Table of Contents
Life and Death
As combat occurs, a player may take damage from a variety of sources. Damage is called out by the players, and each successful hit will be deducted from your Armor and then your Body Point total. Once you hit zero (0) or lower you drop to the ground and move into the one of the following conditions.
Unconscious: If your total Body Points are reduced to exactly zero (0), you are considered unconscious. You will regain consciousness after one minute and awaken at one (1) Body Point.
While suffering the unconscious condition, you must remain quiet and still, much like you would be if you really were unconscious. If you are knocked unconscious behind cover, you cannot make noises to indicate that you are hidden.
If you wish, you can choose to fail to regain consciousness and eventually die. At zero (0) Body Points, you can make an OOG statement that you are “choosing to die.” Once this decision has been declared, you will be reduced to a negative one (-1) Body Point total and your bleed out count starts. This lets a player choose to not be captured by enemies, but also runs the player the risk of Resurrecting if not found by allies in time.
During the time you are unconscious, you are still subject to ongoing effects. There is also a chance you may take new effects that will continue into consciousness.
Bleeding Out: This condition occurs when you are reduced below zero (0) Body Points. You drop to (-1) negative one and reduce no further. This means you stay at (-1) negative one even if the last blow you took would have caused your Body Point total to go even lower than (-1) negative one. At this Body Point level, you are considered actively dying. If no one reaches you to successfully perform First Aid or give you healing within a (1) one-minute period, you will die. This one-minute period of actively dying is called “bleeding out.”
You can be saved by the First Aid Skill during this time, but the individual performing it must do so uninterrupted for one minute for it to be successful. When an individual begins First Aid on you, your one-minute bleed-out countdown halts – it resumes from the halting point if First Aid is unsuccessful or you receive more damage during the process. First Aid can be attempted again, and will re-freeze your countdown, but as before, another full minute will need to elapse to successfully complete the process. If First Aid is completed successfully, you will be at zero (0) Body Points (unconscious) and will need to pass another minute to regain consciousness without taking damage.
If you are given a healing potion or have healing cast upon you, you will automatically return to a conscious level without the one minute needed during First Aid.
As with the unconscious condition, any Effects that you are under are still active while you are “Bleeding Out.” Also, any Spell Defenses will be used, or “go off,” as you are not conscious to accept any spells through these protectives.
Dead: Once you are reduced to negative one (-1) Body Points, First Aid is not given or is unable to finish, no healing has been granted and your “bleed out” count has reached its end, or you have received a Killing Blow, your character is dead and only a Life spell can reverse your fate.
If you have any active spells, Alchemical substances, and other effects on you, they will immediately disappear upon your death. Amnesia, Enslavement, and Euphoria are the only effects that survive death, and sometimes depending on the situation, a Curse of Transformation, or an Infection. A dead body, whether ally or foe, is still subject to magical and non-magical barriers such as a Ward or Circle of Power and cannot be accessed readily.
Upon your death, a 5-minute Death Countdown begins. This starts immediately at the point of death. During this countdown, you can still be brought back with a Life spell or effect. Despite the use of a Life spell being administered to you, all your active spells, Alchemical substances, and other effects (except those that last through death, as listed above) are lost. If your five-minute Death Countdown passes without receiving a Life spell, then you are considered fully dead and are now a spirit. A spirit can only be brought back to life through a Resurrection.
As a reminder, a Life spell can only be used on the physical representation of the individual needing the spell (I.e. this could be a Monster Body Prop that needs to be revived or the actual person) and not simply a portion of the body without a spirit. If you need a Life spell, and an ally does not have one, they can carry you (following the normal rules for carrying a dead body) to someone who has the spell, but they cannot “remove a limb” and have the spell cast on that limb.
For those looking to destroy a body, it is impossible to destroy a body in 5 minutes. It’s best to wait until the five minute Death Countdown has expired.
Resurrections
Upon your death, you become a spirit. To indicate this, put on a white “OOG” headband, drop your IG belongings at the location of your death (as a spirit cannot carry anything aside from spirit-linked or spirit-locked items), and head to the closest designated Resurrection point. At this location you will register your death, so that the logistics team can be notified post-game to record it on your Character Card.
While you are a spirit, you are not visible or audible to the world around you, and you cannot interact with the people around you. Spirits also are not swift; they can only move as quickly as you can walk.
In most cases a Greater Earth Circle of Power is the standard Resurrection point, and this is where your spirit form will head for the Resurrection process. You are still unable to interact with anyone at this point, and eventually someone that is invested in the Greater Circle of Power will “sense” a presence in the Circle. They will know the identity of the spirit if the spirit was known to them in life, otherwise the spirit will remain an unknown identity. If the person invested in the Circle has the Healing Arts Skill, they can begin the guided Resurrection process. Generally, the Resurrectionist will speak to the spirit over a period of time (10 minutes) to guide the spirit back to the Material Plane. If the spirit chooses to return to their body, it will be fully restored to their body after the 10-minute period.
The identity of the spirit being Resurrected does not need to be known to the Resurrectionist. The Resurrectionist just needs to be invested in the Circle to start the process. If they don’t have Healing Arts, the spirit can be passed to another individual in the Circle that does for completion. If no one is available with Healing Arts, but the Resurrection has been begun, then the spirit can Resurrect on its own after 10 minutes. However, this is considered an unguided Resurrection, and IG is incredibly painful, both physically and emotionally.
