SYSX 2017-05-03T10:08:08+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/262025897226199 SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2017-04-03T12:59:26+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/1226336914128421 +++ Petards of Combat: Endgame 3/3 +++ Part 1: https://www.facebook.com/idlespeculation/posts/1222420887853357 Part 2: https://www.facebook.com/idlespeculation/posts/1224362634325849 Part 3: Three days before the Summit, everything changed again. About ten years ago, a crack ritualist team were trapped between realms by the Conclave for a crime they didn't commit. These mages promptly escaped by dealing with an eternal into the Idyll Empire underground. Today, still wanted by the Empire, they survive as ritualists of fortune. If you have a problem, if nobody can help, and if you have their Helioptican number, you can hire: The Mage Team. Perhaps it's for the best that nobody can find out who hired them. For this kind of operation, the price must have been hundreds of Thrones. Nobody's been able to find the Mage Team since, and they might have retired. Or died. That last seems unlikely... A Conclave Minute is defined as the amount of time between a Wizard speaking outside his time and the rest of the council shouting "MANA", it's known as the shortest time in the Empire. This is incorrect, the shortest amount of time in the empire is between attempting to bind thaumatic mana of each of the realms together and the resulting explosion. We can't tell exactly what happened, but we know how these rituals generally work, so a dramatic reconstruction: With the armies on the march, and the True Throne ensconced in the Ivy Ory Tower, it's not hard for the Mage Team to make it to the mighty oak in the middle. They slip through the patrols and set up their paraphernalia by the tree. They begin. The mana of the realm of Bakeron is sticky and semi-solid. It glistens strange colours in the moonlight. Mages of the Bakeron will say it tastes like pure sugar, but that eating it is invariably fatal. The mana of the realm of Porcine is streaked with red and white, and toasts to a delicious aroma. Sliced as it is from the flanks of the eternals of that realm, it is - somewhat ironically - entirely vegan, as the masters of magic are happy to sacrifice it if you're going to use their power... The mana of the Darkrobe absorbs all light, and whispers to the holder of a secret party in the woods. The party is eternal and must be popular, nobody's come back from it yet. The mana of Pau'FizzRope is a plastic pool ball, but you should pretend that it's mana, it will look better later on. They stand at the corners of a square, and they chant the chant of the ritualist. The words don't matter, the actions are unimportant, but they call upon the powers they need, and they act for five minutes of appropriate roleplay. The ritual doesn't really matter at all, because it isn't the point of the exercise. The point of the exercise is when all four ritualists bind together the mana they are holding, backing to the edge of the circle, and then finally letting the spell fuse together and immediately stepping back into the portals behind them. It's not quite quick enough, as they are blown back through them with a powerful blast. The portals instantly close behind them, and so they miss the explosion. There's very little left. The explosion itself was enough to destroy the centre tree and most of the armies around it, an enormous crater where once the forest stood. But as we said, things are weaker here. Things are easier here. Things are unguarded here. The centre cannot hold. Weakened by the blades of the Origin, torn by their armies, and now ruptured by an explosion of unimaginable size, reality gives way. The lands around the centre fracture and bend, black space surrounding islands of trees, towns, farms. The Summit point of Forge is blown clear away, its own green island of reality far from any other. Lands outside the original blast radius get off better, slightly. Large cracks sheer across the landscape, within them only darkness and stars. Former day trips are rendered week long journeys. In some places swirling wells of sparkling starlight appear, and the citizens of the Empire discover by experimentation and accident that these lead to other places in the land, connecting counties. Quick enough for single travel or trade, but no mechanism for army movement. Further away the lands remain integral, but shrapnel from the centre flies far, and the strange unreality of the lands affected by the explosion continues far into the edges of the Empire. From new floating islands far above, to shards of land embedded vertically, keeping their own gravity, but creating a new sideways landscape that blocks out the sun around it. Finally, and a week later, just as the changes are starting to become the new normal, the new sun rises. A greener glow than the yellow sun of space, it rises slower and stays longer, each day seven of the old, each night fourteen. Quickly, the citizens learn to avoid the glare of the green sun, the burning of the skin, the loss of the mind. Animals are slower to adapt, and travel becomes more dangerous. Suddenly living behind the new sunshade of a shard of the old land becomes less of a problem. The Origin seem used to this new terror, moving only by green-night and recognising the new order with a resignation borne of familiarity. The floating lands of Forge still contain the Horsey Archway, and it still will only let true-blood citizenry in from nearly anywhere in the Idyll Empire, so it becomes a de-facto new home base for the government in exile. The next summit is during green-night, as all future summits will be scheduled to be for as long as this crisis lasts. It is time for the remaining citizens to come to order, and claim you're always right. Welcome to Idle Speculation: Aftermath. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2017-04-01T15:09:54+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/1224443497651096 SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2017-04-01T15:09:05+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/1224442537651192 SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2017-04-01T13:40:52+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/1224362634325849 +++ Petards of Combat: Endgame 2/3 +++ Part 1: https://www.facebook.com/idlespeculation/posts/1222420887853357 Part 2: They poured from the centre like a volcano, the first five armies heading out less than a day after they'd come through the portal, another ten arriving over the week. The first few weeks were easy. All the armies of the Idyll Empire were at the fronts against the invading menaces, and it was nearly a fortnight until someone from a central province got a runner out to say what had happened. By the time the Generals and Impress knew what was going on, Forge was lost, and the lands around it falling fast. The Phucain Wizards worked fast to put together a portal network to allow the Idyll Empire a council of war. Their shadows all appeared in the grand council room in the Ivy Ory Tower, the generals, the remaining senators, the Impress, the other title holders, and the scout who brought the first reports. She spoke first: "First, they take the roads. They put obvious patrols around the roads out of the territory, and then they take another patrol into town to speak to whoever is in charge. The general of the invading army then tells them they can either be occupied, or they can fight. Those who fight, die. Those who agree, live. There's a bounty for anyone who reports a secret resistance, and if you are reported - whether you did it or not - you die. They're not savage, they're not barbarian. They're polite, honest, and absolutely ruthless." "How did you get out?" "Most of my unit were killed sneaking out after dark. I was the only one left. So I walked out in broad daylight, explained I was coming to find you and tell you they were coming. They let me through, and gave me a sword because I didn't look armed." "Is the resistance going well?" asked the Impress "Not... really. It only takes one greedy person to destroy the whole thing. Plus, since they basically decapitate each territory and leave the rest of it standing - taxes, maintenance, it's all keeping going - most of the citizenry barely notice, let alone object." "It's like they don't actually care about you at all", the lady calling herself the True Throne spoke from the door. Her armour was scuffed, her sword red, and her tattoos blotched with the blood of those who resisted. "Your civil servants were more loyal than most", she continued. "But I think I've kept enough to continue as before. A few have asked to stay with you, I'd imagine you'll see them arrived soon. Some fought. I believe your religion says you'll see them later on." "What do you want?" asked the Impress. "This" said the True Throne, gesturing around her. "Your Empire. Mine, now. It was ours long ago, and will be again. There's nothing you can do." She left. She was right. None of the armies could disengage from the battles they were in. A couple of armies that were resupplying marched were they could, but in their half-formed state didn't put up much of a resistance. By the time the armies of the Origin reached those of the Idyll Empire, the former were battered and bruised, their supply lines cut off, their morale in tatters. When the armies of the Origin offered recruitment, many did not make the loyal choice. In a single corner of the once great Idlyll Empire, the Impress remains. Those who were loyal are with her, some few remaining Civil Servants, and the senators who fled. ---------------------------------------- So, how's that for a Petard of Combat, then?! Game over. You've lost the empire, sorry about that. Refunds for future events will.... HA HA HA! APRIL FOOLS! I mean, that still all happened. But we're going to run the event, it's just going to be a bit different. Keeping a full bureaucracy running was an arse, to be frank, and everyone just said they wanted to stand around and role-play and occasionally fight things. So now, Idle Speculation: The Resistance begins with the new event. Anyone who was playing a general, you'll need to meet outside GOD at time in, there's some choices to be made and possibly a hard time-in scenario. The rest of you, we'll be detailing the changes over the coming weeks. Plus, there's one more PoC to go... SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2017-03-30T15:48:36+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/1222420887853357 +++ Petards of Combat: Endgame 1/3 +++ This is the Evergreen Forest. Quiet, peaceful, serene. This is the centre of the Idyll Empire. Not the heart - that lies nearby in the currently empty fields of the Forge - nor the head - which is probably the Civil Service's grand Headquarters in the Ivy Ory Tower. But this is the geographic centre, worked out by the mages of the Wizards Council as the exact point where, if you balanced the entire Empire on a pin, this is what would be over the pin. Exactly, precisely, dead centre of the Idyll Empire is an old tree, grown huge by the substance of centuries. It dwarfs the trees around it, despite there being no dwarves in this setting, its leaves prevent anything growing within many metres, and its roots are suspected to spread for miles. Every year, the new class of Phucain Wizards set to serve the Empire are brought here to remind them. Nobody's sure to remind them of what, exactly. The knowledge was lost with the rule of Adidas the Constant, decalenia ago. Because we know that, metaphysically, the Empire sits at the cross-roads of eternity and infinity, hosting the Pelican Crossing of time and the stop lights of inter-dimensional communication. And this is the middle of the Empire, the dead - as it were - centre. Things are weaker here. Things are easier here. Things are unguarded here. The centre cannot hold. There is nothing behind where the blade comes from, but it seems to come from within the oak, out into the world. It slices the reality around it, travelling up to leave an inky black rip in the fabric of the world, and then back down again, carving the material plane with a sound like a single nail travelling down a taut violin string. The blade that is emerging from beyond nothing glows dark and red, sparking off violently where the blade carves into our world, and as it reaches the cold grass it shifts right, keening along the ground and then back up again, and then back to its origin point. A section of the world falls away into a swirling starry darkness, a black silhouette in front of it. The figure that steps out appears female, and human. tattooed with flowing liquid dark red shapes of spirals and curves, which intersect with dark green patterns all spikes and angles. A dark red, curved sword in one hand, a bloodstained round shield in the other, she looks about for signs of anyone else. Seeing none, she shouts wordlessly over her shoulder, and all around her hundreds of knives appear from the nothingness their owners stand in. Hundreds of knives cut their rough doorways into our world, and then they rip and merge. Huge swathes of darkness are ripped open, as high as they can reach, to bring through thousands of people, supplies, tents... ... horses... Five armies, recognisable by the tattoos of their leaders and the symbols on their shields, set up their separate camps around the oak tree. Behind them, slowly, the doorways heal as if they had never been. In a white tent near the centre, the five generals and the True Throne - who was first through - look over a remarkably detailed map of the Idyll Empire. Behind them, some engineers are setting up some kind of archway. The Origin are here. The Cavalry are coming. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2017-01-23T14:53:14+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/1160964743998972 Time for the first of the major updates for this season. We are removing the Snowflake class from the game, removing the Snowflake game from the event, and removing the Snowflake Area from the field. This is in response to cheating on a scale unimaginable anywhere else in the game. In character, snowflake characters can look forward to a year-long event known as "The Flamethrower Of Rules Obedience". Restats for snowflake characters will be available at any time, and skills found in the Snowflake tree have been distributed at random as conjunction points in other trees, where if you know enough random skills from all over the game, you might find one of them. They will be in different places per character. We feel this keeps the fundamental mechanics of the snowflake class, without having to deal with the people who wanted to play it. Your quality roleplaying experience is, as ever, our primary goal. Second, a clarification on our Immersion System. Being a fantasy game, it is vitally important that when you are fighting dragons, ogres, unicorns and giant pigs you must feel yourself rooted in the world. With our revolutionary Holmeswood Rules system, we have removed unsightly spell vocals and magic from some battles, but it has come to our attention that sometimes the people holding foam-swords and using them to hit people in aluminium chain armour are wearing fabric held together with stitches that are anachronistic by nearly thirty years if you assume parallel development with real-world techniques in a world which canonically contains magical golems! Inauthentic materials are the last great white whale of LARP, now we have removed anything that would require suspension of disbelief up to the level we are willing to deal with. And that level is fixed! The line of where everything should be realistic in larp has now been defined, and it's slightly above rubber swords, and slightly below historically inaccurate materials in some other things. We realise this may cause some confusion, but your accurate roleplay experience is, as ever, our primary concern. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2016-12-14T12:00:42+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/1126062444155869 After a great amount of feedback, we agree that the recent adjustments do need justification in the context of the universe. So, here is a quick IC explanation for the revisions SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2016-12-13T13:06:36+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/1126060330822747 After careful consideration, the revised statistics we published in haste over the last few days needed some review. Our policy of changing these vital values at whim, rather than rely on our experience running many games including this one is clearly in need of revision, and as a result we have needed to once again make a modification for next year's events. A slight nerf, yes, but well within bounds of overall balance: 6 SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2016-12-12T16:04:18+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/1126057890822991 After due consideration, we wish to make this further update, building upon the foundations of yesterday's activity: 7 SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2016-12-11T16:25:15+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/1125028180925962 We apologise for neglecting the most important aspect of our game with recent updates, and wish to fix this by offering the following clarification: 5 SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2016-11-29T15:28:28+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/1108123359283111 We are considering some rules changes in the Phucain use of "Up" magic for the new year. Fundamentally, we're not sure the requirement to maintain giant kites on the back of Up magic users is entirely compatible with our new distressingly forested site. Currently, we're looking at adding a new requirement that all such mounted kites must be strongly spring-mounted, be entirely hidden up until the item is required and then spring out and unfurl at the press of a button when the wizard (all Phucain must be wizards. It's in the brief) in question needs to erect their mating display or kite. Admittedly, this may be at some consequence to anyone standing too close or behind the character, but we feel this is a problem that will resolve itself eventually. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2016-11-02T15:09:16+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/1081263288635785 News for our 2017 Plot: Our writing team, when asked, said "It's so dark down here, and you haven't fed us since September. Do we only matter to you when you have an event coming up?" and we think this means we should make explicit some of the more obscure and fictional aspects of our plot writing system. Fundamentally, we are completely biased in what we put onto the field. The bias is subtle, and we don't expect the average player to notice it in play, but all of our writers specifically target things at their friends and people they are either already in a relationship with, or would like to be. This ranges from the simple acts of putting plot only into the character packs of people we already know, right down to the more subtle art of sending someone we have never met onto the field as an NPC and knowing without ever briefing them that the only people they will talk to are the people we want them to. By this method, we can ensure that our plot reaches the minimum number of people. Secondarily, we will target plot at the people who pay the maximum amount for tickets. We keep records of not only those who pay the extra "Special Edition" prices for our tickets, but also ensure lower involvement for anyone who is cheap enough to pay for "Student" or other concessions. This encourages people to do the best they can for our own gain. But mostly, our plot is absolutely biased towards people on the NPC crew. Statistically, the average player will be involved directly in a couple of plots an event if they actively get involved in them, but the average NPC could be involved in ten to twenty plots over the course of a single day. This is clearly a violation of the above principles, as our NPC crew apparently don't pay a single penny to come to our events! We spoke to the plot accusation team about making the NPC crew pay for their own tickets in prportion to the number of plots they get involved in, but they looked at us funny, so we assume they're considering it. For next year, we are going to make our plot bias slightly more opaque. Ticket prices will remain the same, but we will issue invoices for plots players get involved with, to leave the option of getting involved with stories within our game to those with the resources to do so. There will obviously be a sliding scale for involvement, and we expect a number of people who play "more or less in spite of the organisers" to be surprised at the number of things that affect their event that are caused by planned action. Player-centric stories that do not involve our plot department will, naturally, still be possible under the new system, but discouraged, because suggesting people are in any way responsible for their own fun is clearly a violation of some kind of human right or other. We can confirm that every single player is featured on the Idle Speculation wiki, and we still hope to one day release it to the public. Your quality role-playing experience remains our primary concession. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2016-10-17T16:17:57+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/1066416236787157 I have never been quite so glad I can't draw. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2016-09-30T10:41:45+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/1051884041573710 It has been suggested to us that our potion rules are complicated, because we have recently underlined that assuming a potion does exactly what you think it does is not a reliable metric. We understand that in the heat of battle it is complicated to pay attention to words, and that it is hard to read fiddly bits of paper in the dark. We asked those who played our previous game for their opinions on this subject, but they just glared at us and said "AT LEAST IT'S NOT WRITTEN IN BLACK ON RED PAPER. I NEED GLASSES NOW YOU MOTHERFUCKERS". We ignored them, as is our right. We have supplied two interconnecting solutions to this most intricate of knots to untie, that not only punishes anyone attempting actual character interaction via system mechanics; ensures that the nuances of our carefully written effects slips are taken; and doesn't distract the player from hitting each other with rubber mallets, which as we are aware is the only real bit of LARP. The solution is an idea we have lifted from more popular games, where we have assigned every consumable in the game a quatroalphanumeric Leaflet Of Real Effects code, which correspond to a full index of effects. This allows us to present a series of options for how players interact with these codes: In another lift from a more popular game, referees will be equipped with headphones to their tablets, and players who do not want reading to be a part of their game will be able to listen to a full audio description of the effects of potions. During this time their character will be unable to be interacted with, is effectively immortal, and will be required to sit on the floor with their eyes closed. Should this be in the middle of a battlefield we advise extreme caution, as the immortality effect is unable to be used out of character. Second, we will be publishing a reasonably priced book of all the available lore codes, along with the audio descriptions as above, for players to carry on their person and look up any potion they happen to drink. While they are looking up the code other potions are not in effect, although they are at risk of being stabbed. Third, it is entirely reasonable for a player to purchase the above book, memorise the codes and effects, and not to need either of the previous two options. In order to do this you will need to pass an assessment course and exam, available from your local LARP Training Hall at exceptionally reasonable prices. Fourth, we will be offering an exclusive ticket upgrade option that enables players to just assume whatever they want to happen is what was in the potion, as previous. This will be available in the cash shop in time for the new year's ticket sales. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2016-08-26T17:47:47+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/1024623207633127 For no clear reason SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2016-08-10T10:39:45+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/1012063385555776 Right, so, we've been avoiding saying anything about this publicly, because it's a touchy subject and there isn't a way to make everybody happy, but the past few days of discussion have made it obvious that a line needs to be drawn, so: For the 2017 series of events we are going to be embracing and extending the existing campfire traditions of our playerbase into something with full system support and skills to ensure a better balance of play and to enhance your roleplaying opportunities across the game. The system will work very much like our existing Ritual system. Twelve "Bands" of song style will be available, one for each nation to represent the already-defined musical traditions we've published in the source material, and padded out with some styles that don't fit into our existing set but are popular or interesting enough that we feel they could be well represented on the field. For each Rank of the Band you buy (with XP or Gem Store Gems), you will be able to select three songs from the song-list for that band, which will be published with lyric and music sheets along with an MP3 of our national bards singing the tune. When you wish to apply your Campfire skill in the field, find a ref, show your song lammie and perform the song exactly as printed in the song-sheet. You will be graded for performance style and appropriateness to the area you are performing in (Yes, this means you can perform Sea Shanties in the camp of the Silken Sails, but still doesn't make it part of the background setting), as well as being in-key and how many people join in with you, and how well they do on the harmonies. At the end, the ref will hand out cards to the audience that represent the amount of applause/coin appropriate for the performance, and you will be rewarded in-game appropriately. Some of the new Bands require hard-skills with instruments and singing (the Opera Band we expect to be rare, but popular, and scores high in the presence (and/or involvement) of the Impress), and so to keep everything accessible it will be appropriate to use an MP3 player and speaker set for your "Performance" assuming you can lip-sync deftly. This will generally not score you as highly as a full performance, mind. Performances will be graded from "DNF" to "Bessie". This new system regrettably restricts the number of songs on the field, although we will generally be accepting submissions for future purchases, but will provide a standardisation of lyrical content that we feel can only benefit the game. The quality of our roleplaying aesthetic is, as ever, our highest priority. