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About this book

This book is a reference guide to a role playing game called Haze, as well as a guide to role playing within the Island Kingdoms, a small part of the world of Dio. This book describes the Island Kingdoms in all their glory, including their peoples, cultures, creatures, and the like. It also serves as a reference to the Haze role playing System, listing the rules as well as how they all fit together; with plenty of examples along the way to help you better understand the concepts.

Role playing games have been around for some time now, most role players grew up with them, but their are a few of us still playing that can remember when their was only one RPG. Their has been a lot of controversy about role playing in the past, some claim that role playing is evil in some way or that role playing game books (like this one) are somehow evil in nature. For years extremists have associated role playing games with Satanism, something that no self respecting role player (or satanist for that matter) is comfortable with.

Lets set the record straight right now; Haze is not a religious document nor does it contain any religious doctrine, rules, laws or beliefs of any sort that relate to the real world. Yes this book does contain references to religions that don't exist or indeed some that are based on the beliefs of religious groups on earth, but this is in no way intended to encourage people to join one of these faiths any more than Julie Andrews playing the part of a nun in the sound of music was intended to convert people to Christianity!

Haze and role playing are forms of entertainment, art works to poke you in the imagination, not sticky webs of tangled lies to make you worship some fictitious dark god.

Back story

This book is written as a series of journal entries by our would be hero hector. Hector is a failed monk, embittered by his monastic incarceration, he harbours great hatred for his father and older brother for sending him away to become a priest.

Just as Hector was beginning to adapt to his new life and possibly even like it a bit, all hell broke loose, literally. Hector began his journal shortly after that day, now known as the dawn of evil when the legions of undead burst forth from the underworld and destroyed the empire of Ka.

Role playing

Role playing is defined as 'An instance or situation in which one deliberately acts out or assumes a particular character or role.' In terms of role playing as a hobby, role playing, in its simplest form, is a group of people using their imagination to assume the role of a fictitious character in a fictitious situation. One person in the group suggests and describes a situation, while the other people in the group respond by describing the actions of their characters. The first person then describes the outcomes or consequences of the group's actions, and updates his description of the situation, to which the rest of the group responds with their characters' actions - and so on. But this example is very simplistic, clinical and generalized. As you can imagine, this example can easily get out of hand, and therefore, role playing has rules to provide some sort of structure. In this text, these rules are known as the Haze role playing System.

The rules that govern the Haze role playing experience stand out because they are less concerned with balance or detailed completeness, instead the rules try to maintain a sense of believability.

We've tried to make the system real enough so that you fear for your alter-egos life just as you would fear for your own if you go dragon- slaying! The laws of the jungle apply... stupidity leads to death!

Players

The players each control their small part in this play of life and death, they create and develop their alter-egos, imagining what their alter-egos would do in the situations presented by the game master (GM). They record their successes and learn from their experiences.

The players are the reason the game exists at all, they breathe life into pages of numbers and give personality to their alter egos. They guide their AE's along the paths of treachery and heroism, deciding their moral fate, making friends and enemies along the way.

The game master

One in the gathering of friends is nominated as the GM or Game's Master if you like. It is his role to maintain reality and enforce the rules where needed. The GM controls all that is not the player's alter egos. He creates the story and guides the plot, leading the party into peril and providing the way out. The GM is the writer, editor and director of the story, which unfurls its wings in the course of an adventure. In essence the GM is the rest of the universe.

Alter-egos

The alter egos are heroes of old, great knights, powerful wizards, wise holy men and dastardly rogues. A party of alter egos is in essence a band of adventurers forged from the thoughts of the players. The alter egos are at the core of the GM's story, his world moulds itself around them, allowing them to change and influence the course of history.

Goals

When the GM designs an adventure for his role playing group, there is a clear goal to be achieved. Rewards of experience and treasure are given to the bravest of the adventurers, making it all worth their while, or not. The GM should always specify a clear objective for the party to attain; this ensures that the story has direction and meaning to the players.

GMs should be careful not to dictate player actions too directly. The players should be free to choose their own direction - a good GM is prepared for this and an even better GM can think on his feet to lead the players back to the main storyline without them feeling that they are being railroaded.

Adventurers

The adventurers of Dio are a hardy lot, the world is a dangerous place deadly creatures, agents of evil even legions of the damned prey on the weak and unprepared. Those who venture forth from the relative safety of towns and cities are brave indeed, or stupid, often both.

