This describes the rules of play for Eyes in the Dark, including a short tutorial on the game-mechanics of the IDEAS(c) system.

Character Sheet

Before you attend your first session, be sure to have obtained your character sheet and have it handy (unless you just came to watch, which is permitted :) ). You are not required to understand everything on the sheet right away, so don't worry, however, as time wears on you will be expected to run more and more of your character by yourself.

On the sheet will be listed a number of abilities like "50 Brains" or "70 Immaterial" These are called levels, and they rate your character's ability. When you are asked to make a save against that ability, look up that number and roll the dice (see below.)

Scenes

Once on SandNet, you will find the game-play is chopped into scenes like a TV show . The first scene is always #ideas.rpg.horror. Scene 2 is #ideas.rpg.horror2, Scene 3 is #ideas.rpg.horror3, and so on. Each scene has a topic line, which lists the game-title, the characters in this scene, and the name of the current adventure. All players should have All scenes open, but your character is only aware of and can only act in scenes where he or she is listed in the topic-line.

Sometimes, the GM will slide a new channel name into the text of the game, for example, "you walk into the #lab" In this case, the channel #lab will be the new scene.

Making a Save

The GM has a dice-bot hooked into his IRC client software, which picks up on player-commands. When you are asked to make a save, find the level of that ability on your character sheet and type, for example "Save 70" to save vs. Brains if your Brains is 70. The result will pop back in the channel, giving the result of your action.

Basic Combat

All characters begin game-life with 10 Body, and 0 wounds. When you are damaged in combat, your Body goes down and your wounds come up.  If ever Body hits 0, or wounds are higher than body, you may black out. If ever wounds reaches 10, you may die. You must keep track of the damage your character takes.

Attack Roll: When you make an attack, you must make a save, then take the DG of your damage-level, in Body or wounds and report it to your GM. Attacks that deal non-lethal or Body damage have square-brackets [200], attacks that deal lethal, or wound damage have angular brackets <100.>

Effect: In order to take a DG of a level, type "dg 6 200" to take, for example, 6DG of 200. The skill you save against, and the damage-level depends on how you make your attack.  The following tables gives some of the standard methods for IDEAS. L means the level of the power or weapon.

Taking a Hit: When you take damage, it will be a number of Body or wounds (or both.) Type "dgo 150 200" for example, to compute that 150 is 8DG of 200. Your character sheet also sometimes has these levels pre-listed. Deduct the Body damage from your Body total, and add the wounds.

Experience is what you get..

In-game and through the mailing list you will receive experience points. In particular, in game, the GM may award you a small amount for doing something clever or entertaining. Keep these and add them to your total. When you have amassed enough, you may spend experience to improve your character's abilities. There is an entire page devoted to this process.

The Chopping Off of Heads

Having other windows, chat-channels, MUCKs or TV shows on during the game is severely frowned upon. We understand if it takes a while for your scene to change that you get a bit bored, and we'd rather you ping your brain and keep fresh than just stare into space, but if you are not paying full attention or if you miss crucial scene information you can be penalized experience points and look a fool, besides. It has been our experience that a certain amount is inevitable, but just make sure that you are always into the game and are following what is happening.

Besides, at the end of the game, you will receive an award based on how much you were into the game, how much you contributed, and how quick you were to pick up prompts. Having any distractions will detract from all of these.