% The code here has been modified so that it will latex without the Template
% (and PSI's customizations thereto).

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{oldgerm,doublespace,fancyheadings}
\setstretch{1}

\newcommand\gamename{Panoramic Steam Intercontinental}
\newcommand\gamedate{August 2001}
\newcommand\cenquote[2]{
  \begin{quotation}\em\begin{center}#1\end{center}\hfill\small#2\end{quotation}
}
\topmargin  -.5in
\textheight 9.0in
\oddsidemargin -.25in
\evensidemargin \oddsidemargin
\textwidth 7in

\pagestyle{fancy}
\lhead{\scriptsize\em\gamename / \gamedate}
\rhead{\scriptsize\em\mytype}
\renewcommand\headrulewidth{0pt}

\def\mytype{Basic Rules}
\lfoot{}\rfoot{}

\begin{document}
\thispagestyle{empty}
\parindent0pt
\parskip0pt

\begin{center}\huge\bf\begin{tabular}{|c|}
  \hline \frakfamily\gamename\\ BASIC RULES\\ \gamedate\\ \hline
\end{tabular}\end{center}

\cenquote{Written by Philip Tan\\
  This game and all of its text \copyright 2001 The MIT Assassins'
  Guild.\\ ~\\~\\

In one, again, different, (yet thine, all thine, O soul, the same,) \\
I see over my own continent the Steam Intercontinental, surmounting every barrier; \\
I see continual trains of cars winding across the Labrador, carrying freight and passengers; \\
I hear the locomotives rushing and roaring, and the shrill steam-whistle, \\
I hear the echoes reverberate through the grandest scenery in the world; \\
I cross the Surtsey hills---note the rocks in grotesque shapes--the craters; \\
I see the arctic willow and upright birch---the barren, colorless, ice deserts; \\
I see in glimpses afar, or towering immediately above me, the great mountains \\
     ---I see the Saguenay fjord and the Torngat mountains; \\
I see the Grand Falls Gorge and Gros Morne---I pass the Hopewell Rocks \\
     ---I ascend the Appalachians; \\
I scan the Rattling Brook falls, and wind around its base; \\
I see the Long Range---I thread the valley and cross the river, \\
I see the lighthouse of Cape Spear---I see forests of majestic pines, \\
Or, crossing Vatnajvkull, the alkaline basalts, I behold enchanting mirages of ice and stone; \\ 
Marking through these, and after all, in duplicate slender lines, \\
Bridging the three or four thousand miles of the Atlantic, \\
Tying the Eastern to the Western land, \\
The road between Europe and America.}{With apologies to Walt Whitman.}

\vfill\vfill

Welcome to the world of the Panoramic Steam Intercontinental. The
events in this game take place in the years 1895 of an alternate
reality. For the purposes of this game, a little personal research in
Victorian behavior and history would not be amiss. However, be careful
to note those areas in you packet and these rules that differ from
history. This is not your great-grandfather's 1900s.

\vfill

\clearpage
\thispagestyle{empty}
\tableofcontents
\clearpage
\setcounter{page}{1}
\parskip5pt


\section{Scenario}

Rule Britannia! Britannia rules the waves! England has the most
powerful empire in the world by far, maintaining control over colonies
in the New World, India, China and Africa. The British sphere of
influence is the globe itself, and having nowhere else to colonize,
expansionist goals have largely given way to that of industrial
development. The visage of Her Majesty Alexandrina Victoria appears in
coinage across the world, with the British pence, shilling and pound
being the de facto currency of commerce.

Spain and France remain as recognizable colonial powers, although many
of their territories have recently seceded from their empires and
declared independence. Smaller monarchies in Europe have also taken a
beating in as vassal states break away from centralized control, often
in violent, bloody coups. Revolution's the thing, it seems, with the
most notable development being the recent amalgamation of southern and
western territories in North America into an independent United States
of Mexico. This powerful demonstration of unity among formerly
Spanish-controlled areas has spurred many other colonies to take steps
towards their own independence, causing no small amount of worry among
colonial powers.

