Playing the game, day to day: Threads, timeslots, events...
Playing the game, day to day: Threads, timeslots, events...
Game structure
Rolls
Other mechanisms
Events
Re: Play the game, day to day: Threads, timeslots, events...
Day, time, location
The game will be split in IC (In Character) Days. Each IC Day will be equal to three real life days.
Each day will then be split into 7 timeslots: Morning (M), Afternoon (A), Early Evening (EE), Late Evening (LE), Early Night (EN), Midnight (MN), Late Night (LN).
As you can see, slots are absolutely not equal in length. Morning is dawn to zenith, afternoon zenith to sunset, twilight is evenly split between early and late evening, and the night is three slots long. Even by late winter standards, this is a short day and a long night.
This is to accommodate the fact the bulk of the action of a City of Mist game tends to happen at dusk or beyond and thus these moments need more narrative space. Especially as you must keep in mind that:
A character can only be in (at most) one scene each slot.
Since this is a forum-based game, a scene is effectively equal to a thread, and each IC thread must be tagged with a Day, a Timeslot, and a Location.
Here's a more telling example from a previous game. As you can see, each scene happens in a distinct thread, threads are grouped by day (Day 3 in that case), and each thread is indeed tagged with its timeslot and location.
This take on the classical unities is pretty convenient when it comes to avoiding accidental ubiquity, with a character being at two locations at the same time, or confusing chronology, with messiness about whether something happened before something else or not. It still allow for two scenes to happen in parallel, the same day at the same time, in different threads, as long as they don't share characters.
The game will be split in IC (In Character) Days. Each IC Day will be equal to three real life days.
Each day will then be split into 7 timeslots: Morning (M), Afternoon (A), Early Evening (EE), Late Evening (LE), Early Night (EN), Midnight (MN), Late Night (LN).
As you can see, slots are absolutely not equal in length. Morning is dawn to zenith, afternoon zenith to sunset, twilight is evenly split between early and late evening, and the night is three slots long. Even by late winter standards, this is a short day and a long night.
This is to accommodate the fact the bulk of the action of a City of Mist game tends to happen at dusk or beyond and thus these moments need more narrative space. Especially as you must keep in mind that:
A character can only be in (at most) one scene each slot.
Since this is a forum-based game, a scene is effectively equal to a thread, and each IC thread must be tagged with a Day, a Timeslot, and a Location.
Here's a more telling example from a previous game. As you can see, each scene happens in a distinct thread, threads are grouped by day (Day 3 in that case), and each thread is indeed tagged with its timeslot and location.
This take on the classical unities is pretty convenient when it comes to avoiding accidental ubiquity, with a character being at two locations at the same time, or confusing chronology, with messiness about whether something happened before something else or not. It still allow for two scenes to happen in parallel, the same day at the same time, in different threads, as long as they don't share characters.
Re: Play the game, day to day: Threads, timeslots, events...
IC logistics
Travel time will be handwaved. That means a character can do things like hanging in the derelict industrial zone at Early Night and sneaking around in the poshest neighborhood by Midnight without any issue.
The narrative justification for this is that, in the City, there's always a mean to reach your destination quickly. The explanation can be perfectly mundane (there's a bus) or not so much (an alley that's effectively a magical portal between two opposite sides of the City). But there's always a way.
Likewise, no need to dedicate time to sleep. This is considered to happen at some point between scenes, alongside all the biological necessities that require no talking about.
This of course does not prevent players from making scenes where their PC are waiting for the metro, taking a nap, etc, if they wish to do so.
As for money and possessions, players just decide how much their characters have on their bank account and what they do with it depending on their narrative needs. Note however that you cannot buy anything mechanically relevant with that pretend richness.
Travel time will be handwaved. That means a character can do things like hanging in the derelict industrial zone at Early Night and sneaking around in the poshest neighborhood by Midnight without any issue.
The narrative justification for this is that, in the City, there's always a mean to reach your destination quickly. The explanation can be perfectly mundane (there's a bus) or not so much (an alley that's effectively a magical portal between two opposite sides of the City). But there's always a way.
Likewise, no need to dedicate time to sleep. This is considered to happen at some point between scenes, alongside all the biological necessities that require no talking about.
