Sanctioned event advice

Overview

This page contains advice and guidance for anyone who is planning to run an Empire sanctioned event. It is a good idea to make sure you read this page carefully if you are planning to run an event, whether it is a straightforward social event or a more detailed plot event. If you're running a plot event, please speak to us as early as possible about your event, once you have an idea for the plot you plan to run, by emailing us at plot@profounddecisions.co.uk. In this initial email you can include an overview of your event idea - a paragraph or two is a good place to start.

Help from Us

• We can provide only limited help
• We cannot provide plot, NPCs, or refs for your event

Although we welcome other live roleplaying groups creating and running their own Empire events, our focus is very much on our own events. Every available resource that we have is spent making our own events better - we don't have spare crew or plot that we can provide for other events.

Any existing Empire refs are welcome to attend your event as a referee if they wish to do so. If they are able to access the Profound Decisions website while at your event then they will be able to perform all the ref functions that they access at events using our tablets.

We don't write plot for other events - all the plot that is created by us is intended for our own events. We will offer sufficient advice and help with your plot to ensure that it can be sanctioned as part of the ongoing Empire.

We can also provide some cards, resources, and ribbons for a sanctioned event that involves a significant degree of combat and peril.

Equality and Diversity

• You must ensure the conduct rules are observed at your event
• Please provide suitable accessibility information for the site you are using

You must take reasonable steps to ensure that the conduct rules are followed by all participants at your event. You should endeavour to deal with any violation of the conduct rules that occurs at your event and then report it to Profound Decisions afterwards.

Please make sure that you provide players with appropriate accessibility information for the site that you are using well in advance of the event. It does not have to be as detailed as the advice on the main PD website, but it should include information for players on ground conditions, parking and camping, and toilets and showers as a minimum.

Game Rules

• By default, all sanctioned events must use the Empire rules
• Any rules changes or variants must be published well in advance of the event
• Game materials used at social or sanctioned events are consumed.

If you want to run an Empire event that is sanctioned by Profound Decisions then by default it must use the official Empire rules. Changing the rules has two potential drawbacks, first it creates confusion for players about the rules and their character's abilities. The rules give the players a basis for understanding their character's abilities and what they can legitimately expect to happen in the setting. More importantly, our events are largely self-reffed, a player applies the rules to their character, so they need clarity about the rules they should follow.

In a LRP game, the rules have powerful implications that help to define the game. For example, stories in a setting in which you can resurrect the dead are fundamentally different to stories in a setting where that is impossible. Every live roleplayer has different views on what their perfect LRP would be - by implication they all have different views on what the perfect rules would be. We don't pretend that the Empire rules are what everyone in LRP would choose, but on aggregate they are what the players who choose to attend Empire events have chosen to play. If you want your players to enjoy your events then it is wise to respect their choices.

Of course it is possible to write in-character elements to your game that subvert the rules. If you don't want your characters' wounds to heal after a few hours of rest, you can force that by setting your event in a region afflicted by a terrible Winter magic curse that prevents it. Choosing what elements of a setting are unusual or different in some way can be part of the creative process of writing plot. But events where the setting causes the rules to work dramatically differently or where the plot appears to have been created purely to subvert the rules will not be sanctioned by us. Many rules are so important that we will not sanction them being subverted under any circumstances. For example, we will never sanction a plot that allows a character to recover after becoming terminal.

If you need to make a change to the rules then you must include full details of the changes in your communication with us when you are getting your event sanctioned. You must also make sure that you take all reasonable steps to ensure that your players are aware of any changes by publishing appropriate details well in advance of the event.

Plot

Scope

The best sanctioned events will use plot with appropriate scope. It is common for plot writers to want their plot to be dramatic and significant, but plot that threatens the existence of the Empire, an Imperial Nation, or even an Imperial territory - are just not workable for a sanctioned event. It's not fair on the Profound Decisions player base if they turn up at their next Profound Decisions event to find that the Marches were ruinously destroyed at a sanctioned event attended by thirty players three weeks earlier. For this reason we won't sanction plots of this kind.

