Hello, and welcome to the wiki for Origin Story, one of two Oxford University Roleplaying Society freeform games running this summer (the other is Emporium, which will release its website shortly). If you've never played any sort of roleplaying game before, never fear! Here's a quick introduction. If you're a seasoned roleplayer, feel free to check out the quick guide to sections of the site at the bottom of this page.

One important thing to be aware of first: you don't need to read this entire website! There's a lot of material here, and you certainly don't need to know all of it to start playing (although if you do want to, that's great!). Read only what interests you and what's relevant to a character you might like to play! You will find a guide to sections of the website and what they tell you below.

Any questions, concerns and character concepts should be e-mailed to The GM Team.

There are a few acronyms used throughout the website which might be a little confusing if you've never played before. Don't worry - help is at hand! And if you're confused by anything, feel free to email us to ask questions!

• OC or OOC - Out of Character. Events and circumstances in the real world. For example, Origin Story sessions take place OC on a Discord server.
• IC - In Character. Events and people in the World of Origin Story. For example, Origin Story sessions take place IC on the SparkedInYou.org forum.
• GM - Game Master or Game Moderator. Us! The team of people who write, run and maintain the game for your playing pleasure. The first place to turn if you have a question.
• PC - Player Character. You! The characters that Origin Story players create and represent in the fictional world. You will usually play the same PC every week through the course of the game, though you may switch or retire a character if you get bored.
• NPC - Non-Player Character. Us again! The GMs will play various characters in the world, from fellow Sparks you interact with on the forum in uptime, to PC family members and various notable figures around Citropolis, who can be encountered in downtime. We have already designed various NPCs (found in the Notable Characters section on each location and school page), but more will likely be generated as a result of PC backstories!

A Roleplaying game is somewhere between amateur dramatics and collaborative storytelling. You turn up, create a character to play, and play them! There are no scripts or lines, no set outcomes to what will happen - just a setting, a bunch of other characters to interact with, and some GMs to make sure it all runs smoothly.

Most importantly - Roleplaying is about having fun and creating stories with other players. Absolutely no experience is required to play a 'Society Game' like Origin Story (indeed, it's designed to offer an easy route in for new roleplayers), and there will be plenty of supportive people on hand to help you out if you're confused about any aspect of the game. Turn up and enjoy yourself!

Unlike many traditional roleplaying games, Origin Story has no mechanical system for calculating success or failure, apart from what makes a good story for all involved. Despite being a game about superpowers, our emphasis is on character interaction and development, and on the ordinary lives those with these powers live more than the powers themselves.

There are many kinds of roleplaying game, and Origin Story is a Society Game, a format developed over many years of Oxford University Roleplaying Society's existence.

As with other Society Games, the game is divided between Uptime and Downtime. In the two-weekly sessions that make up Uptime, the PCs interact in real-time over the text channels of a Discord server. The characters are Sparks, young super-powered people in a society that discriminates against them, who have found a safe space in the SparkedInYou.org forum. The GMs are present to provide assistance and to play NPCs on the forum.

'Downtime' takes place over two weeks OC, but a month IC. Over the few days after each session there is an opportunity to have any useful conversations by sending other players in-character emails, as you prepare your turnsheet. A turnsheet is an outline of what your character plans to do over the next IC month; you submit it to the GMs, and we write up a description of how your plans play out. Here is the opportunity to explore Citropolis and its threats, deal with school and family life, and generally get a feel for the lives of your characters when they're not on the forum.

There is a system for these Turnsheet actions, detailed here - but don't feel you need to memorise it all; we're more than happy to help you out if you're having trouble working out what you want to do in the early weeks!

Quick Guide

We'd suggest starting in the following places:

• The Setting pages: Your character can be aware of anything in this section, and it hopefully contains a lot of things that can spark (haha) character ideas.
• Intro to the Wiki System: If you are new to Society games, and want to be brought up to speed on how the wiki works.
• Creating a Character: When you want to start putting together your character for the game.
• Style and Tone: To get some initial idea about the feel of the game, without reading through every page on the wiki.
• Uptime and Downtime: This will get you up to speed on how the Discord system, email and Turnsheets work, if you don't yet know.

If you haven't roleplayed before, or you have but not this kind of game, then there are a few things to keep in mind.

Conduct and Themes

RPGSoc has a Conduct and Themes (CAT) Policy, which specifies which themes are and aren't allowed to come up in the game (or in some cases themes that can only be handled in certain contexts/need careful signposting). This is to ensure the comfort of everyone involved, so please familiarise yourself with it.

Metagaming

In the time between sessions there will inevitably be lots of talk between players, such as in the RPGSoc Discord 'pub' chats afterwards. If you find out any information from someone whilst OC that your character would not have access to whilst IC, then please do your best to avoid using it. Ideally, you should only act on things that your character knows. Doing otherwise is called metagaming.

It is generally inappropriate to metagame or to tell other players secret information whilst OC. Doing so is unfair on the player in question as well as everyone else, as plans can drastically change. Besides, it's not very realistic either. Also, bear in mind that it is expressly acceptable to lie to (or otherwise deceive) other players OC about sensitive information. This is considered part of the social contract for players, who must not expect their peers to be honest with them. Therefore, that juicy bit of plot which you found out in the pub, but your character would not know about, might not actually be true. Note that this is not meant to encourage setting up clever traps for gullible players by lying to them OC, but to discourage players from acting on information which their characters would not know).

IC/OC Divide

When role-playing, getting into character is always fun. However it is easy to take quarrels and disputes with another character out of sessions, and into the real world. Hostility towards other people out of sessions is not what this game is about, so try to remember characters and players are two different things.

Further detail on this can be found in the Conduct and Themes policy.

Remember, if you have any questions that aren't answered here, you can email The GM Team, who will happily help.

Do I have to pay anything?

The Society Game is free to all members of OURPGSoc, although this does have a membership fee of £5 for a year or £15 for life. However, to allow people to get an idea of what the game is and how it operates, as many will not have done anything like this before, we're more than happy for non-members to play for the first few weeks of the game. If, after that, you feel like sticking around, we'd appreciate you contacting the society Treasurer (who can provide more details about the payment options). Their info can be found here: https://users.ox.ac.uk/~rpgsoc/committee.shtml. Becoming a member helps keep the society going, and run more cool games like this one!

Can I play my favourite character from X?

As a general rule, we won't allow player characters that are lifted from existing media. Quite aside from copyright concerns, adapting an existing character to fit within the specific setting of this game will inevitably lead to times where the original character could do something that isn't allowed within this system, causing all manner of headaches. Besides, we think you'll have much more fun playing your own, original character, and making them your own!