Quickstart

This page provides a quick introduction to Classified - what the setting is, what the organisations are, how to generate a character, what happens at the game and how turnsheeting works.

See Setting

Classified is set in 2019. The world is similar to that of 2009, but there are changes. With the rise in terrorism and immigration, all the major world governments have become more paranoid and more afraid of their own populace. The Surveillance Society is well and truly in force, with a rise in the use of CCTV cameras and greatly increased spending on intelligence services and monitoring of communications.

In an obscure corner of the internet, a VR node called #CLASSIFIED#, those in the know gather to find more information in their hunt for The Truth. You play one of these people. You do not know who can be trusted - anyone could be an agent or spy, and if They found out who you are you could be arrested, kidnapped, even murdered. But who knows just how high the cost of doing nothing could be?

See Organisations

The denizens of #CLASSSIFIED# mostly come from one of seven organisations. These are:

• The New Illuminati: A masonic lodge based around the principles of Enlightenment and self-development.
• The True Believers: A loose collection of UFO cultists, paranormal investigators and Forteans.
• The Skeptics: A society of scientific thinkers and philosophers sick of the lies told to the credulous by the powerful and ill-intentioned.
• The New Earth Movement: Eschatologists from many religions, preparing for the End of the World.
• The Global Militia: Survivalists and libertarians, worried about Big Government and preparing for the collapse of society.
• The Posthumanists: They want to improve the human condition through chemical, biological and cybernetic modification.
• The Temple of Pan: Believers in Magic and other forces beyond scientific understanding.

All player characters in the Classified world belong to one of these organisations - and through them have found out about #CLASSIFIED#.

See Conspiracies

There are a number of well-known (or easy to discover) conspiracy theories in the world of Classified. Which of these are true (or indeed if any of these are true) are debated hotly amongst many conspiracy theorists. The world of Classified is very similar to our own, and so most of those are drawn from the real world. However, there are some differences. In particular, there are certain topics that we are not going to be playing with in Classified:

• No Zionist or modern anti-Semitic plots. (e.g. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion)
• No White Supremacist plots. (e.g. Ku Klux Klan)
• No Homophobic plots. (e.g. AIDS conspiracies)

If in doubt, email the GMs!

See Character Generation

Generating a character for Classified is reasonably simple. In brief:

• All characters are part of one Organisation.
• Characters get 10 points with which to buy Backgrounds.
• All characters must buy at least two Major backgrounds.
• Players should fill in a Myers-Briggs Personality Type for their character.
• Decide on your character's real-life name and online alias.
• We need to know where in the world you live and what you do for a living.

Optional, but highly recommended:

• A public bio for your online alias. At game start, nobody will know who your character is offline.
• We always appreciate more detail about your character's history.

Please note: There is only so much that one person can achieve alone, so you will find that your contacts you gain from your backgrounds are far more useful to you than any personal abilities you might have.

The game has two components - a weekly in-character meeting in the Morley Fletcher room of Worcester College and a downtime for each player to explain what their character is doing in between sessions.

See Sessions

IC, the characters in Classified meet up once a month on an online Virtual Reality chatroom called #CLASSIFIED#. OC, players meet up at the Morley Fletcher room of Worcester College every Tuesday during term-time to play their characters' online avatars. Sessions start at 7.30pm and finish at 10.30, with some time for players to be briefed on the results of their turnsheets before play starts.

As the game is set on a Virtual Reality chatroom, players can come to session in any form they like. If you can come up with the costume, you can wear it to session! (Offensive or indecent costumes excepted). This also means that there is no combat or task resolution during sessions (hacking takes too long to do and is too complex to do during a meeting) - if you think you can do something unusual in-session, ask a GM!

See Turnsheeting

After each session will follow a period of downtime - each player will fill in a turnsheet letting the GMs know what their character intends to do for the next (IC) month after the session. Players will have access to a page for each turnsheet on the Classified Wiki in which to write their turnsheets. Turnsheeting deadline is 6am Friday morning - we don't guarantee to process any turnsheets submitted after this deadline. The GM team will process your results ready to brief you at the next Tuesdays's session.

Each turnsheet has three actions:

1. Investigate - Direct your contacts to find out information about a certain subject. Having relevant information already and being more specific will get better results.
2. Socialise - Ingratiate yourself with existing contacts and make new ones.
3. Act - Use your abilities to perform some action yourself. Doing it yourself is inherently more risky and less likely to succeed, unless you have specific relevant information and assistance from your contacts.

You may take one Investigate, one Socialise and one Act action in your turnsheet, each of which can be doing entirely different things.

Finding information from your contacts is much more likely to get good results, since they're almost certainly better placed than you to find out what you need to know. Trying to go out and find the information yourself is always more difficult and more risky - that's why you have contacts! However, your contacts are people in their own right - they're unlikely to put themselves in danger unless they really trust you. Sometimes doing it yourself may be the only way.