BASIC RULES

## **THE HONOUR SYSTEM**

The honour system is the only way our game can effectively operate with over 200 players and no referees.  Every player on the field must trust that their fellow player is playing fairly and not deliberately bending the rules. The honour system ensures that ability and spell effects are taken properly, that rules and mechanics are portrayed appropriately and as intended, and that the game functions with its own natural checks and balances. If anyone has a question about an ability or spell effect, how a mechanic works, or the intention of a rule, please ask a Medieval Chaos Staff member for clarification. We have made no attempt to create exhaustive lists of what can and cannot be done at Medieval Chaos; therefore we ask that players honour the intention of the rules we do have in place and role-play them within the game for the betterment and enjoyment of all players.

## BASIC RULES

1. Roll with it. Trust that your fellow players have access to whatever spell or ability they are using and react properly. If you're unsure what a spell or ability does, then it kills you. You are not allowed to create new spells or abilities based on the pretense of “rolling with it”.
2. Respect your fellow players. This includes, but is not limited to, race, sexual orientation, religion and creed. When in character, use your best judgment when interacting with other PCs or NPCs in regards to the above topics. Remember, everything you do past the gatehouse needs to be in character, so leave any baggage you may have at the parking lot!
3. Respect the property of Dagger Deep: Breaking this rule includes, but is not limited to, damaging structures, littering, and/or mistreatment borrowed equipment. People caught wilfully disregarding any of the above rules may face permanent expulsion from Dagger Deep.
4. Weapons must meet current safety standards and be inspected before use. No live steel weapons are to be used in game. No weapon may contain metal. All weapons and shields must be safety checked by the gatehouse before use at a Medieval Chaos sanctioned event.
5. No fireworks, smoke bombs, or pyrotechnics without the express permission of the Medieval Chaos President. Only designated members may light and tend to campfires, and light and manipulate candles in town.
6. Out of character information cannot be used during game play.
7. Smoking is only allowed in the designated smoking areas.
8. Only abilities and spells contained within a Medieval Chaos handbook or outlined by the GM at conch may be used.
9. Medieval Chaos events held at Dagger Deep have official game play from 3 PM till 1 AM. Anything that happens between these hours is to be in character and is covered by official games rules.

## GATEHOUSE/CHECK IN RULES

Medieval Chaos strives to make an immersive fantasy world for its membership. To achieve this atmosphere we have costume requirements. First and foremost, no jeans are allowed past gatehouse, and no visible logos are permitted on any clothing, accessories, or footwear. Beyond that, we request that players wear a medieval, steampunk, Gothic Victorian, swashbuckler fantasy, or Tolkien-esque fantasy style of outfit. Once a player has their costume on they must go to the gatehouse and check in. The admin at the gatehouse will sign players in for the day, collect fees, and help new players with waivers; after all this they will then point players to weapons check. The admin at weapons check will check all weapons before the player enters the play area, in order to ensure that there are no unsafe weapons on the field. Beyond the gatehouse everything is considered in character; all the people beyond the gatehouse must be playing their characters- making decisions as those characters would, speaking as their characters and seeing the world from their character's point of view. It is critical that all people beyond the gatehouse are talking and acting in character to make the game immersive for all players. One person talking about Facebook in the middle of town can ruin the experience for 40+ players.

1. Players must have completed all necessary Medieval Chaos paperwork.
2. Players must have character appropriate costume; this includes all items brought into Dagger Deep. No mundane items, everything brought into the game world should look in period.
3. The gatehouse will only admit characters between 3 PM and 5 PM. All players that wish to attend the day's mission must be past the gate by 5pm. Costume return is at the gatehouse from 9 PM to 9:30 PM.
4. No unbridled peasantry.  When new players or spectators come to the Deep they must be part of the new play group and be shown around by a designated member for their first experience.
5. Found items that are not loot are turned in to the gatehouse. Any lost items not retrieved from the Lost & Found after 2 weeks become the property of Medieval Chaos Productions (see HERE).
6. The person behind the gatehouse counter is an arbiter of the game rules so be nice; follow their directions or you'll be asked to leave.
7. All player character slots must be registered at both the gatehouse and on the website.
8. Spellbooks, accounting books and lesson books must be presented during check in.

## EVENT STRUCTURE AND CONCH RULES

The gatehouse at Dagger Deep admits players from 3pm – 5pm, so don’t be late. Medieval Chaos operates in a sort of free time for character interaction from 3pm – 6pm; this time is commonly referred to as pre-mission.

