Plot
These crafty planners determine the course of the plot and make rulings on those things that Logistics cannot determine by existing precedents and rules. Plot may conscript you to be a monster (see below) or worse.

Logistics
Some staff assist TALAN Plot in tracking characters, creating new ones, determining build costs, distributing tags, and generally improving the overall feel and flow of the game. Logistics also makes rules calls in the absence of a Plot Member.

Laborers
Drudgery never ends. Some staff are actually doing something important to assist in the running of the game, like cooking a meal or cleaning up spell packets (i.e., work). Laborers are considered out of play unless noted otherwise, and should wear a white headband (q.v.) at all times.

Marshals and Narrators
Marshals are those people who have been chosen by Plot and Logistics to be the final authority on one aspect of the TALAN universe. They are not always needed to make decisions about a controversy, as many of the staff already will know the answer. On those special occasions when a decision is needed, one of the following marshals will help you out:

The Monster Marshall runs Monster Town, from where all monsters in the game issue forth. This Marshall is in charge of making sure the monster:player ratio does not become imbalanced, that the monsters are confluent with the current plot lines (as requested by Plot), and that wandering monster encounters are fair and appropriate for the level and types of characters. The Monster Marshal will sometimes conscript players to be specific monster for special adventures or scenarios.

The Class Marshals are masters of a certain class and the rules surrounding. Expect these marshals to know the ins and outs of class-specific skills and the pros and cons of playing a class of the given type.

A Rogue Marshal performs some special functions during the course of a game; anyone wishing to enter the personal in-game dwelling of another character without that character present must first find a Rogue Marshal. All Plot and Narrators are Rogue Marshals. This marshal inspects the cabin notes to determine which belongings in the cabin, tent, etc., are in play and which are real-life things that should not be disturbed. Mostly, this is to prevent privacy violations of people’s real-world belongings, but in some cases, traps and other safeguards might be in place and have repercussions for the would-be burglars.

The Race Marshals keep the race packets, descriptions of what typical (and exceptional) behaviors could be expected of a race. They know the societal norms of a race, its dress customs, usual weapon preferences, and racial bonuses and penalties.

Narrators
They are keepers of order and assistants to Logistcs and Plot. To be chosen as a Narrator, one must be familiar with the rules and have demonstrated a level head under pressure. Narrators help move scenarios along when rules questions occur that do not involve scenario descriptions or plot-affecting decisions. Should a question present itself through the course of play which Plot and Logistics have not addressed thus far, the Marshal (Plot, Logistics, Narrator) on the scene will make a decision that is expected to be followed. In this instance, be aware that the decision made is for that moment only, and that the Rules Committee will discuss it further at some point when they are not running the game. This might result in the decision being changed or completely thrown out, but in the interest of keeping the game moving and out of courtesy to your fellow players, please accept the decision (even if you don’t like it) and await a ruling that has been ruled upon by committee.

Monsters
Someone has to do it. Creatures benevolent and malign, mighty and pitiful, are also doing something important to assist the game, but are in play and considered fair game for the players’ interaction. Monsters will be denoted by colored tabards and sometimes may be wearing makeup. Upon ‘entering reality,’ monsters must announce: “Coming into play one; Coming into play two; Coming into play three”.

Suspending Reality
TALAN makes use of a few visual and audible cues to help your imagination suspend reality and to keep the game safe for everyone:

Visual Cues

Phys Rep
This stands for Physical Representation. If you have a magical sword, ring, necklace, shield, or armor it MUST have a phys rep associated with it. This is as much to protect you, as it is the integrity of the game.

If some one steals you item, you must turn the phys rep over to them till end of game. The phys rep still belongs to you, so it will be returned to you, unless you choose to give it up. I know how much players spend on those phys reps, and would NEVER ask a player to permanently give one up.

This also means if some one steals your magical item, and attempts to use it IP, you can look at them and say “Hey, that’s MINE!!” That is the part about protecting you.

So as a piece of advice, when you get a nice item, get a nice phys rep to go with it.

Colors
TALAN items may be colored to represent different effects of which observers should be aware on sight. For this reason, when making Phys Reps, we ask that you avoid colors EXCEPT GREY or BLACK unless you have permission from Plot:

• Grey or Black are considered normal metals like bronze and steel.
• Silver represents silver or general magic.
• Blue represents ice or ice magic.
• Red represents fire or fire magic; Star Metal.
• White represents light.

Headbands

White – Means “Out Of Play” (OOP). However you must have a real good reason to be OOP, this includes staff members. I will talk more on this below.

Orange – You are “In Play” (IP) but have medical reasons as to why you cannot engage in combat. You can however be “killed” . In order to do this go up to the person wearing the orange headband and simply say “I am killing you.” Never use a weapon or spell packet on an orange headbanded participant.

If you are with a child of toddler age or below you are restricted from attacking and protected from being attacked at all!

Purple – This means the player is in a cloaked state such as invisible, mist form, or invisible to other senses.

Yellow – This means you are in an altered form such as under an Illusion spell or shape-shifted. In this case you do not “see what you see” you should ask this player “What do I see?”

