Spirit of the Century Pick-Up League Charter

[Rick]

Being an overview of format, expectations, responsibilities, styles, and procedures for play in the Spirit of the Century Pick-Up League, hereinafter referred to as the League.

Membership
Charter Members
1. All members who attend the initial character creation session and create characters shall be deemed Charter Members of the League.
2. Being a Chartered Member of the League shall confer no benefit beyond bragging rights.

Associate Members
1. Others may join the League at a time after the initial character creation session by attending a character creation session and creating a character.
2. Character creation sessions must have at least two current members in addition to the new member to costar in the new member’s book.
a. New characters may choose any two pulp novels in the Century Club Library to costar in.
3. Members joining the League after the initial character creation session will be deemed Associate Members.
4. New characters must add their information to the Forum and make their e-mail address available to receive announcements.
5. Associate Membership confers all benefits of Charter Membership, save for the bragging rights.

Character Creation
Out-of-Character Concerns
1. Any Member may convene a character creation session, though at least two other current Members must be present.
2. All prospective members must read the Spirit of the Century rules before attending a character creation session.
a. At a bare minimum, all prospective members must read the character creation section of the rules.
3. All prospective members must come to the character creation session with a character concept already in mind, said character concept to consist of no more than three sentences.
a. Prospective members are encouraged to prepare multiple character concepts for the session.
b. Members may create more than one character at the session, but no more than two, with the understanding that only one character may be played in any single adventure.

In-Character Concerns
1. The default setting in the Spirit of the Century rulebook, including the date of 1922 and the existence and structure of the Century Club, is assumed for all games in the League.

Character Advancement
Aspects
1. After each session, you may, if you choose, change one Aspect of the character that participated in the adventure, replacing it with an Aspect based on the events of the adventure just past.

Skills
1. After each session, you may, if you choose, swap two skills that are in adjacent levels with each other. For example, you may swap one skill at Fair with a skill at Good, moving the Good skill to Fair and the Fair skill to good.
a. To gain a new skill, swap it for one of your skills at Average.

Stunts
1. After each session, you may, if you choose, change one Stunt that did not get used in the adventure just past.
a. You must have all the prerequisites to take the new stunt.

Running a Game
Adventure Design
1. Adventures should be designed to run in one session.
a. If an adventure is going to take more than one session, this information must be included in the announcement, and the date of both sessions must be given.
2. Linked adventures in story arcs are acceptable, as long as they will not be derailed by inserting unrelated adventures between them.
3. Using the adventures outlined in the rulebook is prohibited unless they have been substantially changed.
4. Each adventure must have an appropriate pulp novel title.
5. Stock characters from the rulebook, including both heroes and villains, are acceptable for use in adventures.
a. Stock characters must not be drastically changed in your adventure.
b. Stock characters must not be killed in your adventure.
6. New characters, organizations, and other pieces of the world you create for your adventure may not be used by others in their adventures without your express permission.
a. If using a character, organization, or other piece of the world created by another, that element enjoys the same protections as stock characters from the rulebook.
7. Adventures should ideally be PG-13.
a. If an adventure is going to be more adult, this must be indicated prominently in the announcement.
8. If a certain type of character would not be appropriate for a given adventure, this should be indicated prominently in the announcement.

Running
1. Care must be taken in running adventures to encourage the freewheeling style of pulp adventures.
2. If a certain character is unsuitable for the designed adventure, the GM is free to ask the player to play a different character.
a. If the player does not have a secondary character, one may be created using the Fast Creation rules in the Spirit of the Century rulebook.

Playing in a Game
1. Players in sessions are expected to be punctual.
a. If a player who has committed to a game is unable to attend, advance notice should be given to the GM, the earlier, the better.
2. Players are expected to provide their own basic materials for playing the game:
• Dice (4d6 or 4 Fudge Dice)
• Character Sheet, preferably with a back-up character
• Pencil or pen
• Though not required, extra copies of the rules are always handy
3. As in any RPG, players in League games are expected to defer to the GM in all questions of rules and judgment calls made during the game.

Communications
Game Masters
1. GMs seeking players for a session of Spirit of the Century shall place an announcement on the Forum, and distribute it via e-mail to all current Members.
2. The announcement will take the following format:
• Adventure Title: A suitable pulp novel title.
• Date, Time, and Location: The proposed time and place for the session.
• Blurb: One or two sentences to summarize the basic premise of the adventure and generate interest among the players.
• Player Limit: The maximum number of players accepted in this session.
• Any Other Important Information: See the section on Adventure Design for examples.
3. The Forum announcement must be amended if any of the information changes or if the player limit is reached. E-mail reflecting the change must also be distributed to the Members.
4. The GM will respond via e-mail to all players who wish to join in the game, informing them of whether or not they have come in under the Player Limit and therefore have a seat reserved for them at the game.
5. After the session, the GM will add player accomplishment sentences to the blurb for the adventure and add the summary to the Forum Library of pulp novels.

Players
1. Players respond to game announcements via e-mail to the GM.
2. Such communications must include the name of the character the player will be using in the session.
a. If the GM feels the character is unsuitable, the player may use an alternate character or arrange a character creation session to create a new character.
3. Response to the announcement must be made in a timely manner if possible, to allow the GM time to customize the adventure.
4. If a player who has committed to an session is unable to attend, the GM must be informed in as timely a manner as possible to allow other Members the opportunity of attending.
5. After the session concludes, the player must provide the GM with a sentence or two describing the character’s accomplishments to be added to the adventure blurb to create the new pulp novel.
a. These sentences must be provided to the GM within three days.

Forum
Charter
1. The Charter of the League will be available here in its most current form.
2. This is also the place for discussion of the Charter, in case of necessary changes.

Characters
1. Each character created by a Member shall be listed on the Forum.
2. It is the responsibility of the Member to make sure that their characters on the Forum are kept up to date.
3. Each character on the Forum may be marked as Open or Closed.
a. Open characters may be used by players who do not have a suitable character for the current session without the necessity of asking the Member who created it for permission.
b. Closed characters may not be used by any player except the Member who created that character.
c. Characters not marked Open or Closed may be used by permission of the Member who created that character.
4. Though not required, supplementary character material, such as art, diaries, fiction, etc. may also be added to the Forum.

Announcements
1. Announcements of upcoming sessions of League games must follow the outline described in the Game Masters section of Communications, above.

Library
1. All pulp novels created during character creation must be entered verbatim by their owner into the Century Club Library section of the forum.
2. Each session must produce a pulp novel to be entered into the Century Club Library section of the forum.

Lounge
1. The Lounge of the Forum will be used for general in-character discussion.

The Rules
1. This area of the Forum will be used to discuss the rules of Spirit of the Century, including the incorporation of House Rules and exceptions.

Blather
1. This area of the Forum is for any off-topic, out-of-character discussions.