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2016-07-22T12:37:23+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/999630233465758 +++PETARDS OF COMBAT, Season Two, Episode One, "A Proportional Response"+++ "What" asked Impress Homerlite, "is the virtue of a proportional response?" The military council looked at him, perplexed. "I'm sorry?" said the Herald "What is the virtue of a proportional response? Small v. Why is it good? They hit a mine, so we hit a fortress, right? That's a propotional response." "Sir, In the case of Hallowhall One..." began one of the generals, but the Impress's rhetoric would not be denied. "They raze a city, so we hit two fortresses" General Glasscastle, who was from the Gloaming, alliteratively, gave up for the moment. "That's roughly it, Sir" "This is what we do. I mean, *this* is what we do." "Yes sir", said the Herald, "It's what we do. It's what we've always done" "Well, if it's what we do, if it's what we've always done, don't they know we're going to do it?" shouted the Impress "Sir", the herald patiently attempted to return the debate to the issue at hand "if you'd turn your attention to Hallowhall 1 --" "I have turned my attention to Hallowhall 1. It's two food dumps, an abandoned bridge and an Ooohlong spy network base". The Highguard general again: "Those are four highly-rated targets, sir." "But they know we're gonna do that. They know we're gonna do that! Those areas have been abandoned for three days now. We know that from the scrying, right? We have the intelligence." The herald tried to speak, but once again the Impress just kept shouting "They did that, so we did this. It's the cost of doing business. It's been factored in, right?" "Impress Homerlite, Sir" Began the Herald "Am I right, or am I missing something here?" "No, sir." said the General, "You're right, sir." "Then I ask again, what is the virtue of a proportional response?" "It isn't small-v virtuous, It's all there is, sir." replied the General "It is not all there is." said the Impress "Sir, General Glasscastle has..." "Excuse me, Herald...", said Glasscastle, "Pardon me, Impress Homerlite, just what else is there?" "The disproportional response!" shouted Homerlite, "Let the word ring forth, from this time and this place, gentlemen, you kill an Imperial Citizen, any Imperial Citizen, we don't come back with a proportional response. We come back with total disaster!" The Impress banged the table for effect, sending the armies of the Empire scattering. More than usual. "Are you suggesting that we carpet-bomb Rikereos?" said a Song Admiral "I am suggesting, Admiral, that you, and Admiral Glasscastle, and the Herald, and the rest of the General's Assembly take the next sixty minutes and put together an Imperial response scenario that doesn't make me think we're just docking somebody's damn allowance!" The Awkish tribe of the Ooolong have captured three areas in the Idyll territory of Rikereos. Characters from that area should roll a D6, and on a roll of 3 or lower should consider their characters dead and roll new ones for the next event. Everyone left will be on half-rations until the territory is fully invaded (survive on a 6 only) or recovered by Imperial forces. The Empea for Rikereos is still in place for this event's senate sessions. A delegation from the Ooolong will be arriving at the next event, but if we end up unable to schedule them we'll distribute their XP and loot to the people who would have killed them on sight anyway. Zephyrs Of Opulence will start to be posted soon. We asked our writing team how long that was likely to be and they said "WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME? BLOOD? IS IT BLOOD YOU WANT? I CAN GIVE YOU BLOOD FOR FREE. I HAVE BEEN TIED HERE FOR NEARLY FIVE YEARS WON'T SOMEONE PLEASE JUST LET ME OUT INTO THE SUNLIGHT? JUST FOR A MOMENT? I'VE IMAGINED IT FOR SO LONG" which we think means "Soon". SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2016-07-19T08:49:44+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/997599633668818 +++ RELIGION CHANGES PATCH NOTES 0.0001Alpha +++ Given that half of our refs quit after the first event this year, citing "Having mud in places they didn't know could get muddy", it has become paramount that we find some way to allow some religion skills to be self-reffing. Our first step towards this has been to replace the popular Soul Graffiti skill physrep with a post-it note, as detailed in our larger update on Saturday (https://www.facebook.com/idlespeculation/posts/995941603834621). Second to this, we are announcing the immediate retirement of our clay-based Ciao! physreps in favour of a brand new set made out of sugar. Existing physreps can be replaced for the sugar-based version up until the end of our next event. The new physreps look identical to the existing ones, but have the advantage of being edible (all colouring and ingredients are entirely vegan) and dissolving in water, allowing you to physrep consuming of your Ciao! resources and keep track of which ones are as yet unused. Also, the water-solubility of the new physreps adds a new layer of roleplay to our priest game, as they scramble to make sure that one fell rainstorm doesn't ruin their entire game! Not only does this add a valuable element of enthusiasm and energy to our religion mechanic as the sugar highs hit our priesthood, but also brings it more in line with our popular Ritual Mana system (https://www.facebook.com/idlespeculation/posts/402612633167524). For those who attempt to consume one of the old physreps, we are upgrading the new First-Aid-O-Tron 9000 with dental facilities. For those who attempt to consume many of the new physreps, we are upgrading the new First-Aid-O-Tron 9000 with dental facilities. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2016-07-16T20:20:43+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/995941603834621 Long promised, we have enacted our review of the religion system in its entirety. Since this pretty much invalidates all the religion on the field and we don't like to retcon, we've decided that there was an apocalypse during downtime and any character with priest skills was mysteriously killed. Roll up your new characters, and play with our new system! The first thing is the new form of the Ecumenical Council. Since we now have an Impress on the throne, it seems fair that the new Council will be directly under her control. She can fire any of them at will, and can appoint new members to the vacant positions at any time. Secondly, we've removed the ability of the Council to revoke members of the General Assembly, Wizard's High Table, Free Market Merchants or any other imperial house. All that tedious evaluating other people's roleplay and meaning they had someone they had to live up to was just driving people away from the positions and spreading them out more. We've left the virtues pretty much as they are: "Paying in advance", "Taking your hits", "Reading the rules", "Spelling, Punctuation & Grammar", "Knowing your PID", "Bringing enough socks", and "Choosing a new character if your current one isn't fun". We expect the Cardinal of Spelling to review plots and our wiki for any errors (ie, this will be a form of scrying). The Cardinal of Knowing Your PID will get responsibility over gate bookings, and the Cardinal Taking Your Hits will have our battle ref team reporting to them. The Cardinal of Reading The Rules will be given a desk in GOD to answer any queries, timeshared with the new Cardinal of Choosing a new character if your current one isn't fun. There will be no on-field requirement for the Cardinals of Paying in Advance or Bringing Enough Socks, though the latter will be called in during inclement weather to make sure their instructions are being followed. We intend that this careful amalgamation of In Character and Out Of Character roles will improve the game for every other player, as more and more formerly OOC problems can be dealt with in a time-ish format. But don't worry! We haven't just shattered every hope of fun for the people with hats! The changes to the skills system are slightly more subtle, but we think worthwhile. The card-mechanic for resolving Senate issues (see IS passim) has been so overwhelmingly talked about that we've decided to extend it to the Cleric class. Each Cleric will be given on char-gen a deck of cards that reflect their skills in the game. More cards will be obtainable by completing quests, or for plot tokens, or for Gems in the store. If you have a religious dispute with another character, you should find their priest, and engage in a duel of cards with them. Slay their reductio ad absurdum with a No True Fellowsman argument! Disrupt an Appeal to Emotion with Anecdotal Evidence! But better hope they don't play a In-Character-Hitler card! If the character you are arguing with doesn't have a priest, you should encourage them to get one to resolve the matter. Finally, the system of being able to tattoo on a character's soul has proved too much of a burden on our ref crew. As a result, if you wish to use this skill you should physrep the engraving of your words on their most central essence by putting a post-it note on their back with the words on it. That these may come off in the rain should be treated as one of the great mysteries of the Empire. Given the luck with weather we get, it is even fortunate that it literally washes your soul clean. Next on our list is the rewrite of the in-hindsight-regrettable "Sex Appeal" form of magic, which should hit before the end of the decade. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2016-06-15T08:42:17+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/976145635814218 I'd like to start by thanking everybody who played the prologue of our campaign, Idle Speculation. I can honestly say that running these events is the best job in the world, and that we couldn't have done it without you as a playerbase, or our loyal and freddo-stuffed crew. The last event was the culmination of years of effort on the part of our writing team, who is still shaking in the corner, as well as at least three players. But now, as all can see, we have an Impress on the throne. The heart and soul of Idle Speculation is for ordinary players to be able to receive the feedback and unsubstantiated assumptions of power that in other games would be limited to the NPC crew, and atop the peak of that pile of assumptions is the leader of our entire fledgeling set of nations, the Impress. Her role within the game is summed up within the title: It is the job of every citizen to impress the occupant of the throne to the best of your ability. An email address will be set up, and you should certainly send her letters. On arrival, the plot team will interrogate the holder of the title for any character names she can remember, and those people - and only those people - will be able to access any plot at all. So write lots, write often, and be "impress"ive!! Our site-crew report that the marquee lost at our first event has been found, and while we cannot dig it out just yet, it will be becoming a cool underground audience location for future events. Six of our plot team have pitched exciting new options for audience involving a new race of "Certainly Not Dwarves", so there is now a recruitment drive on for half a dozen new writers for our staff. We have noticed a recent trend for feedback-based threads on this site. While we officially state that facebook is not an official method of feedback, we do read these threads. This means we do have a list of all the people, and exactly what they've said. Our site crew have promised not to use this information to bias any plots they write. We remind our playerbase that the best - and only official - mechanism for feedback or constructive criticism is to post it in our suggestion box, the location of which is exactly where you should expect. Finally, we would like to announce that our revolutionary "Action Points" system is being revised. Previously we would accept requests for new magical rituals or downtime actions in the form of a playmobil model of the desired outcome. This has resulted in a great deal of game for almost five people who already owned Playmobil, but has overrun our ritual creation team. Going forth, Action Points will be able to be submitted in Playmobil, Lego, Novella or Pasta-based diorama format, but to counter the extra work this will entail for our team, will only be available to players on "Gold", "Premium" or "VIP" ticket levels. To keep it accessible to our Standard ("Bronze"), Early access ("Silver") and Free to Play ("Crew") levels, Action Points will be purchasable for 750 Gems, which can be earned in play for plot completion, or bought at the bar. It can also be found in special event Lockboxes, more details of which will be announced soon. Your quality roleplay experience, as ever, our momentary concern. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2016-04-01T09:14:35+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/933313223430793 Honestly, we've never lost a marquee before. Well, not one that's already been erected. Piles of canvas, sure. Poles by the metre. But the sight of a fully-fledged circus tent sinking slowly to the level of a bell tent, to a cheap popup, and then finally sinking beneath the mud with the most expensive "gloop" I've ever heard is going to stick with our engineering corps for quite a while, I think. As the gale force winds picked up on Friday, we lost a number of Phucain players experimenting with the documented "Flight" mechanic. Characters who investigate this skill tree are advised to keep track of major weather events. Those characters who successfully landed in another larp system, some fifty miles away, are now confirmed to have been accepted into that universe and should respec their characters accordingly. Regarding the flood on Saturday night, we recognise now that one of the downsides of our new dried riverbed location is an unfortunate tendency to regress to an earlier stage. In future, we will recommend players camping in that area erect their tents on provided flotation devices, or wooden boards, that the inevitable flood will allow us to more accurately physrep the floating city of Kandestøber. Sunday afternoon's battle was adversely affected by the effects of Saturday's rain, flooding, and sheep. To the players in the Progression who found their entirely on-brief wheeled-armour turned them into fixed encampments, we would like to assure you that every suit of amour we have so far pulled from the mud will be cleaned and available for collection at the next event. To those family members of Progression players who were forced to abandon loved ones, with the aid of some cranes with magnets attached, we have rescued all lost players at this time. To those players who own 4x4 cars, your assistance over the coming weekend would be appreciated for rescuing large cranes with magnets attached. We have, as yet, no documented solution to the sheep. To players who have left site with more than five kilograms of mud, please return by postage. Finally, despite it completing the full set, we were unprepared for the fire-storm on Sunday night. The advantage of most of our equipment and remaining players being too soggy to burn was distinctly slight, and balanced somewhat by the amount of formally useful equipment now effectively fired into ersatz clay pots. We apologise for any inconvenience caused, and, going forwards, intend for all our apocali to be in-character in future. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2016-03-15T09:02:06+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/919297878165661 Site Update! We have found a new site at the very last minute to be able to host our event in a couple of weeks. It's... not perfect, to be honest, but it is big enough. The new site is split into three sections. On the near side as you enter the gate will be a large field dedicated to our out-of-game operations, and also OOC camping. The far side field will house our battlefield and also crew camping, we ask that players try not to trample our crew tents. The middle field will be our main IC area, and you will be able to recognise it by the entire thing being covered in every square foot by a resplendent display of bluebells. Due to their protected nature, we have to ask that no vehicles are allowed into the main IC field nor, at the wishes of the field owners, any players, crew or people at all. We're informed dogs are allowed if on a leash, but since we don't allow dogs in our setting, that's probably a moot point. We recognise that the inability to erect tents or enter character might pose a mild obstacle to roleplay this weekend, but ask that you bear with us in this difficult time (bears are also not allowed on the IC field). While you cannot, of course, roleplay in the OOC field, IC communication will continue on facebook as normal. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2016-03-14T15:24:48+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/918808704881245 The Petards of Combat: Episode 3: Pluses Either Side. The rivered streets of Kandestøber run red with the blood of the awks. Nobody's quite sure why, since it's been eight months since they were kicked out of the the city. Smart people in their traditional pointy hats say that it's quite likely that a lot of awks died in the mountains, and this is the run-off as their bodies thaw out. They say the awk-blood may last until spring, but the canals of the great liberated city run, for now, the dark rusty iron of old blood. As areas are rebuilt, the great floating city reclaims its name once more, temporary dams are released, the traditional gondolas resume their transit. Sworn to silence since the rule of Nicótiné, they communicate as they always have, with three tuned bells that - in various orders - signify anything they feel the need to say to the other punts on the riverway. In a tublar case by the bow, the tubular, sealed case of emergency. They hope not to blow them again. The invasion has not been kind to Kandestøber, and whole areas are still out of reach. I mean, partly. Partly, they're out of reach because legions of gondola owners refuse to get out of their boats to get to them. New people, not native to the old city, have started to camp out in the wide troughs. Every few days, a new section of the city is opened up, and a few dozen more people are drowned. It's tragic, but the citizens have a word for people who camp in riverways. It's represented on the bells as a declining scale. In a shop in one of the newly opened areas of the city a man says he has found a new kind of mask that, when worn on the battlefield, will increase the chances that ranged magical calls won't affect them (Mechanically, this is physrepped by not being able to identify the person in the mask, and therefore not being able to call anything the wearer recognises, and therefore ignoring the call). The masks are expensive for the war-torn city, and the maker is planning to arrive at the playing field of Incus at our next festival, with plenty to sell. Eeyores who have heard of these new items are sceptical. No nation within the Idyll Empire holds Masks as part of their costume brief, and the Eeyores expect a number of entertaining discussions on which Nation they are most appropriate for to erupt in the wake of the news that these things now exist in the world. [[ Welcome to the new Petards of Combat for the new season! Rules updates will be coming soon, but here's the first of the new opportunities available to players. For this, players will be given a unique opportunity to rewrite a bit of the brief in their favour purely by rational reasoning about why it should be part of their nation brief all along. This ability we have left as a "Hard Skill", since it appears to be one widely practiced. We look forward to seeing the results on the field! ]] SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2016-02-26T17:01:26+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/909726965789419 It has come to our attention that we have sold too many tickets to fit the event in my back garden, and even the pub car park next door is going to be full at this point. We have found a new site at short notice, and are working on travel discounts to be made available. Ticket holders are advised to ensure their passport will be in date as of the next event. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2016-02-19T18:58:18+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/906306976131418 We understand it has been a number of years since the original briefs for the nations were developed, and that in play, the concepts and ideas those nations were built on are bent and stretched to form the player bases' expectation of how the nation should behave more than the interplay of biases and relationships that the original designers intended. With this, we allow a certain amount of flex and give within our interpretation of the brief, on the understanding that the aim is to work towards the brief as your budget allows, rather than away from it as your legs will carry you. Those with access to the wiki will have noticed our recent expansion of the "Eeyores" system ( https://www.facebook.com/idlespeculation/posts/337616193000502 ) to be implemented within the next couple of games. To answer some of the more frequently asked questions: Q. I have genned up as a Freeborn Island Wemic. Am I allowed to sing sea shanties? A. No. Go away. Q. Are you that set against Sea Shanties? A. No, just wemics, in this game, anyway. Sea Shanties are fine to sing, but they're not part of your cultural brief. Q. But the brief says we have boats! A. The brief also says you wear many thin, multicoloured layers, this doesn't mean you're Arabian Fucking Nights either. Q. That gives me a great idea! A. That's not a question, and also: No. Q. The new rules appear to say that characters sufficiently off brief shall be thrown out of the country. I assume that's IC? A. You do, don't you. Q. What do you mean by that? A. We have an inside person in the home office. And we're very protective of the integrity of the briefs. Q. Er. Could you explain that, please? A. If you are following the briefs, you have nothing to worry about. Q. But I really want to sing sea shanties! A. Sure, but you don't get to claim they're part of your natural national culture. Look, when you - or your group - chose the nation to be part of, you agreed to the national brief, in the same way you agreed to fall over when someone shouts "STRIKEDOWN", in the same way you agreed to use rubber swords instead of real ones, and agreed to the new coreless shield rules. Some nations are harder in some places than others to conform to exactly our intentions, which makes it even more cool when someone goes the extra mile to do it. Borrowing stuff from other cultures is fine, right up until you start claiming that the brief is wrong and your version of the brief is better. The author is not dead, and you're paying money to build castles in their sandbox. Now, get back to the questions and I'll get back to the hilarious jokes about being on zero hits, terminal, and about to die. Q. In the new version of the Eeyore rules it appears they are immortal? A. Yes. The Eeyores fulfill the dual IC/OOC purposes of telling characters when they're doing the nation brief wrong, and telling players when they're doing the nation brief wrong. It seems that this second functionality was often being confused with the first, and we believe that making them immortal will help save that. Q. And the Death Knight form? A. Originally, we had designed a new Form for the Eeyores to inhabit when they were suffering the ill effects of people in their nation Doing It Wrong. Sadly the Dark Dark Evil Eeyore concept was confused in conception, and resulted in on-field disruption as the game-balance functionality was confused with a number of plots involving Eeyores just needing a game of pooh-sticks to brighten their day up a bit. To avoid this confusion, we have created the Death Knight form, which is specifically designed to go on the field as a final retaliation to stop players egregiously against the brief by assassinating their characters. We do not believe this will be confused with plot NPCs, due to existing standards in place. Q. What about the home office stuff? A. Repeat offenders. Q. Can I become immortal by becoming an Eeyore? A. No. Q. If I steal the armour off an Eeyore, do I become an Eeyore, or immortal? A. No. You will be on zero hits, terminal, and about to die. See? We made it. