Betrothals and Betrayals

[Catnip]

The following rules were sent to players of Betrothals and Betrayals:

Betrothals and Betrayals is intended to be a mostly social game, with a minimum of violence. However, if necessary physical conflict should be resolve using paper, scissors, rock. Some characters have special abilities described on their character sheets.

Players will be wearing name tags. The name given in the centre of the name tag is their formal name that should be used by most characters. In the lower corner of the tag is their familiar name. Familiar forms of address should only be used by close friends, family members and lovers.

Invisibility – invisibility is indicated by crossing one’s arms over the chest. If someone is doing this then act as if you can’t see them.

Glamour – some characters have magical abilities known as Glamour powers. To indicate that they are using a glamour power they will state the word “Glamour…” followed by a description of what happens (e.g. “Glamour: you fall asleep”). Note that the “glamour” statement is out of character, so unless the effect is obvious no-one will know that a glamour power was used (except those with special abilities). Glamour effects cast on another character only last for 5 minutes. So in the example above the target of the spell would fall asleep for 5 minutes only.

Meta – if necessary to say something out of character this can be indicated by using the word “meta”. This can either be because you want to do something that would be inappropriate to act out (e.g. “Meta: I hit you”) or to convey information (“Meta: I now have a black eye”).

It has been suggested that making a “T” hand signal is a more common/intuitive way of indicating out-of-character-ness than using the word “meta”. If this is the general consensus then I’m happy to use that mechanic instead. Do people have strong feelings about this?

[AhGoodTheSea]

Making the hand signal is more what I’m used to, but if people would rather use ‘Meta’ that’s OK too.

[Lizifer]

I do the T thing by reflex far too many years of white wolf games…

[Ryan_Paddy]

I’m used to the T symbol and haven’t used Meta.

More often than not when someone does the T symbol at me it’s because they want to discuss something unrelated to the game. It does get used for rules clarifications too. I’ve less often seen it used by one player to tell another player about an in-game effect. But that might be a more common use in MET games, I dunno.

[Catnip]

All the character sheets have been mailed out now. Let me know if you should have received one but haven’t

[JanetLin]

I’m so excited, this looks fantastic!

[JanetLin]

I had a question about magic and stuff in the game. Hopefully this isn’t plot-spoilery or anything.

Is it set in the real (albeit Austenesque) world, or is this an alternate world in which magic and the supernatural are widely known about and practiced? If the latter, is it generally accepted, or are characters who witness an overt Glamour effect, for instance, more likely to freak out about witchcraft and the devil’s handiwork and whatnot?

[Catnip]

[quote=“JanetLin”]I had a question about magic and stuff in the game. Hopefully this isn’t plot-spoilery or anything.

Is it set in the real (albeit Austenesque) world, or is this an alternate world in which magic and the supernatural are widely known about and practiced? If the latter, is it generally accepted, or are characters who witness an overt Glamour effect, for instance, more likely to freak out about witchcraft and the devil’s handiwork and whatnot?[/quote]

The setting is similar to the real world, so magic is not widely known about.

[JanetLin]

Okay, so if/when someone busts out with some wooj, a surprised/confused/other appropriate reaction is warranted. Cool, thanks.

[Ryan_Paddy]

Okay, so if/when someone busts out with some wooj, a surprised/confused/other appropriate reaction is warranted. Cool, thanks.

What’s wooj?

The brief says “unless the effect is obvious no-one will know that a glamour power was used”, so I figure it would have to be something that really can’t be explained in any other way. If someone suddenly fell asleep, I’m guessing any characters not aware of magic would figure that they were either really tired, or perhaps sick, not “under a spell”.

Edit: huh, Urban Dictionary tells me what wooj is. First time that site has ever been useful to me.

[JanetLin]

something that really can’t be explained in any other way.

Exactly. By “wooj” (which means showy magic, and is a fantastic word!) and “overt Glamour effect” I was thinking something like a fireball or a lightning bolt - I don’t even know if Glamour can do these, and suspect they’re unlikely to happen, but you never know - or transfiguring some item into another or altering a person’s appearance or something. Something as mundane as falling asleep or becoming distracted or a door closing in one’s face and just happening to be locked is, indeed, easily enough explained away and unlikely to raise eyebrows.