Editing Heartstone Codex (section)

=About the Game=
'''Premise:''' Over the last few decades, some of the most important ideas of the age have been formulated into a series of iconic images and illuminated texts. At a remote abbey, a site for pilgrimage, they are to be bound into a codex and then copied, to be distributed by pilgrims around the Hugaar Empire. However, the past two years have brought increasingly rapacious incursions of western barbarians. As the spring snows melt and the mountain paths open, an armed group of pilgrims arrives at the abbey asking for refuge. As always, the abbey opens its gates. But an ancient saying is remembered: ''When the spring snow melts, Death knocks at the gate.''

'''Setting & Feel:''' The main inspirations (no more than that) are Europe in the Dark or early Middle Ages, the relation between East and West and in particular religious conflicts such as those over iconography. Invasions of barbarian hordes, usually invited to invade by political factions. The interplay between religious devotion and political expediency. Illiteracy is predominant, and knowledge is in the hands of a few. True Good and Evil do exist, but are very infrequently encountered; no temporal power has a monopoly over either.
	The intention of all of this is as coathangers for interesting characters, a scaffold for intrigue and for adventure. Not anthropowanking, or anything which might scare people off. 

'''Intentions for the Game:''' 
*''Players who don`t have the rules'' – If I can drag good players in, ones who don’t ''a priori'' know chargen or the rules (people like Asen, Chalkline, Mr.A), then I am more than happy to put the extra effort in.
*''Open-ended and long-running'' – I may use an episodic structure in order to introduce breaks.
*''Character advancement and development'' – I see interesting characters as the centre for any game. So, characters must be rooted in the setting. 
*''Not railroaded'' – you are half-way through a ‘dungeon’; you get the notion that going back the way you came will confuse the hell out of the enemy – go for it!
*''Participatory'' – (1) Please contribute to the setting, ideas for adventures, for NPCs. (2) this is the first time I run Fantasy Craft (I have mostly run Hero Quest) so I will need help with rules and with inevitable slip-ups.
*''Occasional need for tactics''. I love situations where players have to use their noddles to achieve some tricky objective, e.g. how to get across an open area of ground which is being watched, how to demonstrate to the local lord that his right-han man is a traitor, etc.
*''Use of social and other skills'' as an alternative to bopping folk over the head (a major reason for choosing Fantasy Craft – there is crunch but there are also other options).
*''Failure is Fun'' – if your characters tries something and fails, we try to make the result more interesting than if (s)he had succeeded. Check this out: http://www.heroquest-rpg.com/support/na_defeat.html.
*''Friendly'' and with a lack of posturing – this comes from the choice of people to play with.
*''Characters may have secrets''. However, these should be made known to all at the ‘table’ except where short-term secrets add spice to a particular situation.

'''Wiki & Posting to forum''': 
* Please do edit the wiki. There is lots which could be expanded upon (e.g. see foot of front page), although I want to hold on to a veto. 
* Please post IC in the present tense, third person, and remember to include your character's name somewhere.
* Small OOC comments are fine at the foot of an IC post, with "OOC:..." and (a) italics, (b) colour Plum, or (c) spoiler tags (last is good for longer stuff).
* When you are taking actions, please be explicit as possible - best is to have lines ready on the character sheet to copy and paste, including page references if possible. Include Invisible Castle rolls but note that i will take some rolls for you (for speed or for some detection or perception things).
* When I get things wrong or piss you off, please let me know asap so I can edit posts and retro-fit as necessary.
* I hope to be able to post largish posts (where necessary) around twice a week, smaller ones through the week. Inevitably, things will get rocky at times.
* Once we get going, I will move this section, and the chargen section, off the front page, to keep this as a hub and for a list of characters and history.