Glossary

Ability

Abilities are things that a single character can do. They will state how long they take and if you need to spend stamina to use them. They all require appropriate roleplaying.

Armour

Armour refers to protective equipment made from padded cloth, leather or metal. Any character can gain 2 hits by wearing any armour that covers their torso. Characters that have bought the Armour skill can benefit from heavier types of armour. Read more..

Armoury

A place where communal phys-reps are stored, often with items available for loan to new players until they buy/make/are given their own.

Background

Even though you may just have invented your character yesterday, supposedly they have been alive for a decade or two and in that time they might have done interesting things which shaped their personality. The more rich and colourful the background, the easier it is to roleplay the character and the more "alive" they become. You should email your background to the refs, or just keep it in your head to apply in-character.

Bleed Time/Bleed Count

Bleed time and bleed count both refer to the time a character must spend dying before becoming terminal. Some rituals and wounds can change this for the better or worse.

Broken

A broken phys-rep is one that doesn't work for its intended purpose any more, like a sword where the handle comes away from the blade. If the weapons checker says your weapon is broken or unsafe, it is; don't sneak it in. A broken rule or character is one that is vastly more powerful than the rest of the system.

Call

A call is a sequence of words that has a special meaning in the game rules. Please see the calls section of the website, where the calls are defined; it is important that a player knows how to react to at least the damage calls and simple effect calls.

Canon

Most LARP groups have an archive of past happenings and plots, which may also supposedly sketch out the history of that universe. This provides a valuable and interesting resource for players writing new plots. Some of this is true, some of it is false, either deliberately or though common mistaken perception. A canon fact is something that be relied upon as true. In general the information on this website can be treated as canon.

Cosh

A cosh is a LARP-safe blunt weapon of 18" or less in length.

Character (PC)

When you LARP you invent a character according to a series of rules and then you pretend to be them. You can have several characters at once (though you can only play one at a time!) but most people prefer to have a main character who they focus on. Your character does not have to be anything like you, even down to gender and species, although many of the most successful characters have been very similar to their players.

Character Party

A group of characters all on the same mission is a character party, often abbreviated to 'party'.

Character Sheet

The skills of your character are recorded on your character sheet, which is also a record of your XP. Character sheets are duplicated - the player has a copy so they can remember what skills they have and update as necessary and the refs have a copy so they know what characters they have in the system and can write plot accordingly. The ref copies of the character sheets are stored electronically, and many players do the same. Please do not feel compelled to publish your character sheet to the other players; this is not compulsory and may be detrimental to your character's health if they are someone particularly nefarious.

Dagger

A dagger is a LARP-safe sharp weapon of 18" or less in length.

Downtime

Downtime is the time that elapses in the gameworld between interactives. As well as any roleplaying that occurs during this time, it is possible to perform certain actions. For more info see Downtime.

Dramatic Hits

An old practice still occasionally found is that very powerful entities on adventures will be statted to 'Dramatic Hits' rather than given a specific number. The ref playing them will judge when they have taken enough damage to kill them, rather than allowing this to be decided by a pre-agreed number. The term 'dramatic' may also be applied to stamina, or any other resource; this means that they run out when it feels right that they should and not before.

Dying

A character is dying if they have lost all of their hits. They can take no IC action other than talking/yelling, they also cannot resist any action done to them. A character ceases dying if they regain hits. After 120 seconds dying a character becomes terminal. Read more...

Flange

A sometimes derogatory term for an item, person, object, or ability not immediately covered by the basic rules, introduced by the refs. One purpose of the call system is to allow the players to react correctly to flange when it occurs, rather than being confused.

God

See the churches and the gods pages.

Hit

Hits, or hit points, represent the amount of physical punishment someone or something can take before becoming dying. Characters may gain more hits by purchasing the Hits skill or the Armour skill.

IC

In Character. Anything which would be perceptible to anyone in the world of No Flag No Country under any circumstances. Whenever you are pretending to be your character, you are IC.

Kit

Your kit is your costume and your personal phys-reps. Most players eventually acquire vast amounts of kit, much of which is slightly yet fundamentally in need of repair. This tends to be a disadvantage of having distinct kit for each character - when they die you are left holding a blood-spattered shirt/pair of elf ears/four litres of blue hair spray with no use to you or anyone else yet with great sentimental value. It gets added to the pile of kit until your partner or mother throws it away in several years. Some of the society members own more than their body weight in kit. Kit can be donated to or borrowed from the armoury at need, but please ask ref permission before doing this.

LARP

Live Role Play or Live Action Role Play. Possibly derived from phonetic pronounciation of "LRP". Also a verb "to LARP", eg: to take part in a LARP event or "to be LARPing".

LARPer

One who LARPs.

LARP-safe

A LARP-safe weapon is one that has been constructed specifically for LARPing.

Linear

A type of adventure where the encounters are laid out along a set route which the characters follow. Usually an NPC "character ref" accompanies them as a member of the character party to ensure they don't stray off course by accident or design.

Long mace

A long mace is a LARP-safe blunt weapon between 36" and 42" in length.

Longsword

A longsword is a LARP-safe sharp weapon between 36" and 42" in length.

Machine-gunning

Machine-gunning, or drumrolling, is forgetting that your light foam/latex weapon (usually a sword) is supposed to simulate a massive iron bar with sharp edges and therefore moving it impossibly fast in combat. No-one is perfect, but if someone accuses you of machine-gunning then you probably are. Machine-gunning is a problem because it is unfair for those who are role-playing well, as if their sword really were heavy, and more importantly because you are far more likely not to pull blows and therefore to hurt people.

