<img src="http://ufopress.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Artboard-1@2x-1.png">
Welcome to the expanded rules for <a href="http://ufopress.co.uk/our-games/what-ho-world/" target="_blank">Wizards Aren't Gentlemen!</a> If you have any questions not covered by this guide, or have suggestions for other things to add, get in touch at <a href="mailto:ufopressrpg@gmail.com?Subject=WAG%20twine%20rules">ufopressrpg@gmail.com.</a>
Here's how to get started:
1. Read through the [[Key Rules|Basic Rules]].
2. Pick a [[character deck|Who you can play]].
3. Pick [[deck options]].
4. Gain two [[Assets and Goals]].
5. Go around the table [[framing|Scene Framing]] and [[playing through|Playing Scenes]] scenes.
6. When you've made enough progress on a Goal, try to [[complete it|Accomplishing a Goal]].
7. When someone completes two goals, [[the game winds up|Ending the Game]].
*Wizards Aren't Gentlemen* offers five different wizard types to play as:
**The Apprentice.**
Given a taste of magical power, the Apprentice finds that their life has suddenly got a lot easier. Little do they know, as they frivolously magic their problems away, that all power comes with a cost.
**The Bound Servant.**
Whether they're a pit-fiend of the nether hells or a blot of lightning shaped into the form of a man, the Bound Servant exists to do as their master wills. Or at least, what they think is in their master's best interests...
**The Hermit.**
A life of Wizardry can make one strange, and whether voluntarily or not many find themselves exiled to the fringes of magical society. Still, these Hermits have learned powerful magic in their long lives, and often receive visitors asking for their wisdom.
**The Fringe Occultist.**
Even among a society of reality-breakers, there are some things that are just not done. The Fringe Occultist crosses that line with impunity, calling on strange and fell powers and pushing the boundaries of magic.
**The Inquisitor.**
Keeping a society of wizards in check is a thankless task, but someone's got to do it. Inquisitors can shut down magic and pass judgement on others, but even on their days off they can find themselves drawn into other wizard's squabbles.
*Wizards Aren't Gentlemen* tells stories in the mould of Clark Ashton Smith and Jack Vance. They're set in a world where miraculous events are commonplace and eccentric mages feud with each other dismissive of the mortals toiling below. Wizards have a society of their own with complex social rules, kept in check by grim Inquisitors.
Feel free to include elements from your favourite fantasy works, but remember these principles:
* Magic can work miracles.
* Magic makes you weird.
* Magic doesn't stop you from feeling lovesick, envious and arrogant.
* A problem solved with magic may come back to bite you.
In tone, we're aiming for acid-trip fantasy meets academic infighting. Focus on jostling with the other wizards for status, furthering your magical power, and attempting to gain your heart's desire. Outright magical duels shouldn't be common, and direct violence against the other characters should only be employed as a last restort or if all players involved are cool about it.
*Wizards Aren't Gentlemen* doesn’t use dice, or any other random element. Instead, it works like a conversation. You’ll describe your actions, other players will describe what their character does in response, and the conversation continues onward. Like any conversation you take turns to speak, but it's not like taking turns in chess - you can add on to someone else's suggestions, come up with ideas of your own, interject if things are going down a path you don't like and so on.
When someone’s interacting with the environment or with characters that aren’t owned by any particular player, someone needs to decide what happens. Normally that'll be someone not currently participating in the scene, or the group as a whole can decide.
Occasionally, the actions you describe your character taking will have particular importance to the story, and you’ll use a [[move card|How Moves Work]] to resolve it. These move cards are there to mediate the conversation, and give the story some structure - like pruning a topiary to get the most pleasing shape!
When you use a move card, start and end with the fiction:
* Start by saying what your character's doing that activates the move.
* After its mechanics have been resolved, interpret its results to make sense in the current situation and flow back into the conversation.
Moves are your special abilities - your ability to declare that something happens or place extra rules on what other players can say or do.
With a few exceptions each move card holds the following:
**A trigger**
The circumstances when the move comes into play, often including [[token|Tokens]] costs. Once you've met activated one of your move cards, you must carry on and resolve the rest of it.
**An effect**
Something that happens when it’s activated. This may have options for the triggering player or others to choose from, but its effects are guaranteed to happen unless some other move interferes.
