Travel:
It is very important to “keep track” of where you are if you are using the
IC Board. Many players may not be interacting on the IC Boards in the four
public venues, but when they do, they need to indicate their arrivals and
departures. Characters are subject to the events of whatever venue they are
located in. A bomb goes off? Plague released? You are in trouble. A mission is
botched and you have the opportunity to capitalize on the failures? You just
might be looking at a promotion. Hunting someone down? Easier to find
information and watch the foot-traffic if you are actually “somewhere”.
Looking to escape from someone else? Easier to be where they are not if you can
prove it.
Additional location rules will be coming presently. Sitting in a shuttle in the
middle of nowhere will be universally unfulfilling.
Location:
Your Character may only participate in ONE forum at a time. There are several
venues offered, and a section hidden from plain view which serves as the theatre
for any specific scenarios or campaigns. Your Character cannot be in more than
one place at a time. If you leave one venue, it is considered courteous to
“wrap up” your business there and post your IC departure, whether by taking
to the spacelanes in your own vessel or by booking passage on a freighter. You
receive a vessel and assets from your MasterGroup. No one owns their own
spacecraft, shuttle, speeder, vehicle, or pogo-stick. If the venue is “locked
down” IC and a post of such is made in the venue by the moderator, you will be
confined there, as per a blockade, and may not leave without challenge (and
having access to a ship).
Interaction:
Players may only describe the actions and reactions of their own character. When
doing so, the Player must guard against god-moding their character.
“God-Moding” is, as it sounds, playing your character as though they are in
“god-mode”. Characters are fallible. They cannot know and do everything,
survive anything, and triumph over anyone. A level one character will likely not
survive unprotected re-entry into a planet’s atmosphere, no matter how much
the player desires it. Be reasonable, and do not make the moderators address
your behaviour. God-moding can get you permanently “uninvited” from many,
many “pick up scenarios” that players begin in the venues.
Non-Player Characters (NPCs):
Players may not describe the actions, reactions, or emotions of another
Player’s character. A player may initiate combat, attempt to intimidate, or
act aggressively or defensively toward another Player, but may not describe the
results of their efforts – that is the responsibility of the opposing Player
on whom the actions have been taken. An Imperial Armor Commander may attempt to
force a Rebel Saboteur off the road by describing his own actions, but the Rebel
Saboteur is not automatically going to end up in a ditch – those results will
come through the efforts of the Rebel and the venue moderator.
Players are allowed to incorporate minor or secondary non-player-characters
serving as squad-mates or aides, but the exercise of such must be reasonable.
Receiving a datapad from your secretary or calling up covering fire for your
left flank is one thing, but summoning Rancor cavalry is quite another. The
galaxy is a big place and there are a lot of characters in it – PC and NPC.
Many PCs have units they command or small selections of staff officers, and the
moderators will acknowledge this and guard against any abuse. When necessary, a
moderator may intercede and describe the reactions of a Player’s personal NPCs
– but must direct the NPCs’ actions in accordance with the previous
published posts; an avowedly loyal NPC will not suffer a crisis of faith in
their PC benefactor unless the benefactor is behaving in such a way that
directly contravenes the precepts of the Player’s MasterGroup.
Using the IC Boards:
The first point in using the IC Boards is one of location. A Character may only
participate in one Venue at a time. As the Board offers considerable opportunity
for experience, a Character can only be present in one Scenario at a time since
the game world is persistent; a Character cannot be gambling on Corellia and
studying on Yavin at the same time, or hunting shelter on Hoth while getting
shot on Alderaan… As the IC boards provide data-base affecting opportunities
throughout, this consideration must be upheld.
In order to move from one Venue to another, the easiest way to do so is to, in
the Venue you have been operating in, post a departure: “Joe Smith
communicates with System Traffic Control and moves his freighter out into space.
In a few short minutes, the white lines of hyperspace carry him away.” The
Moderator for the Venue would ratify this with a follow-up post to your
Character’s departure, and you would be free to post an arrival at any other
Venue (or, if relevant, within a Current Event open to you). If the Moderator
does not ratify your Character’s departure, then you do not depart –
“something has gone wrong”, and this may be as simple as a malfunctioning
gasket or as complex as a system blockade. You will have the opportunity to
role-play your address of the situation resultant from whatever has “gone
wrong” (a quick repair or call to the surface for a mechanic, or ignoring the
blockading force’s challenge and attempting to run through it). As the only
thing that can keep you from switching Venues is some element of IC interaction,
all such interactions will grant experience points (unless it kills you).
Further, notification of your departure will signal to the Venue Moderator that
you are to be issued any outstanding experience points.
This rule of access to only one Venue at a time does NOT apply to the
Character-development or training scenarios launched within your own
MasterGroup’s Boards. Characters involved in MasterGroup Current Event
Campaigns and Scenarios on the IC Board are affected.
IC Board Venue Scenarios are not moderated according to any schedule, and may
move as quickly as the participating Characters can post. These scenarios are
expected to be self-regulating. If a situation rises that requires Moderator
intervention, this may lead to a minor delay – and the Moderator will warn of
such in advance. Any experience gained from the events of the Scenario will be
issued by the Moderator after the Scenario has concluded or when a participating
Player has signaled their departure..
Scenario plots are very freeform, but should not take unwarranted liberties with
the game environment or other MasterGroups. A group of Imperials out of Corellia
should not involve themselves in a siege at Ord Mantell without discussion with
their Commanding Officer – or with the officers at Ord Mantell. Check with
your MasterGroup leadership before initiating an event (your commander, your
cell leader, your clan head, or similar).
Current Event Scenarios and Campaigns are established by the MasterGroup, and
represent operations, plots, and efforts undertaken as part of the larger
strategies of the MasterGroup. This may be the conquest of a world, the
development of a new technology, infiltration of a facility, or any number of
other situations. Each Scenario receives a single forum, in which multiple
Threads may be maintained. Commonly, one or two Moderators will oversee the
events of the Scenario and will establish the frequency of the moderations,
which should take place several times a week – time and opportunity
permitting. Only those Players participating in the Scenario will have access to
the forum, though as stated, the Newsnets will summarize (and potentially quote)
Events, and there may be occasion to move the Event into the public eye should
efforts begin attracting considerable attention.