Brown – This means you are IP as a standard towns person. Staff should be in these if they are not running a mod, playing an NPC or otherwise engaged in duties. If you are just wandering about or even narrating you should at least be wearing a brown headband. Costuming can replace this color band.

If for some reason you are OOP and just socializing please be in a brown headband to help with the atmosphere of real living town! You can RP but not in a way against another PC (however if another PC does something blatantly out of bounds or illegal you can roll with it, the best thing to do is to try and “report” it to an appropriate PC or NPC and either get back IP as your character or another “towns person” as reasonably as possible).

Arm Bands or Sashes: This is important! If a monster is wearing some kind of armband or sash this means you are fighting a monster that is ranked as a “Lieutenant” or higher monster. Using skills against these will expend them until hard reset.

Being OOP: There are very few reasons to be OOP during gaming hours. Even fewer protections for being so. If you choose to go OOP, you must inform a Storyteller where your character and his IP items are. There is the possibility you could be tracked via a simple bag pull, at which point the player(s) who tracked your character can freely slay your character and/or take your IP items (assuming they are with your character).

Also if you request to sleep OOP or not to have you cabin entered while sleeping, an intruder can tell his/her Rogue Marshal that he wishes to slay your character and search your cabin without entering, thus avoiding all traps and other non-magical protections. The search will reveal items easily found. If the intruder has the loot skill, his search will reveal even hidden items. A note will be left with your cabin notes advising you to talk to a ST to sort it all out.

If you are sharing a cabin with a minor child you are protected from being rogued.

Monster Town and Monster Tabards
Characters who have been asked to play NPCs or monsters will be wearing either a costume or a colored tabard, obtained from Monster Town, the origin of all monsters. The colors on the tabards are merely to indicate the general color of the creature’s appearance, and do not reflect the colors listing above (but their Phys Reps might). If your character sees a monster, you have the right to ask the out-of-play question, “What do I see?” Both people freeze, as the person playing the monster must now describe the general appearance of the monster, which Plot will have provided to them upon making them monstrous.

Weapons in an X (Phasing)
This person is phased out, invisible, and intangible. Act as if you do not see or hear them. Changing from phased to tangible is an action following the rule of three: “Phasing in(out) one; phasing in(out) two; phasing in(out) three”.

The Rule of Three
If at any time you as a person need to find a way to represent a fair means of something happening gradually or over time (i.e. a monster, a phased creature, cutting someone free). If this happens, state the action three times to represent it happening over time:

Phasing in one; Phasing in two; Phasing in three.
Cutting Ropes one; Cutting Ropes two; Cutting Ropes three.

After the three-count is completed without interruption, the action is successful. If it is interrupted, it must be started again.

Cabin Notes
These are out-of-play indicators of what is inside a cabin or other private space. Players should not read these, as they may include information on the location of valuables, traps, or anything else important to the inhabitants; instead, if they wish to enter a private space, they should find a Rogue Marshal to inspect the cabin notes. Once this is done, the characters may decide how to enter and will find out what is in store for them in play.

Audible Cues
A great many things in the TALAN universe are dependent upon being able to hear audible cues. Please try to pronounce clearly and speak loudly if you must use one, so that everyone in the area knows what is happening. If a cue goes unheard, it can generally be ignored.

Machine-Gunning
When damage or an effect is required to speak in an audible cue repeatedly, but is done so fast you cannot make out what is being said (i.e. a person starts calling “Slaw!” instead of “Six claw!”), damage or any effects may be ignored.

Calling Damage
Comprised of two elements: the Amount of damage, and the type of damage. The amount of damage is just a number, reflective of the weapon’s damage and your proficiency with it. Type is generally normal but may vary. See combat for a description of damage types.

Three normal, three normal, or sixteen fire!

HOLD! and Play on!
Effectively stops the action between two or three people in the immediate vicinity if something dangerous has happened or is likely. Examples include if someone is hurt in reality or falls such that they might hurt themselves. To come back into game, the person who called the HOLD says: “Play on One, Play on Two, Play on Three,” and everyone plays on.

RESIST!, LEADERSHIP!, and similar effects
Some effects must only be stated to activate. If an elf is struck by a sleep spell, she simply says, “Resist!” and it has no effect. Several resistances are listed in racial abilities, and many others follow its example of stating an effect as it happens.

Movement

Normal – Your natural walking speed and gait, whatever that may be. This also includes normal running. If you are moving normally, you can walk, jog, run, and sprint.

Half-Movement – A shuffle or slow walk, or a jog to represent the fastest a character with halved movement may go. Weapon speed is halved for purposes of attacking and blocking.

Slowed – Characters must only move as listed above.

Poisoned or Diseased – Characters must not only move at half speed, but must act injured and uncoordinated, and may not run.

No Movement

Only means you may not move from the spot. Other body parts may be able to move in this state, depending on the effect:

Trapped – This means your right foot is rooted in place where you may pivot upon it. Other limbs are free.

Paralyzed – The complete inability to move. Your body will go limp if lifted, but you cannot move it.