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2015-12-02T16:38:53+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/868197329942383 [Salo’s Note: Remember to secure this post to “exec only” before adding it to the FB page] I promised a report to the exec, so report I shall. And you will read it, every bastard one of you, and you will stop pestering me about these fucking reports, and everyone will be forever happier. If you have any questions, queries or quackery about anything written in this report, I would council you to keep them to your internal monologue until I've had a drink, a Christmas, a new year, a week off, and the latest stiches removed. From the above, you might come to the conclusion that the weekend site visit didn't go exactly as planned. You would be correct. The Second New Site, Chapter One: A false sense of security The prospective new site is slightly too far east to be within the "magic triangle" where we'd like it to be. As problems with it go, this is reasonably mild. It's not too hilly, too open, too flat, too wooded. It operates in a classic goldilocks zone with the added advantages of not being a nuclear waste dump, a literal lake, an active missile silo cover, or a base of operations for an army of wicker-wielding local zealots. Each of these advantages is distinctly apart from the last few dozen sites we've looked at in the last six months, as reported in reports passim. Our advance team for this site consisted of me, Salokin Aribstock - Lead Designer, Lise - head ref, and the partially repaired First Aid-O-Tron 9000, recently returned by our new players from Beemother. The FA9k isn't completely up to spec yet - the scalpel control module's a bit wonky, the shell's still dented, and it will need to retake its pharmacy qualifications - but this was a good opportunity to make sure the movement, command and control mechanisms were back working. On that note, apart from a minor incident where the FA9k attempted to repair the unexpected growth on Lise's ankle - which turned out to be her foot - the FA9k is back working again. I suspect we won't be taking it back into the field for a while - I was surprised that not using it reduced our insurance premiums by quite that much - but it's a useful robot to have around, and with the updated BIOS surprisingly personable. Lise doesn't quite agree at the moment, though. Anyway, we piled into the van and went to see this new site. The site was enclosed, there's public woodland on three sides and open farmland on one, and there's nobody's back yard to be shouted at from. Far from the maddened crowd. Two of the fields are large and flat, separated from the others by a tall hedge. There's a smaller field and a slightly rougher one nearer the road - perfect admin and camping areas - and beyond the hedge is a series of smaller areas of woods, glades, some small ponds and hills. It's like someone spackled the map with some biome indicators, and designed a perfect questing and battle area for us. Towards the north corner was a more challenging hill that dropped off sharply towards the river that marks the border of our available land. If this sounds too good to be true, then that's only because I've missed out the fact the rocks at the top are sharp, treacherous, and there's a dimensional portal to hell halfway down the slope. But more on that in the next report. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2015-11-11T16:32:09+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/860136487415134 In the event of your first offense against the Idle Speculation ruleset, you will be sanctioned in the following ways: 1) Your name will be added to a list, and it is not a good list; B) You will be subject to a ban if you offend against any part of the ruleset over the next 8 games you attend; III) The plot team will not do anything to your character. At all. For years. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2015-11-11T14:00:57+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/860089667419816 We sat down recently to review our FAQ responses, but decided we were right the first time. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2015-11-05T16:39:24+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/857815970980519 Traditionally, the application of stats to armour in LARP has been done in a half-arsed fashion, and here at Idle Speculation, we feel that the game would be better off without such fractions. Starting next year, we will be introducing a new form of armour and costume levelling to encourage aspirational design and spending to get the most out of your characters and our game. Traditionally, IS has used the long-running division of Light, Medium and Plate armour, where Light Armour has a requirement of not less than 37 powered LEDs along each seam, Medium requires a hard-skill ability to see the future, and Plate armour was an offshoot of our aborted Culinary tech tree. These systems have run their course (except in the Plate category, which required at least four). Under the new system, armour will be attributed a system of statistics based on a centralised mechanic. Buyers and creators should submit examples or photographs of their proposed designs, along with purchase price and materials cost, for each item of costume. These will then be studied by our team of highly qualified armour studiers, who will give it a series of statistics (magic restrictions, mobility restrictions, penetrability, call resistance, luck, fatigue, persuasion, peppermint, plus of course hit count) and a minimum level for the player to wear it at. We will encourage sellers of forms of armour to join our Armoury Subscription Service, a membership of our game that allows them to submit their wares to our reviewers in advance, so that purchasers will be able to tell roughly what stats the clothes will grant them. The simple attributes of the MRMRPCRLFPPH system will power a series of additional secondary statistics that may be useful on quests within our game. Wearing armour from multiple sets will grant you the statistics of the highest, lowest, average or median value depending on attribute, statistic and context. Very simply, a spiked-pauldron dragon-metal war-leavened level 47 tunic (as decided by our review panel) might have an attribute set of 4/4/2/41/α/44/914/Q/7, worn with a soft hand-cap elysian crystal sand-steel flat cap (90/411/7/φ/81/24/6/0/1) will allow the caster to get a 12% mana discount on Butterworth's Grand Pie seller when cast without a coven (Courtesy of the generated L level peppermint), granting a boost of 8.6 to fatigue, which will call 8.3 to make the maths easier. That'll grant the average hits as a bonus when facing ranged Castle-kin creatures, to a total of 11. Of course, those hits are global. Local hit systems are far too complicated :) A 920 score almost guarantees a reroll should the spell fail, of course, but we're getting ahead of ourselves. This combination of high magic and low dex pieces of multivarious styles and materials will give every warrior a distinctive and hopefully unique look across the battlefield. We will be issuing guidelines about level-appropriate styles and materials for all interested costume makers, alongside the price list for the Armoury Subscription options, with the announcement of the new Deployment of Larp Content pack later in the year, but our aim is of course to be able to recognise the most expensive and hardest worked for armour from as far away as possible. Your purchased roleplay experience is, of course, our highest priority. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2015-08-19T18:11:21+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/825014867593963 The postal service is built like your cardiovascular system. Arteries connect the cities and distribution hubs, which split out into arterioles and then capillaries. Letters and parcels get sorted coarsely towards the hub, then by finer and finer processes until it hits your doormat. The Royal Mail aim to deliver 93% of first class letters by the following working day. Day Zero they hit that number exactly. Not unexpectedly, the target is carefully chose, but that's why nearly 93% of the population was wiped out in the first 24 hours. As the virus took hold of pilots, train drivers, other vehicle drivers, thousands more were killed in accidents. Fire spread. Those who didn't get the letters - those who weren't on the polling lists, didn't open it, or who just mysteriously didn't get one - soon found out what had happened. They survive in isolated communities, living off everything that remains. Some of those with the virus still live - or at least ambulate. They're not sentient, they're not contagious, they're just angry and violent. The armies of Europe surround the British Isles. Nobody's getting off until this is finished. Worse are those who got exposed to the virus the most. The postmen come at night, contagious and fast, their reactions enhanced, but their brains eroding with just one thought left: Everyone must get what is coming to them. Coming in 2017 from Idle Speculation: Mail Carriers. The one true post-apocalypse Larp. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2015-07-16T13:48:56+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/809421792486604 As part of an attempt to make it possible for us to actually physrep delegations from foreign nations on the field, the requirement to speak/understand klingon to represent NPCs from the Fawlty Empire will be lifted. In place, foreigners will be issued with small paste-board signs saying "klingon", which they will hold up to indicate language use. If you believe your character would understand them, you may do so. In the event you see a character in a silly hat speaking, you should assume they're incomprehensible unless they're holding a sign. Your quality roleplaying experience is, as ever, our primary concern. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2015-07-08T14:03:48+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/805659479529502 The Idyll speculation team were waiting to post this, but nobody's sure what for. So in advance of whatever it was: +++ The Petards of Combat: Episode 2, The Phantom Meanies +++ The Idyll Empire's Project Penguin was our last, best hope for peace. A self-contained world five miles long, located in neutral territory. A place of commerce and diplomacy for a quarter of a million humans, awks and creatures. A shining beacon, all alone in the night. Nearby the quiet village of Egal Livteiuq, deep in Song territory, is a crack in the world. It's maybe seven feet tall, but no thicker than a twig at its thickest point. It rests against a tree, innocent and unwatched. If anyone knew it was there, and was watching it carefully, they might see the occasional bird carefully avoid it as they fly by. They might notice the way the leaves are nearly split in two as they flutter past the edges. They might notice the way the sun does not set beyond the crack in the world. If anyone knew it was there, they might notice that the crack in the world - no thicker than a candle at its widest point - hadn't been there a month ago. The tree whose trunk it presents before is dead, though you cannot tell yet, and while it goes into the air only seven feet, the wise hero might ask how far down it might go. But nobody watches the crack in the world, no thicker than a pint-pot at its widest point, or sees the light that spills forth from it. There's nobody to look though the jagged edges, sharper than finest Gloaming steel, and see a world beyond, desolate and ravaged, hotter than summer, lifeless as winter. And perhaps, if we're lucky, there's nobody to look back into our bright, green world. Nearby the quiet village of Egal Livteiuq, deep in Song territory, is a crack in the world. It's maybe seven feet tall, but no thicker than a doorway at its thickest point. --- The shattered remains of the gates to the city of clocks are fascinating to the trained observer. A complex mechanism of gears and springs, designed to withhold against the most awkward customer, yet be yielding as smoke to those with money to spend. They had stood for years beyond measure, protecting the city from those who would wish it harm, those who wish it change, those who wish it taxed. Beyond those gates, the workshop district once stood. The only real district, having subsumed the others with its relentless expansion. Tall churches repurposed into clockwork research labs, warehouses beaten into forges, theatres which only listed the forthcoming lectures by the cognates who thought they had something new to share. Splinters of copper spike the cobblestones, the heads of cognate constructed guards whirr down for the final time, their bodies streets away. The windows of workshops smashed, the theatres burnt. In the centre, the great stained glass of the cathedral of mechanisms is fractured and fragmented. Within, the chairs and desks scattered and pulverised, and the gates to the great cellars of the King of Works are wrecked, not implement or appliance in all the town remains whole. The city of clocks is unwound. Of course, the glass of the windows, the cogs of the gates, even the remains of the busted instruments... they're all on the outside of where they started. --- Within the territories that used to be Fellowsland, another broken town. This one - a small community on the outskirts of a new Progression city - maintains its structure at least. Something happened here recently, something destructive and thoughtless. A thick, treacly tar coats everything with a sticky layer of filth, oily and greasy and prevalent, dirtying anyone who strayed near to the community, and blackening by transfer anyone who tried to escape. The dark evil coats everything now, taints every corner, shadows every thought as those who witnessed the original tragedy transfer it to those they meet. The Progression have a solution to this, and the wagons of bricks begin to arrive by the day. The village will be walled up and never inhabited again, left as a monument to a staggering terrible incident, remembered, but never replicated. --- Elsewhere in the Empire, a small child won a bowling contest. It may seem small, but in days like this, you should take your victories where you can. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2015-07-06T16:18:12+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/804557042973079 In answer to recent frequently asked questions: Yes, it really is. No, not even then. That's less important than you think. No, because you're not the affected party. Because we say so. You are on zero hits, terminal, and about to die. - Your character is unaffected. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2015-06-09T16:41:55+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/792136957548421 It has long been a failure of LARP in this country that the hard-skill ability to roleplay around the feelings and relationships of your characters did not have the system support that goes into such first-class elements of the mechanics such as combat, magic and if you're allowed to gen up a time travelling animated pony necromancer in our setting (No, you can't, Steve. Stop asking). As part of our adoption of Laätfig larp techniques from across the sea, we are trialing a brand new scoring system for the impact of character-based roleplay, to be able to quantify and thus improve the value that this section of the game, known as "Ballgowning", brings to the game as a whole, lost as it is within the cogs and wheels of the rest of the system (literally so, in Fucain). The primary goal, therefore, was to provide a strong visual element to the reward system, visible for the rest of the game to see how powerful you are in your realm, as a warrior may carry a large sword, or a wizard may bob above the field like a lost balloon. (Not that this system precludes the mix of ballgowning with warrior status, the risk of death in the latter being a strong motivation to the deeper connection). As part of the character packs this year, players will be given a small pot of water-based paint. When your character is strongly effected to the core of yourself by the feelings, relationships and bonding of the situation, you should - during a quiet moment, or as part of a dramatic florish - remove the screw top and literally fling the contents across the costume of the player you wish to reward (As in combat, the head is not a valid target for this). Players who are the most effective at this vital area of the game can therefore be recognised on sight as a riot of colours across their costume, as the feelings of those they have effected are quite literally painted before them. At the end of the game, players will be rewarded for emulsional impact. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2015-05-28T10:06:01+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/785750841520366 Minor modification to printed rules: It is not required to pre-cast Transmogrify to Pencil on every member of your magical team before each ritual. The requirement to be stationery while casting is a typo. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2015-05-20T19:43:33+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/782319465196837 +++ The Petard of Combat +++ Darkness falls across the land, The midnight hour is close at hand. Creatures crawl in search of blood to terrorize your neighborhood, and whosoever shall be found without the soul for getting down must stand and face the hounds of hell, or rot inside a corpse's shell. The lands of the Song are darkened as a bleak shadow crosses the sky. It drifts across the open air like a giant boat, floating and bobbing gently in the winds that cross the Idyll Empire, dragging across the landscape with it a wave of putrid air that seems to turn the world greyscale as it passes. Forests fall silent and into gloom. In towns and villages the shops close early and the inns kick out their patrons. It's a still bright afternoon as the sun sets, hiding behind the western hills of the Phucain as if in fear, the stars flicker and go out, and the territories fall into atramentous night. Doors are barricaded, windows blocked. Patrols light their brightest brands, to pierce the oily fog that rises up around them, but the light only seems to highlight the shadows, as the eerie silence breaks into occasional scrabbling, rustling, and then louder moaning as the forces of the undead are upon them. It's worse that the faces are recognised. Warriors who fell in battle fight alongside friends who were buried nearby, the graveyards rise and the mausoleums crack open. Those that fight and lose rise up on the other side, and inch by inch, sword-length by sword-length, soldier by soldier, the forces of the Song of Earth, Wind & Heart are losing their own ground. It's in the third day of darkness that a shaft of light comes in from the west, as the giant mirrors of the Phucain are magically enhanced to pierce this preternatural darkness and bringing with them their great armies of sorcery. By land and by air the wizards of the Phucain blast the cloud into nothing, and with it the undead fall, to be buried once again. With the end of the battle, the people of the Song start on the rebuilding. Crops had wilted in the fields, starvation was imminent, and the cold spring weather was going to be a fight with so many houses in pieces. As they trudge to Hammerstone for the summit, though, one terror grips their minds: The wizards were going to be absolutely insufferable. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2015-05-18T08:17:09+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/781266151968835 For the comfort and convenience of our playerbase, we have been working with the BIPM to define a helpful new unit for LARP events: The Millisomme. Mud at a level that will cause ditches three feet deep to revert back to base state within four hours is defined as one somme. Importantly, you may only add the capital letter (MilliSomme, Somme, KiloSomme) only if within 10% of 1.6 million casualties are reported over a six month period - scaled to 8791 per day - over the period being reported. In conjunction with the BIPM, we feel this will allow the levels of measurement and perspective that the LARP and LRP communities both require. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2015-05-15T13:16:27+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/780130518749065 After recent events, we've found it hard to avoid the inherent danger of LARP as a hobby. True, the consequences of witnessing an effigy of yourself screaming, burning in a wicker cage (See IS passim) is not generally part of the UK larp experience (We're told it's popular in the Laatfig Icelandic larp community), but even without that the number of injuries and accidents on a yearly basis is entirely avoidable, and without the frankly terrifying power of the First-Aid-O-Tron 9000 is something we should be working harder towards. Therefore this year for our battles we will be experimenting with a brand new form of LARP combat, an evolution both from the R/P/S narrative forms of combat found in some systems, and also a revolution from the foam & carbon fibre constructions of the last ten years. This new ruleset will apply to seperate battles than the recently announced Holmeswood Rules series, and should be taken as an alternative to the Holmeswood's more "Realistic" combat effects. We have recently taken delivery for the next event of over a thousand Zorbs: Large scale inflatable hamster balls, fit for a full size (and, yes, over full-sized) adult human to run around in over the soft grassland of our new battlefield. This is the backbone - albeit a soft inflatable one - of our new safer combat policy. We are sourcing a number of appropriate props for castles and barricades, along our previously announced "Inflatable buildings" policy, and will be erecting marked areas all around the battlefield. If you can keep an enemy - or more than one - trapped inside one of these areas for ten seconds, they will be out of the fight. But be careful! The same applies to you and other areas! In accordance with our existing rules system, we wouldn't want for these battles to miss out on our system's world-renowned roleplay-reward system, so other areas will be marked as "Traumatic Wound" locations, and rolling over one of these - or forcing someone else to - will result in a splash of coloured water being thrown over your Zorb. A lookup table, which you should memorise - will tell you what the effects are. In addition, we will be adding "Traumatic Powerup" points, which we think are self-explanatory. We hope this system will be both fun and safe for all our players (except the ones who can't run in an inflatable ball, for whom... we'll work something out, I guess?). Your safe rollplaying experience is, of course, our primary concern. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2015-04-07T22:17:30+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/763018800460237 I honestly had no idea they would follow us. For those who couldn't attend our most recent event, I should explain: Saturday night started off with the plots we originally planned to run, the new icing for the Bakeron prince was being mixed, and our puzzles team was working out the numbers grid for the Sudoku audience later, when we got a feedback report from the GameOps team that players were saying that the torchlit march looked amazing. The plot team looked at each other in some dismay, while we were aware that The Progression had been planning something similar, as far as we knew it had been canceled while they waited for a tractor to pull their leader's armour out of the mud. A few of us wandered out of the safety of the Monster tent to see what was going on, and it appeared that down the path from the gate a torchlit parade was marching, in perfect silence save for the trip-trap over the plastic roadway tiles that protected the path from the mud. The road was a way back from our tent, and the lights were bright in the fading evening light, so it took me a short while to recognize the characteristic three-point shape of a flaming pitchfork, and to recognize the glint of a hat, and now a full robe, decorated with old larp coins... The villagers had found us. I sent someone to phone the police. At the very least, they were trespassing, and I knew they were wanted in conjunction with the death of two of our staff members (or, rather, one death and one "Destruction of Property", as the law callously put it). But the players had no protection from these mad-men and women, and would try to reason with them, and that, terrifyingly, is my job. I hurried down as quietly as I could, flanked by four of our engineering corps, to stand at the entrance to the in-character field. Around twenty feet from me, and at a gesture from the leader, they stopped. There were around fifty in all, half of whom carried the flaming pitchforks that were so recognizable. From the middle, a scuffle and some muffled noises broke out, as our captured gate team were brought to the front. "You will let us though" said the leader, "or you will not see these people again" "We left" I said, "We did want you wanted, we left your village and do not intend to return." "That is not enough. I know your kind now, you must be stricken from this land, and from all lands. Look what you would do to our countryside". He gestured out, and while it was dark, he plainly indicated the field of churned mud that had until recently been a grassy field. "With your boots, and your camping, and your pretend battles with so many shouted words." (I elected not to explain to him how our new "Holmeswood Rules" system would mean the battles would be performed in perfect silence. I didn't think it was the best time), "It is best for this world if I rid it of you and your supposed 'fun'" So saying, he took a torch from a villager nearby and marched towards the nearest tent, which happened to be Game Operations. This was not a recommended action, since it involved leaving the roadways our engineering core had carefully constructed. The weight of his righteous fury, in addition to the heavy metal of his new robe and hat combo, slowed his progress though the deep mud that was slowly devouring our site, and he barely got thirty feet towards the tent when he faltered, now nearly knee deep. His progress stalled, he called out to his mob for assistance, but they didn't seem inclined to investigate the mud at any closer range, and without his leadership were beginning to mill around slightly. This led our intrepid gate team to stage an escape, and run back to the safety of Crew Welfare, while the leader screamed abuse until it was stifled by an extremely cathartic squelch as he fell, face first, into the deep and inviting mud of our brand new site, as his torch went out along with a lot of his righteous fury. Sometime later, when the police arrived, we retrieved him with the aid of the tractor. We've kept his costume, though. It's really very pretty. By Sunday morning, around half the villagers had gone home, a few had joined the leader in the warm embrace of the legal system, and the rest... well... Next event will see a new group joining the Song of Wind, Earth and Heart. They're fairly new to LARP in general, so be nice to them. On a rules note: Pitchforks are now valid weapons for the Song. Players should insure they are stab safe, and also unable to be set on fire. Your quality role-playing experience is our foremost concern. