Uptime / Sessions

Sessions of Princess will be every Tuesday of Trinity Term in Keble College (to be confirmed, see When and Where). Players can arrive from 7:00, and sessions will start at 7.30pm.

The majority of the area for sessions will take place in the main room, which represents a cyber-conference held in virtual reality between the ships of the Fleet across multiple star systems. Your appearance in sessions can therefore mask injuries, as you will appear as your avatar rather than yourself, but will remain true to how you would expect to appear (for instance, you may appear as if you do not have a gaping wound in your chest, but not as if you are a velociraptor).

There are two areas that we have available that will not represent being in the Conference. The first is the Lobby (detailed below), which is an OC area for asking GM questions or being given additional briefs, and the other is an area outside the room we are using where you may be taken by GM instruction (in Session 1, for instance, we will be using this room for photographing characters) – GMs will inform you whether or not to remain IC or OC if outside the main conference.

The Bulletin is a live stream of information displayed throughout the conference. Primarily this will display the identities of everyone who has joined the cyber-conference, including both PCs and NPCs. When the Lobby becomes available before the start of sessions, please make sure you sign in so that your PC appears as present on the Bulletin, and similarly please sign out if you are leaving early.

Please wait while you are connected to the conference… Please wait while you are connected to the conference… Please wait while you are connected to the conference…

The Lobby is an OOC area where you may freely ask GM questions, request to take an action outside of the virtual conference, or may be sent by the GMs for an additional private briefing. The Lobby will be crewed at all times during a session by at least the CAMPO.

There are many reasons you may want to go to the Lobby, but here are a few (not exhaustive) that are likely to come up:

• You have a query about part of the setting or a turnsheet response.
• You wish to make an IC query to your shipboard computer.
• You have taken a DISCONNECT call (please do this if you are leaving session early so that we can update the bulletin board)
• You have suffered an EXECUTE call¹⁾.
• A GM or paper brief has directed you to go to the Lobby.
• You wish to request changes to the information displayed on the Space Map or bulletin board.
• You wish to update the GMs as to your OOC horror blacklist (feel free to do this at any time!)

The Lobby may become busy at times. In such cases, please be patient – GMs are only human, after all!

Throughout session, a variety of OC calls may be used by GMs (and, if you are told so, players). These calls and their effects are listed below. You may roleplay these calls as you see fit, bearing in mind your own safety and the safety of others (e.g, move out of the way if you're FROZEN and someone's about to trip over you!)

• DISCONNECT – Your avatar has left the room. Go to The Lobby immediately. Anyone can call this on themselves while they are in the Conference, and please do so if you are leaving session early so that we can update the Bulletin.
• REND – You are in severe pain for 15s.
• BLIND – Your video feed is broken: you cannot see until UNBLIND is called on you.
• MUTE – Your microphone is broken: others cannot hear you (i.e. you cannot speak) until UNMUTE is called on you.
• FREEZE – Your avatar cannot move until UNFREEZE is called on you.
• RESIST – You do not take the effect of a specified call. It is unlikely you will be able to call RESIST unless told otherwise by a GM.
• CREW OF <SHIPNAME> – Everyone aboard this ship feels the effect of this call. E.g. “CREW OF THE PRINCESS MUTE” prevents anyone on the Princess being able to talk until they are UNMUTED
• EVERYONE – Everyone in the room feels the effect of this call. E.g. “EVERYONE FREEZE” freezes everyone in the room until they are UNFREEZED.
• EXECUTE – You have died. Go to The Lobby where the GMs will assist you in creating a new character, or offer one of an assortment of NPCs or DPCs²⁾ to play.

For completeness's sake, the following calls will only ever be called by the GMs:

• TIME IN – Session has commenced / restarted. Unless otherwise indicated, everything you see or hear is IC.
• TIME FREEZE – This is usually called when something is occurring that cannot be represented in real time. You should stop and listen to the GMs who will describe what is happening before calling “TIME IN” again.
• TIME OUT – Session has ended. Gather to listen to any last notices from the GMs and then head to the pub!

As has been the case in the last few society games, we will be having pohtographs taken of the players, this time in session one. Please contact Joshua if you'd like to supply your own picture. There will be a small flash used in each photo to provide a background to ensure the lighting is consistent, however, if you are sensitive to flash, again please contact Joshua.