This of course does not prevent players from making scenes where their PC are waiting for the metro, taking a nap, etc, if they wish to do so.
As for money and possessions, players just decide how much their characters have on their bank account and what they do with it depending on their narrative needs. Note however that you cannot buy anything mechanically relevant with that pretend richness.
Re: Play the game, day to day: Threads, timeslots, events...
Threads
You can only create or join threads corresponding to the current IC Day. You can however keep interacting in a thread from a previous day you're already in.
You can create threads freely for the current IC day. As long, of course, as your character is still only in one thread per slot (see above).
As for joining a thread:
Note: Sometimes, a thread starts Open and then evolve in a particular way that make it awkward to show up late, without its title being updated. In case of doubt, always send a PM, better safe than sorry.
You can only create or join threads corresponding to the current IC Day. You can however keep interacting in a thread from a previous day you're already in.
You can create threads freely for the current IC day. As long, of course, as your character is still only in one thread per slot (see above).
As for joining a thread:
- If a thread is tagged Open, you can join it freely.
- If it's tagged Closed, you must ask for permissions from its creator (send them a Private Message).
- In case a thread is not tagged, or tagged in an ambiguous way (Expecting, Ask...), also send a PM.
Note: Sometimes, a thread starts Open and then evolve in a particular way that make it awkward to show up late, without its title being updated. In case of doubt, always send a PM, better safe than sorry.
Re: Play the game, day to day: Threads, timeslots, events...
A reminder about City of Mist rules
Anatomy of a roll
All rolls always consist at least of the following steps:
1. Decide what you want to do.
2. Look at your character sheet for power tags that could help and for weakness tags that could interfere with that plan.
3. Starting at zero, add 1 for each relevant power tag, and subtract 1 for each relevant weakness tag. The total, that can be thus positive, negative, or zero, is called the Power of your roll.
4. Roll 2d6+Power. A result of 10 or more (10+) is always a full success, one from 7 to 9 (7-9) a mixed bag, and 6 or less (6-) means (extra) trouble. In practice, what this represents will depend heavily on circumstances. For example, sometimes the quality of the result will be directly proportional to the Power of the roll, sometimes not.
Status
Often, your character will be affected by one or more status. They're kinda the equivalent of buffs and debuffs, or enchantments and wound penalties, that can be found in other systems: Modifiers that improve or hinder rolls.
When you have status that are relevant to a roll, you add the one with the greatest positive modifier and the one with the lowest negative modifier among them to the result.
This is atop of the Power modifier, and totally independent from it. In particular in the context of this game, it can enable a total modifier greater than the Power cap.
Example:
Tulip is currently drunk-as-hell:-3 and suffering from a minor-concussion:-1. She is trying to avoid getting punched in the face by some angry bar patron.
Her uncanny danger sense and always attentive are relevant to the action, so her Power is 2.
She has no positive status that is relevant here.
Both negative status are possibly relevant, so she applies the worst of them.
The roll would thus be made at 2d6+2-3.
Never powerless
It's absolutely possible to roll with a Power of zero or less, whether because no tag at all applies or because as many or more weakness tags apply.
In that case, the roll happens as normal. However, in case it would be successful, Power will be treated as 1 for the purpose of consequences.
Example:
Tulip is still very drunk, and thinking it's a good idea to punch back the patron.
Should she roll 7 or more, she would be allowed to afflict them with a (negative) status of a tier equal to the Power of the roll.
She has absolutely no relevant tag for that, her Power is thus 0.
She's still drunk, so with a -3 modifier from her status.
The roll is thus 2d6+0-3.
The dice prove generous that night, and she does hit her target. So they just do end up with a tier 1 status, namely bruised:-1, even though the Power was technically zero.
In other words, imagine there's a "or 1, whichever is more" next to each instance of Power when dealing with consequences.
Defensive tags
The target numbers for success (7 for partial, 10 for full) never change. However, the difficulty of a roll can be increased by the opposing party having defensive tags. A door can be reinforced, a thug can be though, etc.
When relevant to the action, defensive tags work exactly as weakness tags, diminishing the Power of the roll by 1 each.
Example:
Now sober, Tulip tries to convince the bar owner none of what happened was her fault.
seemingly harmless and consummate sycophant work in her favor, known liar against her, for a base Power of +1. However, the owner is very much accustomed to liars. Her actual Power is thus +0, for a final roll of 2d6+0.