When a character is restored to life after a Resurrection, they are clothed only in the basic apparel that fits their mental identity. This cannot include any tagged items, which should have been left where your character perished and turned into a spirit form. Note that some Magic Items might have exceptions where they will reform with a Resurrected character. If you wish to reclaim your IG items beyond this basic clothing, you’ll need to find it IG where it was left (or hope it was picked up by friendly people who will return the items willingly).
After a completed Resurrection, you will be back to your maximum Body Points and all remaining effects on your body will be gone, excluding Euphoria and Curse of Transformation. Lost memories due to Amnesia will not return post-Resurrection. Any lost Skills or spells eligible to be Meditated back are automatically considered successfully Meditated as soon as you Resurrect.
Choosing a Circle
As a spirit, you can reject a specific healer, but by doing so, you will remain in the Circle waiting for another person to perform the Resurrection. Due to being unable to interact with the living people around, you are unable to name a requested person, so you may have to take the next person.
The rejected healer will be aware that the spirit is refusing their guidance but will not know for whom the spirit is waiting for. If you as a spirit want to be Resurrected by a specific person, this is something you should have readily stated to your allies while you are living so that knowledge is out there, that way, the specified individual can be fetched upon your death.
Generally, a spirit will go to the closest Greater Earth Circle of Power for Resurrection but can choose to go to another Circle than the closest one to them if the closest one is deemed hostile. Once Resurrected, you will not know that your spirit chose a different Circle due to it deciding a Circle was hostile. “Hostility” is open to interpretation to you as a spirit and can be defined as enemies in town or enemies near the Circle. As the spirit moves towards what they think is a safe Circle, they can change their mind based on what they see around them and deem it hostile and move to the next closest Greater Earth Circle.
If you choose to Resurrect in a Circle that is OOG, you still need to make sure your death is recorded by a plot or logistics member. They will decide if you need to stay OOG in your white headband for the rest of the game, or just for a length of time equivalent to the travel time from that Circle and your current location.
The Bag of Chance
Each character gets two Resurrections that always succeed. Every death is added to their death total. Once you've used your two guaranteed Resurrections, you have a chance of permanently dying and being unable to return as the character you have been playing. When you are at the Greater Earth Circle to Resurrect, a Marshal or other designated individual will remind you of your Death Count and present you with the Bag of Chance.
The Bag of Chance contains ten stones split between two different colors. One color will represent the number of times you have died beyond the initial two “free” Resurrections; stones of this color are known as Death Stones. The other color will represent the number of potential lives you have left (always making the total number of stones to 10); stones of this color are known as Life Stones. A designated staff member will let you know which color represents what before you draw a stone. You will blindly reach into the bag and pull out one stone. If you pull a Life Stone, your spirit can successfully Resurrect yet again. But, if you pull a Death Stone, you are left with one of three choices:
Permanently die: If you choose this option, your body will reform at its location of death. You, as a player, do not have to stay there for the rest of the game; you may leave a note to indicate to other players that your “permanently dead body” is located there. If you have another character on the books, and that character’s gear, you are welcome to play that character after speaking with logistics for permission. Alternatively, you cCast for the rest of the event. Your Plot team will love having extra help for the event! This character is now no longer playable as it is permanently dead.
Die but create a half-XP character: You may also choose to immediately retire the character as per the following section, “Retiring Your Character” and create a new one at half-XP. This is in addition to having your character permanently die. You cannot turn in any items as they are left where your character died IG. Your body will reform where it died, as mentioned previously.
Have one more life: Lastly, you have the option to keep your character for one final chance at life. You would Resurrect successfully as if you had drawn a Life Stone from the Bag of Chance, but the next time you die, you will permanently die. There will be no option to draw from the Bag again. Your body will reform at the location of death as mentioned above. This is not a death that can be avoided or extended by any means. It is a final death. This means any rituals such as Regenerate, Controlled Spirit Store (Cast only), or Sacrifice. If this option is chosen, you cannot retire your character as mentioned in “Retiring Your Character” nor can you choose the option “Die but create a half-XP character”.
Your character will be aware that this will be your last chance at life, but no others IG will know. The individual performing the Resurrection will only know that the Resurrection was successful. It is then up to the character whether to tell everyone that their next death will be their last.
Retiring Your Character
Eventually you may tire of the character you have been playing or feel like you have reached the end of that character’s story. You also may want to start a new character but do not want to start from the very beginning again. To “retire” a character you have in the database you may do so by contacting your logistics team and abiding by the following conditions:
- Your will receive half the XP (rounded down) of the traded in character to be applied towards a new character.
- Your will receive half the number of recorded deaths (rounded up) of the traded in character to be applied towards the new character.
- All IG items of the traded in character must be turned in as part of retirement. If your character’s retirement is due to a death, the gear must leave the game. If you choose to retire your character for other reasons, as mentioned in the beginning of this section, your character’s items may be kept or given away to friends and allies.
- Your plot team is also willing to work with you off screen to create a fitting retirement story for your character. At this point, even if it is a peaceful retirement, this character will never be able to come back as a Playable Character. You do have the option of allowing your plot team to turn that Character into a Cast if you like, but that is not required.
- You can only turn in one character towards the creation of a new one. You cannot combine multiple characters for trade to gain a higher XP value.