Game Mechanics

General Mechanics

IC/OC

When playing your character or when you are otherwise part of the game world you are considered In Character (IC) and when not part of the game world you are considered Out of Character (OC or OOC). When Out of Character within an area which has been Timed In you must hold one hand in the air with fingers extended to identify yourself as such. If you are In Character but cannot be seen (e.g. you're invisible) you must raise your hand with two fingers extended instead.

Safety Calls

Man Down

This call is used in the case of an out of character accident or emergency. This call stops the game so that the casualty can have first aid or assistance. ANYONE can call a ‘Man Down’ for themselves or another player if they find themselves in a situation where it is necessary. If a player hears the ‘Man Down’ call they should sit down and stay calm to allow appointed first-aiders and referees to deal with the situation.

This is an OC safety mechanic, please do not use it for IC reasons and avoid using the phrase ‘Man Down' in character. 

Lay Off 

During roleplay with others, a Player may at any time use the phrase ‘Lay Off’ to indicate their need for an OC accommodation or to leave the situation. 

This can be used because something is making them uncomfortable and they need it to change or stop, they need to move elsewhere so they can hear, they are experiencing overwhelm and need to take a break, or simply because they urgently need the bathroom. These are not the only reasons it can be used, but just an example of why it might need to be used. Please refrain from speculating as to the cause of an exit made using the Lay Off rules.

A Player’s use of ‘Lay Off’ may be followed by their removal from the conversation or, in extreme cases, the room or encounter. This exit is considered an OC safety necessity and therefore should not be brought up IC. Players should do their best to ignore exits made using the Lay Off mechanic. 

Alternatively, it may be followed with a short instruction to allow them to continue the scene with appropriate accommodations.

E.g Lay Off…lower your volume, take a step back, change the subject, move away from the loud sparring. 

These requests are considered safety instructions and should be adhered to to the best of your ability. 

If a Player uses this mechanic to disengage from a conversation or topic within the room, please do not attempt to re-engage them with the conversation until you have performed an OC check in on whether that is something they are comfortable doing. 

If the player returns to the room and re-engages the topic themselves, conversation can continue as before. 

This is an OC safety mechanic, please do not use it for IC reasons and avoid using the phrase ‘Lay Off’ in character. 

Combat Mechanics

Body Locations - Each player has five locations, these are the Core (Head and Torso), left arm, left leg, right arm and right leg. A character's endurance rank denotes the number of ‘hit points’ a location has. These hit points determine the amount of damage a location can take before it reaches ‘zero’. Anything that targets either head or chest counts as targeting core.

Heroic Combat - This system uses ‘heroic combat’ that encourages big swings in order to gain the best dramatic effects. Blows that are taken IC are painful and should be role-played as such. Aberddu utilises the One-Second rule, meaning you can only make one damage call a second to encourage dramatic fighting. This does not apply for dual wielding (two weapons at once) as long as the locations the weapons strike are different from each other. 

Combat Safety - All combatants must be checked regularly for fighting safety by a referee or appointed safety marshal. Combatants require special training in addition to basic weapon safety to use the following styles of combat:

Combatants are reminded that this is not a Full Contact system.

Reaching Zero - If a character reaches zero hit points on a limb then that limb is considered useless and this should be role-played until the character has been successfully healed. If a heroic character (player characters and certain enemies are considered heroic) reaches zero hit points on their core they fall to the floor and begin to die, they enter their death count as detailed below.

Death Count / Bleed Count - When a character begins to die as described above they begin their death count. This is usually 5 minutes. During this time it is said that the soul is in the process of leaving the body. The body can still be healed during this time and if this is successful (see section on Healing) the soul will return to the body. A player will be expected to keep count of their own death count under the supervision of a ref or marshal. Should a character’s death count expire before they are sufficiently healed they are said to be dead and should see a ref. Healing them after this will have no effect. Whilst it is possible to bring a soul back from the dead by powerful magical means, these quests are not always available or successful. While on your death count you are still conscious but cannot use any skills, spells, items or potions (unless otherwise stated in their specific descriptions). The only actions you can take are to talk and crawl, this is designed for safety reasons to allow fallen characters to crawl out of the way. There are alternate rules if you are severed on your core. See Severing below. 

Non-Heroic Characters - Most characters and monsters in the world are not as heroic or hardy as player characters and villains, and as such when they hit zero they do not gain a death count. They immediately class as a corpse but can still be healed for a short time, usually around 20 seconds, or until the phys rep has departed.

Healing - After taking damage a character can be healed. There are a number of things that players need to take into account:

Severing - A location is considered to be severed when it has taken twice its hit points in damage. Severing can only be healed within the location’s death count by magical or surgical means. Should this not happen, the limb is considered to be gone and must be regrown. Once severed, a location cannot take any more damage. If severed on your core, you are unable to move or talk as you normally can when on your Death Count, however you can still take a brief stumble/roll to fall outside of combat for safety reasons.

Major Wounds – Sometimes magical healing isn’t enough and a player might need more assistance.

Major wounds appear in the form of cards/paper, which will have mechanical effects on one side and roleplaying effects on the other – both sides of the outisde of the card should be read thoroughly by the injured party.

