HORIZON IS OVER!
The webpage remains up as a permanent archive of game material, mainly for the benefit of nostalgic players - although if you'd like to run a Horizon-inspired game for your friends, that's wonderful too. Horizon will be succeeded by Legacyin Trinity term of 2006.If you like you can look at the (sketchy, incomplete) GM notes as well.
The Quickstart Guide
The Mailing List
Before we begin: Please subscribe to the Horizon mailing list! It is through the mailing list that we'll let you know about sudden, unavoidable venue changes, and other important announcements. To join the mailing list, send a message to this address and follow the instructions the automated maillist management program will send you.The Game
What is Horizon?
Horizon is the official RPGSoc society game, a weekly event designed to appeal to both experienced roleplayers and absolute beginners.Specifically, Horizon is a roleplaying game. Each player of the game will be designing and portraying their very own “player character” or PC, a fictional persona residing in the turbulent city-state of Horizon, a crime-plagued metropolis that guards the gateway between the mundane world and the bizarre realm of the Treacherous Lands. Like in a computer game, players control their characters and choose how they go about achieving their goals; unlike in a computer game, the game is organised and run by human beings, allowing players much more freedom in terms of what sort of character they can play, and what they can have their character do.
What sort of character can I play?
The player characters in Horizon are members of the city’s thriving criminal underworld, and various related subcultures. Many will be members of criminal gangs, such as the Dockyard Rats, a loose confederacy of smugglers, pirates and pimps – others may be members of the Watchdogs, the city’s police force, whose members range from honest by-the-book sorts to corrupt officers who are little different from the criminals they’re supposed to catch.Perhaps your character will be a political sort, bribing and betraying his or her way to leadership of their gang whilst keeping an eye out for the daggers pointed at their own back. Or perhaps you’ll play an adventurous explorer, undertaking dangerous expeditions to retrieve lost relics and treasures. Of course, if you play a master thief, a brutal enforcer or a skilled assassin you’ll always find yourself in demand, whether you’re a freelancer or a member of one of the established mobs. Maybe you’ll be a sorcerer or an alchemist, seeking to steal power from the inhuman forces who shaped the world, or perhaps instead you will seek to serve those Gods and Powers, obeying their whims and risking your very humanity in the process. Alternately, you could be a spy for the government or for foreign nations, an inventor of fabulous steam or clockwork devices, an agent of the mysterious Grey Order, a member of the tribe of Ghouls who consume the dead of the city and hunt down murderers… as you can see, a wide range of character concepts are possible.
OK, so how does the game itself work?
The easiest way to explain this is probably to explain what will happen at the average Horizon session.For most of the evening, you’ll be playing your character along with a couple of dozen other players, as well as a team of game organisers who’ll be able to answer any questions you might have and will be portraying non-player characters. You’ll be moving around in the room in-character, talking to other players in-character, and interacting with player and non-player characters as your character would. Some players like to come in costume, but this is very much optional; the main focus is on conversation – the session is your chance to negotiate, argue, bicker, plot, plan, scheme and otherwise chat with other player characters. Perhaps you’ll end up trying to fence off a valuable artefact your character has managed to pilfer, or maybe you’ll be making political deals to try and take control of your criminal gang, or you could end up drawn into a plot to take over the city itself!
Should you wish to do more than talk – for example, if you end up fighting a duel with another character – you won’t physically act out those things. Instead, you’ll talk to the game organisers who will decide what happens and whether you succeed, and if you wish you can mime out your character's actions (so there's no actual physical conflict).
Between sessions, your character is not inactive – far from it! Each week you’ll be able to submit a “turnsheet”, a description of what your character gets up to between sessions – whether this be stealing a priceless gemstone, assassinating a rival mob boss, setting off into the Treacherous Lands on a perilous quest or conducting perilous magical rituals. Each week, after the turnsheets have been submitted, the game organisers will go through them and decide what happens. At the beginning of the next session, one of the game organisers will take you aside and go through the results of your turnsheet actions with you. The organisers will also publish some in-character news, which will give you some idea of what else has been going on in the city. Your successes and failures in turnsheeting, and the information in the in-character news, should hopefully give you plenty of things to discuss with people in the session!