Meta-Gaming

The act of using knowledge of a game to influence your actions within the game in a generally unsporting manner. For example: an ignorant alfar character would not necessarily know the finer points of Transmutation, but the player might use that knowledge to solve a puzzle the character wouldn't be able to.

Monster

Person who is not a character but who takes on a role or series of roles (usually decreed by a ref) and interacts with characters to advance/provoke actions. Monsters provide the things which happen to the characters, whether they are fights, plot-dumps, or simply stalling them while the fifteen person team assembles the dragon around the corner. Also a verb "to monster", eg: to be a monster for an event. It is polite to monster at least as often as you character on adventures.

Munchkin

Someone who is more interested in personal power than roleplay - the word comes from a description of the behaviour of 12-year-old D&D players. LARP, as with all roleplaying games, should not be played to win. Specific examples include vastly optimising a character sheet to create unrealistic characters, and using meta-gaming to figure out aspects of plot. "Munchkin" is also the name of a very good card-based game which fully explores the concept in a good-humoured way. Also a verb "to munch", eg: to act like a munchkin.

OOC (OC)

Out Of Character. Anything which is not perceptible to anyone in the world of NFNC. Going OOC is denoted by raising one index finger in the air (visibly and obviously, please), and is in general discouraged in the middle of play except in emergencies.

Phys-rep

A physical representation of an object (these are called "props" in the theatre). Debate exists over whether all props and costume are technically phys-reps, or only "pretend" items. Eg: a latex sword is clearly intended as a physical representation of a metal sword, but is a proper suit of reenactment-quality metal chainmail a "representation" or an actual suit of chain? Regardless of the outcome of this debate, they are all referred to as phys-reps. Communally-owned phys-reps are often stored in an armoury, even if they aren't weapons.

Plot

The story that the characters and refs are telling. Cooperatively. Honest.

Plot Dump

If it is important for the characters to understand and react to the plot, but they are so thick or misguided that they are unable to do so, it may be deemed necessary to use a Plot Dump. This generally involves a meeting with a helpful NPC who explains everything, or happens to possess a vital powerful object which they are willing to give to the characters free of charge. It is possible for a really stubborn character party to require more than one Plot Dump before they get the idea, usually because they killed the first one without giving it a chance to speak. At this point they may find themselves suddenly fixed to the spot by an unknown force while the next one addresses them, or alternatively with words burnt into their arms (depending on how frustrated the ref is feeling by then). It is considered bad form to highlight the need for plot dumps with awkward questions such as "How come a humble border guard knows quite this much about the Queen then?" since one should never ask questions one doesn't really want answered.

Plot Stick

When lots of plot centres on you or when a large and pointed event happens to you then you are being hit with the plot stick. Characters have been known to die from plot-stick attacks, but usually they work it out in the end.

Pulling Blows

LARP is a game, therefore when you fight you are not actually trying to kill (or even slightly damage) each other. So when you are swinging your six-foot polearm at someone (or your tiny dagger), try to inhibit the blow before impact - aim slightly short of the target so you have lost force when you actually connect. Then you will have pulled your blow. Please ask for examples of good and bad blows if you are unsure.

Reanimate

Reanimation: Brief the target “You are now a revenant for this encounter. You have X hits. Mindlessly attack the first target I command.”. Where X is determined by the skill you used to reanimate the target.

Ref

The Ref Team run the NFNC system; they try to provide all the relevant bits of the world not provided by characters. They run interactives, organise linears and answer downtime emails. Refs also come in different flavours: some act as invisible marshals, others may "monster ref" (direct monsters and setting up encounters) or "character ref" (play a character to guide the party) or "story ref" (do all the panicking) on linears.

Revenant

Revenants are mobile bodies that are created by either the Necromancy profession tree or the Corpus mystic tree. For more information see Rules:Revenant.

Rule 7

Do Not Take The Piss. Rule 7 is the foundation of all interpretations of edge cases of the rules.

Short mace

A short mace is a LARP-safe blunt weapon between 18" and 36" in length.

Shortsword

A shortsword is a LARP-safe sharp weapon between 18" and 36" in length.

Strong Boots

If you are planning to run around outside and especially if you are going to fight, you need strong boots. It is strange how "strong boots" is often interpreted as "sandals" or "school shoes" - neither is suitable for LARP and could result in injury. "Strong boots" are also not "white trainers". NFNC is set in a reality where white trainers are glaringly out of place and spoil the illusion which people are trying to sustain. Beware also of interesting "in-character" footwear from charity shops, even if it does look sturdy.

Tank

A Tank is a character who is particularly specialised in one area and/or wears heavy armour. It usually refers to a strong and heavily-armoured fighter with many, many hits and no other skills, hence "tank", but it is allegedly possible to be a Healing Tank also.

Weapons Check

A Weapons Check happens before each LARP event: experienced people look over each weapon and items of large kit going into the event to ensure that they are safe for their intended use and not about to fall apart or injure someone.

Weapons Practice

As the name suggests, a spin-off event for LARP groups which use weapons so that their members can practice safe combat and learn how to pull blows and avoid machine-gunning.

XP

Experience points are earned by adventuring and then spent on new skills for your character to reflect how their abilities improve over time. See character creation for information on how fast a character gains XP, and how to spend it.