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glossary

Glossary

Over the course of One Last Fire, you may come across words or phrases that you are unfamiliar with. We've separated this page into In Character Terminology (terms that your character would likely be familiar with) and Out of Character Terminology (terms which refer to the game itself and the roleplaying styles within it).

In Character Terminology

The Chosen

Special Guests of the Library who can travel between different incarnations of the Library. And, unlike regular Guests, The Chosen possess the knowledge that each Library Incarnation they visit will be destroyed.

Guests

Regular Guests of the Library who change with every Library Incarnation. These are people who live their everyday lives in this geographical location and in this point in history. They have no knowledge that the Library is destined to burn or otherwise cease to exist.

Personal Libraries

A safe place for The Chosen to rest and recuperate between Library Incarnations. Each Personal Library takes on the characteristics of The Chosen's preferred Library in their original home and are connected to other Personal Libraries via a central 'Hub World'. Chosen can visit other Chosen's Personal Libraries if invited to do so.

Library Hub World

A larger space containing interconnecting Personal Libraries belonging to The Chosen. The Library Hub World encourages collaboration and relationship building between The Chosen so that they may better solve the mystery of the Library burning.

Library Incarnation

An incarnation of the Library of Alexandria. Each Library is connected by the fate of destruction which befell the original Library of Alexandria. They each contain a body of knowledge which is considered valuable and representative of the spirit of the original Library. However, Library Incarnations vary tremendously in appearance, cultural influence, and geography.

Tomes

The volume that is presented to every Chosen after they arrive in their first Library Incarnation. It acts as a guidebook (the IC wiki) to the locations and denizens of the Library, as well as a mode of communication between The Chosen. When Chosen are not interacting within a current Library Incarnation, they may share ideas and revelations by writing in their respective Tomes.

Guardians

The most powerful beings within the Library. They are the stewards, the forever caretakers of the Library, and exist across Library Incarnations. Each Guardian is unique and ancient–by baseline human standards anyway.

Eternal Employees

Less powerful than the Guardians but just as everlasting, the Eternal Employees also 'travel' across the Library Incarnations. They perform various duties which keep the Library functioning and attend to the needs of the Guests. Some are more helpful than others.

Pests

The final group of beings which are present in every Library Incarnation. The Pests of the Library make their homes in the Library, causing a fair amount of mischief and disturbance as they go.


Out of Character Terminology

Ballgowning

A term for roleplaying romantic or similarly emotionally intense relationships between characters.

Channels

A term for the separate chat 'rooms' within a Discord server. In-game, these will usually represent distinct places (physical and virtual) that characters have access to. Some channels may be read-only, meaning that you can receive but not send messages there, and some may be entirely hidden from you, only accessible to certain players. You can move between channels via the channel sidebar, where all channels will be labelled with a # (hash) symbol.

Downtime

Downtime refers to the period of time between sessions, which will last one week both in and out of character. During Downtime, you may finalise your plans with other characters by email if you wish, though the key part of Downtime is the Turnsheet. We strongly recommend taking a look at our downtime page for more information.

Encounter

A short, small-scale roleplaying session, much like a 'choose your own adventure' game, which is guided by a GM and which may occur during Uptime if a character wishes to travel.

Eternity

After the final session of One Last Fire, players will be asked to submit an Eternity instead of a conventional Turnsheet. The GM write-up for this will give an impression of how each character is affected by the aftermath of the game, rather than detailing a short term action.

Fluff

A term for the non-mechanical aspects of a game which add flavour and nuance. Think along the lines of character backstories, casual interactions between characters, and building up your personal narrative around the basic mechanics of the game.

Game Moderators (GMs)

The four people who moderate the Discord Uptime sessions, write turnsheet responses, keep the Wiki up to date, and generally run the game. Please get in touch with us if you have any questions, or take a look at our page if you'd like to learn more about us!

In Character (IC)

Information, events, places and characters which exist in the Libraries of One Last Fire.

Linear

A short roleplaying session held in a private channel, in which players act in real time, in constant communication with a GM who tells them the consequences of their actions as they make them. These are expected to only occur in the most exceptional circumstances.

Non-Player Characters (NPCs)

Characters played by the GMs rather than you, the players. You can look through the NPC list here.

Out of Character (OC or OOC)

Information, events, places and people which exist outside the Libraries of One Last Fire.

Player Characters (PCs)

Characters played by you, the players, rather than the GMs. You can look through the PC list here.

PvE and PvP

Terms describing the types of conflict which a character may face. PvE (Player versus Environment) refers to conflict between a Player Character and the world around them, while PvP (Player versus Player) refers to conflict between individual Player Characters. Please take a look at our PvE and PvP page for information on how the GMs will respond to PvP, and our guidance to players who may wish to engage in it.

Roles

A feature of Discord which allows an admin to easily control permissions such as access to hidden channels and the ability to send messages rather than simply reading them. This is a strictly OC feature of the game, and should not be used to gain IC information about other characters (e.g. their whereabouts, alliances or abilities).

Server

Not to be confused with the many IC uses of the word 'server', when used OC this will usually refer to the Discord server which hosts Uptime sessions of One Last Fire. It includes both OC channels (for general discussion, game rules and tech support) and IC channels (where the roleplaying will happen). You can navigate between Discord servers using the leftmost Discord sidebar, where all the servers you are part of will be shown as circular icons. For information on accessing the One Last Fire server, see here.

Time In

A call used by GMs at the start of session, or after “time out” has been called to indicate that everyone should begin acting in character.

Time Out

A call used by GMs to indicate that everyone should stop acting in character and pay attention to the caller. This may be used at the end of a session, or during a session if GMs need to get the whole playerbase's attention or address a problem OC.

Turnsheet

A short piece of writing completed by players each week, used to let the GMs know what each player character is doing during Downtime. You can find templates for each turnsheet at the bottom of your user page, and will need to create and then edit the template according to the guidelines found here. Your turnsheet can be freely edited up until the midnight between Thursday and Friday following a session, at which point - unless a GM has agreed to give you a turnsheet extension - it will be taken as final. The GM team will then read each turnsheet, discuss what happens during Downtime, and write up a response for each player. You can find examples of turnsheets here.

Uptime

Uptime refers to the weekly sessions of One Last Fire, which will take place over Discord. During Uptime, you may use text channels to communicate with other online Player Characters and Non-Player Characters and to come up with plans for Downtime. We strongly recommend taking a look at our Uptime page for more information.

glossary.txt · Last modified: 2021/10/25 16:41 by gm_peyton