Additional tags
Similarly, it's possible to have tags representing external elements helping with the roll. For example, a fake ID could help with passing a security check, a crowbar with breaking open a safe, Médor the dog in a face-off with a mean cat, etc.
Mechanically, they work exactly as power tags, limitations included.
Example:
Tulip is en route to jail. She tries to haggle her way out with the police. Luckily, she knows someone in the force, James. With any luck, he'll be able to help out of that mess.
The relevant positive tags here would thus be self-serving luck (power) and James (other), for a total of +2, and a roll of 2d6+2.
Anatomy of a roll
All rolls always consist at least of the following steps:
1. Decide what you want to do.
2. Look at your character sheet for power tags that could help and for weakness tags that could interfere with that plan.
3. Starting at zero, add 1 for each relevant power tag, and subtract 1 for each relevant weakness tag. The total, that can be thus positive, negative, or zero, is called the Power of your roll.
4. Roll 2d6+Power. A result of 10 or more (10+) is always a full success, one from 7 to 9 (7-9) a mixed bag, and 6 or less (6-) means (extra) trouble. In practice, what this represents will depend heavily on circumstances. For example, sometimes the quality of the result will be directly proportional to the Power of the roll, sometimes not.
Status
Often, your character will be affected by one or more status. They're kinda the equivalent of buffs and debuffs, or enchantments and wound penalties, that can be found in other systems: Modifiers that improve or hinder rolls.
When you have status that are relevant to a roll, you add the one with the greatest positive modifier and the one with the lowest negative modifier among them to the result.
This is atop of the Power modifier, and totally independent from it. In particular in the context of this game, it can enable a total modifier greater than the Power cap.
Example:
Tulip is currently drunk-as-hell:-3 and suffering from a minor-concussion:-1. She is trying to avoid getting punched in the face by some angry bar patron.
Her uncanny danger sense and always attentive are relevant to the action, so her Power is 2.
She has no positive status that is relevant here.
Both negative status are possibly relevant, so she applies the worst of them.
The roll would thus be made at 2d6+2-3.
Never powerless
It's absolutely possible to roll with a Power of zero or less, whether because no tag at all applies or because as many or more weakness tags apply.
In that case, the roll happens as normal. However, in case it would be successful, Power will be treated as 1 for the purpose of consequences.
Example:
Tulip is still very drunk, and thinking it's a good idea to punch back the patron.
Should she roll 7 or more, she would be allowed to afflict them with a (negative) status of a tier equal to the Power of the roll.
She has absolutely no relevant tag for that, her Power is thus 0.
She's still drunk, so with a -3 modifier from her status.
The roll is thus 2d6+0-3.
The dice prove generous that night, and she does hit her target. So they just do end up with a tier 1 status, namely bruised:-1, even though the Power was technically zero.
In other words, imagine there's a "or 1, whichever is more" next to each instance of Power when dealing with consequences.
Defensive tags
The target numbers for success (7 for partial, 10 for full) never change. However, the difficulty of a roll can be increased by the opposing party having defensive tags. A door can be reinforced, a thug can be though, etc.
When relevant to the action, defensive tags work exactly as weakness tags, diminishing the Power of the roll by 1 each.
Example:
Now sober, Tulip tries to convince the bar owner none of what happened was her fault.
seemingly harmless and consummate sycophant work in her favor, known liar against her, for a base Power of +1. However, the owner is very much accustomed to liars. Her actual Power is thus +0, for a final roll of 2d6+0.
Additional tags
Similarly, it's possible to have tags representing external elements helping with the roll. For example, a fake ID could help with passing a security check, a crowbar with breaking open a safe, Médor the dog in a face-off with a mean cat, etc.
Mechanically, they work exactly as power tags, limitations included.
Example:
Tulip is en route to jail. She tries to haggle her way out with the police. Luckily, she knows someone in the force, James. With any luck, he'll be able to help out of that mess.
The relevant positive tags here would thus be self-serving luck (power) and James (other), for a total of +2, and a roll of 2d6+2.
Re: Play the game, day to day: Threads, timeslots, events...