I hear Horizon’s already been running for a term; will I be at a disadvantage if I join now?
Not at all. Last term’s game was a test run, intended to iron out any problems with the setting or system before the arrival of new players. Everyone will be playing brand-new characters this term, and first-hand knowledge of what happened in last term’s game won’t be much of an advantage.The Words
There's a few acronyms used frequently on this website that people new to roleplaying might want defined before we begin:
IC means in character, and refers to the things which exist and events which are happening in the gameworld.
OOC means out of character, and refers to things which are real.
PC means player character, a character in the game controlled by a player.
NPC means non-player character, a character in the game controlled by a GM.
GM means Game Master, an honorific given to the people running the game to make them feel important.
The World
There's a lot of content on this website. A punishing amount of content, and you may be confused about which you should read first. We've produced, therefore, a guide to what bits are important and what parts you can read a little later on.The timeline is a useful place to start, to give yourself some historical context. Here's the quick summary: once upon a time powerful forces made the world. They then ran away, or went to sleep, leaving mankind doing his thing. The world is divided between the True and Treacherous Lands, the latter being decidedly stranger than the former. A big Wall separated the two. The gate through the Wall was guarded by a city, called Horizon, which spawned an Empire which at one time controlled the world. Then the Treacherous side of the Empire was lost forever, and the True side of the Empire rebelled, and the city ended up as a small city-state desperately playing the nations of the True Lands off against one another to avoid being eaten. Then came the Year of Chaos, the events of which you should certainly familiarise yourself with.
Now is probably a good time to take a quick look over the writeups of the Four Nations - Irgar, Jurica, Lasinia and Vegdarbarra. In summary: the Kingdom of Irgar was a nation of brawling clans before the Empire came, and that tension remained after the Empire was driven out; however, they have diverted much of their enthusiasm into steamworking. The Caliphate of Jurica is a desert land, with most of the population crammed into the fertile band. It is known both for its University of Marvels and its exports of narcotics. The nation of Lasinia is in theory a democracy, but while the Soviet authorities are promising elections any decade now few expect them to actually happen. Once a centre of culture, civilisation, and learning, Lasinia is now known more for the revolutionary socialism of its rulers. The wasteland of Vegdarbarra sits at the foot of the Wall, and is controlled by Baron Yuri von Litkinstein and his warlords. Also of interest is a guide to the fashions of the various nations.
Enough about the neighbours: let's take a look at the City. There's some strange geometry going on close to the Wall: the important lesson to take away from this is that people just ignore the problem and take it in their stride. The upshot of this is that Horizon is both at the centre and the edge of the True Lands: this unique strategic position made the establishment of the Empire possible, and makes Horizon a major centre for trade. People get around the city in a variety of ways: poor people go by foot, or by cart, or by subway, moderately well-off folk in a hurry take taxis, and the rich flitter and flutter about with their shiny clockwork wings.
The government of the city is run by the Mayor, Colonel Zero, and consists of ministries full of bored, often-corrupt lackeys behind desks with a few elite troubleshooting agents doing all the important work. In theory, the Mayor is elected, though only 15 people get to vote; because Colonel Zero is retiring, the game during Michelmas term will cover an election year in Horizon. You will also want to know about the Embassies of the Four Nations, which throw their weight around quite a lot, and the Ghouls from the Treacherous Lands who chase murderers and cultists and dispose of the dead in their own special way, and the cuddly dogs who witness oaths and chase oathbreakers.
The player characters in Horizon are the cream of the crud, the most competant and influential people in the Lower City, the elite of the criminal underworld and related subcultures. They meet in the Riverview Inn, and you should probably understand the details of the truce under which they meet. The traditions of the criminal underworld are also worth looking at, and you should carefully note the delicate balance of the status quo: too much chaos in the streets will bring down martial law, which is terribly bad for business.
