In-Game and Out-of-Game

Putting on the badge and coming in-game

• Regular Badges indicate that you are in-game as your normal character.
• Arm Bands indicate that the player is a monster, shade, or other lesser dream. While wearing an arm band, you are not playing your character. You may be given the opportunity to wear an arm-band by a ritual, or spell cast on you after your character dies for the night. Your character will not remember anything that happens to you.
• Orange Arm Bands are special markers which indicate you are playing an NPC. These characters are generally controlled by a local plot team. When you see someone wearing an NPC arm band, you do not recognize them as their normal character. Any knowledge you learn while NPCing cannot be taken in-game.

Disturbing the Dream

People who are not currently playing are seen as "wakes" by the citizens of the Dreaming. These are regular people from the real world who are just having a dream. You can still interact with them. For example, if you're chasing after someone, and you lose track of where they go, you're allowed to ask a wake if they just saw somebody run by.

Characters in the Dreaming do not like to disturb the wakes too much. Our game is played in public, so we must take precautions to ensure we don't draw too much attention or break the law. This is one of the reasons why most Dreaming players don't wear outlandish costumes or get in sword fights inside the mall. If you are in a crowded restaurant, it is probably inappropriate for you to start throwing spells at people.

In-game, certain types of actions cannot be taken if it will disturb reality too much. While you might want to spell down your opponent while he's standing in line at the post office, you cannot do so because it would disturb the dream. Even mindless monsters cannot swing their weapons in contexts where it might offend people, accidentally hit a bystander, or draw police attention.

There are certain ways in which you are encouraged to disturb the dream, such as by raising Lucidity. But for the most part, the Dreaming should remain a relatively private game.

In-Game and Out-of-Game

There are two “states” that someone can be in. You can be in a “dreaming” state (often abbreviated as IG, for in-game), or a “wake” state (often abbreviated as OOG, for out-of-game). To indicate that you are dreaming (and thereby, actively playing the game), wear a game badge. You cannot try to hide or camouflage your badge in any way to conceal whether or not you are Dreaming or Awake. Likewise, you are not allowed to ask people what state they are in – if you can’t see their badge, you can’t tell whether they’re dreams or wakes.

Most people in the world are “wakes” – these are people who are having dreams of living out their lives, and their unconscious minds are wandering the dreaming, doing routine things like going to class, partying, and voting in local elections. Wakes are non-players. They are not “playing”, but they are still a part of the game. For example, if you’re chasing someone and they get away, you can ask nearby wakes if they saw anyone run by.

It is considered good etiquette to act inconspicuously around wakes. See also: Disturbing the Dream

There is little distinction between in-game and out-of-game knowledge. If you hear something while in a wake state, you your character will know that knowledge as well. Even if you are unconscious, if the people who knocked you out are standing nearby and talking, you will still be able to hear what they are saying (although if you are knocked out, your eyes must be closed, so you might not be able to identify them anyway!). No one can force you to ignore something that you see or know, unless it is knowledge you gained while playing an non-player character for the game’s directors.

While you are NPCing, people think of you as portraying a different "waking self". Please do not use this information as your character. Doing so is called meta-gaming and is a form of cheating.

In-Game Items

Some game items have a tag, a slip of paper which describes the item's properties. For example, a magic sword might have a tag which says "Once per day, you can swing this sword for 5 damage".

If the tag describes a physical item, you must have a prop representing that item in order to use it. So the tag alone is not enough to use a magic wand - you must also find a stick or object which fits the description written on the tag. The tag should, if possible, be attached to the prop.

Searching and Stealing

Combat

All weapons in the game must be safe to fight with. We realize this sounds like an oxymoron, but our goal is that no one should get hurt while playing. Though your character may be injured or killed, you (the player) shouldn't suffer the same risk. In order to ensure that all weapons are safe, a safety-marshal must approve them. A safety-marshal is someone appointed by the game’s staff who is familiar with boffer-combat and boffer-construction. A safety-marshal gives the red or green light on whether or not the weapon is safe for combat.