Attention and Fade/Crack
Attention and Fade/Crack are the main mechanisms through which characters evolve in City of Mist. Attention can be seen as akin to XP, while Fade/Crack is a sort of respec system.
Note: Fade and Crack are exactly the same thing, except one is for Logos and the other for Mythos. So I'll just group them together all the time.
As per the book: Each time you apply a weakness tag to roll, you also mark an Attention for its Theme.
Additionally: At the end of each IC Day, you can pick one of your Theme and mark a Fade/Crack for it. Just drop a note about that in your Private Forum before the end of said Day for bookkeeping purpose. This is totally optional.
You can use objective criteria for that choice, like marking a Theme that didn't come up at all mechanically through the Day, or follow your feelings that a given Theme just don't match your character anymore and they're slowly drifting away from it.
To avoid sheets changing too much in the middle of the action, which is really hard to keep track of in that format, Attention and Fade/Crack will be buffered until the next Break Day. That means that you keep marking them, even if it would have you go beyond 3, for no effect until that fateful day where they'll all resolve at once.
On Break Day:
For each Theme that has 3 or more Attention, reduce Attention by 3 and gain a new Power Tag of your choice
For each Theme that has 3 or more Fade/Crack, discard it entirely and replace it with a new Theme, with 3 new Power Tags and 1 new Weakness Tag.
For Mirrors, the first Break Day will be Day 5. You'll notice that's also the last Day of the game. Meaning that, at the moment, these changes will only work as a sort of epilogue style character progression or in prevision of a future game where you would reprise that character. Not ideal, but a compromise to keep the complexity of the game under wraps for that first experience with CoM and PBP LARP mixed together.
Sleepers and Avatars won't be playable for these games as of now. Renouncing your last Logos or your last Mythos thus means retiring your character at the end of Break Day. You can have appropriate RP threads to cement that departure on that very Day if you wish.
Attention and Fade/Crack are the main mechanisms through which characters evolve in City of Mist. Attention can be seen as akin to XP, while Fade/Crack is a sort of respec system.
Note: Fade and Crack are exactly the same thing, except one is for Logos and the other for Mythos. So I'll just group them together all the time.
As per the book: Each time you apply a weakness tag to roll, you also mark an Attention for its Theme.
Additionally: At the end of each IC Day, you can pick one of your Theme and mark a Fade/Crack for it. Just drop a note about that in your Private Forum before the end of said Day for bookkeeping purpose. This is totally optional.
You can use objective criteria for that choice, like marking a Theme that didn't come up at all mechanically through the Day, or follow your feelings that a given Theme just don't match your character anymore and they're slowly drifting away from it.
To avoid sheets changing too much in the middle of the action, which is really hard to keep track of in that format, Attention and Fade/Crack will be buffered until the next Break Day. That means that you keep marking them, even if it would have you go beyond 3, for no effect until that fateful day where they'll all resolve at once.
On Break Day:
For each Theme that has 3 or more Attention, reduce Attention by 3 and gain a new Power Tag of your choice
For each Theme that has 3 or more Fade/Crack, discard it entirely and replace it with a new Theme, with 3 new Power Tags and 1 new Weakness Tag.
For Mirrors, the first Break Day will be Day 5. You'll notice that's also the last Day of the game. Meaning that, at the moment, these changes will only work as a sort of epilogue style character progression or in prevision of a future game where you would reprise that character. Not ideal, but a compromise to keep the complexity of the game under wraps for that first experience with CoM and PBP LARP mixed together.
Sleepers and Avatars won't be playable for these games as of now. Renouncing your last Logos or your last Mythos thus means retiring your character at the end of Break Day. You can have appropriate RP threads to cement that departure on that very Day if you wish.
Re: Play the game, day to day: Threads, timeslots, events...
Burning a tag for a hit
The core rules of CoM offers the neat option of burning a tag for a hit, making it unavailable until further notice in exchange of certainty and efficiency for a given roll.
Sadly, I've done the math, and, as the game is designed now, it just doesn't work well with it. Simply not enough dice rolls total per case for the drawback to matter.
Thus I'm introducing the following rule:
You cannot burn tags for a hit.
You may of course still burn tags when the text explicitly offers you to do so, burn tags from dangers with the Changing the Game action during Limited Events, etc. Just not that particular usage.