Your AE is one of these adventurers. Being an adventurer doesn't make your AE better or worse than the average human, it simply gives you a reason to be away from the normal drudgery of life. Your AE ended up on this path for some reason, perhaps like hector you are a victim of circumstance, maybe you're a travelling minstrel seeking your fortune on the road, whatever you choose for your AE, it should be something that drives you, something that makes you AE get up in the morning and adventure! After all it'd be a pretty boring game if you role played getting up and doing the dishes.

Dio

Dio's cultural soup is a curious mix, it resembles our medieval europe in it's complexity and warlike nature. Kingoms tend to be small, one or two powerful empires exist almost completly dominating their surrounding regions. Fealty is owed, sometimes demanded and taxes are payed to the kings, often via lords of lesser stature.

Dio's climate is similar that of iceage earth. Great glacial sheets dominate the polar regions of the planet, winters are hard. The rest of the planet is temperate for the most part with some expanses of cold dry, windswept desert.

The most striking thing about Dio is the existence of Magick. The rare natural occurance of supernatural power in the planets inhabitants has had a curious effect on the development of civilization. Even thought those born with Magickal power only account for one in every thousand or so "normal" members of the population they have had a profound effect on almost everything throught the ages, Wizards fill the histories with tales of villany and heroism. Many fear magick and those who wield it, fear leads mobs to embark on witch hunts, wild forrays to slay as many Magick wielders as they can.

Motivation

The Heroes of Dio have many causes that motivate them; fame, riches religious fervour, protection of the weak. The adventurers life calls to many.

Dragons of evil stalk the lands, distressed damsels need saving from wicked demons and treacherous sorcerers commune with the forces of darkness, architecting the downfall of the powers of light. Their is never a dull moment on Dio. The gods vie for souls of men and the mortal armies ape the conflict on earth, Dio is not a place of peace!

Amidst this great game of the gods, people carve out an existence for themselves. Like fireflies, the strongest souls come and go in the night that is their life, burning brightly they are remebered for their beauty and bravery, these are the adventurers, saviours, villains, saints and heroes of Dio.

Role playing tips

Roleplaying is not an exact science. Everyone has their own way of doing things, and their own way of expressing themselves. It is for this reason that some refer to roleplaying as an artform - there is no right or wrong way to do it; it all depends on your tastes.

Probably the single most important thing to remember for an ejoyable roleplaying session is to keep balance. I don't mean stand on one leg but rather, don't be too extreme. Many new role players fall into common social traps and become one of the roleplaying sterotypes;

Rules lawyer

This is the player (or GM) that insists on following the rules to the letter, they try to find and exploit loop-holes in the rule system to give themselves an in-game advantage. This is all very well and good but it tends to slow down the game a lot not to mention that nobody likes a smart-arse! If you find yourself being a rules lawyer remember this... you're probably spoiling the game for your fellow players, just go along with the GM for a while and see where he takes you for a change.

Extremist

The extremeist is the excitable sort that wants to play a unique (read bloody impossible to GM) AE with bizzarre behaviour patterns. While this is great once in a while it soon becomes tiresome for all of the players as this person tries to hog center stage with their special Alter-ego. Please do this from time to time, but not every game, it excludes others and makes them fade into the background.

Shy bunny

The shy people, some of the best role-players I've ever met have been shy to begin with. They usually sit and listen, taking in the story and not contributing much, they role dice and ponder their AE sheet from time to time but they never seem to do anything unless it involves following someone elses lead. The shy bunnies are the most common of role-players after all you've been put in a room with a bunch of people some of which they may not know and they've been asked to act like a medeival lord, hell most of us get a bit reluctant at this point. After a while, they tend to come out of their shell and participate, be patient wit the shy bunny, encourage them to participate but don't force them on to center stage, you may scare them off.

Loud mouth

The attention hoggin loud mouth can be funny and entertaining but they usually overpower the shy bunnies and drown everyone out. If you have more than one of these in your roleplaying group then you've probably got either heaven or hell. If everybody is a loud mouth then you tend to have upbeat games, but the GM will often not be able to get a word in edgeways.

The good roleplayer

The good role-player is one who is a happy mix of all of the above, he knows the rules well enough to not have to constantly refer to the books, he gets into his AE's and makes them different every time. He shouts when it's appropriate, listens when it isn't, he interacts with his companions, questions them in character. The good roleplayer tries to create an intresting AE that compliments the story. In short the good roleplayer is their to have, and give a good time.

Roleplaying can take a lot of dedication and hard work for some people to be any good, others are just naturally talented while the rest have some manner of talent in between.

New players should be encouraged by the group, tell each other how well you think you're doing acting out your AE's actions. Most of all be patient with each other and make sure you all have fun. That's why we play, fun.