General Rules

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

If you have read this page, Safety and Calls, you now know enough to play the game.

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 when they are damaged. Hits are global, so no matter where you are hit you lose hits from the same single total.

• Beings may 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 explicit instructions from a Ref.

• If an object has a blue ribbon on it is a Magical Item. 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

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

• Other calls tend to come from Spells that affect you at a distance and Strikes delivered by a melee blow. These will have a Call attached to tell you what happens.
  • The Calls page lists all the calls that you might encounter while playing the system.

• Any character 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 an arrow, it applies the damage call CRUSH to the location it hits.

• You must be familiar with the Safety rules and take care that your blows are controlled. In particular, be careful when aiming for the head and do not aim for an opponent's face.

• You may make a maximum of one call (this includes an implied SINGLE) per second against a given opponent. If a single opponent strikes you more than once a second you take only one of these blows. This does not prevent you taking multiple calls from multiple opponents simultaneously.

Player Characters

• 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 cure any locations ruined by CRUSH and restore all hits, but you will take a wound from pushing yourself too far. 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.

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 with a weapon. Call EXECUTE.

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. Your PC has the the first level of wound on the card, and each subsequent time they become dying, they go up a level.

PCs may also receive wounds at ref discretion. Refs may also hand out extra levels of wounds that have their own cards. For example, your PC is attacked by a poisonous monster. You gain a card with a specific extra wound of "POISONED: Lose 1 Maximum Hit"

A character's wounds heal naturally over time, and a PC loses 2 levels of wounds at the end of each interactive, regardless of whether they were played or not.

Wounds may by physical or spiritual, this has no effect on the skill needed to treat them, it is always the Healing skill.

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

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