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2015-04-02T14:51:56+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/760375624057888 In light of recent events, the following changes will be made for this event only, confirmation for future events will happen later: * We are unilaterally disbanding the entire "Summerisle" foreign nation and all plotlines connected to it. * Weapons safety checks will be done by our secondary team. We would advise not arguing with them. * Due to the untimely death of the First-Aid-O-Tron 9000, we will be operating a more normal medical team, and any deep or surgery-requiring injuries will be sent to the local hospital. * It further transpires that any other medical services the First-Aid-O-Tron was providing out of hours are not covered by our insurance, or anyone else's. Further information on appointments and reschedulings should be taken up with the manufacturer. * While the description of the new site as a "Barren Wasteland" is a little strong, we would encourage the IC belief that the new site's lack of trees, or even grass, is due to a misdirected ritual. * If you see our lead designer during the game with a fearful or dazed expression, please do not approach. We would be grateful if you could steer or herd him gently back to the compound, ideally by entirely unarmed players. The episodes don't last long, and we believe he will entirely recover. * The physrepping standards for some of our NPCs may be not up to our normal aspirational standard, due to a number of items at the previous site we were unable to retrieve. We apologize for the drop in quality. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2015-04-01T07:13:00+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/759729864122464 IS have always hated April Fools day and all its works, although the google game is nice, we suppose. However, since it's obligatory: "As of next event, casting any ritual will require queuing at GOD during specified time so we can check your math" Ha ha. Ha ha hah.ha. Proper rules for next event will go up tomorrow at some point. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2015-03-27T14:58:37+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/757761874319263 We regret to announce that the forthcoming Idle Speculation event will not be being held at our new Beemother site. When we went down to start setting up this weekend, we thought that another LARP had booked the field without us being notified, and were readying our righteous indignation, which paled in comparison to theirs. In our great and storied history of being part of Idle Speculation, we have never been quite so wrong. The villagers of the local area had, bound by common cause, arrived on site to perform some strange ritual. In the centre of the proposed field that you were due to be in later this week, they had erected some kind of giant wicker bird-cage, in which there was a series of fascinatingly lifelike avatars of our glorious leader and the various underground creatures that make up our writing staff. Below that, they had dug up every single lammie found on site from our previous game and placed them atop a bier of thin, dry wood. We stood at the edge of the field, hidden by the trees. Our lead safety expert was horrified: Some of those lammies had dangerously sharp edges, and were not safe for use in the field. Even First-Aid-O-Tron 9000 was shocked at the stability of the wooden structure. We waited for their ceremony to end, and we hid. Presently the sun sunk below the branches of the trees around us, and the general milling and discussion of the villagers coalesced slowly into a rhythmatic chanting, and from there into a slow and terrible dance, coordinated and deliberate, artistic and terrifying. 'NIM-BEE' They chanted over, and over again, as the light levels fell "NIM-BEE, NIM-BEE" As darkness was falling, the leader - who wore a tall hat glittering in the gloaming with old coins from larps before - lit a torch and advanced towards the bier, and the cage, and the avatars... of us. Of me. The crackling of the kindling proved that the fire had lit, and soon it spread, the bright of the fire poisoned by the black smoke of ten thousand laminated cards, until the wicker cage finally lit, and by some kind of horrible artistry, the avatars inside began to rattle and scream. The screams and the light broke the spell of calm detachment that had washed over me, and I realised that in the light of the huge bonfire, the safety of our tree-line was safe no longer. A villager turned from the light of the fire to see the bright reflection of it in the gleaming shell of the First-Aid-O-Tron 9000. He pointed, and shouted, and we turned, and we _ran_. Though the forest the three of us sprinted, as the crazed villages gathered behind us. Conditioned by months of writing, none of us were in any fit state to run marathons, but I was surprised that the First-Aid-O-Tron 9000 was the first to fall. Their tracks caught on a green branch, they tipped over, and were overrun within minutes by men and women armed with clubs and mallets. The dented, lumpen mass of metal that remained moved no more, First-Aid-O-Tron 9000 could not heal themself. In perhaps some strange tribute, the pitchforks that the villagers wielded were all larp safe handles, though the steel spikes atop them, wrapped with flaming cloth, would not be accepted at any of our events. His dedication to informing the villagers of this would be the undoing of our safety expert who died as he always expected to, at the hands of a weapon he hadn't checked. And for me? I lived. I reached the end of the forest, and found sanctuary in a ditch for long enough that those who were looking looked elsewhere. I crept back to my car. Starting it roused the villagers again, and I fled from Beemother with literal flaming pitchforks in my rear view mirror. We will not be back to Beemother, and personally I don't foresee any replacement sites having any kind of forest on them. I've gone right off fighting in forests. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2015-03-16T15:14:53+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/752973838131400 A reminder of the IS armour rules: * If you have bought the light armour skill, you must have five hundred lit LEDs - at minimum - on the seams and joins. Your armour will provide you with hit points unless a light does not work. * If you have bought the medium armour skill, you must successfully predict the outcome and personality failures of the generals in advance of the preceding battle. Should you be proven correct, you will be retroactively granted your hitpoints. Note: This is not able to recover a character from death or TERMINAL status. * If you have bought the heavy armour skill, you are required to cover at least four locations with steel or stone plates at least two inches thick. Wheels are permitted on greaves, as are squires, but we have decided that while rubber tread does help in woodland environments it is against the aspirational vision of the game. * Doing anything that would affect your maximum hit count in a battle, including changing armour, spending XP, or cheating; will leave your character on zero hits, terminal, and about to die SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2015-02-25T23:05:07+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/743380329090751 Frequently Asked Questions, 2015 edition: Why have you removed so many rituals? The ritual of the speaking blade has been removed from the cast list due to a difficulty in acquiring helium in sufficient quantities and the damage sustained to the vocal cords of our NPC team. The ritual of mea dulcis victoria has been removed from the cast list. It was only there to taunt you. The Bakeron ritual of the cake stand has been removed for being overpowered. The ritual of the blood seeking blade has been removed for copyright reasons. The ritual of the quintessential calamity causing cattle catastrophe has been removed for reasons that are patently obvious to anybody who witnessed its use during what ended up being the early finale of the second event this year. --- Can I send letters to your NPCs during downtime? The following NPCs can be contacted during the gap between events: * Sandwarn, burner of all incoming letters. * Hughpea Essence, of the failed delivery * Chitae Lynx, ruiner of holidays * Yhodell, who rings the bell beyond hearing. Reply should not be expected. --- I've got this idea for a ritual that coincidentally fulfils all my character goals, defeats all the enemies of the Idyll Empire all at once, and promotes me to the throne, and best of all with my current costing plans is cheaper than cake. Can I cast it? Yes. Not in this game, or in any game we ever run, but knock yourself out. Let us know how it goes. --- I think the General's Assembly is boring. There aren't enough numbers For the forthcoming season, we've decided to issue laptops in all General's Assembly meetings, so that you can run the exact systems we use during downtime to be absolutely sure that any decisions taken in the General's Assembly will reflect accurately in-between seasons. We apologise for the nature of previous editions of the General's Assembly ruleset, where the enemy did things you didn't expect for reasons you didn't have all the information on, it bore no resemblance to any kind of game. --- I think the General's Assembly is boring, all the numbers make all the meetings dull. For the forthcoming season, we will be issuing laptops to members of the General's Assembly to make sure all the numbers are easy to understand. The numbers for the enemy will be IC generated from roleplay and scouting you have performed, but the laptops will make them look official enough for the other side. We will then run the following downtime exactly the way we were going to anyway, complete with unknown outcomes, because experience suggests we will be complained at either way, and we might as well do it while running the game we want to. --- Have you released the specifications for how to build a Bakeron Aerial Support Pecan-Danish? No, those will be released when anyone in the playerbase acquires the resources to build one. --- If I swap my medium armour for light armour for a night battle, do I retain the bonuses to my cooking skill? No, you are on zero hits, terminal and about to die. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2015-02-17T15:26:57+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/739437099485074 It has come to our attention that a recent announced policy decision has resulted in some people questioning whether they should attend our events, and for some whether it is medically possible for them to do so. As part of our new environment - address to be provided once we've outrun the pitchforks from our last meeting - this year's Idle Speculation events will be hosted in a brand new IC Location. As part of the cultural mystique of the community, we have therefore made a temporary ban on drinking in-character at our game. Now, we understand that this will cause some issues. It's become a tradition, and for some nearly a requirement, to cool down with a drink after a battle, or to sit back in camp with a bottle on a hot afternoon, and we're not blind to that. The decision has been made as part of a series of cultural changes, and it's one that's moderately detrimental to our bottom line - even ignoring lost ticket sales, we'd lose the profits from the event-run tavern - but we're not going to stop you drinking in the OOC area, or your own tent, or at any other event you may choose to go to instead. Water will be available OOC from GOD if required, but as stated, drinking in-character is no longer allowed at our events. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2015-02-17T15:03:32+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/739428472819270 As of 2015, We intend to run all Idle Speculation events as dry events. We advise bringing waterproof shelters and clothing, though. Just in case. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2014-12-29T16:28:42+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/713928332035951 One by one, Idle Speculation aims to batter down the barriers between popular culture and festival LARP, partly in an attempt to prove to the people who bullied us at school that roleplaying really is cool, and partly to one day score government funding. With the new site comes new challenges, and new opportunities to advance the cause of LARP a dozen years at a jump. Due to costing requirements, some people may find the new site not as accessible as they might prefer. For starters, we've been unable to secure a site that's five minutes walk from everybody's front door, and it turns out there are strict limits to open spaces accessible by Oyster card. In order to ensure that nobody is put out by these travel requirements, however, we are working on an entirely new experience for those people who find it such a pain to travel more than twenty minutes to a larp site. Presenting our newest innovation: The Ghosts of Fellowsland. From our deep backstory for the Idyll Empire, Fellowsland was the lost tenth nation of the Empire, destroyed years before the start of the game in a mysterious apocalyptic event. Their lands were hard to traverse, and their trading empire - the most powerful the Empire had ever seen - based almost entirely on small red receipts that represented items of incredible worth, yet were easy to carry on a day to day basis. Now, nearly ten years since their empire folded, the old mechanical shopfronts of the Fellowsland seem to be waking up again, and the ghostly spectres of their owners are once again selling items to the citizens of the Empire. In this new expansion, players without the ability to actually go to events will be able to buy tickets and found characters from Fellowsland. While they have no corporeal body, your character can still interact with the downtime system of our game, and the detailed economic trading system. At actual IS events, we will be setting up advanced audio/visual booths, fully in universe, that your character can rent out for periods of time in exchange for IC goods. You will be able to interact with players in the field by webcam technology, and in field players can contact your character via the mysterious ritual known as Kallens Kype. The booths will be equipped with printers to produce the Fellowsland's famous red receipts, which can be exchanged at GOD for items in your characters' inventory, allowing you to run a full in-universe trading empire from the comfort of your own home. Because these new technological marvels are complicated to set up and run in a field, it is necessary for the Fellowsland tickets to be significantly more expensive than normal field tickets, but we feel sure that for the level of accessibility the system grants you, it is but a small price to pay. Your quantity of roleplaying experience is, as ever, our primary concern. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2014-12-22T10:27:37+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/709215722507212 James Blackshaw asks: Will the Bakeron Aerial Support Croissant be available for crafting in 2015, or does the new site similarly lack the zipwire infrastructure to use it in battles? https://i.imgur.com/H15UzsM.jpg Our design team say: As you will be aware, we are keen to be able to bring the RSF (Realm Specific Fighters) into play within the next few years, and we do expect that should we get planning permission along these lines, the new site will enable us to do more of this kind of thing. The Bakeron's RSF - beautifully physrepped above - has been featured in block-text descriptions and downtime since we started the game, and this pre-introduction has fanned the flames of interest. Severely burning the Croissants, in many cases. Without spoiling future plans for the system, I can say the following: We are not planning on implementing the zipwire system. While it also interacts badly with the aesthetic aim of Holmeswood (in part because the zip-wires end up being in many shots, but also because we feel that dive-bombing giant Croissants flown by accurately-physrepped gingerbread men may do even more damage to getting our hobby taken seriously than all that talking); the major issue is that a brief trial with our new combat testing initiative has proved that the zipwire initiative has potentially fatal tangling issues interacting with the knew Phucain knack for "Up magic" - as detailed elsewhere. On a related note, anyone in our combat testing initiative who has signed the old 30 page indemnity document needs to have signed the newer 90 page version before close of business Thursday. We have a solution to this, though. Our prop-building boffins have been hard at work with a new method of making this work that will keep it perfectly safe for the pilot, and also fulfill a 1950s stereotype of what life in this age should be like. That's all I can say for now, I look forward to explaining more in the new year. That's still the future, though. How can we implement these iconic system elements as quickly as possible? Well, while the full scale model is out of reach, we have spoken to our writing team about adding a smaller model to the background, and they said "LET ME OUT, I HAVE BEEN WRITING FOR MONTHS AND THE EVENT ISN'T FOR QUARTER OF A YEAR! STOP PESTERING ME", but eventually wrote them in to the system. So we are pleased to announce that as of E3 this year, you will be able to craft a Bakeron Aerial Support Pecan-Danish, a quadcopter mounted variant of the same design, fully equipped with the same form of ranged weaponry as our award-winning new "Up Magic" system, and allowing a full six-axis range of motion. Pilot licences for your character will be available in the cash shop by Easter, and the other five RSF models will be announced when we do full write ups of their realms, coming in this year. Tickets for next year's events are available in the usual places now, you should buy them and save Christmas for your friends. Your quality yuletide experience is our primary concern. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2014-12-12T18:22:21+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/704213979674053 Idle Speculation has a form of armour for warriors, in the form of light, medium and heavy armour. We've developed armour for magic users in the form of our classic Mage Armour rules, which we are rewriting. We're not going to tell you what the changes are, but trust us, when a ref says you're cheating, you are. New for 2015 is our protection system for Alchemists, where we will allow you to combine Elfroot, Black Lotus, Spice Melange and Crack in vast quantities to imbue a crafted suit of light or medium armour with special herbal properties that make you entire immune to needing to care about narrative character fidelity, as well as most forms of damage. This new herb-based enchantment will be released in the new year on the wiki as "Sage armour" SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2014-10-09T23:31:50+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/672908732804578 Holmeswood Rules. For some battles, we are going to adopt a system which we have named "Holmeswood Rules". These will, in character, be reserved for high impact, high risk, high immersion fights upon which will pivot the future of the Idyll Empire. These fights will be accessible only to those who can prove their armour and weaponry is of highest immersive style - which will be done by a series of price-tag checks - or by those who pass a lower bar of immersion but have purchased the special "Holmeswood" level tickets. Holmeswood tickets will be available for every event, in order to protect the surprise of whether we will be running a Holmeswood Battle Event. Holmeswood level tickets are not refundable, but those who purchase unusable ones will be allowed to spend an extra hour in the Snowflake field. Or protected from doing so, if desired. Under Holmeswood Rules, the following rules will apply: * The battle will be carried out in absolute silence. There will be no damage calls for melee weapons, nor for ranged, nor for magic. The Stirring Epic Soundtrack of the Idyll Empire will play in the background, and with the swirling smoke and authentic sound of foam on alluminium-chain, we expect any youtube videos or larper first impressions to be of an epic film battle in full swing. * No refs or photographers will be allowed on the battle field. Their costume is clearly out of character, and in the spirit of Holmeswood Rules, would break the fragile immersion of hitting people with a rubber sword in a muddy field. * Wide area calls will be indicated by subtly waving your arms around in an in character fashion. If the character doesn't notice, then you missed. * Arrows and Bolts are allowed, but must be fired into areas where they have no chance of being visible and spoiling someone's visual impression of the scene. * Orders may be sent to troops, but must be communicated by either notes, or semaphore flags as detailed in a future document. * But the important thing is the noise. Our research suggests that the thing stopping our hobby - of hitting of other people with rubber swords, and talking to each other in a muddy field while pretending to be warriors, wizards and clerics and affecting the fate of a great and wonderful Idyll Empire - being taken seriously is that sometimes people shout words while they do it. So cut that right out. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2014-10-06T14:12:05+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/671033552992096 SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2014-10-04T22:23:52+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/670143083081143 As the tribe of the Phucain ( http://idlespeculation.foip.me/nation-briefs/the-phucain/ ) are aware, the very last quest of our final event this year re-introduced a long-lost form of Up Magic back to the Idyll Empire. It's a complicated ritual, and the process will be further explained in character (There are full details ready to be on our wiki soon), but we wanted to take a moment to discuss the physical representation of the new Idle Speculation "Flight" mechanic. There is an art, or a knack, to Flight. The trick lies in knowing how to get up in the air, and stay there. You'll need a fairly windy day - the kind our site specializes in, fortunately - the kind of baggy robe-type clothing the Phucain brief recommends but - in the grand traditions of the Kyten Magic School - of much lighter fabric. Light, strong cotton is good, silk is even better. The Kyten school is only really suited to the... more light statured of the Phucain, and thus isn't really a fit for some of the ritualists who, as a side effect of our Mana Consumption hard skills, may find this harder. Your costume should bind tighter at the ankles and wrists, and billow out slightly behind you, so that when our dedicated ritual magicians hold the other end of the string, you are able to attain and maintain height. This may require some speed from the ritual magicians, but the effect will be well worth it. When executed on the battlefield, the ritual will allow the flying Kyten to use ranged magical calls at will. This will be balanced by our sympathetic magic system ( https://www.facebook.com/idlespeculation/posts/255811031181019 ). The ritualist on the battlefield will need to be well protected, but we do not advise letting go of the string at any time. We envisage landing to be tricky, but feel that it is a hard skill worth perfecting. The FIRST-AID-O-TRON 9000 agrees. