Typically we reserve rules updates of any significance for the winter and the big gap between LARP seasons. We’re making an exception for this update however as it is largely concerned with Downtime rules. In order for people to have time to understand the changes and make informed decisions in the field and when filling in the downtime form, we want to launch these rules before the game after which they will take effect. Holding this update till winter therefore would delay the rules coming into effect by two games, rather than one and so we’re launching them now.
These rules will come into effect at the end of A Season of Sorcery and the downtime period following that game will be processed under this rule set.
Work
We are removing the Guard and Mediate actions and replacing them with the Work action. This is functionally the same as the actions it is replacing but is available to all characters and can be used to describe any paid work that your character might take on between games. This could be guarding, mediating, doing low level work with your crafting or profession skills, or any number of other things. This should allow all characters to get paid in a way that best suits them. By default, this action will only be available in Settlements.
Use Connection
We are officially adding “Use Connection” as a downtime action. This de-facto exists at the moment on the downtime form and we’re just updating the rulebook to include it for clarity.
Take Opportunity
From time to time it becomes possible to take special actions in Downtime based on information learned in Uptime. Currently this is usually handled by telling players to take the Guard action in a particular location. We have found this to be a little bit clumsy and error-prone for the purpose. To replace this we’re introducing a downtime action dedicated to taking special opportunities such as these. For the most part the details of these opportunities must be discovered in the field and to take the action you will need to be at the correct Location and you may need to be able to provide information such as who the NPCs involved are, or its general intent.
The Way of Wisdom
We are changing how player characters can access the Way of Wisdom. The Way was not originally conceived as a pilgrimage that player characters might go on and its current incarnation is the result of a series of ad-hoc decisions in response to player interest. It’s only really available to players who’ve been told by word of mouth how it works and it’s also error-prone in practice. To resolve this we’re adding it to the rulebook as a permanently available Opportunity.
Two special rules will apply to this Opportunity: firstly, each character may only undertake the Way of Wisdom once in their lifetime and secondly, it will take your entire downtime (all four actions) to walk the Way of Wisdom. The opportunity can be taken at any Location and the action is assumed to include travel to the Way of Wisdom. The purpose of these rules is twofold: first to maintain the IC intention of the pilgrimage as something significant as well as difficult and dangerous and secondly, in order to keep the writing burden created by the Way sustainable as the game continues to grow.
We are aware that increasing the number of actions required unfortunately advantages people who’ve already done it. We did discuss a season’s grace on this, but then we would expect a rush of people walking the Way. That would create a very large amount of writing, going against part of why we’re doing this. In an ideal world, this is how the Way would have worked from the start. But the second best time to bring this in is now. We hope you’ll understand, and that the new, clearer Way of Wisdom will be a better experience overall.
Scout
We are making significant changes to how scouting works. In the past we have changed the Scout action to clarify its focus on gathering information about threats that the band may face in uptime, our goal with these changes is to lock in that focus and to create more space for cooperation and coordination around the action. From now on the Scout action will only be available for Ridings to which the band has been ordered to, or from which they have received an offer of employment. When a character takes this action they will contribute to a pool of Scout actions generated by the band for a given Riding that downtime period, before the game every character who took the Scout action will receive a report on the Riding. The amount and detail of information in the report will depend on the number of actions that were dedicated to scouting that Riding.
To support this we are also adding a feat that will give characters access to the threshold of actions needed to uncover all relevant information. In future, job offers or orders from the Réig will come with Scouting Assessment cards that people with the feat may read to gain this information. This feat will also provide access to a new effect that will allow characters to estimate how many enemies are remaining in an encounter.
Actions and Locations
We’re making some adjustments to where actions are available by default. In particular, Regions will no longer have any actions associated with them. Actions will now state more clearly where they are typically available but exceptions to these defaults will exist.
Clarifications
Clarifications and other small changes to rules relating to Downtime.
Up to Date Rules
Please find the revised rules here.