Britain is still unfazed, due to its massive military
might. Dirigibles by air, armored vehicles on land and the most
powerful navy in the world continue to keep supply and communication
lines open and British colonial borders protected. As a show of
strength, Britain has dispatched a company of Battle-Equipped Armored
Robots to the New World colonies to guard its borders against possible
incursions from the west and south. The French-controlled Creole
territories in central and upper North America consist largely of
inhospitable swampy or frozen land that is of little developmental
value and would pose a major obstacle for any sort of coordinated
military or revolutionary effort.

One of the most important factors in keeping close ties between the
New World colonies and England is the transatlantic railway system,
built mostly on anchored floating pontoons. It runs from England to
Iceland to Canada to the New World colonies and back. The eastern
seaboard of Canada on which the trains run is under English control,
although the French retain most of the icy north. Freight and
passengers move between the continents at over 200 miles per
hour. Recently, there have been some minor incidents involving the
gargoyles indigenous to Iceland interfering with rail operations but
not a single life nor train has been lost to the pesky local fauna
yet.

All this industrial achievement has primarily been due to the
development of the Volatine steam engine, a technological wonder that
is capable of achieving 10,000 to 100,000 horsepower using anthracite
fuel and distilled water. The chemical Volatine is an additive that
enables efficient heat-to-motion conversion at temperatures well below
the boiling point of water, allowing for safer and more innovative
engine designs. Motive Solutions Incorporated (commonly referred to as
MoSo) has its headquarters in England and is responsible for the
supply of Volatine to the industrialized world, primarily within the
English sphere of influence. Volatine is a reusable resource that is
nontoxic unless ingested.

Thanks to the dramatically improved mobility of the human race, the
demand for educated and skilled workers in the British Empire has
ballooned. To fill this need, young women have established their
presence in the workforce and a good percentage hold upper management
positions across the economic landscape. The knowledgeable of either
gender have witnessed the empowering ability of technology and
inventions to mold their surroundings for their own purposes. A new
vista of material wealth and acquisition has enthralled the collective
subconscious of the able and men and women alike are taking advantage
of their opportunities with enthusiasm and vigor.

The shining jewel of Motive Solutions Incorporated is the luxury
high-speed train, the Panoramic Steam Intercontinental. It travels
from London to New York within three days in absolute comfort and
luxury. The finest in British aristocracy have raved about it and many
wealthy continentals and English pay excessively for a chance to
travel on the railway specifically designed to bring Her Majesty to
visit the New World colonies. Although she later cancelled her trip
for reasons of health, the train continues to make a round trip every
month in a magnificent showcase of British engineering and
opulence. Now you, too, can be a part of the wonder that is the
Panoramic Steam Intercontinental.



\clearpage
\section{Balance, Bladder, Barf: the $\beta$ Statistic}

Everybody has a $\beta$ statistic that corresponds to the general
comfort level of a character. Trying to navigate a moving platform is
not easy.  Everybody starts out at his or her maximum $\beta$ at the
beginning of game. Both their maximum and their current $\beta$ drop
to half, rounded up, once the character is on a moving train. Most
characters have a maximum $\beta$ of 10 when the train is not moving
and a maximum $\beta$ of 5 when the train is moving.

For example, if you have 10 $\beta$ at the beginning of game and drink
3 glasses of beer before the train leaves, you will drop to 7
$\beta$. As the train begins to move, your $\beta$ drops to 4, but you
can bring it up to 5 by sobering up in the washroom. Say you do so,
and the train then stops. You remain at 5 $\beta$ but you can return
to the washroom for 18 minutes to bring yourself back up to 10 $\beta$.

Your $\beta$ goes down by 1 every hour, on the top of the hour. When
you hit 1, you can no longer walk, but you may continue to crawl
(simulated by walking heel-to-toe). When you hit 0 $\beta$, you are
floored and may not take any game action except for talking. You may
not eat anything when floored and you cannot lose any more $\beta$
when floored.  You remain at 0 $\beta$ for at least five minutes, then
you return to 1 $\beta$. Note that if you are still at 1 $\beta$ when
the next top of the hour hits, you will be floored for five minutes
again. Once floored, you may remain floored as long as you like,
although other characters might try to tie you up, search you or kill
you.