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2014-09-19T10:00:00+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/663049483790503 The 2014 Idle Speculation Expansion Pack: The Decimation of Winter Coming for next season, the brand new Idle Speculation Expansion Pack. Featuring: * An old zone reopened for the very last time, take one last tour of the desolate plains of Stoood, where nothing has grown for a thousand years. * Five Blame Tokens! Specially crafted works that allow you to shift the blame for anything your character does onto another player - or the Idle Speculation system runners - with no further consequence! * A new deck of Traumatic Imaginary Wounds! See how the medics react to wound cards that they can't treat, can't detect, and will heal perfectly as soon as you forget about them! * Artefact: Crafted Bargepole (10'), the ability to craft - and then to wield - this largest weapon in the game. Allows you to stab the front lines from the relative safety of the trees, and calls impale with every hit that the recipant can actually hear you make. With added magical effect: Can be used to not touch toxic arguments on the internet! Carefully made so that with practice, can make melee attacks around corners! * Enter the next phase of the Idle Speculation campaign: With the PCs having kicked out all the non-imperial Awks and reclaimed the entire empire, there's only one place to go: Back in time! Using our unique "Ciao" system, your party can be transported back to the formation of the Idyll Empire, meet the first empress, and experience first hand what happened to her iconic zebra! Order now for the Extended Edition, featuring: * a tricorn costume piece * a plot token * A war-rhino combat pet. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2014-09-18T14:05:17+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/662729310489187 An apology: By placing the clue in this Facebook group about the WarCamel that took pride of place on our first battle last event, we accidentally broadcast game-relevant information only to those people who read the Facebook group. In a secondary observation, we are noticing that people taking advantage of our clarification on nationwide IC communication are having fewer communication issues with the people who are also on the Facebook group, as they are able to have detailed IC/OC conversations with each other without suffering the disadvantages of needing to remain one or the other, and indeed having the conversations at all between characters who would never otherwise interact, at a scale that would be difficult to physrep. For this reason, we have decided that since members of our Nation Facebook groups and pages are receiving direct game benefit from their use of this site, we will be raising their ticket prices accordingly. Anything else would be vastly unfair to the percentage of our playerbase who would prefer not to touch this particular wretched hive with a stab-safe Crafted Bargepole Artefact (10') (Available in our forthcoming second expansion pack) SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2014-09-17T17:31:28+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/662360120526106 A reminder, in these uncertain times. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2014-08-21T13:52:09+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/649406385154813 🐪 SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2014-08-16T15:46:56+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/646956065399845 We have adjusted our weapons policies to make most of those forged by PLT not acceptable in our system. Upon consideration, we have observed that a lot of PLT's barbs are overly-sharp, and weighty enough to cause distress. This, coupled with a tendency of players in a hurry to aim - accidentally or deliberately - at sensitive areas, has resulted in an overall a negative effect on the game, and we look forward to a time when the entire hobby has forgotten all about them. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2014-07-30T08:35:50+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/638713639557421 Clarification: The phrase "No IC forums for nations or Imperial political bodies" in the communication notes does, as many players have concluded, only actually apply you people who aren't you, and your IC message sent to the nation boards is entirely above board, not making declarations without suffering consequences, and not in any way absolute blatant cheating. Hope this helps. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2014-06-03T16:29:08+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/610022345759884 A clarification on the balance of the Idyll Empire's government institutions: The Ecumenical Forum's ability to block the effect of the Political Convocation can now be reversed by a greater majority vote in the General's Assembly, which can in turn be redirected by a buy-in of one Mana from a majority of Wizard's Houses from Borewarts. This in turn can be blocked by the Trader's Caucus who can have any decision overturned by the Convocation. A ruling that passes though each body without being returned will score 15 points, the first veto will score an additional 15 points with subsequent vetos scored at 10 points each. At a score of 40 points the legislation, power, request or judgement will be declared for whichever house was due to consider it next, and the institution will score that many points towards the final game. Items that pass though ten houses without being vetoed at all will be scored for the last institution to veto them, and then be dropped to maintain brevity of institutional load and avoid increasing the complexity of the game contrary to our design goals. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2014-06-01T08:16:46+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/608808482547937 The ability to do things outside the restrictions of our Downtime System is only available under our "Free text downtime" service, which is available in our cash-shop, along with items that will render you immune to roleplay and consequences. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2014-05-30T16:20:22+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/607975849297867 Coming this autumn: Idle Speculation: Let It Be My Day The new expansion pack from the creators of the Idyll Empire. Preorder now to guarantee access to the the new features and rules, featuring: * 20 new Rituals * 10 new magical items * A new deck of 50 Traumatic Wound cards, including four new super-rare Foils * A brand new realm of magic - dare you go deep into the terrifying realm of Refiat? * A new end of content battle, available once per event for up to 64 players of any nation: The Obsidian/Starshine cult has finished it's great work of glory, the SOULOMATIC, which will destroy the DeathMaze forever! Only your team (and future teams, some of which you may be on) can defeat it in time! * A one-off scroll of Advancement, which will enable you to boost a character of your choice by 100 XP, directly to the end-game content. * Three brand new battle scenarios, including a castle. And, with the Special Edition: * A small plush Sudokua The Eternal * The ability to choose Wemic at chargen * A limited edition booklet to keep your Traumatic Wounds collections in. * A small in-game General Ruth pet to follow you around in your adventures! * Two one-shot potions of Revoke Senate Motion. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2014-04-27T12:47:11+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/591057067656412 We discovered last year that our Immersion policy, which offers an Olympic™ sized paddling pool for the use of anybody who feels that their sense of presence in the world is being reduced, was not popular in the initial and final events of the year, and vastly oversubscribed for the June and July events. Therefore, we have decided to add an incentive-reward metric to this system, whereby characters (and associated players) who find themselves entirely in-character and greatly associating at a deep level with the game around them, will be given dedicated warming costumes during the Easter and September events, the better to maintain the high-quality role-playing experience that is our first priority. This system of rewarding depth of role-play will be known as the Immersion Heater. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2014-03-12T10:50:33+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/568807629881356 We would like to thank everyone who came to our first event last weekend. Idle Speculation is a new system from deep roots, and it was an amazing experience to see so many people enjoying the game that our designers have been living, breathing, eating and occasionally shitting on for the months leading up to it. A summery (Ha!) of what happened at the first event has been posted on the wiki, but we would like to thank in particular the Imp Awks faction for their astounding use of Papier-mâché in the face of extreme adversity, for our Monster Crew's continuing support in the face of extreme Papier-mâché, For the craft department's rapid creation of the inflatable raft platforms the final fight was fought on after the inclement weather, and for the Bakeron whose costume was so very tasty on Friday night. After such a successful event, it seems only right that we continue to improve on the - somewhat floating - base we've set ourselves. The forthcoming system changes before the next event are somewhat sweeping, and involve some entirely new systems - we have a new Economics game mechanic you're going to love to pieces - but your quality roleplaying experience is our primary goal. Our key word for this year means the constant striving for a better larp, a better system, and better customers to play it, so in the coming weeks and months, we will present to you Idle Speculation Season Two: Year of the Yearnerational. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2014-03-11T16:35:13+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/568505163244936 To give wider visibility to our response to Conrad's question: We have decided to withdraw from all future UK Larp Awards events, to give other events a chance to reach our heights of awesome. We will, however, be launching the UK Lrp Awards 2015, in which we will be nominatable for all categories about lrps. We were planning to nominate our friends for all person-based awards, but that proved impractical (we have no friends) SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2014-01-24T15:04:52+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/542087859220000 Recently it has been asked If our larp will have dog soldiers Running 'round with bendy swords Helping everybody. Well it turns out that we won't, Doesn't fit our story. If some one else ran that larp. That is where we'd be. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2014-01-04T14:26:27+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/532549406840512 To tide you over for the winter break, some wallpapers hinting at our plans for the coming year. More later. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2014-01-02T17:01:56+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/531678123594307 The world will never see a "real" PvP LRP game with more than 200 regular players SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2013-09-22T17:47:57+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/482333625195424 To our fallen comrade in discussion, we salute your dedication, your actual interesting discussion, and your role as an endless source of straight-lines. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2013-08-29T14:29:31+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/472223222873131 We are accused of being lax in our moderation. Henceforth we will delete and ban anyone not being nice. Your quality of not-roleplaying experience is, as ever, our primary goal. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2013-08-02T16:30:59+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/460759620686158 We'd like to thank the people who came to the recent Idle Speculation combat test. The following rules changes will come into effect before the next: * Bakeron's inherant Butter Up, Hero ability is going to have some physrepping changes applied. We have been recommended to remove some of the requirements, as by the end of the first battle there was an issue of grip underfoot. * Reiterating our rules on armour: * If you have bought the light armour skill, you must have a minimum of five hundred LEDs, at minimum on the seams and joins. * If you have bought the medium armour skill, you must successfully predict the outcome and personality failures of the generals in advance of the preceding battle. * If you have bought the heavy armour skill, you are required to cover at least four locations with plates at least two inches thick. Wheels are permitted on greaves, as are squires, but we have decided that while rubber tread does help in woodland environments it is against the aspirational vision of the game. * Doing anything that would affect your maximum hit count in a battle, including changing armour, spending XP, or cheating; will leave your character on zero hits, terminal, and about to die. * We have issued a booklet for storing Traumatic Wounds, which will resell for £7.99 at the game operations desk. It includes special flip-out photographic sets and dedicated pages for the new Rare and Foil cards. * Officials of the Idlyll Empire are reminded that their leadership role does not extend beyond the IC field. * The exchange rate for Lemon Drizzle cake at GameOps to granted XP will be adjusted downwards slightly as soon as the development staff can stand up again. * There will be an XP penalty for the following actions: * Not taking your hits. * Asking when the next Open Field battle will be. * Assuming "Long Term Goal" is, like, three events max. * The posting of unrequited penis to the game development crew * Casting Detect Magic. * Asking two different refs the same question in the hope of a better answer * Doing anything that would require a free text downtime. * Any thing you expect to be an XP penalty. Further changes will follow. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2013-08-02T15:51:10+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/460738600688260 The Idle Speculation team would like to invite people to share their opinions on the interactions of in-character and out-of-character trade and how it affects games and effects the game economy. We'd like to, but we daren't. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2013-08-01T13:33:59+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/460269704068483 Idle Speculation invites many different sections of society into a single place, and it would be interesting to see some gatherings of likeminded people before the event. So, we would like to suggest that anyone who has an interest in provoking online groups and taking the piss out of people for no better reason than you feel it would be wildly hilarious, we would like to suggest a short gathering in the OOC area by the rust-stained wall at 17:00 on Friday. As a show of good will, cigarettes will be provided. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2013-07-12T16:29:15+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/450839701678150 After careful consideration, we have decided that if you can get a horse past our Weapons Check team (Not literally; It has to be LARP safe, not sneaky) then you can use it on the field. Because we have specifically said horses do not exist in the Idyll Empire, you will have to dress it up as either a zebra, a giraffe or an eternal; so discussion on how to bring in a horse to a system that has said horses are extinct to the playerbase is not something that is completely and totally pointless at all. Zentai suits for horses to dress up as zebra or giraffes are available from the internet, we assume. Periscopes may be involved in the latter. Specific physrepping requirements for the relevant Autumn Eternal will be released soon, but for now you should be aware that he rides across the empire, the thoroughbred of sin, and he got the free text downtime that you just sent in. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2013-05-17T07:46:59+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/426137107481743 We do not allow free-text downtimes for Idle Speculation. Downtime actions should be submitted in the form of a series of lego models representing your desired actions, which will be translated without context by our crack downtime team for game effect. Models broken in transit will not count. We regret models can not be returned. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2013-04-19T14:22:43+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/414964105265710 A number of people have asked about our policy on communication between events, and we thought it was worth making absolutely clear our opinions on this. It seems logical to us that the best of the game should happen in the field, and therefore we would prefer that any meaningful communication between characters happen inside the game at the events. However, we have observed that a large number of our players use the "Me but with these dials turned differently" method of character generation, providing a worrying possibility that entirely OOC communication might influence the play and meaning of a character *especially* such conversations as "Well, if you're not enjoying it, you could come and play in my group instead". This is, patently, unacceptable. Our solution is that any conversation that affects your character should be performed under an official sanctioned IS environment, and that for a small hourly fee, our administration team will be happy to be paid for your entire life to be considered such, or small amounts of bought time in which you can write emails or letters whilst in character, whilst not having to worry about whether you are technically running the risk of being banned from any future - and retrospectively previous - IS events. Your premium roleplaying experience is, as ever, our highest concern. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2013-04-10T12:10:00+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/410531785708942 Combat clarifications, part two of several: Having repeatedly explained that we are attempting to create a reasonably safe main field, and making the mechanics of silent murder to be exceedingly complicated and to contain mechanical consequences, we have viewed the recent request for a "Throat cut" instant death call on all the merits for it we can find. We are therefore expanding on our previous "Two field" system, allowing the Snowflake class to interact without fear of being contradicted by a self-consistent universe, into our revolutionary "Three Field" system, where in one field we will maintain a safe and pleasant field, in another the self-rationalized chaos of the Snowflakes, and in a third an open PvP environment complete with throat-cut calls and murder by the toilets. This third field will take place at a different time, and with a different management team, with a different name, to allow players in the IS system the opportunity to play the PvP field as well as a separate character. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2013-04-10T09:50:20+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/410529832375804 Combat clarifications, Part one of several: Whilst the decision to arm our monsters with steel weaponry for the purposes of aspirationality and long-term wear and tear was well thought, it turns out that it has a dramatic effect on the wear and tear of the weaponry of those who oppose them. Plus, it turns out that the dramatically different weights, lethality and scriptedness of Reenactment style fighting means pitching it against Latex-Based weaponry is somewhat akin to comparing apples and katanas, and ends in an utterly pointless fight that just degrades both sides. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2013-03-27T19:24:37+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/405511426210978 As part of our field test of ritual skills, we note that anybody who is able to physrep the effects of the Up ritual "Sun Always Shines On The Righteous" will be granted enough XP to buy pretty much anything they like. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2013-03-25T17:15:31+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/404755796286541 Once again, our representatives will be around at the forthcoming Profound Decisions event. You will be able to spot them by a subtle embroidered IS logo, and they will be in the bar on Thursday night. We note it has never been proven that buying the organisation team beer does not get you more plot in any game. We are also informed that a forthcoming larp event has now nearly as high a wordcount as all the good Harry Potter books. Never ones to be outdone, we're planning on releasing enough words to eclipse not only the books themselves, but also all the fanfic. How many of those words will be "I am a fish" is left as an exercise for the writer. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2013-03-20T07:57:11+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/402612633167524 One of the cornerstones of Idle Speculation has fallen into place, we would like to tell you about Hard Skill Ritual Magic, and Physreps of Mana: We have been looking for a while for a way to make Ritual Magic a hard skill. It seems unfair that while people have been forced to hit each other with foam sticks for decades, the art of Magic remains stuck with vocals and shiny cards. We tasked some of our core team to research ways we could incorporate actual magic into IdleSpec, but their efforts were less successful, so this is what we've done: Mana in IS is physrepped with some kind of comestible. In our trials, we are using small blocks of cheese for summer, wine gums for autumn, crackers for spring and dutch liquorice for winter. You will be required, as a mage of that realm, to keep your mana crystals integral and dry over an event. In the event you wish to perform a ritual, you should summon the required amount of people and mana crystals, and they should begin the normal process of physrepping a ritual - chanting, shouting, walking in circles with your arms in the air, calling on powers from the wrong larp system by accident - but at the peek of the ritual, the main caster will consume the mana crystals required for the ritual. In the case of small rituals - five or ten crystals - this shouldn't be too much of burden, but it is there to represent the strains that powerful magic can wreck on the physical body of its users. High powered rituals - fifty to a hundred and fifty crystals - are an effort of physical capability as well as the ability to chant words, and throwing up your mana crystals halfway though an event is considered a failure of the ritual. Only for the set of rituals in the "BIG RED BUTTON" series have more than one main caster, at five hundred to three thousand mana crystals. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2013-03-06T14:50:22+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/397331017029019 Idle Speculation: Players who build characters rendered entirely unplayable or unfun by decisions made in character generation will be fully entitled to suck it up and not have any fun, and will be prevented from retiring or boxing their character, under a hard-core system design taken from the islandic larp tradition known as Laätfik. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2013-03-05T12:48:05+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/281587445304771 By... the closest to popular demand we're likely to manage: Zero Hits T-Shirts are now available: http://www.cafepress.com/idlespeculation/9896204 SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2013-02-27T10:49:24+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/394035494025238 The first of our ritual spoilers SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2013-02-19T14:13:37+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/390895711005883 On the subject of beta testing: We have been running dedicated beta tests for bits of ideas for Idle Speculation over the last five years, under a complicated arrangement known as "Laufen und Spielen anderer larp-Systeme". Some of these beta tests have been incredibly extensive and have involved thousands of players, and have tested quite a lot of the fundamental ideas that our own systems are built on. Whilst the most recent additions we have made to make IS better have not all been tested in conjunction with each other, we suspect they will interact well because we wrote them that way, and any attempt to beta test them on a scale large enough to expose any long term issues and changes required would be indistinguishable from running the game for a few years to see how it goes. On the other hand, Idle Speculation itself is part of a larger beta test for our next game, viertenspiel, starting in 2017 SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2013-02-08T12:10:14+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/385535274875260 We apologize for our recent radio silence, we are working on the rules and Wizard's High Table systems, but to address some recent concerns: * Death Knights are not currently part of the setting, unless one of our writers thinks it will be *REALLY COOL*. * Discussing religion is no fun in a field, so we expect all heresy and orthodoxy to be established on Facebook before event one. * If you start a question on here with "Maybe I should mail the refs" and you have not mailed the refs, you should pay attention to your opening sentence. * We have bought a FIRST-AID-O-TRON 5000 and will therefore not be needing anybody with first aid training. Anyone found on the field with the ability to fix anyone else will be stripped of any medical equipment found and then have the areas of their brain holding such knowledge temporarily cauterized so they will not be required to save people's lives or day on the field. The FIRST-AID-O-TRON 5000 assures us that this procedure is perfectly safe, and we can't think of any reason to doubt it. * If you have an IC tent, feel free to keep this information to yourself. Thanks. * Yes, there will be a ritual you can cast to end the world. It will be available on chargen, but will require every single member of the Wizard's High Council to perform, and requires a majority vote of both the Synod and the Senate, and a password known only by the recenly dead empress, Empress Vaterfilter. * There will be graveyards on site, and your character will be interred in one for as long as you wish to physrep the body. