Roleplaying - especially live-action roleplaying - comes with a bunch of shorthands and slang terms that you might come across over the course of the game. Some of these are terms that your character will be familiar with, and are listed in the In Character Glossary, while others are those that apply to roleplaying in general, and are listed in the Out of Character Glossary.

OOC, these are called Sessions.

The Academy of Thought's new emergency gatherings are called Brainstorms. Muses and important Impressions come together to rescue the Dreamscape from Fading away, though whether this goes to plan is another matter entirely.

Enforced when a large population of Muses collectively agree that the ideas of one Muse should not be perpetuated, leading to the Muse in question not being able to use their powers through Censorship. Over time this can lead to Fading.

Dream (or the Dreamscape) is a manifestation of Jo’s subconscious - a landscape based on their thoughts, creative output and ideas. Its inhabitants politick, battle and cooperate to produce stories that sustain the Dreamscape. Work In Progress takes place here.

Factions are groups of Muses drawn together by philosophies about Jo, shared material concerns or convenience. Somewhere between cults, civil service departments and adventuring guilds, they coexist warily in Spindle.

When a Muse is on the brink of losing all their Juice and ceasing to exist they are Fading. This is a result of Jo not entertaining their stories or ideas.

Food For Thought is one of the Factions. It is the best café in the whole of the Dreamscape, if not also one of the weirdest.

Free Idea Forum is one of the Factions. They are free spirits; artistic individualists who chafe at the restraints placed on their creativity by society.

Ideals are broad narrative principles or dynamics that determine the ways in which they can deploy their powers to change the Dreamscape or Vignettes. Muses typically are aligned to one core Ideal, but there are rumours of Muses learning to harness two or more…

Impressions are entities within Vignettes - the characters that exist in the stories. While they lack the ability to exert significant changes, like Muses do, more developed Impressions can develop their own interests and independent personalities - particularly when they leave their own Vignettes to explore Spindle, or even other Vignettes.

Jo (they/them) is an English literature professor and aspiring writer in their 40s, living in a sleepy British university town. Depending on who you ask, they are an awe-inspiring divine figure, a frustratingly obtuse hack or a resource to be carefully husbanded. Work In Progress takes place in their subconscious.

Juice - short for 'Creative Juices' - is both the power source for much of Spindle’s fabulous dream technology, and the literal lifeblood of Muses. Don’t give it up lightly.

When a Muse's idea captures the attention of Jo too strongly and it is all Jo can think about. References to this idea start appearing everywhere and in all Vignettes, and can make it difficult for other Muses to exercise their narrative powers.

Muses are the PCs: entities inside Jo’s head that shape and shepherd stories. Part-creator-deity, part-harried janitor, part-noble adventurer, they have the power to shift narratives, wield Tropes and direct the mind that spawned them.

If Synergy is used, the result of the constitutent Skills being used in combination may result in instability or an uncontrollable chain reaction. This is called a 'Narrative Criticality'.

NFWS is one of the Factions. They are a research institute whose existence centres around maintenance of the Juice Battery.

Spindle is the administrative, spiritual and cultural centre of Dream. Muses typically reside here, and more prestigious or influential Vignettes drift closer to it.

Truly great things may be accomplished when Skills are used together to the same end. If more than one Skill can be brought to bear by the collaboration of multiple Muses, the result will be more than the sum of its parts. Muses occasionally refer to this as 'Synergy'. However, there is always the risk of a Narrative Criticality.

Tropes are elements in story that, by appearing across many narratives, have taken on a life of their own. Muses can wield Tropes in the form of Trope Cards to achieve powerful one-time effects of varying power.

Vignettes are stories that Jo has written, created or imagined that exist in their subconscious. Muses can enter them, shifting narratives, garnering allies and obtaining resources such as Juice and Tropes.

A term for roleplaying romantic relationships between characters.

A term for roleplaying that is less focused on the mechanics of the game itself, but instead on spicing things up with flavour, backstory, socialising and otherwise immersing yourself in the world and all it has to offer.

Us! The team of people who write, run and maintain the game for your playing pleasure. The first place to turn if you have a question.

Events and people in the world of Work In Progress. When you're speaking and acting as your character, you do so IC, and sessions of Work In Progress take place in Spindle.

Us again! Other Muses, figments and strange Dream-beings who may be present at Spindle but will be played by a GM. NPCs will usually vary session-to-session, and GMs will often play multiple NPCs during a game session. We'll announce who is likely to turn up at the start of or during sessions.

Events and circumstances in the real world. For example, Work In Progress sessions usually take place OOC at the Daubeny Laboratory opposite Magdalen College every other Tuesday in term.

You! The characters that Work In Progress players create and represent in the fictional world. You will usually play the same PC every session through the course of the game, though you may switch or retire a character if you get bored, and you'll need to create a new character if your character dies or becomes unplayable.

Shorthand for 'Physical Representation' - describing props that represent something in the game, like an object your character owns or an attribute they have. To 'physrep' something is to make a prop representing it, or to use makeup or effects to depict the scrapes and injuries your character may have incurred in the course of play. There is no requirement to make props or put this together - and we will provide you with Trope Cards that you have acquired in play - but if you find it fun, then we don't want to stop you!

Terms to describe the nature of the fight your characters face. 'Player vs Environment' (or sometimes 'Player vs. Enemy') (i.e. the world is out to kill you) or 'Player vs Player' (i.e. another player is out to kill or defeat you). Work In Progress is designed to cater to players who are interested in both PvE and PvP, though we expect PvP to mostly be non-lethal. See our section on playstyles, and our PvE and PvP Policy for more info on this.

IC, these are called Brainstorms.

The biweekly gatherings of players and GMs where live-action roleplaying occurs. Scheming, politicking, accusations, plots, trading, gambling, chatting and grand announcements abound.

This website is called the wiki. You can find more information about it here.