Rising of Chaos - Online -

## The Choice

**Two days ago an expedition departed for the Frozen North. Its mission was to recover Oracles that were fleeing some unforeseen danger and to discover why the Dralkosh had fallen silent. They arrived at the Military Camp of the Coalition that guards the borders between the Ancestral Lands and the hostility of the North. Here they reported that all there were suffering from a dark possession and that abomination had been committed in ritual across the camp. The strange was rife across the camp and something stalked the ice beyond the safety of torch and camp fire.**

**Heedless of the danger the brave Guildsfolk investigated and discovered that magic so old it had barely heard the word Dralkosh had been committed in memoriam of the marrying of great powers at the dawn of days. We know that these heroes travelled deeper into the North, entering the Koehelen Seykal, a forbidden woodland that has remained hidden by the power of the Dralkosh for millennia. The last reports we had from them were that eighteen Dralkosh had been trapped by the Countess and that they were seeking parlay with them to understand what would happen should they aid them.**

**Over the course of the night and the next day all contact with them was lost and a secondary team was prepared to recover them. As it was being dispatched from the Grey Keep the Actuality Scopes registered tremendous power spreading out from somewhere in the Koehelen Seykal. The King uttered these words before “it” happened: “Fate is changing, the end is coming, but the moment has been prepared for.” Seconds later all those who pass the being of the dead onto their afterlife sensed a massive resurgence as souls, spirits, weave; all forms of the Aura returned to the world screaming out with vengeance.**

**Reports from the bridge of the keep speak that Dazak North, the King, was filled with the physical manifestation of the dead and was empowered by them. An ancient blade was seen at his side and he was garbed in armour as he called for a portal and passed into another place where many swore that they could see the Countess standing, waiting. Long moments passed and he returned, blade in hand, his skin becoming the ash of dead fires, a wound that ends life through his armoured chest. Inexplicably the spectres of those that travelled to the North were seen around him as though calling him to his death before “it” happened. The King spoke words that none could hear and then….**

**Everything has changed, the world has become like broken echoes of forgotten things and times and places. Those who chose to participate in this event have been caught in the epicentre of “it”, of “the event”. Everything is changing around us, a war at the heart of the Grey Keep that spills out into the world beyond. Will you be involved?**

### **Welcome to The Choice**

**Team RoC’s three main writers have gathered together to create a unique platform and opportunity for new and old players alike to keep their keen and the story alive in these difficult times. How can this possibly be achieved? We hear you think, because the power of the mind is ours to command!**

**Firstly, as you can see from our lead in, the last game of the Winter Season finished on quite the cliff hanger and we are offering you the chance to delve into and shape the plot as we prep for whenever we can start again.**

**For those choosing to play this is the situation we want to explain the very basics of what is happening and then expand slightly but a lot of the what is happening and why is all find out in play (foip)**

* **The blurb leaves us with the King having presumably fought the countess and returned near death**
* **This event was foreshadowed by Dralkosh activity in the North and a massive disturbance to the Fate Lines of the world**
* **The world has suddenly fractured and the players that choose to play are drawn into one of those moments.**

### **How Does this work in Brief?**

* **We will be running a series of week long games that are interactions with the system through a new set of rules.**
* **Players will be given the opportunity to submit a google form indicating which character they wish to play and a short description of what they might have been doing prior to the events of the day.**
* **The form to sign up is here https://forms.gle/KvvnbZL1Y4osAZ8XA**
* **Players will be broken down into manageable groups of 5 by the system**
* **These groups are NOT allowed to interact with each other regarding The Choice unless the opportunity has presented itself. See “The Rulz”**
* **Each group will have the opportunity to interact with their situation every day. They will discuss what they would like to achieve and the Group Leader (nominated when the group is formed) will submit the final decision to the ref team.**
* **The Ref Team will then process their actions each night and publish their returns in the morning along with handouts, prop images and the like.**
* **Players co again the next day**
* **Full rules can be found below**

### **How much of my time will this take?**

* **We would like you to interact with this as much as possible but we understand that RL pressures - especially at the moment - may necessitate that you step away from the game. This is understood and real life always takes priority over the game.**
* **If you are a Group Leader you will need to nominate someone else to be Group Leader whilst you are unable to engage. Otherwise we only ask that you engage as much as possible - taking part in at least 1 daily conversation out of every 3 would be a good minimum standard to aim for**

### **What if I am new?**

* **Everything that we write and run relates to the story that has been on going now for 23 years.**
* **So if you are an established player you will certainly draw links from what has gone before**
* **However this is a unique experience story wise and presents opportunities for new characters that simply could not happen usually.**
* **If you are brand new or thereabouts to the system thread us an email and we will tie you up in game and story that will excite for years to come.**
* **Equally we will be providing Wiki entries to cover information for reference specifically to the game and what is happening.**
* **The wiki is new so a lot of what could be helpful isn’t there yet and we will be adding it ahead of time.**

### **How many Games will there be?**

* **We are planning one a week for at least a month**
* **We have written our story to be easily expandable should we be grounded for longer.**
* **Our intention is that the stories will let us leap straight into the woods/fort that are our first actual game of the year.**

### **Do I have to play all the Games and can I just join in?**

* **Each weekly game will have a sign up period on the Wednesday beforehand.**
* **The form to sign up is here**https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd20DKFEEqbKQupw\_4QcxDeHHqOSjZSFPCtMzNICWsOeqSxYg/viewform
* **If you choose not to play for a week you CAN play a later game**
* **However you cannot join in with a running game.**
* **However you are locked into your group so if you leave a group for a week that group is down a character**

