Areas

OOG Areas

An OOG Area is simply an area in which game-play does not occur.

At every Knight Realms event, Logistics, bathrooms, and parking lots are OOG Areas. Although the goal of Knight Realms is to keep OOG Areas to a minimum, circumstances may sometimes require that additional areas be designated as OOG; these areas will be announced on the Knight Realms forums and at opening ceremonies before each event.

Default IG Areas

A Default IG Area is any area that is not designated as OOG and is not defined by an Area Note or under the active supervision of a Storyteller or Monster Marshal in the course of running an encounter.

Default IG Areas share the following attributes:

• All doors, windows, furniture, and other features - with the exception of modern appliances (e.g., a refrigerator) – exist IG with no special properties.
• Doors are the only entry point to a building unless a character has skill, spell, ability, or item that allows her to enter by other means.
• Doors, windows, furniture, and other features cannot be moved, modified, or destroyed unless a character has a skill, spell, ability, or item that allows her to do so.
• Doors and windows cannot be bodily secured shut; any attempt to open a door or window that is only secured by someone holding it shut automatically succeeds.
• A door, window, or other feature that is broken IG can be repaired without specific skills or materials. A character must simply spend ten minutes, uninterrupted, role-playing the repair of the broken feature to fix it; a second character can assist in the repair to reduce the work time to five minutes.

Specific IG Areas

A Specific IG Area is an area that is defined by an Area Note or under the active supervision of a Storyteller or Monster Marshal in the course of running an encounter.

Specific IG Areas adhere to the rules for Default IG Areas except where the Area Note or the supervising Storyteller or Monster Marshal describes it otherwise.

Area Notes

An Area Note is an officially printed Knight Realms card that describes any properties of an area that are different from the Default IG Area rules. Any player whose character has the ability to modify an IG area can obtain an Area Note from Logistics upon making a change to an area. The player must fill out the Area Note and secure the signed authorization of a Monster Marshal or Rules Marshal to complete it.

An Area Note is only in effect while displayed on the primary entrance of the area that it defines. The maintenance of an Area Note is the responsibility of the player who obtained it, and in order to receive a free replacement the player must present whatever remains of the original Area Note to the authorizing marshal; if an Area Note is simply lost or destroyed without any legible trace, then the modifications to that area are voided and will have to be recreated in order for a new Area Note to be issued.

The facilities that Knight Realms uses for its events do not have perfectly mirrored buildings and other areas and therefore you cannot be guaranteed that an Area Note valid for one facility will be valid at another. The Director is the final arbiter of what Area Notes can be accommodated at a facility other than the one at which they were issued.

Entering an Area & Supervision

There are two types of areas that you may not enter without specific permission of an inhabitant or the supervision of a Rules Marshal operating OOG. The first is an inhabited but unoccupied cabin or room, and the second is an occupied cabin or room in which the occupants are asleep and you do not intend to awaken them upon entering. The exact permission required to enter one of these areas without a Rules Marshal depends on the circumstance; you must have IG permission to enter IG, or OOG permission to enter OOG, and cannot exceed the extent of the permission that you are given.

Example 1
You want to sneak into Father Lawrence's cabin and steal his prayer book. You need an RM.

Example 2
Father Lawrence asks you to fetch his prayer book from his cabin. You do not need an RM.

Example 3
Father Lawrence asks you to fetch his prayer book from his cabin, and you decide to fetch his chest of gold for yourself while you're at it. You need an RM.

Items

Defining items at Knight Realms is, like defining areas, essential to the smooth progress of game-play. In addition, the rules governing items also seek to protect players from the OOG loss of their belongings.

There are four types of items in the Knight Realms system – OOG Personal Items, OOG Decorative Items, Phys Reps, and IG Items. Each of these types is explained in detail below.

OOG Personal Items

An OOG Personal Item is an item that belongs to the player and is not intended for display or use at a Knight Realms event – for example, a toiletry kit or a baseball cap. OOG Personal Items should be stored OOG according to the Storage rules, below.

OOG Decorative Items

An OOG Decorative Item is an item that belongs to the player and is intended to decorate an area or to be worn as costuming. These items can be stored or displayed IG but do not have any IG properties; they are ineligible for theft by another character.

