There are fairly few "house rules" for Narth 2000, at least in the sense that most players are familiar with. For personal and professional reasons, we try to use the GURPS rules exactly as printed. Anything that varies from that will either almost certainly be world-specific stuff detailed in these webpages (most likely on the Characters page), or are customizable subsystems, such as the GURPS Religion ruleset.

However, outside of the GURPS rules themselves, there are a few guidelines that we try to follow. Some for aesthetic reasons, and some for practical ones.

Gaming Protocols

(Much of the following material was originally part of a file on on-line gaming distributed to those of us who GM'ed on eWorld before it went belly-up. It still applies to the IRC incarnation of the game; what doesn't, has been excised or replaced with more appropriate advice [such as the /me command, for instance].)

When in an online game, certain protocols are necessary for the other players to understand your character's actions.

When joining the game in IRC, you should set your /nick to your character's name. If you have more than one character, or are representing more than one player through a single connection, choose one and indicate in the text you send who is speaking.

Character dialogue should appear in quotation marks:

<Wulf> "Well met, stranger."

Character actions should be given using the /me command (or the equivalent):

* Wulf runs to the door, brandishing a short sword.

When mixing actions and dialogue, it's easier to understand if you keep the action before the dialogue, not after, but you can do it either way if you're reasonably careful about it:

* Wulf glances at the newcomer. "Who do you think you are? We were here first!"

or

<Wulf> "Who do you think you are?" Wulf glances at the newcomer. "We were here first."

Character descriptions or longer text appear as normal sentences in third-person present tense:

<Bellamy> Bellamy is a tall, broad-shouldered woman with straight, long red hair. She wears well-oiled chainmail and carries a terrifically heavy war-axe. When she enters the room, she glances at the group of dwarves near the fire.

Note that the last sentence could appear differently if written alone:

* Bellamy enters the room, glancing at the group of dwarves near the fire.

When a character speaks a language that the majority of present characters do not speak, what happens depends on the language. Wherever possible, Sidhaisin (Elvish) will be given exactly as it is spoken (and anyone who wants to check is free to go consult the online Sidhaisin dictionary!). Other languages will be presented as apparent gibberish -- but the gibberish will have a consistent pattern and with enough exposure, you may be able to figure out what some words mean. (Your GM is not a linguistic/philological hobbyist for nothing, you know!) A good example of this kind of language presentation can be found in the encounter with the guards on the plane of Telleana (transcripts 26 and 27 in the third archive of game transcripts).

For psionic characters who wish to publicly post psionic messages (or for other, more exotic means of communication such as modulated magical energy), slashes should enclose the dialogue:

<Psyche> /Who are you? Why have you contacted our minds?/

(If you think that what we generate is starting to sound like a passage from a story or novel, you're right. Roleplaying is interactive story-telling, and if you're doing a good job, you're entertaining the other players and the GM just as much as they're entertaining you. Better yet, it'll entertain someone reading it long after the fact.)

Die Rolling

On eWorld, there was a very nice dice roller built into the conference program. Unfortunately, IRC doesn't have that capability. Die rolls are handled on an honor basis -- you'll have to roll locally and then tell us what you got. We trust you to report your results accurately and honestly. Besides, even critical failures can be fun...

And that's it, really. Some of it may look like common sense, but not everyone has common sense (that's why it's a 10-point advantage! <grin>).

We look forward to seeing you online!

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