During the pre-mission portion of the day players can play any of their characters and wander around the glorious lands of Dagger Deep seeking adventure, trading and buying items, or sitting in the tavern catching the latest secrets.

Around 6pm the Game Master (GM) of the day will blow a conch and summon all the players to Woodhenge, located in Dagger Deep. This is called “first conch.” During first conch players are split into two teams, the Player Character (PC) team and the Non-Player Character (NPC) team. The PC team consists of players playing their own characters, and is normally considered the good guy team, The NPC team consists of players that play characters that they are given by the day’s GM, these are usually the bad guys of the mission. All information received at conch is to be considered out of character, unless otherwise instructed by the GM.

During the weeks prior to an event, information is posted on our website and many of our players mark themselves down as “attending” our events. The attendance list on our event is used by the GM to create a list of PCs and NPCs. The players who are playing NPCs are notified days, or weeks, in advance of an event to ensure time to prepare proper costume.

The Game Master of the day's events will split the players into two groups as they arrive at Woodhenge. The PC team will take one side and the NPC team will take the other side. Then the GM will give a brief overview of the mission that is about to take place, outlining any strange or new abilities that the NPCs may have. A Staff member will then call forth any non-combatants to ensure that everyone knows who they are and will remind all players not to strike non-combatants. The GM will then shout “Begin!” then players will disperse to their former locations and the mission will begin.

A Medieval Chaos mission can take many forms, but you can normally be certain that the NPCs will attack the PCs and that intense combat, casting, and role-playing will ensue. The mission normally lasts 3 hours and when it is over the GM will call out, “TO THE PAIN!” and all players will echo the call to ensure that everyone is aware that the mission is over.

Once the mission has ended a conch will blow again, from somewhere near the last encounter that took place on the mission, and players will gather. This is called “second conch.” At second conch all players once again gather and any post mission announcements are made. After the announcements are made the players once again disperse and the rest of the night is considered after mission or “post-mission.” After mission players once again can enjoy a free play environment where bards sing in the tavern, food is served in Burnt Dead Things, and characters frolic in the forest as darkness descends.

Occasionally some events do not adhere to the standard mission and/or 'conch' format (such as Tournaments, Day in the Life, or Rumour Quest events). Medieval Chaos generally will release any details of such prior to the event; just a general reminder to players and their characters that action doesn't always take place during standard mission hours!

## LOOTING RULES

At Medieval Chaos looting the dead, and sometimes the still living, is fully encouraged. However, in order to keep players from stealing valuables or touching/hiding things in inappropriate areas, we have created a list of looting rules.

1. Any player who indicates that no consent is given for physical contact may not be touched or searched for any reason.
2. Players who do not wish to be touched or searched may not protect lootable items by denying consent for search. Lootable items must be set aside in a manner comfortable to the player.
3. Armour and weapons are not lootable unless marked with an appropriate permanent loot device.
4. Costuming is not lootable unless marked with an appropriate permanent loot device.
5. Rings, bracelets, necklaces, belts and other accessories are not lootable unless marked with an appropriate permanent loot device.
6. All items created by or provided by Medieval Chaos may be looted, such as active phys reps, potions, scrolls, ₡rown, etc.
7. No loot is to be hidden inside or around the groin, buttocks region, or in between, along or underneath the breasts, and these areas are not to be searched.
8. If an item cannot be removed and resistance for removal is indicated, such items may not be looted.
9. Permanent loot devices/markers may not be removed for any reason.
10. Prosthetics are not lootable, and are not to be pulled off another player. This includes both medical prosthetics and costuming prosthetics such as latex masks, etc.

### **INSTRUCTIONS FOR THOSE WHO DO NOT WANT TO BE SEARCHED:**

If you **DO NOT**  have loot and don't want to be touched or searched when someone approaches simply state something like “You find nothing” or “Nothing of importance stands out.” Offer something closer to a descriptive narrative that fits the mood, rather than “I've got nothing.”

If you DO have loot and you do not want to be touched or searched you have options:

* Remove whatever is in your pocket, on your fingers around your neck, etc and set it aside for the looter to take when you are approached.
* Keep your items in a bag or pouch or somewhere you are comfortable having searched. When someone comes up and they appear about to loot you, just tap the area with one of your hands to signify that's where the loot-able items are and go back to being dead.
* Straight up tell them where the loot is in a narrative manner. “You sense a powerful object in the brown pouch,” “My backpack gives off a mysterious hue.”