**Extras**
Many moves will have some optional extra effect you can produce by spending [[Tokens]]. These can alter the move's effects, add extra bonuses, or add extra limitations to other character's behaviour.
Here's an example move from The Hermit:
**Divination**
Your hermitage is only isolating when you want it to be.
(link-reveal: "With an incantation and a reflective surface... ")[[ **The Trigger**]<c1|]
(link-reveal: "...you can see and hear what's happening somewhere else in the world.")[[ **The Effect**]<c2|]
(link-reveal: "♥ The image is visible to everyone around you.")[
[**Optional Extras**]<c3|]
Tokens are the key force in Wizards Aren't Gentlemen! They come in five flavours:
♥ **Grace:** your ability to be inspiring, dignified and polite.
♣ **Knowhow:** your knowledge of trivia and arcane secrets.
♠ **Skulduggery:** your ability to be underhanded and sneaky.
♦ **Wits:** your ability to understand situations and act quickly.
These four basic token types are found on the back of character move cards. Each card has two different suits on its back, meaning that the card can be spent as either of those token types. For details about card spending, see here.
Finally, there are ✦ **Excellence** tokens, found on the back of Asset/Goal cards. These can be spent as any of the other types. You start with none of these, but each character deck has a particular **Trouble Move** [[they can activate|Gaining New Moves]] to gain one.
Each character has a **Trouble Move**. These introduce or further a subplot specific to your character that piles adversity on them until everything somehow works out.
**Trouble Moves** don't just complicate your character's life; they're also the only way of gaining new abilities. When you activate your **Trouble Move** you replace one of your token cards with a [[✦ token|Tokens]], flipping that character card faceup and placing it with your other character moves. From then on you can use that move along with your other ones.
Each character will have two things they’re hoping to achieve, and two unique assets to use to try and bring it about.
As part of game setup, you'll draft two Asset/Goal cards. The remainder of the Asset/Goal cards should be flipped over to be used as [[✦ tokens|Tokens]]. These aren’t meant to be a limited resource - use beads, coins some other kind of marker to track them if you run out!
As you play and your character works towards your Goals, you'll [[bank|Token Mechanics]] ✦ tokens on them. When Assets help you with this, an extra token is banked.
When you think you've made enough progress, you cash in those ✦ tokens [[in an all-or-nothing bid to complete the Goal|Accomplishing a Goal]].
To achieve a Goal, [[frame your scene|Scene Framing]] with the explicit aim of finishing it. Each other player suggests an impediment to achieving the Goal. For this scene, you may use the ✦ tokens banked on the Goal.
At the end of the scene agree as a group whether the goal’s been achieved. If so, flip over the Goal and gain it as a ✦ token. If not, discard it - you've missed your shot.
Either way, discard all ✦ tokens banked on the goal.
If both of your Goals have been accomplished or failed, the game [[enters its epilogue|Ending the Game]].
[Play Example]<c1|
(click-replace: ?c1)[Albus has banked three ✦ tokens on his goal to lead the first expedition to the deadly Plateau of Groog. As he frames the scene he declares it's time for the expedition to set off.
The other players confer. Glinda suggests that the mountain pass to the plateau is only open for one minute every day. Elric suggests that the plateau is guarded by demons imprisoned in suits of armour.
The scene begins, and Albus has three extra ✦ tokens to help him overcome the plateau's dangers.
If he succeeds, he'll flip over the Goal to its ✦ side and swap it for a facedown character card, gaining an extra move to use.]
If both of a player's Goals have been either completed or discarded, the game enters its final stage. It's time to wind up the story.
Go clockwise around the table. Each player narrates an epilogue for their character, wrapping up their Trouble Move sub-plot and Goals.
Include a rise in status, good fortune or happy outcome for each met goal, and a public embarrassment, stroke of bad luck or fall from grace for each unmet or failed goal.
Don't make things too final - there's always room for another tale!
