The SpellMaster rules are intentionally simple, so we can all concentrate on
playing the game. Instead of a complex set of rules, we only have a short checklist.
The checklist numbers the important aspects of the game in descending order
of importance. Every roleplay posted by a player that fails either of the
checks can be ignored in part or whole by other players. That means if, for
example, a roleplay breaks the "allow others to play" rule, someone else
can jump into that roleplay at any point of his or her chosing and continue
from there, ignoring the remainder.
- GM intervention
Fail if a GM declares an action void or has posted a limitation on the scene in question.
Example: GMs will often declare a story "out of the timeline" to allow the main game to continue, e.g. if players have a drawn-out conversation that can take weeks in realtime, but would have been over in an hour within the game. In this case, even though the characters are still acting as if they were somewhere and doing something, no new characters can join the scene.
- Story continuity
Fail if something breaks the storyline, introduces inconsistencies or otherwise obviously "can not happen".
Examples: Opening a door in a wall that was earlier described as "having no doors or windows in it". Doing something that has become impossible due to an earlier posting by someone else (e.g. two players picking up the same item - whoever posted first wins).
- Realism
Fail if something is utterly unrealistic, even accounting for magic and a fantasy environment.
Example: Fighting a dozen trained soldiers with bare hands and winning, without using any spells.
- Allow others to play
Fail if something does not give ample chance for others to play as well, especially if they are already present.
Example: Writing one monolithic post about arriving in a city, murdering the king and taking over his successor through mind-control.
Other Example: Writing out a whole scene of conflict, battle and spellcasting, completely ignoring the other three player characters present. It does not matter whether or not they get hurt or even do quite well in the roleplay. The point is that they were not given a chance to do their own actions.
- Drama, fun, interesting things happen
Fail if something is much more boring than the alternative.
Example: Player A says "I hit him". Player B writes an elaborate roleplay about his moves, with lots of dramatic action. Both have posted at almost the same time (see check above). Player B's actions count because they are more interesting. This is especially true for roleplays taking into account instead of simply ignoring other players' actions.
In case of doubt, rule #1 can always be invoked by asking a GM to make a
decision. However, the goal should be to use this option as seldom as
possible.
If a roleplay fails one or more of the checks, the part that does so and
anything that depends on it are void, i.e. never happened.
This is the cooperative/competitive aspect of SpellMaster.
Even though the characters may be fighting against each other, on a
different level the players are trying to tell a story
together.
These two layers, often called IC for "In-Character" and OOC
for "Out-Of-Character" should be kept well seperated.