General Rules

This is an OOC document, that explains the general rules of NFNC.

Important: If you have not yet done so, please read the Safety instructions.

Basic Concepts

• Any being in this system has a number of hits, which are lost in the face of physical damage, these are global, so no matter where you are hit you lose hits from the same single total.

• Beings also have a quantity of stamina which fuels their powers and lets them resist mental compulsions.

• Someone with their finger in the air is not present in the game world, and you should ignore them.

• Nothing in this system can silence a being short of death or the DROP call.

• If an object has a blue ribbon on it is magic. If it has a yellow ribbon it is valuable. Any character who sees the item can sense this. Some skills can tell you what the magic is or how much it's worth. Please don't use these colour ribbons on your costume.

Basic Combat Rules

• The Calls page lists all the calls that you might encounter while playing the system.

• Any member of the three playable races can use one melee weapon up to 42” long. These do SINGLE damage. You do not need to call this but may do if you wish to make it clear.

• If you are hit by a melee blow it always removes at least one hit from your total.

• If you are hit by an arrow, it applies the damage call TRIPLE CRUSH STRIKEDOWN to the location it hits.

• While you are fighting you should not aim for the head if any other area is viable.

Player Character Specifics

• A player character that has spent no experience has the following properties:
  • They have 3 global hits
  • They may gain 2 hits by wearing armour that covers their torso
  • They have 0 stamina
  • They earn 32 Ducatto per week.

They also have access to the following two abilities:

Ability - First Aid

Factions like their agents to have at least a bit of first aid training. You can pause another character’s bleed count by placing both hands on them. If neither of you are disturbed for 60 seconds, you may call CURE 1 on the dying character.

Anyone can ask after a few seconds investigation, “OC: Have you lost Hits?” and get a truthful answer.

Ability - Catch Breath

If you are not in a stressful situation you can spend 60 seconds to regain all your PC’s stamina. It should be obvious to everyone that you are regaining your abilities, either because you are fixing your armour, bent over double breathing hard or meditating. You can not shout or run whilst doing this, although you may talk normally.

You may choose to cure any locations ruined by CRUSH and restore all hits while doing this, but you will take a wound from pushing yourself too far, see a ref.

Catch Breath and the Portal

During the interactive, the presence of the portal somehow suppresses the buildup of other power. Because of this, you cannot use Catch Breath to regain your stamina. You can use it to regain hits and locations ruined by CRUSH as normal. The effect covers the whole Portal Camp, you cannot regenerate stamina by going around the corner for 5 minutes.

Dying

If your character reaches 0 hits, you should fall to the floor. Your character is now dying.

A dying character who receives a CURE call ceases to be dying, as they regain hits.

Someone who is dying can neither move under their own power nor take any IC action except talking. A dying character cannot resist any action taken on them.

Terminal

After spending 120 seconds dying, a character becomes terminal. They cannot be saved by any means, and the player may choose when the character dies. A character may only remain terminal until the end of the next interactive. While terminal a character should roleplay being mortally wounded.

A terminal character who receives a CURE call is able to walk but is otherwise treated as dying. If they take any damage, they should fall over until they receive another CURE.

Executions and Wounding

Someone who is not actively resisting can be executed with 10 seconds spent roleplaying delivering an obvious deathblow to the target.

Someone who is not actively resisting can be given a wound instead of completely being executed. This takes 10 seconds

Wounds

If your PC becomes dying, either a ref will come over to you or you should remind a ref at the end of the encounter. You will then receive an appropriate wound card with 8 levels of wounds on it. You start at L1 and go up each time your PC gains a wound. Wounds may also be handed out at ref discretion.

Wounds heal naturally over time, and a PC loses 2 wounds at the end of each interactive.

Wounds may by physical or mental, this has no effect on the skill needed to treat them.

Creating a Character

To create a character you must decide on the following 3 things:

1. A faction membership
2. A background
3. A list of skills

For a description of the mechanics of creating a character see Character Creation Mechanics.

Conversely, for a more in-depth look at the process behind taking a character concept and developing it into a fully fledged character see How to Create a Character.

More Reading

• Armour
• Spells and Strikes
• Magical Items
• Rituals
• Revenant