Petrified – People are rigid and unable to even bend. If lifted, you do not change pose.

Sleeping – Characters are asleep, and must be roused.

Rousing Someone – Shake someone using the Rule of Three:
“Shaking you awake one; Shaking you awake two; Shaking you awake three”.

Timing
Some things in the game call for you, the Player, to count to a minute or even five minutes to achieve an end. If this happens and you are alone or affected where others might not be, count using a long word in between (commonly Mississippi) to space out the time. If this happens to a group of people at the same time, designate one person to count for everyone to ensure all finish at the same time.

Health
Every character begins the game with a certain number of hit points or body (used interchangeably throughout this site), which represent the degree of physical damage a being can sustain before going unconscious or dying. The more experience a character acquires from interacting with others, slaying the odd goblin, and solid role-playing (RP), the more hit points they will acquire.

Damage
Damage works on an honor system. If your PC sustains damage from something, you will need to keep track in your head the amount lost. Damage sustained to the feet/ankles, groin, and head is ignored.

Normal Damage
Normal damage is that sustained from an edged weapon. Axes, swords, knives, and spears are all examples of normal damage. The tag line for normal damage is: 4 Normal.

Blunt Damage
Blunt damage is called in the same manner as other damage, and comes from clubs, maces, hammers, and staves.

3 Blunt

Massive Damage
Being struck by an avalanche, blasted by a fireball, or ripped apart by a malevolent whirlwind are all examples of massive damage. It represents damage over a large area, and cannot be dodged.

Other Damage
Virtually any type of effect that can cause damage might be used in TALAN, depending upon the effect. Plot will usually determine what kind of damage is called by an effect:

8 Acid
10 Magic

Some damage has additional effects, such as poison or paralyze damage. In this case, the damage is sustained, and the secondary effect takes place also.

States of Being

Unconscious
If your PC is damaged enough to reduce hit points to zero (0) or less, your PC has lost consciousness. Unconscious characters must drop to at least a squat (you are not expected to lie in mud, etc.) to represent their state. At this time they begin counting to sixty (60), or one minute. Someone with the medicine skill can reset your count by touching you and saying: First Aid and the same skill allows someone to continuously touch you and count to sixty (60) saying: “First aid one; first aid two; etc…”. and bring a character to one (1) hit point and consciousness. A healing spell will bring someone up to the amount healed, and they will become conscious again immediately.

Dead
For some unfortunate reason, if you count to a minute of unconsciousness without your PC being administered first aid or healing, your PC is dead. Begin counting to three hundred (300), or five minutes. If someone finds you, they can save your PC only with the aid of special healing now.

Dissipation
At the end of the last five minutes, your character’s body passes into the realm of Death to return to the cycle. If they are lucky, they travel as a spirit to (use the out of play signal; during this time you do not even perceive the physical plane, except to see gates like) a resurrection (a.k.a. rez) circle, provided there is one nearby. Once resurrected, your PC does not recall the events surrounding the final 30 minutes before losing consciousness. A character may only delay in this spirit form before resurrecting for a maximum of 1 hour.

Resurrection
At resurrection, you will draw from a bag of stones. If your character resurrects, they will have full body and the same abilities (uncast spells, tagged skills, but not spent ones) they had prior to death. This bag, for starting characters, contains the following:

• 9 White stones
• 1 Green stone
• 2 Red stone
• 1 Black stone

If a white stone is drawn, your character is brought back into Castille without any possessions and does not recall the final 30 minutes prior to death.

If a green stone is drawn, your character recalls everything, and is alive.

If you draw a red stone, you still remember nothing, but are now cursed (ask the marshall holding the bag for the nature of the curse), but alive. Plot will counsel you on the nature of the curse when this happens, and you will be expected to role-play the curse in appropriate situations to reflect it.

If you draw a black stone, your character has passed into the final embrace of the plane of Death, and you will need to make a new one.

It is worth noting that each white stone drawn is removed from your total, thereby decreasing the odds of survival each draw. These may be replaced back to the upper limit of 9 by spending Hero Points.

Diseased and Poisoned
When a person becomes diseased or poisoned, unless otherwise specified, the character must move only at half-speed, may not run, and otherwise must act weakened. Typically this is represented by stumbling and coughing while holding one’s side.

Healing
If your PC is lucky or has some friends, they might be able to recover one or more hit points. Damage may not take a character to negative hit points, and healing may not elevate a character’s hit points above their natural total. Healing hit points alone is not sufficient to bring back someone who has reached death but not yet dissipated. Special magic is required to snatch the spirit back from Death’s patient embrace.

Levels
To make this easier to track, Plot has set milestones along the way: Levels. Levels also mark a certain degree of mastery in your character’s particular facet of the world. Many character classes must reach a certain level before gaining class specific skills. Level is strictly an out-of-play term when used to mean experience milestones.

Any character 5th level or below is considered a newbie. Characters who qualify as such may, should they so choose, re-spend their build points (q.v.) to become a different class or race, purchasing entirely new skills in the process. This does not change the in-play knowledge gained through role-playing, but may change the knowledge their character has if new abilities are chosen and old ones lost.