Glossary

Over the course of playing this game, you may come across words or phrases that you are unfamiliar with. We've separated this page into IC Terminology (terms relevant to characters in this game) and OOC Terminology (terms commonly used in OLS and regarding the game format that you may come across in the course of playing this game).

An echo is a snapshot of one or more of the sensory experiences being felt at the same time as a notably strong emotion. It settles itself onto an object relevant to the situation which created it, and then may be experienced over again by any person who comes into range of the echo (typically by touching the object on which it has settled). See here for more details.

If echoes are not interacted with frequently, they begin to dissipate from the object on which they have settled, weakening into a haze which suffuses the surrounding area. The haze can still be felt in a similar manner to the original echo, but more weakly, losing much of the definition it originally had. Eventually the haze becomes too weak to be felt at all, and dissipates entirely. See here for more details.

When a large number of people experience a similar heightened emotion simultaneously, their emotions and sensory perceptions may align in a moment of resonance. This results in the creation of a more intense (but usually shorter-lived) echo.

A term for roleplaying romantic or similarly emotionally intense relationships between characters.

The CAMPaign Organiser, the person responsible for coming up with the idea for a society game and consequently leading it. May also be referred to as the Head GM. Our CAMPO is Liana.

Assistant gamerunners who take direction from the GMs. They usually play NPCs, adjudicate players' interactions with the world and rules and suggest ideas to the GMs.

The debrief is an OC session after the game is over. In the debrief, the GMs and players discuss the game. Players will have the opportunity to share what they got up to during the game, and GMs can share “behind the scenes” details about the game. See When and Where for more details.

An opportunity for players to submit descriptions to GMs, briefly describing what their character wants to do in the time before the next session.

A writeup by the GMs about what happens to a character after the end of the game. Unlike normal Downtime responses, this will typically be visible to all players.

Short for ‘find out in play’, a response you may get to questions to which the answer is intended to be found out in the course of playing the game.

The people who moderate the sessions, play NPCs, read through your turnsheet submissions, keep the Wiki up to date, and generally run the game. Please get in touch with us at gm@echoes.oxfordlarp.com if you have any questions, or take a look at our page if you'd like to learn more about us!

These terms are used to describe events, places and people which exist within the fictional world of the game (IC) or in real life (OOC).

Can also be used to flag whether you're mentioning something out of character (OOC) e.g. a question to the GMs or another player (not their character), or indicating the emotional intensity of a scene is getting too much and could others please tone it down slightly. See also the list of OOC gestures and calls.

Metagaming is the practice of using OOC knowledge to determine the course of your character's actions (e.g. finding out an IC secret about a character because a player told you after session, and attempting to have your character utilise that knowledge to their advantage despite the fact that there is no way they would have known IC). Such knowledge may be acquired unintentionally or exchanged willingly by players, but in either case we trust players not to abuse it.

Characters played by the GMs or by crew members rather than by current players. NPCs played in sessions are listed here.

Characters played by the players rather than the GMs or crew members. You can look through the PC list here.

Terms describing the types of conflict which a character may face. PvE (Player versus Environment) refers to conflict between a Player Character and the world around them, while PvP (Player versus Player) refers to conflict between individual Player Characters.

A piece of writing the players submits to GMs with information about what their character wishes to achieve during Downtime. This will receive a written response from the GMs prior to the following session, describing the outcomes of the character's actions.

Uptime refers to the fortnightly sessions of the game. See the Uptime page for more information on the format, and When and Where for information on venue and times.