\subsection{The washroom}

There are many ways to control your $\beta$.  You may choose to go to
the washroom to freshen up. Say ``I relieve myself'' with the washroom
door closed. You may not communicate or make any other game actions
for the next 6 minutes, after which your $\beta$ increases by 2. You
must be the only person in the washroom, even though it is a big
washroom.

You can also say ``I freshen up'' without needing to close the
washroom door. You may not communicate or make any other game actions
for the next 5 minutes, after which your $\beta$ increases by 1.  You
do not need to be alone to freshen up. You can also freshen up using
other sinks on the train.

If you are in the washroom, a second player can speed up your
recuperation if you say ``I throw up'' or ``I nurse my wounds''
instead. The helping player must say ``I help you'' and keep one hand
on your back for two minutes, after which your $\beta$ increases by 1.
The second player may communicate with you or take other game actions
but may not use the hand on your back for any game actions. More than
1 person can ``throw up'' or ``nurse wounds'' in the washroom at any
one time, although they cannot help each other. The door does not have
to be locked if no one is relieving himself or herself.

If you hit the top of the hour while you are recuperating in any way,
you do not lose $\beta$. You may not exceed your current maximum
$\beta$ limit. For most people during most of game, this maximum will
be 5. If anyone interrupts the recuperation process in any way, the
recuperating player loses 1 $\beta$ immediately.

There is a specific in-game washroom on the stairwell landing nearest
the real washrooms in building 1, accessible by going up from the
second floor.  This is separate from the real-life washrooms; do not
confuse the two. Game actions may continue within the in-game washroom
if no one takes advantage of the amenities. The edge of the landing
represents the door of the in-game washroom.

\subsection{More $\beta$ fun}

When your $\beta$ falls to 3, flip a coin three times. If you ate
anything since your last use of the washroom, flip once more. If all
the flips come up as heads, you become train-sick and your $\beta$
drops to 0 immediately. You do not need to flip when your $\beta$
increases to 3. Anything your character eats brings your $\beta$ down
by 1 immediately, unless you know otherwise. Drinking alcohol
immediately reduces $\beta$ by 1. Note that it is rather rude to drink
straight from the bottle.

Drinking tea or coffee brings your $\beta$ up by 1 immediately.
However, the rate of your $\beta$ loss doubles, rounded up. For
example, drinking three cups of tea brings your $\beta$ up by 3 but
then makes you lose 1 $\beta$ every 8 minutes. This effect will
persist until you use the washroom. You can never be permanently
floored no matter how much tea you have drunk. If you find yourself floored
for any reason, your $\beta$ still returns to 1 after 5 minutes.

Entering an outdoor area of the train brings your $\beta$ down by 1
immediately. Leaving an outdoor area brings your $\beta$ up by 1
immediately. This means that if you are at 1 $\beta$, you may choose
to crawl into an outdoor area, fall to 0 $\beta$, wait five minutes
and then crawl back in.  You will then have 2 $\beta$. The fresh air
does you good. The areas between cars are generally not considered outdoors.




\section{The Train}

Most stuff in the train is {\em kludgite}, meaning you can't mess
with it, so don't try.

\subsection{Game Area}

The space inside the train exists on the second and third floors of
buildings 5 and 1. The corridor that connects building 1 to building 3
is considered open sky and characters may not walk in this
corridor. The front of the train is roughly around 5-217. Most
staircases are not in game but they do indicate the locations of the
entryways between carriages. The only navigable staircase in game is
the southeastern stairway of building 1, which connects the two
sleeping cars together.  The train ends on the third floor of building
5, directly above where the train starts on the second floor.  The
following table lists the rooms and spaces from the front of the train to
the rear.