In ulterior games, it's possible the rules might be relaxed to only restrict from burning tags for a hit during Single-post Events. But, for that first attempt, keeping it simple by disabling the possibility everywhere.
The core rules of CoM offers the neat option of burning a tag for a hit, making it unavailable until further notice in exchange of certainty and efficiency for a given roll.
Sadly, I've done the math, and, as the game is designed now, it just doesn't work well with it. Simply not enough dice rolls total per case for the drawback to matter.
Thus I'm introducing the following rule:
You cannot burn tags for a hit.
You may of course still burn tags when the text explicitly offers you to do so, burn tags from dangers with the Changing the Game action during Limited Events, etc. Just not that particular usage.
In ulterior games, it's possible the rules might be relaxed to only restrict from burning tags for a hit during Single-post Events. But, for that first attempt, keeping it simple by disabling the possibility everywhere.
Re: Play the game, day to day: Threads, timeslots, events...
Single-post events
Single-post events are events designed to fully "run themselves".
The idea is to provide GM-lead content that works well within the context of an asynchronous format involving participants from all around the world with widely different imperatives in term of when they can the play the game and for how long.
In practice, they are somewhat of a mix between a mini choose-your-own-adventure and a writing exercise. The text describes a situation, provides mechanical options (i.e. rolls) for interacting with what's happening, and players then spin their own take on the story from that canvas.
The demo event is an example of such event.
For easier bookkeeping on the GM side, players are only allowed one single post in such event, condensing every IC and OOC elements in one place. However, since interactions are the meat and bone of such games, ways for PC to interact with each other will usually be provided, on the side, in distinct threads.
Special rules
All single-post events rely on the same three golden rules:
Players decide by themselves, without the need for GM approval, which tags, of any kind, they feel should apply to the roll.
Each tag, of any kind, can only be used once per event.
For any given roll, Power is capped at 3.
The first rule is indispensable for players to be able to do the event "all on their own". Their purpose would be completely defeated without it.
The last two are there to encourage players to be clever and use a lot of different tags instead of spamming only a few. And also to avoid huge discrepancies between players using tags very conservatively and players trying to cram them all into every single roll, which in turn allows to more finely tune the whole event balance.
Single-post events are events designed to fully "run themselves".
The idea is to provide GM-lead content that works well within the context of an asynchronous format involving participants from all around the world with widely different imperatives in term of when they can the play the game and for how long.
In practice, they are somewhat of a mix between a mini choose-your-own-adventure and a writing exercise. The text describes a situation, provides mechanical options (i.e. rolls) for interacting with what's happening, and players then spin their own take on the story from that canvas.
The demo event is an example of such event.
For easier bookkeeping on the GM side, players are only allowed one single post in such event, condensing every IC and OOC elements in one place. However, since interactions are the meat and bone of such games, ways for PC to interact with each other will usually be provided, on the side, in distinct threads.
Special rules
All single-post events rely on the same three golden rules:
Players decide by themselves, without the need for GM approval, which tags, of any kind, they feel should apply to the roll.
Each tag, of any kind, can only be used once per event.
For any given roll, Power is capped at 3.
The first rule is indispensable for players to be able to do the event "all on their own". Their purpose would be completely defeated without it.
The last two are there to encourage players to be clever and use a lot of different tags instead of spamming only a few. And also to avoid huge discrepancies between players using tags very conservatively and players trying to cram them all into every single roll, which in turn allows to more finely tune the whole event balance.
Re: Play the game, day to day: Threads, timeslots, events...
Limited events
Limited events are events that are closer to a classic game around a table, with a GM and a small group of PC.
In this specific format, that means:
They are limited to the first 4 players entering them.
Players that couldn't get in get priority on ulterior limited events.
Players are expected to post ghosting instructions in their private forums upon entering them.
Basically, to avoid these events running for too long, PC are expected to act every couple of hours. As it's not possible for players to be always available at such a pace (sleep, work, etc.), GM can ghost their character, i.e. have them roll and act in the absence of their player. Ghosting instructions are indications about what actions they expect their character to take in the event context. In their absence, GM will have the ghosted PC act in the safest and simplest way available.
OOC communication is key
It always is of course. But especially here. Discuss strategy beforehand, through a dedicated thread in the OOC forum, Private Messages, Discord, whatever. Otherwise, things will never flow smoothly enough to stay on schedule.