Any character can use a safety-approved “boffer” weapon. Weapons larger than 48 inches are called great weapons. These weapons are larger and require two hands to use. To use a great weapon you must have the skill Martial Training. Martial Training also lets you use a boffer-shield.

To use a sword in your off hand, you must have the skill Florentine Style. One of the weapons must be a short weapon or dagger.

__Weapon Type_________Measurements__

Dagger.....................Up to 24”
Short weapons..............25” – 36”
Long weapons...............37” – 48”
Great weapons..............49” – 56”

If your swing connects with your opponent's body on anywhere except for the hands, head, neck, and groin, the opponent takes a wound. All swings must basically be between 45 and 90 degrees and must be delivered with a safety approved boffer weapon.

It is considered courteous to call "hit" or "ouch" or "got it" after you are hit to let your opponent know that you registered the attack. We encourage you to role play the damage – after all, you just got hit with a sword – maybe you should act like it!

The RP The Damn Effect Rule - If you use up an expendable skill on someone and they don’t role play the effect or call a defensive skill in reply, the skill is not used up. At the very minimum, they have to call “ugh” to indicate to you that they registered the attack.

Any swings of less than 45 degrees, or more than three strikes against the same body part do not count. This is called "machine gunning" or "drum rolling".

You are not allowed to touch your opponent in any way shape or form except for through safety-approved boffer weapons and spell packets. Any type of body contact is called "charging" An opponent is also charging if they are close enough to you so that you can reach out and touch their torso.

We want to emphasize that “boffer sword” fighting is an entirely unique style – it is not trying to emulate what a real sword fight would be like, nor is it trying to be overly-realistic. The emphasis in boffer combat is on speed, skill, and finesse – not strength or landing hits on vital areas.

People who are found to be fighting in an unsafe way will have their right to use weapons removed.

Legal Shots

Calls and Effects

See also: List of Dreaming Calls

Life and Death

All weapons do one wound of damage. People can use certain skills and abilities which may change this – if they call out a game effect or number of damage while they’re swinging, the weapon delivers that game effect or number of damage instead of a wound.

Every character has a certain amount of health. This number represents the number of wounds you can take before you lose consciousness. You cannot take more wounds than you have health. So if you only have 3 health, and you have already taken three wounds, any further blows won’t make you any worse off.

When you have as many wounds as health, you lose consciousness. You must fall down and act like you’re dead. While you’re playing dead, you can’t look around, call out for help, use items or skills, or do anything. If you’re lying in the middle of a battle, you’re allowed to crawl to the side of the battle so you don’t get stepped on.

Once you’ve been knocked unconscious, you will remain knocked-out for five minutes. During this time someone may lay a weapon on your torso and three count a deathblow, deathblow 1, deathblow 2, deathblow 3, on 3 you phase out for a set amount of time as defined by your race. If 5 minutes pass and you do not recieve a deathblow you regain consciousness and are at 1 health.

Dragging Someone

An incapacitated or otherwise immobile character may be dragged. To do this, you must have two free hands (so all in-game items you are holding must be sheathed or dropped). Put a hand on the character's shoulder and say "I drag you". Once the character stands up, you may move at a walking speed with the character. Using any in-game skills or taking damage while dragging causes the dragged character to be dropped.

When you drop a character, he must lie down where you dropped him. If you pick him up again, you have to wait for him to sit down and stand back up.

Cuts in Play

This rule is very important. If someone is hurt out-of-game, call out "Cut!" If you hear someone call "Cut!", you must immediately stop what you're doing and go down to one knee. If you see other people on one knee, they is probably a cut in effect and you should also go down to one knee. When the action is cut, the game is stopped, and everything should freeze. During a cut, you may not be communicating with friends, planning strategy, or fighting.

Cuts can be used to clarify rules or describe a special scene or effect, though this will not happen often. Since calling a Cut stops the game, do not call cuts lightly. They are usually used for emergencies, or to improve the flow of the game.

When the game resumes from a Cut, the person who called the cut will yell "everybody ready? 3-2-1, Action!"