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What is a Live-Action Roleplaying Game?

The World of Quickening

How to Play

The Immortals

The players of Quickening are called Immortals, and are those lucky few who have been blessed, or cursed, to live forever. An Immortal can only be slain if his head is severed from his body. However, when one Immortal takes the head of another, he gains some of the slain Immortal's power and skill. This transfer of power is known as the Quickening. In the end, there can be only one.

Detecting Immortals

Each Immortal possesses the ability to detect other Immortals in his vicinity. This ability manifests as a "sixth sense" which alerts the Immortal when another draws close. It does not give an Immortal the exact locations of the other Immortals, however. There are several ways of simulating this ability in game, some of which are listed here.

1. The use of Gaydar® or a similar proximity activated paging product is probably the best way to go about this. It consists of a small device, similar to a pager, which will beep or vibrate when it comes within a certain radius of another unit. This simulates the ability most faithfully, but does represent the greatest amount of financial output.

2. Visible markings, such as armbands, buttons, or other accessories that allow those who are playing the game to identify each other on sight. This option has the advantage of being cheap and easy to put together, but it also fails to simulate the ability with any precision.

3. Have all the characters in the game know one another on sight, and introduce new players to the group as they join. While this method emulates the ability least accurately, it is the cheapest and easiest method to implement. It can also be explained away if all the Immortals are several years old; players are encouraged to create backstories for their characters to explain how they met and how they interact in the game.

Immortal Conventions and Rules

Over the years, the Immortals have created a number of conventions and traditions that govern their interactions. However, there is also one unbreakable rule; no Immortal may fight another while either is on holy ground; the Powers That Be(tm) act to prevent it.

The conventions and traditions are not held in place by any mystical force, but they are deeply ingrained in Immortal society. The duels of the Immortals are kept secret, as is their Immortality. The Immortals believe that if the mortal world where to learn that Immortals walked among them, mortals would do anything to gain Immortality and, often believing that the Immortals know how to achieve it, would attack Immortals in order to learn their secret. Though torture won't kill an Immortal, it still hurts just as much, and more. The ability to survive vivisection is not necessarily a boon. Should a player of Quickening violate this rule of secrecy, he will likely find himself accosted by mortals with large fully automatic weapons, with which to test the limit of his Immortality in the name of science, religion, or anything else the Watchers deem appropriate. Or, other Immortals may feel threatened by exposure, and will seek to put an end to the offending Immortal's indiscretion in a very permanent fashion.

Another unwritten rule of Immortal society is shunning the use of modern weapons such as firearms. Most Immortals consider the use of such weapons to be dishonorable, and will seek to put an end to anyone who violates this convention. Also, since an Immortal can only be slain by having his head removed, a gun loses some of effectiveness; it is not unknown for a powerful Immortal who has been shot to "play dead" and wait for his opponent to come within reach of his blade.

The third and possibly most important tradition is that each duel is one-on-one. Immortals are not permitted to team up against each other, nor is one allowed to assist another in a duel. No matter what the circumstances, each duel may only be one against another. When this rule is broken, powerful Immortals tend to visit destruction upon the transgressors.

The Watchers

Where the Immortals are the ones playing the game, the Watchers are the group of mortals who observe and record Immortal activities. In Quickening, the Watchers are also those people responsible for enforcing the rules in the name of safety, common sense, and fun. Every fight must have a Watcher present to ensure that the weapons being used are safe, that the fight itself is safe, and to validate each kill as it is made. The Watcher is also responsible for recording the new Quickening points the winner has received.

Enforcing the Rules

The major part of the Watchers' responsibility is to enforce the rules and conventions of Quickening. They have several tools at their disposal to aid them in this regard.

1. Newspaper Reports - Watchers will occasionally put out newspaper reports on recent killings, which can alert the other Immortals in the game that, for example, a breach of the conventions has been committed, along with a description, or in some cases an outright disclosure of the offender. A Watcher might send out the following report on a particularly flagrant offense.