<hr>**Rules Topics**
[[Game Setup|Welcome]]
[[Who you can play]]
[[Setting and Tone]]
[[Key Rules|Basic Rules]]
[[How Moves Work]]
[[Tokens]]
[[Token Mechanics]]
[[Gaining New Moves]]
[[Assets and Goals]]
[[Accomplishing a Goal]]
[[Scene Framing]]
[[Playing Scenes]]
[[Locations]]
[[Ending the Game]]
(set: $image to 0)Your personal play area has three important sections: your hand of token cards, your faceup move cards, and your discarded cards.
{(live: 0.5s)[(if: $image is 0)[<img src="http://ufopress.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Artboard-1@2x.png" alt="Token Mechanics 0" height="251" width="792">](if: $image is 1)[<img src="http://ufopress.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Artboard-2@2x.png" alt="Token Mechanics 1" height="251" width="792">](if: $image is 2)[<img src="http://ufopress.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Artboard-3@2x.png" alt="Token Mechanics 2" height="251" width="792">](if: $image is 3)[<img src="http://ufopress.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Artboard-4@2x.png" alt="Token Mechanics 3" height="251" width="792">](if: $image is 4)[<img src="http://ufopress.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Artboard-5@2x.png" alt="Token Mechanics 4" height="251" width="792">]]}
When you [spend]<t1| a token place it in your discard pile.
When a move tells you to [bank]<t2| a token, put it under the move card.
Banked cards are *committed* and are only [spent]<t3| in specific ways.
When you frame a scene you [refresh]<t4| your *discarded* cards, placing them back with your hand of *free* token cards.
[Refresh this page.]<t5|(click: ?t1)[(set: $image to 1)](click: ?t2)[(set: $image to 2)](click: ?t3)[(set: $image to 3)](click: ?t4)[(set: $image to 4)](click: ?t5)[(goto: Token Mechanics)]
In *What Ho, World!* you take it in turns to be the focus of a scene in the story you're telling. For that scene, they're the main character, and we care more about their story than about other character's. The game begins with focus on the Gadabout, or on the youngest player if they’re not in play.
Each story starts in one of two [[Locations]]: the London Townhouse or the Country Manor. Put those location cards down in the centre of the table. The starting focus then frames the first scene.
If you have no free ✦ tokens you may decide to [[use your Trouble Move|Gaining New Moves]]. If not:
1. Decide an **aim** for your character. This should be doable within a single scene and fit with the game’s tone.
2. [[Refresh|Token Mechanics]] all tokens in your discard pile.
3. Pick an established or new [[Location|Locations]] to set the scene in.
4. Add extra details: scenery, player characters that are present, minor characters here for the scene and who’s playing them, and any other details of interest.
5. [[Start the scene|Playing Scenes]]!
6. After the scene's come to a close, pass scene framing on to the player clockwise from you.
In your first few scenes, remember to activate your [[Trouble Move|Gaining New Moves]]. Using it gets you useful tokens, more abilities, and extra prompts for your story!
Each story starts in one of two places - the London Townhouse or the Country Manor. Put those location cards down in the centre of the table.
As part of [[Scene Framing]] you’ll add more locations to the mix - keep track of them using the included cards or writing them down.
Once play begins, everyone has a voice in triggering and resolving moves.
**If you’re the focus**, pursue your aim while looking for chances to use your moves.
**If you’re playing your character**, ask:
* What do I have that the focus needs?
* What do I want from them?
* How can I link their aim and my goals?
**If you’re playing a minor character**, ask:
* What stock character traits would make this character entertaining?
* Can I give the focus a challenge, or a chance to shine?
* Is the scene dragging? Can I hurry it up?
**The scene ends when** the active player achieves their aim or their aim becomes impossible.
* If you’ve made progress towards a Goal, bank a ✦ token under it.
* If one of your Assets helped you out in doing this, bank two ✦ tokens under it instead.
Scene ownership then passes clockwise, and [[a new scene is framed|Scene Framing]].
Here's how to make a character:
1. Choose a [[character deck|Who you can play]].
2. Choose two of your deck's [[move cards|How Moves Work]] to start play with. Place them face-up in front of you.
3. Flip the other move cards facedown to use as your starting [[Tokens]].
4. Take a basic move card. These abilities are always available to all characters.
5. You have a particular relationship with two characters: see your deck’s relationship cards. Choose a player for each and tell them what it entails.
6. Decide on a style, personality and name for your character, using the suggestions in your deck if you like, and introduce them to the table.