In terms of the traditions, that of the Twin Silvers should be emphasised. In short, this tradition states that if you intend to kill someone (either personally or through intermediaries), you should give that person two silver coins of the Imperial era (such coins are worthless and plentiful). That person then has 24 hours left to put their affairs in order and either get out of town or prepare to die; you may not make your assassination attempt until the 24 hours are up. It is considered dishonourable and unworthy to give someone the Twin Silvers and then make no effort to kill them, and those who mess around with the Silvers in such a way are liable to receive them themselves. It is the worst possible crime in the eyes of the criminal underworld to kill someone without giving them the Silvers; if you do so, you are a marked individual, and the friends of your victim may eliminate you at their leisure with impunity. Aside from being an important IC issue, this tradition serves an OOC purpose: it's just plain polite to give players a warning that an assassination attempt against their character is on the cards, so they can turnsheet accordingly.
At this point, the swiftest way to learn about the setting is probably to begin generating a character. During the character generation process, you'll need to choose which district of the Lower City your character lives in. This decision is important; whichever district you belong to will be controlled by a criminal gang, who will have a certain influence on your life - precisely how much influence depends on how much you want to get involved with them.
Alternately, you could be an Incognito Noble who lives in the Upper City and skips down to the Riverview from time to time to mix with the hoi palloi. Whoever you are, you will at least want to take a look at the relations between the mobs.
You'll also be wanting to choose an Affinity. This is like a little star sign which tells us a little bit about your character's personality - although if you don't go out of your way to develop these aspects of your character, they needn't end up ruling your life. You might want to learn a little about the Gods and Powers you inherit these Affinities from - but don't worry too much about reading the full descriptions yet.
When choosing your quirks, there's all sorts of things you may want to check out. You are strongly advised to take at least one Job quirk in order to get a regular income. Once you have chosen your job quirks, you should look at the money system to see what someone of your income level can afford. Thieves will doubtless want to see the burglary system, explorers the advice for expeditions. If you wish to become a cultist, sorcerer, or shaman, you will almost certainly want to look at the Gods and Powers writeups and the magic rules in more detail; alchemists will likewise want to read up about the Powers and alchemy itself. Aspiring inventors should consult the engineering rules, and perhaps would like to look at the Grey Order, a mysterious cabal with access to unusual technology. If you'd like to know how we handle seniority in organisations, there are seniority rules, but we've tried our best to make sure you don't need to understand the underpinnings of them. Members of mobs should ensure they have read through the relevant mob writeup. Revolutionaries may want to glance at the article about subversive organisations. Drug smugglers - or drug addicts - may want to know what sort of narcotics are smuggled into and out of Horizon.
Once you have completed the character generation process, so long as you have followed this guide you should know all you need to know about the world of Horizon. Feel free to read the rest of the website at your leisure; perhaps you'd like to learn about the districts of the Upper City, where the other half live, or hear some of the mysterious stories of the Treacherous Lands.
Differences...
...Between Horizon and Other Games
Some newcomers to Horizon will have played other fantasy roleplaying games before, or will be fans of the fantasy genre in general. We like to think that Horizon is a little different from other fantasy games, and so here's some of the major differences between Horizon and Generic Sub-Tolkien Fantasy World - this isn't an exhaustive list, but these are the things which will probably get you in IC trouble if you make a mistake:
- Gods are not your friends. The only God it is socially acceptable to follow is the Intercessor. The Intercessor has condemned worship and prayer as abominations, and is regarded as the most benevolent of the gods because he is the one who has refused to meddle with the world. The deities of the world of Horizon are misanthropic remnants of a senile, dying race, and they have become malign and horrific in their dotage. Loudly announcing yourself as, say, a Priest of the Solider will get you killed.
- Sentient nonhumans and fearsome monsters are rarities. Elves. Dwarves. Orcs. The critters litter a whole variety of roleplaying gameworlds - but not this one. The vast, vast majority of characters you will encounter in Horizon will be human, and meeting a sentient nonhuman is a big deal. There's a couple of exceptions - both Ghouls and Kraelings have small communities within Horizon - but those folk tend to keep themselves to themselves.
- While we're on the subject - Ghouls are not undead. They are living breathing things who happen to eat corpses.
- The action centres around Horizon. Other fantasy games involve a large amount of exploration, and expeditions into dark underground dungeons to kill things and take their stuff. While there is a niche in Horizon for explorer PCs, the majority of the action will take place in the city of Horizon, and will centre around the dealings of those within.