\begin{tabular}{|c|c|l|} \hline
{\bf Room} & {\bf Carriage} & {\bf Description} \\ \hline\hline
5-217 &	Locomotive &	Boiler room \\ \hline
5-216 &	Locomotive &	Anthracite storage \\ \hline
5-231 &	Hospitality &	Smoking room \\ \hline
5-232 &	Hospitality &	Wire room \\ \hline
5-233 &	Hospitality &	Dining room \\ \hline
5-234 &	Hospitality &	Panoramic sitting room \\ \hline
1-242 &	Amenities &	Crew quarters \\ \hline
1-246 &	Amenities &	Exit to platform (Friday and Sunday only) \\ \hline
Stair landing &	Amenities &	Washroom \\ \hline
1-273 &	Sleeping 1 &	Shamrock Luxury Suite Beds K-N \\ \hline
1-277 &	Sleeping 1 &	Thistle Luxury Suite Beds G-J \\ \hline
1-379 &	Sleeping 2 &	Rose Luxury Suite Beds C-F \\ \hline
Open space &	Sleeping 2 &	Rear panoramic sitting room \\ \hline
1-375 &	Sleeping 2 &	Royal Suite Beds A-B \\ \hline
1-371 &	Sleeping 2 &	Indoor cargo hold \\ \hline
1-3 &	Flatbed 1 &	Outdoor flatbed cargo \\ \hline
5-3 &	Flatbed 2 &	Outdoor flatbed cargo \\ \hline
\end{tabular}

\subsection{Items}

Some item cards are oversized, so avoid accidentally truncating your
item cards when cutting them out of their sheets!  Items with physreps
have a specific bulkiness but you may carry as many physrepped items
as you can manage in reality. You may use your own physreps for the
items belonging to your character. The bulkiness of physrepped items only
applies for mechanics such as throwing them off the train or putting
them into containers with specified carrying capacities.

Bodies are 4-hands bulky. Lumps of anthracite and any items marked
``Deadly Weapon'' are 1-hand bulky. The amount of bulkiness that your
character can carry corresponds to the number of hands you have
free. If you need to hand-carry more than 2-hands worth of items
without physreps, you may be able to put them into in-game bags.

You may stash items where other players could reasonably search
without excessive effort, i.e. not in the ceiling tiles. When you burn
an item or dead character, tear the item card cleanly in half down the
width of the card. The right sides of torn item cards remain in game
as ashes. Only certain specific sources of heat can burn items.

Certain items have a limited number of uses represented by checkboxes
on the item card. Check off the boxes as you use the items up.  A
limited-use item with all checkboxes filled remains in game, e.g. an
empty bottle of alcohol.  

Character sheets, blue sheets and green sheets are not in-game items,
as usual. Yellow sheets are for certain mechanics and are not in-game
items. You may not read yellow sheets unless you know otherwise.
Letter-sized pieces of white paper are transferable in-game items and
may represent newspapers, contracts, scribbled scrap paper and other
readable materials. If you find an encrypted message, you may not read
it or try to decode it unless you know otherwise.

\subsection{Currency}

To keep things simple, this game uses a decimal currency, which should
prevent much of the confusion regarding the actual British
pound-shilling-pence system. Ten pence (10d) make a shilling
(1s). Twenty shillings (20s) make a pound (\pounds 1). Therefore, a
pound is worth two hundred pence (200d). Write prices in
pound/shilling/pence, e.g. \pounds 1/2/3 = 1 pound, 2 shillings, 3
pence. For amounts less than a pound, write shilling/pence,
e.g. 10/6. In today's terms, a pence is worth about 50
cents, a shilling is worth about \$5 and a pound is worth about \$100.

\subsection{Locks}

Every lock and locked door in the game has a number and a letter on
it. Every key also has a letter on it. Some keys have asterisks; they
can only open safes. Keys can open locks with the corresponding
letters and asterisks. The locks automatically close when the door or
container closes. Although keys work on both sides of a door, be
careful not to lock yourself in a room by accident by giving away your
key! To use a key, say ``I unlock this one, I unlock this two, I
unlock this three, click'' before opening the door or container.

The washroom has a safety lock on it that remains open if the washroom
is empty. If you are inside a washroom, you may choose to say
``Locked'' if another player asks whether the door is locked.  This
does not interrupt your recuperation. If you choose not to say
``Locked'', you left the door unlocked for some reason. People inside
the washroom can always unlock the door without requiring a key.