It is possible that an OOG Decorative item will be mistaken for a Phys Rep, and as long as the mistake is – in the judgment of a Rules Marshal – an honest one and the item was treated according to the rules for Phys Reps, a player will not be punished for inadvertently taking one of these items during an IG theft.

Phys Reps

A Phys Rep (an abbreviation of Physical Representation) is an OOG item that represents an IG Item. A Phys Rep must always have its associated Item Card attached to it, placed beneath it, or – if the item is being carried by a character – carried by the player whose character is bearing it. A Phys Rep should never be more than five feet from its Item Card unless the character that owns the item is not in play at the time.

If the associated Item Card for a Phys Rep is attached to it or placed beneath it, a player can only take the Item Card during an IG theft, unless the Item Card specifies that the Phys Rep must be stolen. Phys Reps can be stolen if the associated Item Cards are not attached to them or placed beneath them when the theft is attempted, or if the Item Card specifies that it must be stolen.

A stolen Phys Rep must be taken to logistics at the earliest practical opportunity. If you know whose item you took, you can ask an RM to get the Item Card for you if it was not with the Phys Rep when you performed the theft. If you don’t know whose item you took, then you can only check in with logistics periodically to see if the owner reclaimed the Phys Rep and surrendered the Item Card.

Logistics maintains a storage bin specifically for stolen Phys Reps. When a Phys Rep is deposited there by a player who has stolen an item, the player will be issued a receipt by the Monster Marshal on duty. When a player wishes to retrieve a Phys Rep that has been stolen from her, she must go to Logistics and present the Item Card to the Monster Marshal on duty. The Monster Marshal will put the Item Card in the bin and return the Phys Rep to its owner. The Item Card will then be given to the player who stole the item the next time that she comes to Logistics and presents her receipt.

IG Items

An IG Item is any item that has IG properties or value. All IG Items must have Phys Reps, with the exception of commodities, alchemical compounds, components, and trinkets.

Storage

The storage of all types of items is regulated by the rules, as described in this section.

Attuned IG Items must always be within five feet of the owner.

Alchemy, components, and trinkets can be pick-pocketed from the pouch or pocket in which their Item Cards are stored if they do not have Phys Reps. If they have Phys Reps, then the location of the Phys Reps must be thieved and the cards - if drawn by an RM after a pick-pocket - will be returned in favor of something else drawn at random.

All IG Items of the PC that you are currently playing must be stored IG and with their Phys Reps collocated with them. You can store or hide them however you want, as long as they are accessible IG. Some items, like alchemy, have specific IG storage rules (for carrying on your person) that must be abided.

All IG Items of a PC that you are not currently playing may be stored OOG, but are IG if not stored OOG.

All OOG Personal Items should be stored OOG.

OOG Personal Items and IG Items of PCs not currently in play can be stored by any of four methods:

• Under plain black fabric
• Inside a container that is labeled “OOG”
• Under a bed or other furniture
• In OOG Area

You can use all four methods to store your OOG Personal Items and IG Items of PCs not currently in play in any combination.

Bedding is IG unless draped in black fabric or labeled “OOG”.

IG and OOG items cannot be stored together in the same container or space. If you place OOG belongings under a bunk in your cabin, for example, then nothing IG can be stored there.

Lighting

Rules for Light Sources at Knight Realms:

1. A light effect produced by an item, spell, prayer, or other ability can be represented by a battery-powered or chemical glow stick with a maximum length of 6".
2. Artificial candles, lanterns, or torches that produce simulated firelight are permitted for IG lighting use; an item card is required for anything larger than a candle.
3. Candles, lanterns, or torches that produce real firelight are permitted for IG use, but are not permitted for use inside of buildings or on porches; an item card is required for anything larger than a candle.
4. Light sources cannot be directed at other players in an attempt to blind them or disrupt night vision.
5. IG light sources must produce diffuse light. Directed light sources (e.g., a flashlight) are prohibited from IG use.
6. Any form of lighting that is not permitted for IG use can only be used by a player who is OOG, and must be doused immediately if an IG scene is taking place in the vicinity of that light source.