### **When does all this start?**

* **Today! Now!**
* **If you are reading this you can go here and fill in a google form for your character**https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd20DKFEEqbKQupw\_4QcxDeHHqOSjZSFPCtMzNICWsOeqSxYg/viewform
* **You will then be assigned a discord channel and meet your group**
* **Our Discord server is here https://discord.gg/yY8rBy9**
* **Your “Time in” then begins next Monday at 9am**

### **Where will all of this take place?**

* **This service will happen only on discord**
* **Our Discord server is here https://discord.gg/yY8rBy9**
* **Specific areas are set up for the game to happen in**
* **Discord runs on all formats and mediums and is the easiest way for the refs to communicate and answer your questions in isolation.**
* **We will not accept any other mediums for use.**

## **What are the Rulz?**

**This is the lengthy and explanatory bit so read it twice perhaps? As with everything RoC we will try and keep an eye on these rules and update them every week to give you the best experience that we can.**

### **The Basics**

* **You have been altered by fate and as such your abilities and powers have been affected.**
* **You find yourself in strange places where things seem shadowed and weird away from the real world where things are inert and frozen**
* **Actions that you take ripple and move around you and drain you of your strength drawing you back to the real world.**
* **The refs have written scenarios that take places over a number of “encounters” or areas that are pre-prepared.**
* **Players can interact with these areas by declaring actions each day and using their resources to achieve things.**
* **The rules below have a vagueness to them with statements like “Players will return to the real world over time” - It is for players to tempt fate and attempt to learn the rules of this strange place.**

### **Settings**

* **Each time you enter an area the refs will establish a really clear visualisation of what they are putting in front of the you**

* + ​​​​​​**So a big chunk of text**
	+ **A Map**
	+ **Photos of props that are in the rooms/areas**
	+ **Pintrest style images that can be used to show off and theme the areas that we are describing.**
* **This will support the rules below**

### **Rules and Sequencing**

* **The world is broken down into the phasing world of opportunity and the real world of shackles**
* **An area is broken down into sections.**
* **Sections that the players are not in are shrouded.**
* **If players are separated by more than one section they begin to return to the real world and leave the opportunities.**
* **A shrouded area when entered will reveal:**

* + **Description**
	+ **Seeable things that can be interacted with**
	+ **Shadowed beings and things that need an action to be revealed and then that can be interacted with.**
	+ **Dangers and threats that can be interacted with by expending Fate.**
* **Fate is a resource that is spent by a group to achieve actions.**
* **It is a pool of resource that is made up based on the grouping of players where each player has Fate Points equal to their Tier.**

* + **The Fate Pool begins the game with a total = to what all the players had when they started this day.**
	+ **They spend them to take actions**
	+ **They also keep their personal Fate Points (2 if Tier 2 for example)**
	+ **They can spend these but then they are gone forever and do not add to the fate pool when they begin their next day.**
	+ **If a player loses all their fate they return to the world of shackles**
* **Actions are as follows:**

* + **Move to new section for one person**
	+ **Move to a new section as a group**
	+ **Examine 1 seeable thing**
	+ **Take 1 seeable thing.**
	+ **Reveal 1 shrouded thing.**
	+ **Interact with threats**

* + - **A threat has a description and an approximation of its own fate**
		- **You will bid from your fate point total against what you think the threat has**
		- **Apply any skills that you as a character have like Venator or a word for casting like Calm**
		- **Victory allows you to claim whatever the threat was guarding AND claim excess Fate Points towards the pool for the next day**

* + - * **If you bid 10 Fate against an estimated 8 and it turns out to be 7 the next day you will gain 3 additional Fate points to your total.**
		- **If a skill or word is appropriate it will reduce the Fate of the object making it easier to succeed and increasing your carryover for the next day.**
	+ **Put forward Fate Point – Spend 1 to put that point into tomorrow's total**
* **Values to achieve any skill will change from area to area and be clearly flagged.**

### **Actions and Communications**

* **Once a group has its description they are allowed to discuss it between 9am and 7pm.**
* **They will be given their own Discord channel which will be open ONLY to those group members and the ref team.**
* **Each will have a group leader that is either elected by the players or chosen by the team.**
* **They will PM the ref team which actions and in which order every group member is taking.**
* **Yes this means that some actions can end up being done blind when you start off but we talked about you finding out in play.**
* **Results are then calculated and returned to the players by 9am the next day**
* **From then on the group has until  11am to choose to spend individual Fate Points to alter the outcome of a scenario which can be offered to them.**
* **Then we give out the pre-prepared handouts and pictures and other clues and they can begin again with the same cut off point the next day.**
* **The game continues until the end of Saturday and on Sunday Morning the team will dish out the final juicy bits of tale**
* **We are working on trust but this is the Golden Rule: DO NOT DISCUSS YOUR GROUP’S FINDINGS OR ACTIVITIES WITH OTHER PLAYERS AT ALL.**
* **Unless**
	+ **Each group has the opportunity to talk to two other groups, unknown to them, over the course of Saturday and Sunday.**
	+ **Slots for that time of talking will be handled by the system - We will liaise with you and sort out a slot where you can talk**
	+ **Here you can share revelations with the rep from another group for a short period of time that will also be moderated by the system.**

### **Stay In Character**

* **We’d like to keep it as IC as possible**
* **So try and be in character when talking in the discussion channels**
* **If you need refs to clarify things ask questions and they will get back to you as soon as possible**
* **Just make sure you @ your ref team.**