Cognitive Load

You may or may not see references to the term "Cognitive Load" scattered throughout the rules. What we're referring to here is that amount of information you need to remember at a fairly comfortable level to play the game. It's been the bane of every larp in history because they get more interesting as they get more complicated. Options and permutations are lots of fun when you have them and a lot less fun when you have to explain them to everyone on whom you use them.

While we're working through rules, we are keenly aware of cognitive load and minimize it wherever we can. We're not there yet, but the dream is that you'll never be required to look past your Species page and Class page to understand what your character can do, how it works, and what it costs. You may elect to branch out into the Everyman skills page or various Crafting pages but you won't be required to do so.

Other than your Class/Species skills, there's a (very) long list of Effects that can happen to your character. No one expects you to know them all. Some will only rarely apply to you (Critical, for example, doesn't matter to most PC's and the ones to whom it does apply are very aware of what it does to them). Some only rarely happen at all. Some, though, are very common and if you're familiar with those, it makes combat run more smoothly and more enjoyable for everyone involved. It's worth knowing most of these:

• Binding Strike
• Deflect
• Dodge
• Fear
• First Aid
• Initiative
• Parry
• Resist <Magic/Physical/Poison/Elemental/Whatever>
• Roll
• Stun
• Weapon Ward