If you do not have a key, you may choose to pick locks. Your ability
to pick a lock is reflected in your $\lambda$ statistic. You may only
attempt this once every fifteen minutes for any lock. To pick a lock,
stand in front of the door for two minutes with your hands on the door
and jiggle the doorknob. The number on the lock tells you how many
coin flips you need to perform to complete the attempt at lock
picking. After flipping a coin the appropriate number of times, add
your $\lambda$ statistic to the number of heads you flipped. If the
total is greater or equal to the number on the lock, you have
successfully picked the lock and you may open the door or
container. 

Certain items may improve your $\lambda$ if you have them in
your possession. You may only use one such item when you attempt to
pick a lock. Most people have a $\lambda$ of $-2$, meaning they cannot
pick locks unless they have an item that brings their $\lambda$ up by
2.



\subsection{Sleeping}

Every player has a bed to sleep in on the train. The beds are
inertial-damped capsules for maximum comfort and privacy and
automatically lock from the inside. A cardboard box represents a
capsule. There is also a small safe in each capsule, represented by an
envelope. Up to four beds may share a single luxury suite that has
amenities such as running water, tables, chairs, a mirror, etc.

During each evening of game, your character should go to sleep at some
time, allowing you to take a break from game. When your character goes
to sleep, you may only return to the game after 12 hours, and you
cannot spend more than 16 hours out of game. If you have problems with
this, let a GM know. We can make exceptions if we have enough notice.

To send your character to bed, go to your capsule and unlock the
door. Spend five minutes getting ready for bed, which involves putting
all the items you are carrying into the box or the envelope. Your
character must sleep for a predetermined time between 12 to 16 hours,
so write your intended waking time on the part of the envelope under
your badge. Remember to unlock the safe before putting things in the
envelope.  At the end of five minutes, take off your name badge and
clip it to the envelope, then shut the capsule door. Until you remove
your name badge, you are still in game and other characters can still
interrupt you.

Once the door is shut, your character is asleep and you may now leave
game. Your character may only return to the game at the exact time you
wrote on the envelope. Please show up early enough to give you enough
time to gather your materials from the box and wake up at precisely
the right time. Any yellow sticky notes attached to your name badge
indicate what you saw during the night.  Note that you can only
retrieve items from the safe after your character has returned to
game. Punctuality is very important here. You wake up at your maximum
$\beta$, typically 5.

If you attempt to sneak into a room where there is already a character
sleeping (check the envelopes for attached name badges), flip a coin
twice. If it comes up heads any time, you have woken the character up
by accident. You may deliberately choose to wake the character up,
too. If you wake the character up, the character sees you and you run
off. Write your badge number and player name on a yellow sticky note
(pads provided inside the capsules) and attach it in the back of the
sleeping character's badge. You may not continue searching the bed or
the safe for the next 24 hours and you cannot remove anything from the
capsule.

If you successfully sneak into a capsule without waking the character
up, you may freely search the capsule and bed for items. However, if
another person catches you while you have the capsule door open, the
sleeping character immediately wakes up and both of you have to leave
your information attached to the sleeping character's name
badge. Neither of you may continue searching the bed or the safe for
the next 24 hours or remove anything from the capsule.

If more than one character chooses to go to bed at the same time and
sleep in the same bed (i.e. as part of a love plot), both players
should attach their name badges to the envelope. In addition, you both
have to leave all your items in the box before leaving game, although
you may try to keep them in neat piles. Anything that goes into the
safe gets mixed up with everything else in the safe. You will have to
sort through all of the items on the following day. If someone breaks
into the capsule and wakes the characters up, the person breaking in
should leave sticky notes on both badges.

