Sessions

Sessions are in-person 3 hour-long roleplay sessions on Wednesday evenings. For more info, see When and Where.

Players will roleplay their characters during this time - making plans, getting reports from scouts and the seer, and figuring out how best to fight the monsters when night falls.

Between the GMs calling TIME IN and TIME OUT, the room is continuously an in-character roleplay area. Players will be talking and acting as their characters.

We have no costume requirements, but some people enjoy making a costume for their character. Please do not wear shoes with heels over 2 inches.

Players can arrive at the session from 7pm. There will be a GM desk set up at one end of the room (by the stage), with a sign-in sheet.

When you arrive, you are required to sign in on the sheet - ticking the box next to your name. There will also be a GM there to answer any questions you might have, take payment if required, or handle any other matters. This sign-in information is used for fire safety, and to track attendance at OLS events (for determining membership).

Name badges will be available at the sign in desk.

At the end of the session please return your name badge, and sign out on the sheet.

The session will start at 7:30.

At the beginning of session, we'll give a short OC briefing. For the first session¹⁾ this will include an introduction segment where you'll have a chance to introduce both yourself and your character to everyone (including your and your character's name, pronouns, and character's appearance)²⁾. In later briefings, we will do a general question of “does anyone look different this week?” If the results of your turnsheet actions have resulted in noticeable changes to your character's appearance, then raise your hand and we will go around the group for anyone to explain what's changed. This can also be used to let people know that out-of-character changes (e.g. crutches due to an OOC injury, or not wearing a costume if you normally choose to wear one) are not present in-character.

GMs will alternate between playing different NPCs and being out of character. The will be a GM desk where you can come and ask us questions - if everyone is busy you can come and find a GM and ask them a question OC. We will be playing a variety of NPCs in session, but if you want to speak to a particular NPC feel free to ask and we'll accommodate it where we can (though this may not happen for various OC or IC reasons).

Name badges will be available at the GM desk - please take one when signing in, and leave it back at the desk at the end of session. NPCs will also have a name badge.

Usable by anyone:

• Hand held up with two fingers in the air represents that somebody is not currently playing their character. They are speaking OOC and this may represent that nobody is there IC e.g. a GM answering a question. Anybody may use this at any time.
• STOP THE GAME or arms crossed over chest, hands on shoulders: Use this to immediately stop all roleplay. This is to be used for OOC reasons e.g. a medical issue or if player becomes too uncomfortable to continue. This is likely temporary and IC time will be resumed by the call of TIME IN by a GM.

Usable by GMs only:

• TIME IN: The roleplay session has started. Players are by default assumed to be IC unless they hold two fingers in the air.
• TIME FREEZE: Roleplay should stop. This is something happening that is likely to affect everyone, and we are unable to phys-rep it (e.g. the lights have all suddenly gone out). Roleplay will recommence when TIME IN is called. Due to the diruptive nature of this, we will keep this call to a minimum.
• TIME OUT: It's the end of session. Cease roleplay for the evening.

There is no combat in these roleplay sessions. This is a hard OOC rule as we have no system for formally adjudicating combat. Anything that needs a serious physical involvement to resolve (such as capturing someone you dislike) should be done via turnsheets. Because of the OC limitations of the format, we expect an amount of buy-in for the conceit from you as players. For instance, leaving session an hour early won't get you a headstart on what you're doing in your next turnsheet.

We will take photographs in the first couple of sessions for the character biographies. Please see our Privacy Policy. These portraits will be displayed on your bio page, but will only be visible to logged in users (i.e. players and GMs), and the administrator of the wiki servers. You can opt-out of having your portrait displayed, or provide us with an alternative photo, at any time. On request, we will take down any photographs.

After a session, some of us will adjourn to a nearby ice cream parlour. The option to roleplay via emails will be available until the turnsheet submission deadline, which is 23:59 on the Monday after the session.