I will not disclose the system being used. I will say that combat is more realistic than cinematic. This means that fights between people who don.t know how to fight will take longer as neither will likely get a solid blow. Fights between experts are swift. Usually combat comes down to who gets the first blow in.
Here are some above-board things about this world. While there is magic and the character, at the very least, knows that it does exist, magic is still a mysterious and wondrous thing. It is not causally tossed around as in many other RPG's (like DnD for example). Magic is powerful, but difficult to cast and takes a certain amount of dedication to control.
Here are my expectations for playing this game. Players should post 3 times a week minimum. If a player is unable to post they should notify me that they are busy.
Writing should be done in 3rd person. In general, most actions written will be about what the character is trying to do and should therefore not contain the outcome. There are exceptions: if a player desires to write about the success, then I will make some accommodations for them - this will be on a case-by-case basis.
While I don't want to stifle any player's writing style, I really don't want them to be taking advantage of either. Players are expected to role-play, meaning they should know what their character knows regardless of what other players write. However, to make things explicit, players may use curly brackets {} to indicate internal dialog, thoughts, and intent. Other players should read it and enjoy it, but not use the information in game play (unless they have telepathy).
Out of character comments can be denoted with [OOC: message ].
Most importantly, the subject line of the post should begin with [SC].
From time to time I may take control of a character. It is done mostly to move the plot forward or to give a general feel of an opening scene. I apologize now. If it were a perfect world I would never have to do it.
Note: I will continually pass information to the player as the game goes. Those who have been in the city and/or with the Order longer will have more knowledge passed to them. This is to reflect the history of the character. Many times the knowledge will be opened-ended giving the player something to work with. For example:
Sam Bowen is a young man in his late twenties of rather average height and build. You know that he is on a quest and practices witchcraft or voodoo. You.ve met him in the Adirondacks, when he was looking for some shaman. For some reason you don't trust him.
And it is up to the player to fill in the blanks. They can keep it vague or make it specific, but they must stay with in the bounds of the description. Keep in mind that this is information that the character knows/for their perspective and may or may not be perfectly accurate.
In a similar sense I may write privately when a player is searching a body or comes across information on their own:
The man.s hands are perfectly manicured.
It is up to the player to decide if they want to write it so that it becomes public knowledge.