A plot can still be dire in nature, even if its scope is limited. A Varushkan plot that threatens the inhabitants of a Vale, a Navarr plot that risks the destruction of a Terunael ruin, or a Dawnish event set in a ruined keep in the Barrens. These plots can be compelling even though they won't change the course of the world; they don't have to be far-reaching to be dramatic.

• Sanctioned event plot must be shown to Profound Decisions
• Sanctioned events must not create new eternals, paragons, or foreign nations
• You should clearly communicate the style of your event to your players

We will not sanction your event until we have seen a copy of the plot that you plan to run. If you want to run a sanctioned event then you need to submit the outline of any plot which is essential to your event first. As you detail the plot for your event then you can check any significant developments with us as you go to ensure that you are not creating problems. You should submit a final copy of the plot for your event two weeks before the event takes place. Our plot team will check the plot for continuity with our campaign, they may have some suggestions for ways to link things to the plot at the main events.

Sanctioned event plot should be of a level of significance equivalent to a character or group's background. For example, we will not sanction an event in which the players must prevent an evil cultist from performing a ritual to prevent the complete destruction of the League city of Sarvos. In particular, this means that you cannot create new eternals, paragons, or foreign nations as part of your plot. If your plot requires some unique element of this kind, then you should employ a less significant equivalent - such as a herald or exemplar.

In general the sort of things that it is appropriate for players to create for their background; a Marcher Household, a Highguard exemplar, or a Dawnish questing knight are the sort of elements that you can create when writing plot for a sanctioned event. If you must use something more powerful - like an eternal - then you must use one of the existing options defined on the wiki.

The Empire wiki defines a set of plot guidelines which are well worth reading if you intend to create a sanctioned event. These are the style guidelines we encourage all our writers to use when creating plot for our events. Our goal is to create a distinct style for our events so that our players know what to expect. By default, many Empire players will assume that if you are running an Empire event then it will be in the style of other Empire events. Your event should reflect the style of game you want to run - but please respect the Empire player base by communicating clearly the style of game that you are creating.

Divination

• Empire includes a number of divination rituals like Signs and Portents which you can chose to support
• You must support divination rituals like Hand of the Maker or An Echo of Life Remains correctly if they are cast
• You cannot support any territory wide divination rituals such as Eyes of the High Places

Optional Rituals

• Clear Lens of the Eternal River
• Shadowed Glass of Sung
• Signs and Portents

Mandatory Rituals

• An Echo of Life Remains
• Bright Lantern of Ophis,
• Hakima's Glass
• Hand of the Maker
• Skein of Years
• Ties that Bind
• Wisdom of the Balanced Blade

Invalid Rituals

• Dreams in the Witch House
• Eye of the High Places
• Eyes of the Sun and Moon

Empire includes a number of divination rituals such as Signs and Portents, Shadowed Glass of Sung and Clear Lens of the Eternal River which players can perform to gain cryptic information. If you wish to support these rituals to enhance your event, then you must submit any responses to them as part of your plot sanctioning document. If you don't want to support these rituals, you should let players know that they won't gain any useful information by casting them at your event.

There are also a set of rituals that are cast on people or items that provide useful information, such as Wisdom of the Balanced Blade. These are classed as mandatory rituals in the sense that you must provide a valid response to these rituals. If a character casts Wisdom of the Balanced Blade on an item that is cursed, then you must give them details of any curse that is present if you know of them. You should consider the implications of this carefully when creating any plot for your event; we will endeavour to point this out when we are sanctioning your plot if we notice them.

Some mandatory divinations are deliberately open ended - for example What information is there about significant events the item has been present at? from Skein of Years or Were there any special circumstances involved in its crafting? from Hand of the Maker. If you have an item at your event that has valuable information that would reasonably answer this question then wherever possible you must be prepared to provide that information. It is fine for the answers to these questions to be "nothing" or "no" if there is no information - it is better to have no information available rather than give out information that is irrelevant. The divination function of detect magic is specifically designed to manage player expectations as to whether there is useful information to be gained by performing one of these rituals.

