“An understanding of the will of God is best pursued together with one's community, to avoid misunderstandings and aid cooperation.”
—Datatada, October 168

Sessions of Conviction will be held in an as-yet undetermined location on Tuesday evenings every other week. We will be starting at 19:00, but you may arrive a little earlier, and there will be a briefing before time in.

During sessions you will be live-action roleplaying your character in real time. What this means is that, for the most part, everything that you act out is something that your character is actually doing – that could be chatting, dancing, plotting in a corner or making a proposal.

Props and costume are completely optional, though we encourage you to dress up if you want.

If you know that you're likely to miss a session, please just let us know in advance so that we can plan around your absence and let other players know that you won't be there (though please don't use the Facebook group or mailing lists for this). You'll still be able to email and turnsheet though – don't worry!

Calls are when you say a word or make a small gesture action that has some kind of effect on the game. You may have played games where calls have a mechanical effect – we won't be introducing any of those in Conviction, though we will be using some OC calls which are there to ensure that everyone is on the same page.

Time In: This is used by the GMs to let everyone know that it's now time to drop into character because the session has begun, or to resume after a time freeze.

Time Freeze: This is used by the GMs to interrupt roleplaying so we can describe something going on that we wouldn't be able to adequately act out.

Time Out: This is used by the GMs to let everyone know that it's now time to drop out of character again because the session has ended.

Bang!: Indicates that someone has fired a gun, which will be represented by a prop or finger gun. If for some reason this happens inside the sanctuary, it will of course have no effect.

The OC gesture: Pointing upwards with the index and middle fingers, this is used by players and GMs to show that they are temporarily dropping out of character for whatever reason. This might be, for example, to ask something OC (“Is it alright if I hold your hand?”), to pass through the playing space unimpeded or even for GMs to listen in on secret conversations (though players shouldn't do this!). When someone is doing this, it may indicate that their character is not there, or is there but not doing anything noteworthy, depending on context.

IC violence is not allowed in session. This is both an IC restriction due to the church's miracle of sanctuary, and an OC rule, so that we don't have to worry about representing this safely. (Of course, OC violence isn't allowed either. That's just the law.)

It is possible to pray in session, just like the rest of the time. Unless you're confident that the prayer is something trivial that the person you're praying to won't actually want to know or respond to, please get a GM's attention first.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask any of the GMs out of character. Please bear in mind that they might be busy with someone else. It's also good to remember that we aren't encyclopaedias and might need to consult our notes or another GM before giving you an answer, so it may be a couple of minutes before we're able to answer.