Guidlines for Formal

Hello this is your Head of Formal for the 2010 season here to give all you nice folks (and necromantic scumbags) out there a general idea of the procedure for casting formal here in Shadowmoor for this year. Also to answer any questions ahead of time.

1) A formal marshal must always be present to pull, marshal and record any formal ritual (other than resurection). As of 2/28/10 the formal marshals are Head of Formal (HoF) David 'Bear' Carson, Deb 'Mama Kalie' Carson, and Lloyd 'It Wasn't Me' Roark. Just as last year, HOP (Jay 'Devour of Souls' Johnson) and the Game Owners (Kieth 'the Hudge' Hudgens and Becca 'Cute is Evil' Hudgins) can subsitute as formal marshals if need be. However those rituals that are involved in item creation (preserve, damage aura, expand) must be marshalled by either David or Lloyd. Any ritual that is detretmental to an unwilling Play Character (such as but not limited to a Soul Destroy) must have the Head of Formal present for the entire ritual as well as one or more of the Game Owners. Remember a ritual can not go into effect untill it is pulled and recorded. For the sake of effeincy please locate and inform a Marshal when you start the ritual and again about 10 minutes before the ritual will end so they can determin the results of the ritual as soon as possible.

2) Formal Scrolls are the final arbiter of what can and can not be done in a particular ritual. What the scroll says or does not say overrules any and all verbal statements about the effects, duration, formal type, vessels that can be targeted, and alterations. In other words what is on the scroll is the rule. There will be no arugments or interpretions.

3) Those who have the in play ability to cast formal must be familar with the out of play rules and restricitons that are laid down in the most current version of the Solar Rules. Marshals are responsible for recording and arbitrating the ritual not teaching players how to use their skills. It goes without saying that formal marshalls will answer what questions a player has about the formal process but we do not have the time to teach each and every formal caster the system from the ground up.

4) Like all other marshalls the formal marshalls are availible around the clock at an event. However, since we are all human we need sleep as well. With that in mind if it is past 4 AM and no other formal marshalls are up please find the Head of Formal (either in the MG, the HG or neck deep in plot) to do the pull so the others can sleep. Also if you feel that the pull can wait untill morning please do so.

5) In rituals that need Plot interaction (such as identify, disrupt on a plot item ect) the plot member must be found to resolve what happens after, since the formal marshalls can usally only tell you weather a ritual has succeded or failed.

6) When you are casting extending magic (preserve, extend or permancy) on a magic item that has a item number and card, the item number must be on the physrep, be readable and match the item tag. If this is not the case then the formal marshal will not pull the ritual until the item is labled correctly. It is the owner of the item, responsibility to make sure the item is labled. Weapons can be numbers with a black or silver shapie depending on the collor of the weapon, other items can be marked with small tie on price tags. Materials for tagging are cheep and can be found at most office supply stores. Since this is a new rule for this year it will not go into effect until the April 2010 event. HoF will have a small supply of tagging materials with him at the March event but after that it is the player's responsibliity.

7) Formal Marshals and HoF can not exchange a tag for a scroll, mainly since we do not have access to the printer. If you have a tag for a scroll, from a pull or something, you must exchange it at game opening with either Becca Hudgins or Logistics. Since the formal scroll has most of the information that we formal marshalls need to do our job a tag can not be used in to represent the scroll when casting.

8 ) All other rules will be per the Solar Handbook v1.8 and the 2010 Shadowmoor rules supelment.

Any questions can be dirrected to the HoF either in person at events or via board PM. Also depending on the number of formal rituals cast durring the begining of the year I may be looking for more formal marshalls if intrested please see me at an event.