\subsection{Keeping the Train Moving}

In the engine room, there is a boiler with an hour-timer. If the timer
goes off while you are in the room, or if you walk into the room and
find the hour-timer stopped, do the following steps.  Note that the
GMs may decide to slow down or speed up the train overnight in order
to allow game events to occur in a timely manner.

\begin{enumerate}
\item Check that there are actually cards in the ``boiler''
envelope. Do not read the cards. If there are no cards, ignore all this. 
\item Check off one square on the ``Volatine'' card attached to the
``boiler'' envelope.
\item Count the number of checked boxes on the ``Volatine'' card.
\item Reach into the ``boiler'' envelope and tear up that number of
cards. If there are not enough cards, just tear them all up and go
to the next step.
\item Reset the hour-timer to count down for another hour.
\item See if the blackboard says ``Forward'', ``Reverse'' or
`Stopped'. Unless you know, you cannot change the direction of the train.
\item If it shows ``Stopped'', ignore the rest of the instructions.
\item Count the number of remaining cards in the ``boiler'' envelope.
\item If there are 20 or more and the blackboard says ``Forward'',
tick off the next 20 consecutive squares on the ``progress'' chart.
\item If there are less than 20 and the blackboard says ``Forward'',
tick off that number of consecutive squares on the ``progress''
chart.
\item If there are 20 or more and the blackboard says ``Reverse'',
erase the last 20 squares on the ``progress'' chart.
\item If there are less than 20 and the blackboard says ``Reverse'', erase
off that number of consecutive squares on the ``progress'' chart.

\end{enumerate}

If any other timer rings in the same room that you are in, please
follow the instructions next to the timer.

\subsection{The Emergency Brake}

At every door in the train, there is an emergency brake switch. To
activate it, stand under a door and say ``Emergency Brake pulled!''
clearly and loudly. Everybody who hears this should try to propagate
this information by saying ``Emergency Brake pulled!'' clearly and
audibly. If you see another player and you are not sure whether they
are aware of this, tell them ``Emergency Brake pulled!'' Everybody
should know when someone pulls the emergency brake of the train.

If you are near the engine room when someone pulls the emergency
brake, please take all the cards in the ``boiler'' envelope and put
them in a wastebasket. Turn the timer in the boiler room off.
Unless you are performing one of the two above mechanics or you know
otherwise, the heat of the boiler prevents you from removing cards.
Remember that torn item cards remain as ashes in this game.

\subsection{Throw Momma From the Train}

To throw something off the train into the sea, carry the object up to
a wastebasket and say ``Throwing this thing out one, throwing this
thing out two, throwing this thing out three'' for every hand of
bulkiness of the object. Note that you may need more than one person
to carry a very bulky object. If anyone interrupts your count by
saying ``I stop you'' in ZOC, you fail to throw the object out of the
train and must then immediately place the object on the floor. You can
only throw things out of the train on the hospitality and the flatbed
carriages. The rest of the carriages do not have windows that you can
easily open.

If you complete your count without interruptions, then put the item
card of the object in the wastebasket. Anything in a wastebasket is
considered permanently out-of-game. If the object has a physical
representation, throw the item card into the wastebasket but leave the
physical representation beside the wastebasket. If someone throws a
character that has 0 $\beta$ while the train is moving, that character
immediately screams and dies, unless you know otherwise. However, if
the train is stopped and over dry ground, the thrown character should
find a GM.


\subsection{Telegraphy}

There is a Wire Room in the train, which you can use to send
telegraphs. However, if your character does not explicitly know
telegraphy, you may not read any messages written in Morse code, and
you cannot write or send messages in Morse code. You will need to find
another character with the Telegraphy ability to have your messages
transmitted and received.


\clearpage
\section{Violence}

\subsection{Martial Combat}

To engage in unarmed combat, say ``martial attack'' within ZOC of your
intended opponent. There is no need to say ``martial defense''. The
defending player has five seconds to choose whether he or she wishes
to put down anything they are carrying. If he or she chooses to hold
on to game items during the battle, he or she immediately loses 1
$\beta$ and the unarmed combat ends. There are no effective melee
weapons in this game.

If both combatants free their hands and go into a fighting stance,
they then play rock-paper-scissors with both hands, with one
combatant's left hand fighting the opponent's right and vice versa. To
begin a round of combat, count ``one two three'' then show a rock or a
paper or a scissors symbol in both hands. A player's hands may show
two different symbols. If the left hand of one combatant matches the
symbol on the opponent's right hand and vice versa, the combat
immediately breaks and both players must jump out of each other's
ZOC. To win the combat, both hands must defeat both of your
corresponding opponent's hands in a single round. Losing unarmed
combat brings your $\beta$ down by 1. Characters can communicate
freely during combat.