If a character casts a mandatory divination ritual on a ribboned item from another event, then you can only provide a response if there is a referee present who has access to the PD website. If there is no referee present, then you can either inform the player that their ritual fails and give them their mana back, or they can submit the ritual to Profound Decisions after the event and we will give them the appropriate response.

Empire also includes a small number of territory wide divination rituals such as Eye of the High Places which you cannot support. There is no consistent way in which you can provide a response to these rituals at a sanctioned event, so you must not try.

Communication Magic

• Empire includes a number of rituals such as Call Winged Messenger that are intended to communicate with the wider game world
• Rituals at sanctioned events cannot be used to communicate with Profound Decisions NPCs
• You can choose to support those rituals being used to speak to local NPCs as part of a plot but should discuss it with PD

Several rituals - such as Call Winged Messenger or Swim Leviathan's Depth - allow characters to communicate with off-stage characters. These rituals cannot be used at a sanctioned event to communicate with characters in the wider game world; you cannot for example send a message to Lady Madrianna of the Blue Stones, the Asavean minister who deals with the Empire. These rituals must be cast at Empire main events. Likewise, Swim Leviathan's Depths, Combing the Beach, Whispering Shadow Courtiers, Missive for Sadogua, and Clear Counsel of the Everflowing River are used to communicate with eternals and so cannot have their usual effect at a sanctioned event. Attempts to cast these rituals at a social or plot event will fail, and the mana should be returned to the ritual casters.

It is possible, however, to create plot where these rituals can be used to achieve certain goals within the event. A Winged Messenger might be the method to let a local earl know that a danger has passed, for example. A plot involving a riddle for which Sadogua is revealed to have a clue might use his Missive ritual as a way to gain access to that information. If you want to use a ritual in this way at an event, you should detail it in your plot submission.

Regio

• Be cautious about including a regio at your event.

Regio represent magical locations where the power of the Realms intrudes on the mortal world. They are fine to include in your sanctioned event, but with some caveats. We won't sanction an event that includes a powerful regio that allows players to perform territory or empire-affecting rituals such as Winter's Ghosts or Hallow of the Green World. Regio at sanctioned events should be there to provide interesting story opportunities or roleplaying effects. Perhaps a regio is contested between two eternals and heralds will try to recruit players to skew the conflict in one direction or the other, for example.

A regio can have a mechanical effect, provided that effect makes sense and is relevant to your plot, but you should keep the scope limited. For example, a Night regio that makes it a little easier to cast The Twilight Masquerade by granting a bonus rank to ritualists is more likely to be sanctioned.

Resources and items

• Perilous combat events are eligible to receive a small number of resources
• We don't provide resources for events that do not contain any peril

We expect players who are attending an Empire event that includes significant amounts of perilous combat to expend some herbs, mana crystals, and liao during the course of your event. Therefore it is appropriate for such events to include a small amount of resources that the players can acquire during the course of the event. We will review the plot for your event and decide how many resources are appropriate based on the number of players that you have booked. We won't provide any cards or items for an event that does not include any peril, even if it contains combat such as a tourney or similar.

Although the players expend herbs, liao and mana crystals, it is possible for a combat event to include anything of value in the Empire world - money, magical items, materials or even resources. If you require specific resources then make sure you request them well in advance of your event. If your event requires a magical item then you should use one of the magic items listed on the Empire wiki. If your event simply must include some unique magical item then you can request this. We will need a very clear definition of the item's power as early as possible to consider whether we will allow it.

Once the items and resources for your event are agreed, then we will arrange to have the cards, phys-reps and item ribbons shipped to you. Please make sure that any game items have an official Empire item ribbon attached to them before the game starts.

Further Reading

• Sanctioned events
• Advice for organizers
• Imperial law at sanctioned events