   "A man was attacked and beheaded in Central Park earlier this evening, while he was attending a performance of A Midsummer's Night Dream. Witnesses report that he was shot once in the back, and rushed by two men wielding swords. The victim attempted to defend himself with a sword of his own, but he was quickly overpowered and his head cut from his body. The two men had apparently sabotaged the lighting system for the play, as it exploded immediately after the killing; they escaped in the ensuing confusion. Witnesses describe the first assailant as a Caucasian male just under six feet tall, with blond hair pulled back into a ponytail, wearing a black leather jacket; the second assailant was six and a half feet, black hair, and a large scar across his neck. Police have identified the first assailant as being Mark Jones, a noted historian."

2. Mortal Intervention - Mortal Intervention can take the form of police who are attempting to solve the mystery of some recent beheading, or of some person or organization that knows what the Immortal is, and wishes to exploit them for some reason. Note that while mortal intervention is a reasonable consequence for flaunting your Immortality, it needs not be limited to this. Watchers who wish to add some intrigue into the game could introduce a secret society of mortals who prey on the Immortals for some reason of their own, or involve police investigations to force the Immortals to pay attention to covering their tracks. Other possibilities for mortal intervention include reporters who suspect the Immortal is something unusual, to doctors who accidentally observe the Immortals' accelerated healing, or cultists who believe the Immortal is an object of worship. Be creative.

3. Immortal Intervention - Sometimes an Immortal who breaks the conventions frequently or spectacularly might attract the attention of a powerful and predatory Immortal, who then visits the area with the explicit intention of taking the offender's head. These Immortals can be as powerful as the Watchers wish, and are usually more than capable of achieving their goal. This method of enforcement should be used only sparingly, and in extreme situations; several thousand year-old Immortals do not make appearances every day.

Construction and Safe Use of Weapons

The Watchers are also responsible for ensuring that all the weapons being used in the game are safe, and that they are used in a safe manner. A player should never actually aim a sword at his opponent's head or neck. The Watcher must stop any fight that is in any way unsafe, and it will not resume until the problem has been rectified. Players who act in a consistently unsafe manner should be ejected from the game.

The Watcher will inspect the weapons being used at the start of each fight, to ensure that they are safe for use. Weapon construction guidelines can be found at http://www.dagohir.org/HowTo/DagohirSword.html or can be obtained through many LARP's, such as http://www.laire.org.

The Quickening

The Quickening is the term for both the mystical energy that empowers Immortals, as well as the transfer of that energy from one Immortal to another. One of the reasons that Immortals keep their duels private is that the Quickening is a flashy event, often involving bolts of lightning, pyrotechnics, and loud noises.

Measuring Quickening

Each Immortal in the game will begin with three points of Quickening. Every time he is struck in combat he loses one point of Quickening temporarily. When his Quickening is reduced to 0, he is incapacitated, and his opponent may take his head if so wishes.

When an Immortal takes the head of another, he gains one third of the loser's total Quickening, rounded down. Therefore, if Matthew, a new Immortal with three points of Quickening, takes the head of Michael, another new Immortal, Matthew will gain one point of Quickening. If Michael had fourteen points of Quickening, Matthew would have added four points to his total.

When an Immortal has won a duel, he is not at his full Quickening right away. The new Quickening that the Immortal has just gained is added immediately to his total; any that he lost as a result of the fight will regenerate at a rate of one point per hour.

Benefits of High Quickening

Each point of Quickening represents an increase in the Immortal's overall power and skill. As the Immortal reaches higher levels of Quickening, his powers increase, making him harder to kill. He will also find it easier to defeat others. For every ten points of Quickening that the Immortal possesses, he can take an additional point of Quickening with each strike. Thus, an Immortal with ten points of Quickening can take two points of Quickening from his opponent with each blow, and one with seventy-five could take away eight points in one fatal stroke.

The rate at which the Immortal regenerates his wounds increases as well. The Immortal will regenerate an extra point of Quickening per hour for every ten points of his total Quickening. For those of you who have been paying attention, the Immortal's regeneration rate will always equal the amount of damage he can deal with a single blow.

Winning the Game

There is only one way to win Quickening, and that is to be the last Immortal alive. Since the Watchers can permit new Immortals to enter the game at any time, a single game can go on for a very long time without a definite winner. Also, even if one player becomes the last Immortal in his area, this does not mean that he is the ultimate winner. There are always more Immortals out there, somewhere.

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