## **RESTRAINTS**

Restraints are a very high immersion element to Medieval Chaos, however players must be able to get out of restraints for both safety reasons and use of the Teleport effect. Players, not characters, must be able to escape. Anyone using a restraint that has a real lock and key must ensure that the key is kept with the restraint. The key will be considered out of character and only can be used if the lock is picked or the IC key is used. Any restraint with a lock is considered metal cannot be broken or cut. If rope is used without a lock, a character can “cut” the rope with a bladed weapon and escape. Even the simplest knot tied in rope is considered in inescapable to the character who is tied. The knot however can be untied by another player, once all the knots are untied the tied character is then freed.

## CHARACTER DEATHS

### **PERMANENT CHARACTER DEATH**

During their time of immunity, Peasants characters cannot be permanently killed; instead they always succumb to the Incapacitated effect (refer to the Incapacitated effect in Chapter 4: Effects). Apprentice, Full Guild, and High Guild characters are affected by the following permanent character death rules. There are two primary ways Permanent Character Death can occur:

### **UNINTENTIONAL CHARACTER DEATH**

(a.k.a Death by Misadventure)

In the event that a character dies but is not intentionally kept dead by another character (eg. they are not informed OOC of a character death attempt, their body is not purposefully hidden, etc.) then usually a dead character becomes incapacitated after 15 minutes (Incapacitated effect)

If by chance a character dies and is not returned to life by the end of the event (for example dying whilst infected with Blood Plague, while suffering Killing Poison, while the character is host to a summoned creature (zombie, demon, etc.), or that they never recover from their incapacitated condition), they are considered to be suffering character death.

The player of the dead character may opt to portray their characters body during future events, in the location their body last was. The dead character has two full events following the event of their death to be located and brought back to life, otherwise at the end of the third event that characters soul enters limbo. Note: Sharing the location of your characters corpse with players is considered meta-gaming.

### **INTENTIONAL CHARACTER DEATH**

(a.k.a Premeditated Murder)

For this to occur the killer must cause the death or by chance come upon the dead body of the target victim. The killer must move the victim to a hidden location (out of sight from other characters who are not participating in the deed). The killer then informs the victim OOC that they intend to character death them. At this point the victim can no longer benefit from the incapacitated effect (as it is presumed the killer has taken means to insure their complete death). The killer then teleports to the jail to collect a body phys rep and returns to victim. The victim writes their name and the date on a tag that is then attached to the body. The player of the victim then teleports to the parking lot; they are no longer able to physically portray their body. The killer then may move/hide the body phys rep within the legal playing area. Body phys reps cannot be buried or submerged in a river but they may be covered or concealed.

Both players must inform a mutually agreed upon staff member of the intended character death. The victim has two full events following the event they died for their body to be located and returned to life, otherwise at the end of the third event that characters soul enters limbo. The player of the victim may request from the agreed upon staff member to check if the body is still in a legal area of play; the staff member will confirm location with the player who hid the body and report back. Staff members are the final arbiters of any disagreements regarding character death.

### **FUNERAL PYRE**

One notable caveat to character death is the use of a pyre. When a character is burned on a pyre, they succumb to instantaneous permanent character death, that bypasses both the interim events following death as well as the period in limbo. Both the building and lighting of the pyre must be supervised and approved by a Staff member. Because burning at the pyre bypasses the limbo portion of character death, this epic death must be consensual when used on PCs. The target character's player must give permission before the burning can occur, meaning that for PC A to burn PC B at the pyre, PC B must be in full agreement to be burned on said pyre. The Staff hold the right to refuse permission for a pyre to be ignited at any time.

### **LIMBO**

After the character death interim has elapsed, the dead characters soul goes to limbo, the place between worlds where its remains there indefinitely until either restored to life or the soul moves on to its final resting place. At any time a character in limbo can choose to skip the limbo phase and become permanently deceased. If the character is affected by the Soul Rip effect, they immediately succumb to character death and their soul is sent to limbo. Any week or event based effect such as Curses, Poisons, or Diseases pause while the character is in limbo and resumes if the character is restored to life.

It is worth noting that the souls of the deceased are able to temporarily appear during Samhain at twilight as 'ghosts', to visit friends, aggrieve foes, say final farewells, party with the living, etc. Mechanically they do not have any abilities, spells, or such, other than that they cannot harm others nor be harmed. They can only appear after dusk, must be clearly marked with blue/green glow-sticks about their person, and for all intents and purposes vanish at dawn.

### **RESTORING A DECEASED CHARACTER**

In order to save a character from being lost to limbo they must be returned to life, prior to the character death time limit ending. In order to affect the character’s corpse with Revive or Resurrect you must locate either the actual body or the physical representation of it.