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2013-01-30T16:26:16+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/381625565266231 Groups in Idle Speculation Having spent a great deal of time talking to our prospective playerbase, we have come to the realisation that there is no system in the game more overpowered than that of Groups. Every system is capable of being "gamed" if you employ a couple of like minded friends to the same ends, and if sixteen months of interaction with our playerbase has taught us anything, it's that we'd be surprised if any of them have any friends at all. Therefore, we are going to take a two sided view on Group forming within IS. Obviously, you already have a group in the larger sense, in that every single person in the game, no matter how many levels of Snowflake they invest in, is going to be a member of one of the Nations we've spent so long developing as instruments of game interaction. We realise that being a member of a nation that has no bearing on your character save where they were born is going to ruin some of your immersion, but as previously mentioned, the site will be furnished with an olympic sized deep paddling pool to cure this problem. The first is that we are going to give you an incentive to be in the same place as your group members. That is, there are certain items which, when held aloft by your group leader, will make you entirely immune to roleplay for a limited period of time, a fact we find will greatly enhance your ability to ignore other peoples' damage calls and thus win the fight. Second, in order to partake in one or more of the mass fights organised on the battle, and be subject to one of these beneficial effects, you will need to be required to be connected in some way to the rest of your group by string, rope, or - our current preference in playtests - strong elastic. These will encourage only short term separation from your main forces, and with your group leader attached by a similar system to the rest of the nation, will assist in unit and nation cohesion. Sometimes literally. These groups, attached by retracting material, will fairly obviously be known as "Bands". SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2013-01-23T19:07:20+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/375778069184314 Any player who asks two different crew members the same question and cherry picks the answer they prefer will be hung from the town hall. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2013-01-23T17:06:52+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/375746479187473 Upon revision of necessity, some queries will now be responded too with "xxix) That Is Below The Abstraction Layer" SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2013-01-21T14:52:28+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/374772769284844 It has come to the attention of the design committee that more time is being spent on answering questions on here than on finishing the briefs for the Godhead, Independent Traders, Warface and Wizard's High Table. So, in order to devote more time to actually completing the setting, future questions on this board will be answered in code. For example, (1/xv[staff]/e/Z) The decoding table is below: Dear Paying Customer, Thank you for your enquiry about the Idle Speculation system or setting. After careful analysis of your query, 1: It is answered in the FAQ (section in brackets). 2: It is answered on the wiki. 3: The answer has not been released yet. 4: The answer will never be released, guess in character 5: The answer is complicated 6: The answer was presented here a little while ago 7: Your question does not make sense 8: Your question does not appear to intersect with reality 9: Your question is stupid, as is your face. Furthermore, i) No, this isn't a sequel to Colony Wars ii) Yes, Miffick does it differently iii) No, we don't think we need to rule on that iv) Yes, we assume players will act in good faith v) No, we don't want to treat you all like five year olds. vi) Yes, we will if we have to. vii) No, we don't believe that will actually come up in play. iix) Yes, the system does reward roleplaying. ix) No, turning everything into a soft skill doesn't solve everything. x) No, turning everything into a hard skill doesn't solve everything. xi) No, that is not part of our system setting. xii) No, that would cause people to actually die out of character. xiiv) No, because concussion is bad. xiv) No, because that's a [sword] xv) No, because that's not a [sword] xvi) No, because that would require every player to have a ref on their shoulder xvii) No, because we generally trust you not to be a dick. xiix) No, because that's not the game we're trying to run. Other systems are available. xix) No, because science. xx) No, because magic. xxi) No, because Varcula. xxii) No, because our green-hats would kill us. Then make us better, but still kill us. xxiiv) No, because we don't have that much time. xxiv) No, becasue we don't have that much money. xxv) No, because it would suck xxvi) No, because that would suck too much for the entries on this form to convey. xxvii) Yes, we'll look at incorperating that into a future revision. xxiix) You will be on zero hits, terminal, and about to die. In conclusion: a) Thank you for considering our scenario. b) Your question was interesting. c) Please read the documents, although I know asking is easier. d) Have a nice day. e) Have a great day. f) You are banned from attending events. g) Die in a fire. Yours X) Faithfully. Y) Sincerely. Z) With deep and abiding resentment. The IS team. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2013-01-14T15:27:20+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/433571286713912 For absolutely no reason at all, A reminder that we published the Awk brief. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2013-01-11T07:21:30+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/403592143057151 FAQ: The request not to put OC tents on the IC field is not affected by the game disguise rules, and a dome tent with a sheet over it still looks like a dome tent with a sheet over it. Furthermore this is not a valid in-character tent: http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/efa1/?cpg=cj&ref=&CJURL=&CJID=2470763 SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2013-01-09T14:55:10+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/369871516441636 Patience is indeed a virtue, Other virtues include "Paying in advance", "Taking your hits", "Reading the rules", "Spelling, Punctuation & Grammar", "Knowing your PID", "Bringing enough socks", and "Choosing a new character if your current one isn't fun" SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2013-01-09T11:20:43+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/130686153760440 For those who missed it last night SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2013-01-08T21:47:35+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/109711025871348 Idle Speculation: Frequently Asked Questions about Armour (This document can also found at https://docs.google.com/a/aquarionics.com/document/d/1u69vy2WlaIqMLn-Cg6z2pv5bueWCkPVlWbnpCds2Tqw/edit) What would happen if I was wearing Medium armour, then took four hits, and then I took a CLEAVE, so replaced it with Spit/Polish Mail for the extra hits and the recovery from CLEAVE and then a healing potion for three extra hits? You will be on zero hits, terminal, and about to die ------ What would happen if I was wearing light armour with heavy armour on top of that, but then removed the heavy armour after six hits to avoid the extra weight? You will be on zero hits, terminal, and about to die ------ Can I wear one suit of heavy armour on each limb, chest and head and take the armour as that number of points for that location? Yes, but You will be on zero hits, terminal, and about to die ------ If I ride into battle on a Zebra, but it is wounded, can I wear the carcass as extra armour? Yes, but you may not change armour in a battle, so it would have to be in a future fight. That would count as leather armour. If you wore the zebra armour in the same battle that it was killed in, you will be on zero hits, terminal, and about to die ------ If my Zebra is wearing leather armour, takes three hits, and I take off my heavy armour - which has only taken one hit - and put it on the Zebra, what is our current status? You will be on zero hits, terminal, and about to die. Your zebra will be encumbered. ------ If I am wearing Spit/Polish armour, can I replace the extra BLIND call that it gives me with a VENOM? No. ------ I am playing a Mage, but wearing heavy plate armour. Can I use the polearm as an implement? No ------ What does Baby Armour count as? Heavy Armour ------ If I replace the babies on the baby armour for aardvarks, and then each aardvark is wearing medium armour, and each set of medium armour has been coated with non-stick silicon, does that make me immune to all damage? No, it means you will be on zero hits, terminal, and about to die ------ Is there an armour level that would make me immune to all damage? Yes, the “Six foot thick ball of solid steel” armour is unique to the Gloaming. ------ What would happen if I was wearing heavy armour on my torso, but take an arrow to the knee? You will be on zero hits, terminal, about to die, and unable to be an adventurer. ------ If I am wearing full light armour, and then put on a suit of Gothic Plate that is still lammied from the previous game Colonies, what is my current status? You will be on zero hits, terminal, and about to die ------ If I am playing a playwright Bakeron build on the battlefield wearing full light armour, and then take two hits, replace it with heavy armour and take six hits, then take it off and put on some medium armour with four hits, add some Mage armour and get a mage to cast Shield Of Cake on me, which should give me six extra hits, surround myself with a wall of polearms and a banner of five extra hits, take nine hits over ten seconds to the wall and banner, and then five from a catapult, put the heavy armour - which my crafter secondary character has been repairing in the OOC area of our campsite, and then hit six characters for three double though venom strikedown each, and then take six damage from one character who then executes me, can I get a ref to ban them for cheating because I am non-combat, and what is my character’s current status? That is a special case. You will be about to die, terminal, and on zero hits. Your character is dead. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2013-01-08T15:39:35+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/369470189815102 MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT: In Idle Speculation, Awks will be able to ride Zebras. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-12-28T00:12:39+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/364443966984391 To answer a recent rules query: If you start off on three hits, put on four hits of armour, take six hits of damage, take off the armour and put on another set of armour that is worth three hits, you will be on zero hits, terminal, and about to die. This is the simplest way of solving the complicated problem of "What happens when people try to rules-lawyer during a battle" and is detailed in the simplified rules system between points six ("You may not set tents on fire, in or out of character") and eight ("Do not strangle people with coreless shields"). SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-12-26T18:39:04+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/363880137040774 After careful observation of other places, we have decided not to release the rules until we have every piece of documentation, photography and video ready for publication, and ideally have a couple of events under our belt. It would appear that giving people anything only encourages them to ask for more. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-12-25T09:00:00+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/344335785661876 Idyll Speculation wishes you a merry christmas SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-12-24T23:06:44+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/363122430449878 For the Idle Speculation senate, we have come to the conclusion that OOC charisma and public speaking ability were overpowered, so have boiled down the entire politic of the Empire to something that resembles a kind of collectable card game, thus: Bob: I think we should build a windmill in Mocktalic! Bill: Mocktalic? But that would be a Ecumenical matter! Bob: Hah! But I have a bribe for the clergy! Bill: Oh, I think you'll find that that has been RETCONNED! Bob: Really? RETCON? That went out in third edition. I dislike your argument, sir, and will turn you into a SHEEP! OVINATION! Bill: Damn, I could counter that if I had another three liao to tap... I take five Political damage, and no windmill goes though. Bill: ... But I think I will build A LUMBER MILL! SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-12-14T14:31:04+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/358739384221516 Every faction will have a designated group that there will be no IC consequences for murdering. These designations are not necessarily symmetrical. Any character caught performing PvP outside the specific designated zones will find that, no matter how sneaky or carefully you have been, the universe will turn its plans against you, and no fence, OC boundary, time nor fortune will save you from the fate you have been assigned. Your... character's.... death will be slow and meaningful. Your immersed roleplaying experience will be, as ever, our primary concern. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-12-13T10:58:36+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/358218224273632 There will be one healing potion. It will raise you to full hits for the next twenty minutes, and then you will die with no saving throw. It's expensive. Doctors will be able to save any wound or injury with a decreasing amount of role-play depending on their skill level. Surviving being knocked down will decrease your death count for the remainder of the event. None of this affects poisons. Players wounded out of character are recommended to talk to the greenhats in first aid. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-12-13T09:35:03+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/358202560941865 After a simulated battle test with the new uncored shield rules, we have confirmed that strangling people with shields will also be against the rules. Upon further reflection, we will also confirm that strangling people in general is against the rules, and regret the path that led us to have to say that to actual human beings. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-12-10T15:12:06+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/357118671050254 After carefuly consideration, we do not consider half an inch of foam padding sufficient for hitting someone in the face with, and therefore shield-bashing will only be allowed by people using entirely non-cored shields or, to give them their technical term, blankets. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-11-23T16:13:24+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/350840858344702 In order to use bows or crossbows at Idle Speculation, you will be required to go on a series of linear quests from our Overworld destination, where you will pick up a boomarang and various other implements, before rescuing the princess Delta and returning her to the Idyll Empire. This will grant you access to the Windwaker ability, which you can then buy for 1241 XP (£10) which will unlock the ability to use bows (or, for no extra charge, crossbows) for that character. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-11-22T13:57:46+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/350404615054993 In answer to a question: In keeping with our stated goal of making this the most accessible larp event ever, Children of people who wish to play Awks without the infanticide written into their culture brief will be able to cast them as smaller, mystical Awks who get no combat skills but will get a few low level magical abilities. More details on the ImpAwk class will be posted closer to the time. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-11-16T17:04:10+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/348303168598471 Idle Speculation Lineages Part One: The Bakeron. Physically, the Idyll Empire is surrounded by water. Metaphysically, the Empire sits at the cross-roads of eternity and infinity, hosting the Pelican Crossing of time and the stop lights of inter-dimentional communication. If you look, you can see six places from here. Interaction with the planes is via meditation, from our side. If you concentrate on the right part of the universe, you might be able to see though. Think harder, and you can walk there. Think hard enough, and you could fly. But from their side? From the side where all-powerful kings and queens of their own personal realm watch out into our lands? They can have a passing thought, and reach out and touch somebody. ---------------------------------------- As the Bakeron approached me, two things were clear to me. The first was that despite appearing to be made entirely out of gingerbread, she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. Her hair looked like butter icing, sparkling gently in the morning light, her dark brown limbs seemed glazed, where they were not covered by her leather coat. Her eyes were dark as raisin, and her mouth appeared made from piped icing. She smiled sweetly. "Fancy a cake?" I considered the options of this statement for a little while before I noticed the tray of delicacies at her waist. Cupcakes and brownies and tarts and... and yes, even gingerbread men. "It seems strange for you to be selling such things, given you appear to be of the same stuff" "If I was selling sentient cupcakes, I'm sure my lady would object. But these we make ourselves, of ourselves, and without care. Though not, obviously, without recompense." "How much for a cupcake?" "Maybe a crown, but if you throw in a kiss, I'll throw in a tart" Later, as I tried to get icing sugar out of some truly unlikely places, the old superstitions returned to me. Did my hair seem... just slightly more greasy? Did my sweat smell slightly more sweet? Of course not, those were just old wives tales. If I was turning into a fruitcake, it wasn't of that type. I went back to my camp and dodged all explanations of where I had been, as I had the previous night, and as I intended to until I was ready to introduce her to my father... ---------------------------------------- The realm of Bakeron appears, to all intents and purposes, to be made out of cakes and biscuits. The entire plane they come from is made of cake, the doors they come in though appear to be made of biscuits, the blessings you may recieve for pleasing their lady is very much likely to be culinary based. Of course, there are - as for all our lineages - no mechanical advantages or disadvantages to being of the Bakeron, and any player makes a decision on their own as to how touched they have been by the sticky syrup of Bakeron blood. In some characters, it may not manifest itself until fairly late in their life, maybe their hands begin to look like fruitcake, maybe patches of frosting start appearing on their skin, maybe their fingernails are suddenly made of chocolate chips, but all who have been touched by the elemental manifestation of cake maintain the ability to produce, given concentration and effort, any number of biscuits, cakes and confections for sale or gift on the field. The Bakeron tend towards cake, for that is the side of the great Plane of Marzipan that touches our world, but there are those from far away who tend more towards the pie than the cake, there are tribes of the biscotti, there are the great swirling oceans of whipped cream that the baby Bakeron can go swimming in. Those from the more cake-like end of the scale tend to have, obviously, a sweet disposition, but do not get on the bad side of the Bakeron, for none other have as rich a knowledge of how to batter you. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-11-14T11:11:57+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/347492518679536 After careful consideration, we have decided that taping two staves together and using one as a polearm and one as a magic implement will be invalid under the initial ruleset. It goes without saying that player characters will be unable to dual wield two handed weapons. Actually, it might not go without saying. player characters will be unable to dual wield two handed weapons. Having a squire near you on the battlefield who is able to throw you the best weapon for your current enemy from a long bag at their back will be supported under the "Caddy" class, to be released as a paid expansion later in development. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-11-13T16:54:48+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/347259872036134 At Al MacLeod's suggestion, we've attached a wordcloud of the current output of our Wiki. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-11-13T16:21:44+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/347251925370262 The Idle Speculation Wiki goes from strength to strength, containing hundreds of thousands of words that describe the entire history of the Idyll Empire from inception to the first event, with detailed descriptions of magic, combat, the Servile Service, and full and complete copies of the rules, weapon guidelines, armour values, costuming tips and a full detailed description of the native Runes system, translated into runes themselves by our dedicated team. It really is lovely. Sadly, technical limitations prohibit us from being able to show it to you unless you've already bought a ticket. Any complaints should be directed at our IT department. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-11-10T10:00:00+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/344978692264252 And when I say "After Work", I obviously know its a weekend. I haven't lost all track of time. On the other hand, apparently the entire cleric class is invalidated by the fact we don't have interventionalist gods yet. Rules release will be delayed for a few days while we sort this communication issue out. #IdleSpeculationThanksYouForNotSmoking SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-11-09T21:20:00+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/344978038930984 ... apparently I no longer have admin access. I'll get tech support on that in the morning, and post the rules after work tomorrow. #NearlyThereFolks! SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-11-09T21:10:00+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/344977768931011 ... what was my password again? SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-11-09T21:00:01+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/344977605597694 Right! This time I've really got it. It's all final, it's been checked by the entire ref team, and I've finally got the PDF ready to upload to the server. Nothing can stop the rules release now. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-11-08T20:20:00+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/344977155597739 Huh. Apparently I've mixed up apostrophes and commas again. Back to the reviewing process. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-11-08T20:10:00+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/344976875597767 Okay, got it. Final rules updates have been done, now just SPAG checks and it's ready. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-11-07T21:30:00+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/344976572264464 Oh, bother. These numbers are going to have be rewritten in base 9 to fit with the magic system. Back to the drawing board. