Mechanics

Gameplay Basics

You are a delegate from a faction in a magical post-apocalyptic London, you’ve been brought together by a group of magic zombies run by a ghost hivemind in an attempt to get you all to stop fighting and actually fix things.

Who are you?

You are a person in the world of the Summit. You are not a random schmuck but are a figure of at least some influence within your faction. You are trusted by people to make decisions on their behalf and to argue in favour of them. Nothing you do will be ignored, every decision you make will be noticed and remembered for better or for worse.

Who else is there?

There are two main types of NPC at the Summit. SCRIBES and ADMINISTRATORS. The Administrators are the aforementioned ghost hive mind zombies that are very magical and a bit spooky. They’re the main refs and are there to keep track of magic as well tell you what to do. 

There is one Scribe for each faction. They are people from that faction that have been chosen to record their faction’s actions and also advise them. They have been empowered by the Administrators after making a lot of magical promises. They are there to keep track of resources and will help you if you don’t know what to do.

What will you be doing?

At the summit you will likely be doing three things:

No one can do anything alone at the Summit. No matter how many troops you have or how much magic is at your disposal, the nature of this game requires teamwork. Both within your faction and outside of it too. 

If your faction doesn’t have the resources to fix a crisis, then you had best go to a different faction and find out if they do. Then you need to convince them to help which could require a whole host of promises made which your own faction may not be willing to pay. This is the core of the game, making deals, convincing people with your arguments, persuading someone to turn their back on a different potential ally. Watch, learn, and capitalise on every opportunity.

Go forth, delegates, your people are relying on you.

Miscellaneous Mechanics

Shape-shifting

Some characters can assume a second, entirely non-human form – most notably Lycanthropes into animals, and fae into plants and natural objects. If you wish to do this in play, use a puppet of some sort to represent yourself in this shape.

Violence

This is not a game about fighting, it’s a game about politics.

You are free to roleplay having a punch-up with somebody. It will have no mechanical effect, but you are free to roleplay the aftermath how you wish.

Before doing this, agree with your sparring partner on the outcome. A fight is a prearranged bit of theatre that lets you glower at each other and get an exciting bloody-lip and show how your character behaves when they’re fired up. It doesn’t actually achieve anything useful.

There will probably be social consequences for such actions.

Excursions

There may be opportunities to leave the summit, perhaps to fetch some resource or view evidence first-hand. When this happens, a member of the crew will take you to a separate room, and what happens will be handled in terms of pure narration, like a very simple scene in a ttrpg. Players will have some input into how their characters interact with the excursion, but crew member running the excursion has the final say over its outcome.

There are no mechanics for what happens on an excursion, which is handled purely in terms of narrative back-and-forth, and their outcomes will not be mechanically significant, nor will resolving the plot depend on doing an excursion ‘correctly’. An excursion is a prompt for roleplay, not a lever to affect the plot.

Game Items

If you’re playing a character who knows rituals, you will be provided with a number of Oblation tokens for the event. Oblation tokens only last for one event; please return them to the game team at the end of the event.

Similarly, Omen cards only persist for a single summit; please return any unused cards at the end of the event.

The Leyline Confluence is represented by a jenga tower set up by the game team, and will be clearly marked. Any interaction with it by a player character counts as performing leyline magic.

Some rituals create Artefacts. If you intend to cast these rituals, it’s your responsibility to provide the props for these. The game team will provide you with a small item card for the artefact describing the item and its effects. Unlike Oblation tokens, artefacts persist between sessions; you can take them away with you and return with them at subsequent events.

A Manuscript is a type of Artefact, allowing whoever holds it to cast the named ritual as if they knew it.

Props

Various rituals will require specific props to perform; if you intend to perform those rituals, we suggest providing those props for yourself. Some rituals require the use of alcohol or other intoxicants; note that this is a dry event. Please use a non-alcoholic alternative rather than bringing alcoholic beverages to the event. The game does not use ‘live’ contact combat. As such, there’s no requirement for any weapon props to be foam-and-latex larp weapons, as you will not be striking other participants with them.

Theft

Going into people’s out of character bags or any theft in out of character areas is not allowed. It’s just a crime.

You may take any unattended in-character item save for a closed bag, even if it’s only left unattended briefly.

You are not allowed to take or steal from a closed bag in the IC area. However if a bag is left open you may take something from it, similarly with other unattended items. You may NOT pickpocket other characters. Do not snatch things out of other people’s hands. Any physreps taken MUST be returned at the end of the event. Do not take phones, wallets or medical items, these are all automatically out of character items regardless of where they are obtained. If you take someone’s entire IC bag (which must be open), you must quickly check for any out of character items and return those as promptly as possible – within 10 minutes. You may give these items to the crew to have them return them. If no crew is available, you must do it yourself or through another player.