vote and minute every decision.
  There was a long and off-topic discussion about the role of LARPO.
  Ellie moved the conversation back to Name Magic, which was still off-topic but not so much, and suggested putting rumours of Name Magic existing on the website's Rumour Mill page.
  Rich said that by formalising Name Magic, it would be tied down.
  Xan said that it would be a good idea to have details of Name Magic currently possessed by PCs put up on the website for the use of GMs.
  Joe said that many PCs did not know the details of the Name Magic they possessed, either.
  Helen asked the LARPO candidates if they thought Name Magic was overpowered and if they intended to do something about it.
  Xan and Rich both said yes and yes.
  Ellie asked if the discussion could be moved onto the list.
  Xan asked for a quick gathering of opinion on whether people disagree with making Exorcist a Sorceror skill, not a Priest one.
  Jen said that keeping a distinction between psychic combatants and Sorcerors would be nice.
  Vicky said that Sorcerors were already capable of Psychic Singles.
  Arthur suggested that having Sorcerors be capable of dealing with spirits was still in paradigm, but that they dealt with them in a less holy way.
  Jen agreed, but said she was looking at it from the point of view of game balance, saying that without Exorcist there was little impetus to take a Priest character.
  Joe pointed out that Priests did get Rites.
  Helen agreed with Joe.
  Rich suggested having an 'Ordained' skill and a 'Non-Ordained' skill allowing players to have knowledge of priestly matters without association with a God.
  There was a long and gruelling discussion on this, which finally ended with the compromise of requiring Sorcerors to take Exorcist if they had a good enough reason, similar to the game-mechanic with Empowered.

• A five minute break was taken. Meeting reopened 13:22

• Item 8b: Light Magic.
  Helen said that the current usage of Light magic was not the same as the usage on the website. The website said that all casters, not just the unOrdained, took damage. Current usage has it that only the unOrdained took damage. She said that the website needed to be changed.
  She also said that after that change, Light Sorcerors got free direct damage and healing, with no expendable resource but time, and that needed to be thrown open to the mailing lists.
  Vicky added that at low levels, Light magic was a lot less useful, and that level 1 in particular was mostly useless.
  Helen suggested moving that to the lists.
  Julian pointed out that time was a valuable resource in combat.
  Going off-topic, Arthur pointed out that Dark Magic existed, and needed to be detailed properly or nerfed.
  Helen said that it was nerfed.
  Joe pointed out that it wasn't.
  Going even further off-topic, Arthur reiterated his earlier point that Name Magic was undefined but not nerfed.
  The conversation continued for some time about Name Magic, Dark Magic and the Scandalmonger skill, and never got back on topic.

• Item 8c: Phys-rep clarifications.
  Helen asked the LARPO candidates if they intended to clarify what phys-rep meant, as the definitions on the website were vague and fuzzy.
  Xan said that he would take on board any suggestions if people felt it needed clarifying.
  Rich suggested keeping it vague and fuzzy, as it was too much of a grey area to pin down.
  Helen said that just a few points would be good.
  Julian said that it was a radical change and that he didn't want to discuss it now.
  Joe said that it should be a non-issue.
  Rich suggested raising the matter on lists.

• Item 8d: Don't Throw Weapons.
  Helen said that people have a tendency to pass cored weapons to one another by throwing them, and that this is dangerous. She said that we need a clarification of this on the website.
  There were no objections.

• Item 8e: Death.
  Helen pointed out that we now have PC wills. She asked if a ruling could be made on the website forbidding people from leaving things to their alternate characters in their will.
  Joe suggested avoiding IC wills altogether and defaulting inheritance to the PC's family.
  Xan said that as something which came up as a tangent to the "Dragonfire & Deep Water" LARP, it was worth looking at whether a PC who has not actually played on a LARP should be permitted to profit.
  Wart said that it should only be relevant when the PC had a big plot item, like the Waterfire.
  Ellie said that it could be sorted out during discussion with the GM.
  Jen said that it was just roleplaying etiquette.
  After a long and rambling discussion, it was eventually agreed that roleplaying etiquette and common sense should come into play.

• The meeting was closed at 13:54

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