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-11-07T21:00:00+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/344976192264502 Okay, finally finished the rules document. One final consistency check, and I'll post it to the page #MetresToGoUntilWeSleep SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-11-07T18:00:00+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/344975705597884 A brief simulated playtest using playmobil figures has proved our entire damage model is vulnerable to a player who takes Fireball at first level, who can then wipe out the entire field. Rebalancing. #AqsExcitingOneShotIdlsPeculationupDates SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-11-07T14:07:30+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/344974732264648 Looking at the unreleased brief for our lineages, there is a route though the creation system which would, with exactly the right skill selections and given sufficient stretching and playing against specifically spelled out briefings, allow a player to play a pure of heart knight without a troubled and fractured heart. Resolving this may put the lineage briefs back until after event 1, but it's a small price to pay. #AnUpdateADayKeepsTheAccusationsOfLazinessAway SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-11-07T00:22:37+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/344810432281078 Wrote the entire ruleset including all magic, medic, warrior and priest components, but have decided against releasing it to the playerbase because they simply do not deserve the time and effort we are putting in to this. #AqsExcitingIdleSpecPseudoTwitterFeed SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-11-06T08:39:22+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/430739400318448 For those that missed it last night, the Awk brief has been released SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-11-05T18:00:00+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/344263859002402 Nobody knows where they came from. They tell us that they cannot go back, but not where too. The Awk Nation was huge when it landed. Thousands of birds, soaring their limited flight though the sky, over our walls, over our gates, the first attacks were terrifying. The Progression were the safest. Their towering castles and suspiciously canvas-topped portable keeps were defense against the beating of wings and swords held in beaks, and the flying spells of the Phucain gave them an advantage that the Gloaming and Song weren't quite able to ever match. Without warning, their territories fell away from the edges of the Idyll Empire, the people of those Nations scattered to the nearest ground, the occasional enclave still remaining, surrounded by the terrifying eyries of the bird people. The refugees and the scattered remains of armies fled to the capitals and key locations told tales of giant birds, mostly between five and six feet tall, dressed in a mish-mash of leather armour and chainmail, short wings ending with humanoid hands wielding heavy swords as if they were made of plastic. Almost every Awk spoke in a form of the common tongue, thought some appeared to converse in a strange parrot-like squark, these were always, and without delay, soundly beaten with sticks by any other Awk who could see or hear them. They had little knowledge of the civilization of the empire, but they learnt really quite quickly, and seldom had the exact same conversation about "trade tokens" more than, say, twice before the other Awks treated them like parrot impressionists. Their strange beaked faces muffled the words they spoke, although to start with they spoke only of war, and while all being Awks they were indervidual and beautiful, from priestly Awks of glorious feathered white to the bright colours of the southern tribes, all were accepted within the Awk nation, save only those Awks with a strange genetic trait that made their beaks face upwards during mealtimes, but it was understood that any Awk who suffered this affliction would not ever be seen such in public, for otherwise they world, too, be treated alike with the parrot impressionists. The Awk Invasion continued for many years, until the flow of attack and defense of the land stablised, and the Awks and Humans started to speak with words, rather than swords, and the birds began to trade with the Empire, learning of their ways and customs, and the Awks of the border nations began to consider the Empire more than an ally, and possibly a stablising force. Perhaps one day to control from within, rather than by force. A few years ago, the first Awk tribes pledged their alliance to Empress Vhaterfilter, and a new chapter in their history began... The Awk nations are tribal and low-civilization, up until fairly recently they have mostly existed in forms of warbands - Flocks. Hundreds of years ago, they lived on a far away land, which they left for reasons that are both unspecified and not ever plot relevant, and at a time called the Great Last Flight, came to live in the lands of the Empire. A tribe of Awks generally look similar, although different tribes can be radically different from each other. You might get a tribe of swan-esque heavily white feathered Awks, or a group of dark assassin crows hiding in the shadows. Sometimes they are bound by something less physical, such as a pattern of wing feathers. It is possible to change Flocks in play, although difficult, and an applying Awk will change their physical appearance to match the group as far as possible, so a grey Awk joining the crow assassin squad mentioned earlier may appear to have had their feathers inexpertly painted or dyed. Awks can no longer fly, and their "wings" do not exceed their armspan. If within that restraint you are able to physrep the ability to jump further or higher than others, this is acceptable. There are groups of tribes within the Awks, and these will be roughly defined and released at a later date. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-11-05T12:31:25+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/344254129003375 That which is, That which was, Those who will be our empire. Above the world, Below the sky, We are the nation who will bind the empire together We will teach you the meaning of conflict, Then we will teach you the meaning of peace. We are of you, and above you, We are Awk. The last nation brief will be released ... soon. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-10-18T22:44:39+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/337616193000502 Every faction in Idle Speculation will be assigned one single ethereal spirit to guide and guard them. These guardian spirits represent the heart and soul of the faction, the Elysian ideal of your chosen nation, a collective and wise consciousness whose capriciousness opinions and knowledge will not only be better informed than most, but will be canonically more accurate. They exist to guide the nature of the factions. This guidance will, naturally, take the form of the ability to tell every single member of any faction exactly the ways, in alphabetical or priority order, in which they are Doing It Wrong. These "Eeyore" spirits will have both the IC power to cast a member out of the faction, and the OOC power to ban a user from the game if they persist in not following the spirit's exacting standards for kit quality, roleplay quality, engagement in Idyll Empire Mandated Plot Events, or refusing to take your goddamn hits. There will be three methods for a player to play an Eeyore character in play. The first is our new ticket level, which proves your opinions on kit design and ability are superior to all others because you have chosen to buy a more expensive ticket. The second is by representing a model Eeyore character on the official and unofficial online forums for Idle Speculation. We will be watching. The third method will be revealed in play, but will involve sticks, bridges, and a carefully positioned nail. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-10-17T13:32:26+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/337096396385815 Idle Speculation will feature NPC led plots so integrated with the history and future of the world that you'll believe a player wrote them to further their own ends! SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-09-26T14:54:50+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/360001170749444 We are receiving many questions about the existence of the Cakeonomy in IS, but we do not have anything to add to our previous discussion on the subject: https://www.facebook.com/idlespeculation/posts/267782173317238 SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-09-21T11:08:47+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/327782647317190 The Idle Speculation Facebook Group is one year old today. To celebrate, everyone who has already prebooked for Event 1 has been granted 10XP extra for chargen. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-09-20T11:54:43+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/467848766570962 Today, We announce that are planning on implementing the groundbreaking "Downtime Only" ticket, where your money will buy you access to our patented DowntimeOMatic, a system where you can achieve your internal and character goals merely by clicking buttons on a form. An initial version of this system is available - For Free! - for your quality roleplaying experience here: http://larp.me.uk/idlespeculation/downtimeomatic.php SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-09-12T11:19:52+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/324750440953744 Following discussions on the subject of food in the Idyll Empire, we have decided that each nation will have its own blend of culinary styles and tendencies, which we will document, but it's still all the same empire, so there's nothing stopping any of the other nations from using other recipes. Generally, we don't intend to police what food you eat, or what you wish to make for the game, but provide interesting cultural flavour (in this case literally) for your better enjoyment of the game. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-09-10T16:07:14+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/324140811014707 One of the final large blocks in the Idle Speculation setting is how we're involving not only our patented closed-world setting that maintains links with other closed-world settings (See our Lineage System), but also we now announce our Meta-Openworld policy: Within the universe of the Idyll Empire, there exist portals to other realms where your IS characters will be sent on missions. In a revolutionary twist never before seen in a LARP setting, these linears will be physrepped by any other LARP system in the world, where you can generate a character from the perspective of your IS character, play the character *your character* would play, and return into the Idyll empire with the hopes, dreams and experiences that that character has had. For example, one mission could be to find a Golden Egg, which would take place in the IS team's other game, Miffick. You could generate a group of Miffick characters based on your IS characters, and at their next event climb into the realm of Beanstalks to rescue a Golden Egg and return it to your IS nation, and at the same time enjoy a brand new system. By this method we can run an array of exciting dynamic events in original and exciting new universes, and encourage the attendance of other larp games while in no way piggybacking on other people's organisational skills. In consultation with the IS ref team, we can even come to some in character justification for bringing your IS character into the real world with you as a sub-character of your existing character who is dreaming within IS in an enhanced LILO-enhanced dream, and you will never, ever, have to face the real world without the comforting shield of LARP ever again. Your neverending roleplay experience is, as ever, our top priority. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-09-09T06:21:51+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/323598444402277 Breaking News: We have almost finished our final Set Piece for the site in the form of an olympic-rated swimming pool especially set up for people who really need to be taught about immersion. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-09-08T11:55:47+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/323314484430673 Breaking News: Idle Speculation will allow spears up to three miles high, an entire tech-tree for larp-safe bottles as throwing weapons, and wrist mounted ballista. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-09-07T07:27:59+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/152135414926300 With the briefs you have, we know you have been forming your new groups. You can now register your characters and groups (and post recruitment adverts) for Idle Speculation and various parody larp systems launching next year. http://larp.me/systems/idlespeculation SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-09-04T15:15:07+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/321952331233555 Although we cannot announce the release of our full briefings just yet (Our dedicated Wiki-Crew is currently recapitalising the titles of every single page on the development site to stay true to our final decision to only capitalise every third word in a title) we can announce that in addition to our previously announced character classes (Tank, Blaster, Healer) we will be introducing a new dedicated class who will be able to pick any three skills and any two background elements from any other published material (ours or others) and play to a brief that will be rewritten around their expectations as a player for their own perfect roleplaying scenario. The members of this new "Snowflake" class will not be expected to join in with the mass battles that are the cornerstone of our Idle Speculation experience, but instead will only be required to interact with other Snowflake class characters in a special reserved section of the field dedicated to the roleplay of those characters too awesome to fit in the world we spent such a long time working on. Your quality roleplaying experience is, as ever, our primary concern. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-08-21T13:21:15+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/172178006251606 Small influx of new viewers due to a mention by a parody larp system elsewhere on Facebook, so I'd like to remind potential players that they can find our current full nation briefs and mirrors of most of our rules announcements up at the website: http://idlespeculation.foip.me/ which is far easier than attempting to battle the forces of Thyme'Lhyne which have taken over our page. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-08-14T11:35:14+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/269247136508293 The first version of our Nation Decider has been released. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-08-06T18:14:49+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/312467312182057 Under new guidelines brought over from Icelanding larps in the "skopstæling" style, we will have introduced our first "lammie" to the Idyll System: All players will be required to wear a tag near the waist of their costume detailing how much they paid for it, or how much it would cost on the open market. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-07-18T16:57:32+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/306150682813720 Having been paying attention to cross-industry trends, as well as our nordic Immersion Enhancement lessons, IS are today announcing our bold new initiative for LARP Ticketing. We are simulating, with the famous Idyll Empire, a modern pre-medieval setting, with enhanced social understanding. We looked at the concept, and decided that we the ref-team found it to be self-evident that no player is above or below any other player, that they should stand as equals together, and that no player could look down upon any other player for any reason. Then we worked out that we can make money from this, because people want to have servants, fewer people want to play servants, but more want to pay less for their ticket. So, we are annoucing the new strata of ticketing for Idle Speculation. For 100% of the ticket price, you will be assigned a Hero ticket, which will entitle you to one character of your choice and background, a downtime for the event following, and free camping for the duration of the event. For 70% of the full ticket price, you can get a Sidekick ticket, which will entitle you to play one servant character assigned to a player of your choice, or one at random should you not choose. You will be required to play their servant both in and - within reason - out of character. For 40% of the full ticket price, you can play one of our mass-battle monster characters, where we will give you makeup and kit, and you can be a three hit respawning monster for an entire weekend (This is an upgrade from our previous system's "seraph" class) To avoid balancing problems with the economy, players will be limited to a less effective downtime for their first three events, and will have a hard limit as to the amount of money they can acquire in play. In addition, there will be a limit set on the number of Heros allowed on the field at any time, with a queuing system in place for those who remain. These restrictions also help us to balance the forthcoming "Real Money Trading House" concept, where you will be able to purchase items created in play by existing characters for real money, thus enhancing your game experience. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-07-17T12:39:51+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/305729396189182 Idle Speculation will be an immersive role-playing experience, so much so that anyone who answers to their real name in an IC environment will be assumed to be cheating. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-07-16T16:24:03+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/305468546215267 The Phucain are a tribe of magic users from all over the nation. They've never really been tied to any patch of land, except occasionally literally. During the last hundred years, in fact, they have been mostly famous for being high above the land, either rising or falling rapidly. The Phucain have two major skill-sets, which has rendered them on either far side of the popularity scale since time immemorial. The first, is they are the foremost practicioners of magic in the Idyll Empire, and the foremost experimenters with this form of energy. They are ruled by the council of magi, which considers itself a city-state in its own right, and believes its members to be constrained only by their own magi nation. You will recognise another Phucain magician by their hat. Hats are obligatory in the group, and each has his own personalised but which obviously indicates his preferred form of magic. These are the three forms of magic, known as Up, Around, Sex Appeal and Bacon. Up magic is the power of flight, of propulsion, of uplifting. It is very much a magic for the magician who is going somewhere, and has in the last hundred years been a very popular form indeed. Up magic is inevitably noisy and explosive, and used in combat for fireballs and repellents. In normal life it is a normal, albeit extremely hazardous, method for transporting objects that will land undamaged. Up magicians can be recognised by their use of red pointy hats, almost always made out of a durable material - usually metal - for the best aerodynamicism. They are painted uniquely, and each magician has a special symbol mounted at the apex of his hat for easy identification on a crowded battlefield. Most will also have a tally of the number of items killed by their magic since they last replaced their hat, these include battlefield wins, but also - and a lot more frequently - birds in flight, and unfortunate pedestrians in their landing zone. Advanced Up magic can only be produced in uptime with presentations of appropriate permits, releases and flight plans to IS personnel. Sex Appeal magic is a little understood sub-tribe, very popular where it is practiced, but almost inevitability risks the life of the magicians who practice it. Within IS, in order to attempt to avoid inevitable lawsuits and complains, SA magic will be mostly a ha... ... a skill which the player must have for their character to be able to do it. It should be noted that there are roleplay consequences with attempting to play a mage of Sex Appeal whilst maintaining the Way of Virtue. Bacon Magic is one of the most useful forms of power within the system, able to cause not only characters, but their players, to be roused from deepest slumber. There will be more of the incredible power of Bacon Magic in a future briefing. Around magic is the power of machinery, of mechanics and clockwork, of flamethrowers and steam engines, of brass and wood. They wear hats of this style, again pointed, but with a cone of brass and copper with a brim of polished mahogany. Again, their personal symbol sits at the apex for easy identification and/or blame. Primarily, these Phucain magi are creators of devices, of things that go whirr in the night, that help on the battlefield and almost fail to explode in peacetime. They are famous for their enchanted clockwork, which will enhance the endurance and power of any object they are affixed to, and there is a great demand for these items. Indeed, any item in the empire will be improved if you stick a Phucain cog on it. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-07-06T17:19:10+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/302222243206564 At Idle Speculation, have have long been considering the concept of game culture. However, our long-term project to make NPCs and Monster Crew out of yogurt does not appear to have been as wildly successful as we would have hoped. After having watched the population of Larpers and their assumptions of, and reactions to, announcements made for various popular future larp games, we have come to the careful conclusion that the very last thing we want to do is feel obliged to those same people for content. We're happy to take people on as monster crew, but we feel that the Us verses Them mechanic for story development and world cohesion creates a more solid structure for a long lasting game, plus we suffer absoluteness no risk of accidentally letting in a cow-people race unless someone on the IS story team is given a great deal of powerful alcohol. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-07-03T16:09:00+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/293568157407054 Sets at Idle Speculation: At IS, we have been experimenting with our revolutionary new form of set building. After long discussion of the problems with larp combat within structures, we have come to the conclusion that not only must our sets be LARP safe, along with all weapons and armour (see IS passim.), but sets and buildings must also match these high standards. Therefore, all buildings, constructions and tents on the IC field at IS will not only need to be LARP safe, but actually crush safe, and so we will be setting up our revolutionary use of inflatable buildings for all IC structures. This has massive advantages for setup and take-down, as we can just deflate them and store. Plus, there is a popular industry creating coolthentic medival buildings in this paradigm, allowing us and our playerbase to construct a wide range of interesting buildings. Thus: http://www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/news/9774189.Inflatable_Stonehenge_on_its_way_to_Marlborough/ http://www.andyj.co.uk/12ft-x-14ft-Princess-Turrets.524 SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-06-27T14:31:37+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/297951066967015 Idle Speculation will not be holding a playtest at any point at the forthcoming Odyssey event, because our rules system has been proven perfect by our design committee and will remain that way until corruption by players at launch. We think that playtesting would ruin the depth and integrity of our game experience. It should be noted, however, that we will be in the bar on Thursday. It has not ever been proven that buying the IS design team beer gets you chargen snackies, see previous comments about integrity. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-06-26T15:12:50+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/297439170351538 You have just done something awesome that will resonate though the history of LARP from this moment forward, you reported it into the Game Op Desk and sent the plot and ref crews weeping into their coffee, never to fully recover. What have you done? What have you done? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-06-25T13:09:00+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/296861377075984 In order to simplify our character generation and appeal to a wider market, IS will be adopting a new progression mechanic where each player will select a character class from the following: Tank, DPS, Healer. Progression will continue linearly along these lines until branches in the late game. Also, we will be referring to the field-external linears as "RAIDs" and, to complete the experience, all NPCs with relevant information for play will be issued with head-mounted exclamation-mark indicators. We expect these advancements on traditional roleplay to appeal to a new market without placing undue strain on players immersion. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-06-22T07:15:51+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/295220890573366 Previously we've mentioned the "Virtues" system, which fills the role of a religious aspect to the IS campaign. Alongside it, and to provide balance, we are fleshing out the seven Vices. Currently these are: "Historical Accuracy", "Let Me Tell You About My Character", "I Assume You're Removing The Bits Of Your Last Game That I Liked", "I Know Something You Don't Know", "Plate Armour", "Taking In Character Actions As Out Of Character Slights" and Marmite. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-06-21T11:30:32+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/294710123957776 Clarification: In a conversation in a pub, one of our designers may have mentioned that the flagship sympathetic magic system has been scrapped and replaced by a system based on magic users rolling 2d12 for effects. The team wish to clarify two points, first that to simplify this we will only be using a d20, and that this is not a battleboard-style system in that for this purpose we will be issuing magic-using players with foot-wide giant foam dice to be rolled during combat on the field to enhance immersion. Your quality rollplaying experience is, as ever, our number one concern. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-06-20T13:59:12+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/294240774004711 An update on our Lineage system: This system will allow your character to have a background that places as their ancestor any of your characters from a past larp campaign, for example a Maelstrom eidolon. If you so much as mention it in uptime or reference it in costume form you will be banned from site. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-06-20T08:57:17+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/294141767347945 Another suggestion from the suggestions box, which we're considering: Idle speculation will take a radical new path to inspire players' choice of characterisation. All published material will suggest the opposite of our intent for each culture. Our theory is that this will do more than any other tactic to ensure the majority play to the consistent world background we're aiming for. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-06-19T18:07:38+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/293796997382422 After careful consideration, the IS rules team have declared that the rules against female armour covering the stomach and thighs were a terrible idea, and have instead scrapped it due to concerns of safety, realism and bigenderism. We have instead decided to apply the rule to all armour. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-06-19T15:24:49+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/293714720723983 The Idyll Empire is not a safe land. It is a land of razor wit and sharp points, where the quality of your blade is as much a part of your appearance as your house, tribe and standing. The original Emperor had one great fear, a fear that would prove to be his undoing. He believed that no man of the empire could consider themselves welcome within it unless they were clean shaven, to demonstrate their dedication to the blade. To that end, with the IS system, we do not believe that beards are appropriate attire for the game, and anybody found wearing one during time in will be supplied with a disposable razor with which to remove it. We expect traders to be able to supply false chins to those who feel morally attached to their facial hair, and hope our player-base can match what we see as a vital contribution to the visual spectacle of the empire. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-05-04T10:12:46+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/267782173317238 The economy is a heavy topic for debate - and in the game - and it's a part of the game we take absolutely seriously. One of the central discussion points we have observed of festival larp is over the ability to use OOC time and organisational skills to generate in character money. Currency and trade is a complicated topic, and entire essays could be written about in game economies, and the danger of unbalancing them by the importing of cake-based goods for in-character money is a worry. The our first solution is that alongside Weapons Check there will be a new Cake Check desk, where we will check any baked goods you intend to sell and assign a sensible in-world cost price, which you will need to pay as your character's outlay for ingredients and equipment. This will be based on observation and recipe, as well as a taste test. Be prepared to lose a sample! We believe that this method will allow cake-sellers to interact in a real way with the game economy without providing an external value item that unbalances and destroys it. Cakes are the sub-prime mortgages of the larp economy. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-05-01T11:37:17+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/213821212053975 To broadcast a bit wider our answer to Al's question about children on site: All nations will have as a cultural option the ability to craft armour out of no more than thirteen occupied baby harnesses, one per loc, which will make the wearer immune to every third damage call at that location, and entirely to impale. Any person found swearing on the field, whether in front of a child or not, will be hoisted to the rafters of the GOD tent by wrists and left there for not less than three hours or until time-out (whichever is sooner) as an example to others. We do not have a comprehensive definition of "swearing" as agreed by our entire ref team, so we will leave it up to the players to decide if they are offended. Finally, we remind players that the Orc nation's traditions of ritualistic infantcide and subsequent canabilism will be roleplayed on site with relish, and ketchup where applicable. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-04-25T09:16:14+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/261769143918541 Here at Idle Speculation, we take pride in taking the very best of other campaigns, and, thus inspired, we are tackling one of the most important aspects of any modern LARP system: How to prove that your stuff is better than their crap. Traditionally, there are several ways of doing this. First, there is the time honoured method of hitting people with your superior latex covered sticks until they are convinced of your worldview. This is a method encouraged and supported by the system, see "Combat Rules" in ISpeculation passim. Secondarily, there is the plastic tag method, where each item is labelled with a laminated card indicating the use and status of the item. Due to the nature of the Idyll universe, we aren't able to support this mechanism, as items would logically be confused in-universe for artifacts of the Fellowesland Lammie-Nation. Thirdly, there is the ultra-modern system of embedding RFID tags into every in-universe item, issuing scanners to refs (and players with the relevant skills) to be able to recognise weapons. It turns out, however, that this method looks slightly crap, is very expensive and is fairly easy to break. Plus, in our limited trials, twelve characters were killed for necromancy due to holding an oyster card. Eventually, we have hit upon a brand new system, innovative and ideal. We have developed a brand new form of identification for weapons that is subtle, a two inch squared piece of paper with a revolutionary adhesive reverse, which contains a series of sigils that will identify special items and their effects. Player-focused effects and enhancements will be handed to the players as descriptions on these tags without the adhesive reverse. By this method, we will have completely removed lammies from our system. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-04-25T08:21:23+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/397587643608456 SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-04-24T16:40:04+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/261162727312516 From the history of the Idyll Empire, this one: The Unfortunate History Of Fellowesland ---------------------------------------------- The problem, they decided, was one of validation. Fellowesland's position was... unfortunate. Flooded in the north, heavily forested to the west, and rocky wherever it wasn't mountainous, travelling from place to place was not easy. Every bit of mud in the land had been devoted to farmland long since, and the few great towns and cities in this small nation clung onto this side of existence with a tenacity that even the Song respected. Their clothing was expensive, their armour impressive, their weapons works of wonder. What they wore, however, was generally tattered and old. A threadbare shirt over stained leather trousers, serviceable but ancient boots. A blunted dagger with frayed string wound around a shakey hilt. This is difficult to understand, but here is the problem: Travel. Getting stuff across Fellowesland was a chore and a mission. Rocky roads shatter wagon wheels, ravines make a four day trip take weeks. A day when your cart travels a mile in a straight line is a day you're going in the wrong direction. Almost all travel between townships and cities is reserved for food, with the shipping of quality goods so expensive that it renders the ownership of said goods trivial by comparison. You would think, then, that sale of these goods becomes difficult? Not so. The Fellowesland gentry came up with an idea: Validation. You may buy the most beautiful dress in the world, but if shipping it is a chore, you can instead wear the proof of ownership pinned to the lapel of the dress handed down from your sister. You may own the greatest sword since records began, and you could prove it by wrapping the reciept around the shattered sabre at your hip. The idea was revolutionary, and soon every person in Fellowesland subscribed to this notion; which was fortunate, as in order to recognize the import of someone it was necessary to spend a short while investigating all the little bits of paper they had pinned or attached to their possessions. The problem, of course, was one of validation. After a number of noble families spent their life-savings on what amounted to an empty shelf in a warehouse on the border, the Warehouse Authority was set up with its gold stamps, proving that a ticket of sale was the genuine article. A colour code became established, from violet though to red, so you could tell at more of a glance what the quality of a person's goods were. Trade became easier. A trader merely had to turn up on the doorstep of the city with a neat box of bright red tickets, stamped by the Warehouse Authority (which became the de-facto government of the land) for authenticity, and they could sell tonnes of expensive goods without all that bother of storage or transit. Duels became safer, as they were decided by examining the weapons the parties would have dueled with and their relative skills, and a victor declared by an official judge in a ceremonial yellow hat. Fellowesland was, unfortunately, entirely destroyed by an Orc invasion many years ago, as their invading masses refused to wait patiently while the Fellowesland army marched to fetch the weapons they rightfully owned. Refugees scattered to all the other nations, and proclaim a new joy brought by actually ever holding the things they pay for. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-04-23T15:26:38+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/260544707374318 This morning, the Idle Speculation development team found a suggestion box nailed outside our door. Inside were two suggestions, the first saying "You should get a suggestions box", and the second: "Unintelligent players, or those lacking in charisma or wisdom, will be permitted to have a more mentally gifted person with them OOC to suggest clever and/or humorous things to say" To which IS can only agree that this will monumentally add to the atmosphere and feel of legal proceedings. Alternatively we may invest in a soft-skill Wit system, whereby players with the Wit skill will be given a number of tokens each event, and they are able to use them after any line they believe should have gotten a better reaction to make their audience fall about laughing, or possibly just go "heh". This system would only exist as a transitional phase. "Temporary Wit Accessibility Tokens" players will be accepted and lauded on the field. Their ability to maintain an audience to be effected by the tokens will remain a hard skill for balance reasons. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-04-23T05:30:50+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/260353987393390 Any player may submit a single date for their birthday, be it an anniversary of their birth, transition, new name, new life or any date they feel is important to them, but only one. Should an Idle Speculation event fall on an anniversary of this date, a character is allowed to call RESIST to one (1) effect or blow that would otherwise render them incapacitated or bleeding. Players whose important date falls outside the festival LARP season are fully invited to make major changes to their lifestyle to game this system. You will not be allowed to change this date once submitted except under special circumstances. This will be the only source of RESIST in the system. (Happy birthday H) SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-04-19T22:12:56+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/258440424251413 So, where will you be playing? SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-04-19T19:55:43+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/258343647594424 After a lot of consideration, briefs for Idle Speculation are now available. Due to the limitations of Facebook, they are here: http://foip.me/J5YUNA SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-04-18T17:01:23+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/257660610996061 Following intense speculation on other fora, you will be able to recognise how happy a player is for their character to get into a fight by their current headgear. Tricorns will indicate a desire only for ranged combat, Coifs and Helmets will indicate full battle status, and a bandanna will indicate the player is happy to have a fight with Delvy. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-04-18T14:11:19+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/257579724337483 The Progression “Plate? Hah” Once, and it only needed to happen once, The forces of the Progression faced the Song in a minor skirmish about a misplaced border. The forces lined up on a field near the most contested part, ready to fight to the death for this small parcel of land. When the perfect time had approached the general of the Progression forces raised her hand to make the signal from the platform where all the army could see her... … and an arrow impaled her chest though the leather, and she slumped lifeless to the ground. That was the day the Progression swore forever to be protected from arrows. (They lost the battle, because the opposing Song of Heart general was killed by his lover and his wife, who were acting in concert to overthrow the leadership so it could go to his eldest son, who was actually... nevermind, it’s complicated). Every house in the Progression is fortified with iron plate. The windows are shielded from all sides, and sunlight is feared in case arrows or bolts come from the blinding light. Each child is issued with a set of full articulated plate as soon as they can walk, and instruction in how to use it effectively as soon as they can walk again. No Progressive would be seen dead outside their armour-plated houses or tents without at least plate armour on, and the full knights of the realm have taken to wearing pill-boxes built of solid stone and heavy mortar, that they can forever be safe from any arrows that may accidentally glance towards them. These cuboid suits of stone armour were initially mounted on wheels, but this is shunned by experienced knights who claim that the danger of an arrow going below the axle level is too much to be stood for. Their shields would, in other Nations, be used as walls. The grand high Progressive has not been seen since he sealed himself inside a cave when he heard tell of the invention of the crossbow bolt. It’s been a few decades since then, but they still admire him and the protection he resides in. He must still be alive, as he is perfectly safe. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-04-16T14:09:34+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/255811031181019 The IS Rules team have announced a new form of Sympathetic Magic, whereby every time a mage shouts a damage call that's ignored by its target, the other mages all go "Aww" and pat the failed magic user on the back until they feel better about it. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-04-16T12:21:06+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/255697777859011 The Song Of Wind, Earth and Heart "Our Mark Is Coming" The Song live in the most inhospitable narritive the Idyll Empire has to offer. They stare death in the face with stark realisation every day, knowing that the death-toll of those mentioned in the histories is remarkably high. The Song are replaceable foes, who stand linend up in the face of the empire's enemies, each one being replaced instantly as another falls. For the people of the Song, survial to the next chapter of their history is the best they can hope for. The Song consist of three peoples, The Stark, The Faendom and the Bannisters, bound together by an anchient contract with the higher being order. The Stark homeland is the north, covered in snow and ice. They are medeocre survivors with recognisable accents, they are consummate hunters, using their wolf pets to aid in their hunting alongside their carefully drilled rifle skills. Most are dry-humoured warriors, who spend much of their time lusting after powerful rings, ever watchful against the next swipe of the great author's pen. The Bannisters are impressive in their finery and their dresses. Exceptionally internally focused, they survive better than most of their northen cousins, and rely on their speed with rapier to come to their aid in battle, if they cannot avoid the battle at all. A group of wildly different heights, it appears the shorter they become the more interesting they get. The Faendom do not hold close ties to their bretheren within the nation, attracted to the area by the rugged fur-and-leather trappings of the Stark, they usually regret their new home rapidly and enlist in a nation with depth they care about, or move on to a more fashionable nation as the higher being order gains interest in it. In the Song you are judged on every deed. It is a land of long-running legends and sudden deaths. It is a land where men and women stand steadfast against the cold and know that sometimes you will be written out of history without warning. In the Song, there's a firm belief that if only the other Nations followed their example, the final book in their history could finally be written. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-04-14T17:33:34+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/253863924709063 IS is proud to present the first of its ten nations: The Gloaming "It's Only a model" Few lands are quite so heroic as the Knights of the Round Table, famed hither and yon for dancing whenever they are able. When people speak of the Gloaming, they imagine that it is a silly place, with its routines and chorus scenes. Before them stand the Minstrals, singing their epic songs of Knights who suffered only flesh wounds, and behind them the War Wizards, who some will always know as... Tim. Knights-errant travel the land, farting in the general direction and seeking opportunities to become Lumberjacks instead of yammering on about cloud cover coming in from the west. Their nobility give battle on the forces of their great castles, though they be only scale replicas of what went before. The people turn their eyes to the Empire, seaking victory and replacement Psittaciformes, afore they join the choir invisible. Alone amounst the nations of the Empire, the Gloaming has never allowed Barbarians to cross it's heavily guarded bridge without answering questions three, but the asperation to achieve great things is not just found on the battlefield. Every Gloaminion feels that same urge, this is a nation that eats and drinks cheese, be it Brie, Roquefort, Pol le Veq, Port Salut, Savoy Aire, Saint Paulin, Carrier de lest, Bres Bleu or Bruson. Gloaming is the land of Valour. The classical images of charging Kniggits, Spam vikings and traditional fish slapping dances may seem to be a difficult concept to mix, but as any Gloaminion will tell you, It's just contridiction. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-03-27T14:10:56+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/243622432399879 The evil forces of "Timeline" have taken over the Idyll Empire. At the next event, look out for the NPC with the plot to return the design of Facebook to its previous state, and by doing so save the empire. Save enough Empires to get a badge! SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2012-03-27T14:07:49+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/243620895733366 SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2011-11-14T21:40:09+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/166909090071214 In Idle Speculation, all secondaries will be required to wear fluorescent orange pointy hats, to ensure that they are never confused with their primaries, or can be seen making plot without getting caught. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2011-10-27T19:33:42+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/159056547523135 In the second event of Empire, around halfway though day two, reports will start coming in of a new land, ripe for invasion. Players will assume it is setup for future plot. ...and they will be correct, as halfway though Odyssey year six, reports will pour in that where once we believed Scotland to be is actually a portal to another realm, where an Empire is bickering and ripe for invasion. The remainder of both games will be two sides of a coin, founding colonies in each other's lands, fighting against the invading natives and the affects of wrecking a hole in the universe, character generation synced across both with only one rule: You may not play the same character in both systems at the same time. Empirical Odyssey, PD's Grand Unified game of combat, mystery and multi-universe PvP where you can even launch attacks against yourself, is coming in 2013! SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2011-10-18T13:39:54+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/155229427905847 Idle Speculation, Event 1 Post-Event Constructive Crit, Some of this may seem harsh, but I am only trying to help and make the game better. The costuming and set decoration was indescribably awful. For people who've had years to prepare after the delay, the usage of canvas to represent the patently signposted fur-and-liquorice makeup of the Kayendyland camp was just not good enough, and half the players' attempts to represent the confection armour with tacky toffee-based breast plates just looked awful. I appreciate that the team has had to work hard to get out of the long shadow that Maelstrom cast, but the self-referencing Mil'flur clan and their life-long enmity with the revolutionary Fried-Breaden factions felt forced and was throwing people OC quite often. I appreciate that player-led factions will increase and spread as the game beds in, and that familar constructs help players get used to new systems quicker, but originality would have been far more useful. The combat wasn't as epic as I expected. I mean, sure there was the full-scale battlefield cannon-fire and the purpose-built castle that the red-caps spent so much time creating, and the crowning moment of saturday morning, when two armies of over three hundred characters each faced each other and watched as all attempts at diplomacy crumbled into dust before them forcing them all into a massive fight that was still raging a hour later when the unannounced third faction - nice work on the alien costuming, I note - literally flew into the field and forced the remaining empirical forces to unite against them or die trying, resulting in an even bigger fight that will set an incredibly high bar for any future event to reach, let alone beat. But I personally didn't feel it was *epic* as such. The crown mechanic was quite interesting, but I cannot help but feel that the Sansarza faction let their side down by not echeloning the high matrix until early Sunday morning, not having been in the faction or having anything to do with the crown mechanic at all, I can't say exactly what brain-dead decisions brought them to that decisions, but from outside it seemed obvious to play the low matrix quite early on Saturday so as to be able to ready the south-stanzas before the battle. Plus, you should have won that battle, Sansarza, sending in your double-armour troops in a battle where Callenate played their surprise malapplicant ability was obviously the wrong decision. In conclusion, a grand start to a campaign which, with a few improvements, could be a viable alternative to something else. I hope to attend the next event, and regret I couldn't go to this one. 'faith, SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2011-10-17T10:16:52+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/154754447953345 Empire: Idle Speculation's Facebook profile will last longer than Empire's does. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2011-10-14T20:07:28+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/153690048059785 We've been so impressed with the standard of feedback here, we're going to ask about something specific. We'll moderate, but we won't remove anything just because we don't agree with you given where we are so far, only if it isn't cynical enough. We know we haven't given you much to go on, but: What are you hoping Idle Speculation will smell like? Words, images, metaphor, it's all good... SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2011-09-29T13:57:57+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/147322378696552 Isle Speculation: There will be a brand new element to the exploration game, where it will be possible to place a monetary value on small patches of land surrounded by water, in the hope of buying them at a lower price when they're worth more. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2011-09-24T19:15:58+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/145385458890244 Empire: Idle Speculation will end in 2020 with someone building the first space-craft, at which point Empire will end and Maelstrom 40k will begin. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2011-09-23T13:29:31+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/144848772277246 Idle Speculation: The end of Maelstrom will be marked by every native character there has ever been lining up to sing Jonathan Coulton's "Want You Gone" at the invaders. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2011-09-22T11:27:28+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/144392912322832 Empire: Idle Speculation will not be the same as previous games run by the same people, but with all the things you liked about them taken away. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2011-09-21T16:33:46+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/144076385687818 Empire: Idle Speculation will contain people who camp in tents. Some of them will have objections to others. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2011-09-21T16:15:56+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/144070159021774 Empire: Idle Speculation will be a larp system with a great deal of player interaction and also some kind of combat system. SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY SYSX 2011-09-21T07:00:00+0000 https://www.facebook.com/10153162981615108/posts/258678054227650 SYSX---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ENTRY