These cards will also have information folded into the middle. This information can only be accessed by someone who possesses a medical diagnostic skill – either through bind wounds or through magical means. The interior of the card will contain the details of how to fix the wound and what happens if the wound is left untreated. As long as the steps contained within are followed, the wound can be considered healed and the card should be passed back to a referee.

Armour - In order to effectively use armour a character must have the appropriate rank in armour skills and also be wearing a phys-rep suitable to that rank of armour (details of armour ranks are in the weapons skills section). Armour soaks a certain amount of physical and magical damage before being destroyed, as detailed below. Players are reminded that in order for a blow to be soaked by armour, it must actually land on their armour phys-rep. Body parts that are not covered by the phys rep are not protected, regardless of how much of the rest of the location is covered. Armour only stacks with armour of a different type, for example 2 ranks of Magical Armour will stack with 2 ranks of Physical Armour, but if you gained 3 more ranks of magic it would override your 2 ranks.

Physical Armour - The armour given to you by the Armour use skill.

Magical Armour - Acts in the same way as physical armour, except it cannot be repaired using ‘repair armour’ skills.

Natural Armour - Representative of a character’s exceptional natural endurance. A rank of natural armour responds to blows in the same way as a rank of physical armour. Unless otherwise specified, 'through' does not go through natural armour. Natural armour has the advantage that it can be healed by any method that can be used to heal endurance ranks or hit points.

Soaking Damage - Each rank of armour will soak a single damage call, with the exception of  ‘crush’ and special calls. One rank of armour will protect you from a single as well as it will from a quad enchanted. Armour is locational, and therefore only the armour on the location hit by the weapon will take damage from it. For the purposes of magical damage, if a location has armour on it then it is considered that magic will hit the armoured part of that location. 

Magic

The mechanic that allows magic to be used. Each spell has a call consisting of:

As a minimum for casting the spell. Spell calls can be embellished, but they can also be interrupted rendering the spell null and void while still using up the spell points, so it may not be a good idea to embellish too much!

The caster says ‘By the changes light to the eyes save A’.

If the target of the spell possesses the save they reply ‘passed’ or ‘saved’. If they do not possess the save, they should reply ‘failed.’ If the spell targets a group of characters, each target should make their own response.

Vocalisation of Spell Calls - Spell calls are an out of character mechanic that allows targets to know what spells have been cast on them. In character, all the target hears is in a garbled incantation that they do not understand, unless they themselves have the same magic or there are ref. discretion exceptional circumstances e.g. high levels of Mage Lore, long experience with a particular class etc. It is important to note that this means you have no idea what spell class a caster is until they tell you in character. This also means that all spell casters, except Coercers, must be able to speak in character in order to cast their spells. If they are rendered mute, or otherwise prevented from speaking then they are unable to cast.

Sub vocalisation of Spell Calls - Sub vocalisation is a mechanism that allows spells to be cast without the character saying an in character incantation. Only Coercers and extremely high level mages of other classes can do this. Players should note that sub vocalisation does not mean that they don’t have to make out of character spell calls, and although these can be as quiet as they wish they should be audible to the target of the spell. This skill requires a large element of trust and fairness to be exercised by players.

Interrupting a Spell Call - If the caster’s thoughts are disturbed by either a physical blow or a magical effect or spell, a spell call can be interrupted. If a spell call is interrupted, the spell will not work but the spell points will discharge anyway

Dispelling a spell - A caster can dispel his own spells at no additional cost, to do this the caster must say "Dispel [spell name]" at the same range at which the spell can be cast.

Using Saves - Magic casters are sometimes required to call a save as part of their spell call. The save calls have to be random, as a general rule a save deck or running through a word/phrase are the best ways of ensuring that you do not call saves repeatedly. e.g. ‘MANGO’ or ‘MOULDER’ or ‘NECROMANCER BAD GUY’ are good examples of words you could use.

Midnight Rush - The midnight rush is a fantastic phenomenon experienced by all spell casters. At midnight, your spell point total is reset to it's maximum. Spell casters cannot regain spell points above their normal maximum nor can they regain spell points spent permanently during the day. There may also be some other exceptions to what casters can regain. The midnight rush takes place at IC midnight, as announced by the Ref Team and players should wait for this announcement before assuming their spell points have returned.

Saves - Saves represent a character’s ability to resist magic, poisons and other game effects. They are represented by the letters of the alphabet and are called at random. If a character possesses a letter they are said to have ‘passed’ or ‘made’ the save, and will take a lesser effect from the spell, poison or game effect. If they don’t possess a letter they are said to have ‘failed’ the save and take full effect from the spell, poison or game effect. Players should note that 2/3 is seen as maximum immunity, so that a character cannot hold more than 16 saves.

Physical Representation - ‘phys-rep’ - Magical items, armour, potions, poisons, tools and weaponry require a physical representation in order to have an effect. The character must carry or wear the item ‘phys- rep’ in game in order to possess the item and be able to use the item IC. If you are not wearing or carrying the item then neither is your character. Phys-reps do not have to be expensive or complicated and it is a good idea if they are not valuable.