What is a Session?

A session is an adventure that your character may get involved in, with the help of the Story Hosts (SHs) and Apprentice Story Hosts (ASHs). Most sessions involve dice rolling, combat, and some degree of danger or unusual happenings that your character might not run across every day. For instance, you wouldn't see a session about getting a beer at the pub, but you might see one about rescuing people from a pub that's on fire.

When an ASH or SH posts, it will often with a post with no name and no picture. This is called a "narrative" post, and will be where to look for a summary of the action and the ruling on how successful your character was on what they just attempted to do. Narratives can also help distinguish the "rounds" in a session. Often, especially in combat, SHs will ask players to limit themselves to one post per round. Once you've made your post, wait until you see the next ruling narrative before you make another post. This will help make sure everyone gets a chance to contribute with their characters actions, and help the SH keep the in-character timing straight.

Dice Rolling

In a session, you'll periodically be asked to roll dice to see whether or not your character succeeds at what they're trying to do. Occasionally, as in the case of Awareness (AWA) rolls, the character may not be actively trying to do anything at all, but the ASH or SH may ask for a roll anyway.

For help rolling dice when asked, see the Help Tutorial on dice rolling.

The typical die roll in Vaxia is a d100. Pair that with one stat and occasionally a skill, and you're all set! Adding your Stat and Skill together creates the total Might your character has for that action. The higher the might, the greater your chances of success. Don't get discouraged if you roll low! Often times, if your Might is high (something even starting characters can achieve), even a low roll can yield success.

If you're ever unsure which trait to roll, just ask the SH running the session what they'd like you to roll. Likewise, if you think a skill applies, but you're not certain, either ask the SH, or post with the skill included, and mention in the OOC field that you're not sure whether it should apply. SHs will appreciate your honesty, and that goes a long way toward making sure everyone enjoys the session :)

There are a series of helper buttons above the dice rolling system for common actions which will pre-load the appropriate Stats for you. For instance, if your character is casting a spell, click the Magic button, and then select the appropriate skill out to the right. The helper buttons should also help speed things up when combat lasts several rounds, and your character takes a similar action (like attacking with a sword) each round.

Combat

When you are in combat, you should always describe what your character is attacking and the manner in which they are fighting to help the SH provide a rich, accurate ruling. The ruling party must be able to determine the outcome, which involves what was hit and what happened. It is much easier to rule an attack that was centered at the neck, than it is to rule an attack that was “Swinging a sword at the opponent”.

Death and Real Life Harm

In sessions most sessions, there is a chance your character may get injured, maimed or even die. If that occurs, it is up to you and the SH to talk about what happens. The Real Life Harm rule (RLH) was put in place to avoid people being hurt emotionally by the death of characters, so if the death of your favorite character would affect your real life in a negative way, you have the option to say "no" to any certain action. The same applies to possession, mind control, or any IC circumstance that makes you truly uncomfortable out-of-character. Bear in mind when citing RLH, just because your character is not dead (or mind-controlled, or possessed) doesn't mean that nothing at all happens. They may simply fall unconscious, meaning you may not be able to keep RPing them that session. RLH is meant to avert actual mental harm, not merely the discomfort of not getting to play in one session.

Time Commitment

Expect sessions to be long. Most last 4 to 7 hours. Be ready for that before joining. Naturally, if you have to join late or leave early unexpectedly, be courteous to the SH and work with them for a reasonable exit for your character.

Finding Sessions To Be In

You can find postings for upcoming sessions in the Forums, or occasionally in Limbo It's typically good to ask the SH if you can join a session before jumping IC, as some are tied to larger sagas and may not be able to easily integrate your character at the halfway point. That said, the majority of sessions are open, and we would love to have new players come along and join in the adventure. There are few better ways to have your character meet new people and start new friendships in-character than fighting side by side with other Cs and coming out victorious!