WelcomeWelcome to The Man in Black, a freeform roleplaying game for 40 players. It is set in an imaginary, far-future universe run by the monolithic, dictatorial United Federation of God (UFG for short). The UFG are dedicated to, well, running the known universe. Really. That's it. No ulterior motive. Honest.The game takes place in a bar, The Man in Black, which is located in the Jericho system, a small, backwater planet on the fringes of known space, run by the giant White Sands Mining Corporation. The bar itself is reputedly named after the galaxy's most famous assassin, The Man in Black, who has carried out a string of very public assinations over the last few years. Now word has it that The Man in Black himself will be turning up to do a hit this very evening. Take the part of one of those in The Man in Black during this fateful evening. You can play one of the locals, just trying to get on with their life, or one of the many visitors who have come here for reasons of their own, or just for the assassination (eg The Man in Black Groupies, various law enforcement officers, secret agents, journalists, etc). You can even play The Man in Black himself or his intended victim!
What Should You Read?There's a lot of information in these game pages and while it is here for you to use as you see fit, you don't have to read it all, particularly since everything that's in the game pages will be provided to you in the form of the Player's Guide (you do have to read the Player's Guide though; just because I'm not forcing you to plough through all this material via your browser doesn't mean you can skip it altogether). The Player's Guide will be sent out once you have signed up for the game.Please read the notes about where the game is to be run, just to check that you are playing in the correct run and have gone through the sign-up procedure. In general, ALL queries about sign-up for the game/convention, how to get there, etc, should be directed to game/convention organisers and not to me. If you want to have a look around the rest of The Man in Black pages, then please feel free. Finally, if you are new to freeform games, you may want read my take on what a freeform game actually is. Similarly, if you have never played in one of my games before, you may want to read about what you can expect from one of my games and what is expected of you as a player. However, please feel free to skip those sections and also the history of the game and how it came to be. All of those sections are there for your general background information and none of them are essential reading for the game itself.
This PageThe aim of this page is to provide a brief introduction to the game and how it will be played. The main background details can be found on the following pages:
All the information provided in the pages above is contained within the Player's Guide which will be e-mailed to you once you have signed up for the game.
Characters and CastingWhat you won't find on this site is your character sheet. In order to be cast, you will need to fill in a casting form. Please note that you can only be cast if you have already registered to play the game. To register, you must go through the organisers of the convention at which the game is being run. More details on where the game is being run can be found here.When you are cast, your character sheet will contain details on:
The RulesThere are very few game mechanics or rules per se since the entire action will take place in the bar, The Man in Black and consist largely of meeting people, talking to them, finding out information and trying to get people to do what you want them to do.On the odd occassion when a character might want to do something that the player(s) involved can't actually roleplay, then the rules come into play. Basically, if you want to do something special, you will have a card that says what you can do and how you might do it. If not, and you think you ought to be able to do something, go and see a referee, who'll tell you what to do. One area, for example, where rules are used is combat. Combat in The Man in Black is, of course, frowned upon and not a good idea, largely because if the bar's two security men, Vlad and Al, don't get you, then White Sands' Corporate Police probably will. However, if there is combat, then the rules are quite simple. If you want to shoot somebody (and have somehow managed to get a weapon in past security) then off you go. The referees would prefer it if they were there when you actually shoot someone, but in case of emergencies the basic principle is as follows. Draw your weapon, point it at your target and shout "Bang!". If your target is not obvious, also shout out their name. If you have been shot, please fall over in a suitably dramatic fashion. A referee will decide on the extent of your injuries, but please remember, guns are nasty things and they tend to kill people. Hand-to-hand combat is slightly more complicated. Each character has a hand-to-hand combat rating of 1 to 3 (1 being your average man in the street and 3 being a trained killer). There are various bonuses for weapons, surprise, etc. If you're involved in a hand-to-hand fight, then compare your skills. The person with the biggest total wins. Simple really! A more thorough discussion of the rules can be found here. Alternatively, you can wait until you get the Player's Guide which contains the same discussion of the rules.
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