Each limited event will have their own additional rules and restrictions to keep things manageable, Which rules heavily depend on the kind of events they are. For example, an investigation and a fight are quite different beasts. So always read attentively instructions even if some are repeated from previous events.
In general, they will at least follow the same golden rules as single-post events: Players decide about relevant tags on their own, each tag only usable once each event, Power capped to 3.
The first limited event of Mirrors is planned for Day 2 of the game. Here's an example from a previous game in the meantime.
Limited events are events that are closer to a classic game around a table, with a GM and a small group of PC.
In this specific format, that means:
They are limited to the first 4 players entering them.
Players that couldn't get in get priority on ulterior limited events.
Players are expected to post ghosting instructions in their private forums upon entering them.
Basically, to avoid these events running for too long, PC are expected to act every couple of hours. As it's not possible for players to be always available at such a pace (sleep, work, etc.), GM can ghost their character, i.e. have them roll and act in the absence of their player. Ghosting instructions are indications about what actions they expect their character to take in the event context. In their absence, GM will have the ghosted PC act in the safest and simplest way available.
OOC communication is key
It always is of course. But especially here. Discuss strategy beforehand, through a dedicated thread in the OOC forum, Private Messages, Discord, whatever. Otherwise, things will never flow smoothly enough to stay on schedule.
Each limited event will have their own additional rules and restrictions to keep things manageable, Which rules heavily depend on the kind of events they are. For example, an investigation and a fight are quite different beasts. So always read attentively instructions even if some are repeated from previous events.
In general, they will at least follow the same golden rules as single-post events: Players decide about relevant tags on their own, each tag only usable once each event, Power capped to 3.
The first limited event of Mirrors is planned for Day 2 of the game. Here's an example from a previous game in the meantime.
Re: Play the game, day to day: Threads, timeslots, events...
Rolling in practice
Rolls through the game will be made using the external tool Sakkaku so they can easily be tracked by GM.
During events, you will have access to these handy icons each time you might roll:
They are shortcuts to Sakkaku with most fields preconfigured. You "just" need to add your character name and how much you're rolling, edit the description with your specifics, and hit the Roll button.
Were you to need to roll in other circumstances, you can do so by going to the default blank page, filling all fields yourself. In particular, "Campaign" should be set to City of Mist: Smoke and mirrors so the roll appears among its fellows on that sublist.
Rolls through the game will be made using the external tool Sakkaku so they can easily be tracked by GM.
During events, you will have access to these handy icons each time you might roll:
They are shortcuts to Sakkaku with most fields preconfigured. You "just" need to add your character name and how much you're rolling, edit the description with your specifics, and hit the Roll button.
Were you to need to roll in other circumstances, you can do so by going to the default blank page, filling all fields yourself. In particular, "Campaign" should be set to City of Mist: Smoke and mirrors so the roll appears among its fellows on that sublist.
Re: Play the game, day to day: Threads, timeslots, events...
Communicating with GM
If you need the GM for anything, drop a message in that thread. If it's something private, write about it in your private forum instead, then drop a link to that post in the aforementioned thread.
If you value the GM's sanity, only contact the GM that way. Not through PM, not on Discord, not through passive-aggressiveness (like posting a message in another public location and taking for granted the GM will eventually stumble upon it). Remember, this is an asynchronous format, players outnumber GM twelve to one, answering questions as they come will already be a challenge if they're all piled up in a single location, and just not possible if they start spreading out.
By the way, my personal policy is to mute without thinking about it twice anyone trying to contact me using a different channel during the period of the game proper.
If you need the GM for anything, drop a message in that thread. If it's something private, write about it in your private forum instead, then drop a link to that post in the aforementioned thread.
If you value the GM's sanity, only contact the GM that way. Not through PM, not on Discord, not through passive-aggressiveness (like posting a message in another public location and taking for granted the GM will eventually stumble upon it). Remember, this is an asynchronous format, players outnumber GM twelve to one, answering questions as they come will already be a challenge if they're all piled up in a single location, and just not possible if they start spreading out.
By the way, my personal policy is to mute without thinking about it twice anyone trying to contact me using a different channel during the period of the game proper.