- Most of the actual roleplaying involves talking to people. In tabletop RPGs, part of the fun involves playing through fast-paced, exciting combats. This doesn't work quite so well in the society game format, and as a result most "action" sequences occur off-camera during turnsheeting - most of the actual roleplaying during sessions of Horizon will focus on character interaction.
- Speaking of turnsheeting, Horizon is a turn-based game. As explained above, between each weekly session all players submit turnsheets to describe what their characters get up to in the intervening two months of in-character time. There are several consequences of this, but the major one is that after people have submitted their turnsheet, you're unlikely to be able to persuade them to make major changes to it. You're therefore encouraged to complete any out-of-session IC discussions with other players before the turnsheet deadline, so that they can take the discussion into account when they turnsheet. Similarly, you're encouraged to hold off on sending your turnsheet in until close to the deadline - if you write it up and send it off Tuesday evening, how are people supposed to negotiate stuff with you Wednesday afternoon?
- A style thing: Horizon is not a story or a puzzlebox. Horizon is a world. By and large - unless it will severely and unfairly impact people's experience of the game - the GMs will resolve situations based mainly on IC considerations. Since Horizon is not a story, the main thing we will consider when deciding, say, whether the warehouse explodes, isn't so much "Is this a dramatic moment for the warehouse to explode?" so much as "Did the bombers have a good plan and enough explosives to get the job done?" Similarly, Horizon is not a puzzlebox in which every puzzle has a solution, and there may therefore be challenges your character isn't necessarily capable of overcoming. You are unlikely to be able to kill the Sky, or rip down the Wall single-handed, or even defeat a particular adversary who's got you outgunned, outsmarted, and outmanoeuvred. Sometimes, situations are just hopeless: it is a good survival tactic to know when this is the case. On the flipside, we don't come up with situations with one specific solution in mind: we're willing to give consideration to any plan you come up with to deal with a problem, and if we feel that it really ought to work then it will work. Be creative in your approaches to problems.
You are encouraged to bear these things in mind in your approach to the game: we think that you stand the best chance of enjoying Horizon if you play it like it's real (rather than like it's a big story, or like it's a puzzlebox), except when that might hurt people's out-of-character feelings, and remember that some people's feelings are easier to hurt than others: some people hate the idea of their characters dying early on in the game, others are happy to let events play out as they may and may be more upset if they are saved by OOC fudges on the part of GMs or other players.
...Between Horizon and the Real World
Horizon is a fantasy game. That means that the world of Horizon does not work like the real world; it's useful to know where things differ, so here's some of the major differences:
- Technology has a philosophy behind it. In the real world, technology is underpinned by well-understood physical and mechanical laws, and it's entirely possible to, for example, re-engineer a petrol car to work on solar power. This isn't how things work in Horizon: steam, clockwork, and Grey technology have defined, mutually incompatible philosophies underpinning them, and technological items are as much expressions of those philosophies as they are tools.
- Speaking of technology, guns are clockwork-powered, they don't use gunpowder. Gunpowder, petrol and electricity are out, steam and clockwork are in.
- Wooooooah, it's like, all alive maaaaaan. The world is not an inert thing. The Oceans listen, the Stars observe, the Sky has a voice and the Land and Fire dream beneath our feet. The Sun is a potent agent of the Sky, silver-feathered dragons carry the Stars across the heavens, and vast inhuman forces are all around us. This is kind of claustrophobic.
- Aesthetically pleasing anachronism is not to be feared. Horizon isn't set up to reflect any particular period of Earth's history. Just look at the nations: you have Norse/Celtic engineering-and-brawling afficionados in Irgar, a barbaric despot ruling over an enslaved peasant class in the icy wastes of Vegdarbarra, a Soviet oligarchy lording it over Lasinia while a pseudo-Greco-Roman aristocracy sulks in exile, the whole Arabian Nights deal given life in Jurica. None of these cultures correspond precisely to their real-world counterparts, and in Horizon all these cultures mix in a melting pot which includes a liberal dash of alien weirdness from beyond the Wall. The best thing to do is just shrug and go with it.