\subsection{Ranged Combat}

There are pistols in game, represented by patrol guns. Gunpowder
technology is wimpy in this era and the only way a typical pistol is
going to kill you is by infection, post-game. However, being shot by a
lead bullet from a pistol immediately brings your $\beta$ down to
0. Blunderbusses, represented by Koosh ring guns, work the same
way. Ammunition is limited in this game. If someone fires a gun into
martial combat, the combat immediately breaks. The players involved in
the martial combat must jump out of each other's ZOC and do not take
damage.

A discgun represents some sort of glowing force. You have never seen
anything like it before. If a disc hits you, you must freeze in place
for ten seconds. Unless you know, you may not take any game actions
nor communicate with other players during those ten seconds. If a
bunch of discs hit you, freeze immediately and stay frozen for ten
seconds after the last disc hit. When you unfreeze, your $\beta$
will drop by 2.

\subsection{Killing}

You may only kill within ZOC of a floored character. You need an item
marked ``Deadly Weapon'' to kill. To kill a character, read out the
two-line poem on the item card of your weapon as menacingly as
possible, loud enough for your target to hear it. Then say ``Killing
blow one, killing blow two, killing blow three'' audibly enough for
other players in the room to hear it. Other players may stop you by
stepping within ZOC of you and initiating unarmed combat before you
have completed your incant. Shooting you will also stop your killing
blow.

If someone kills you, try to let out a bloodcurdling scream (not so
loud to disturb NPs but loud enough for the people in the room at
least). Drop all your items and your name card and write ``killed by
[the weapon that killed you]'' on the left of your name card. Anybody
who finds your intact name card can tell what killed you. Find a GM as
soon as it is convenient to inform us of your untimely demise.

\subsection{Medical Attention}

Some characters may be able to administer medical attention. While
they are examining you or administering first aid, you may not take
any other game actions. You may still communicate with other
characters. If you or the other character interrupts the procedure by
taking other game actions or entering combat, you will need to start
all over again. The character administering medical attention will
tell you the results of the procedure upon completion.

\clearpage
\section{Miscellaneous}

\subsection{Objectives} 
The objectives listed in your character sheets and blue sheets are not
necessarily the winning goals for your character. They are guidelines
to help you understand the main motivations of your character. You
should work towards all your objectives unless you discover some
evidence that suggests that those objectives oppose your character's
personality and cares. Certain items or events in game may pique your
character's interest even if the character did not did not have them
in mind at the beginning of the game.

Thus, be sure to read the entirety of your sheets and get a good feel
for the personality and backstory of your character. ``Winning'' in
this game depends on staying true to your character's personality and
your involvement in plot developments, not just in your ability to
make certain events occur.

Generally, most characters would like to arrive at the final
destination in a timely fashion, if at all. No one wants to be
stranded in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean or stuck in Victoria
Station.

\subsection{Badge Numbers}

The first digit of your badge number is your apparent age in decades.
The second digit of your badge number is your apparent wealth, where 0
represents lower class, 1 represents upper class and 2 represents nobility.

\subsection{Standard rules}

For other kinds of game interactions not discussed in these rules,
such as searching characters, please consult the standard rules:
http://web.mit.edu/jemorris/Public/Rules/

\subsection{Game Times}

Game begins on Friday evening at 8:00pm in room 1-246. You should
arrive at 7:00pm to pick up physreps and check for last-minute
changes. Game will end when the train reaches its final destination on
Sunday, with Wrap-Up following.

You are required to be in game during this time unless a mechanic or
a GM says otherwise.

\subsection{Athena and Phones}

Game action is not allowed in Athena clusters.  Don't hide in them,
either.

Zephyr, email, and phones are not in game, and should not be used for
in-game communications.

\section{Closing Remarks}

We hope you will have as much fun playing our game as we had writing it.
Remember, the real winners are those who have the best stories to tell
afterwards.

Good luck!

\end{document}
