Helplessness covers the states where a character is not fully able to
resist, move, perceive, or speak. The game tracks several possible
causes at once and uses the worst active state as the effective state.
Limits by effective state, from least to most severe:
Free
No helplessness state is active. Movement, speech, perception, and
ordinary actions use their normal rules.
Unresisting
You can still move, see, hear, speak, pose, and act normally unless
another condition says otherwise. You are treated as not meaningfully
resisting for restraint actions: others may cuff, bind, pin,
blindfold, or gag you without a grapple contest. Causes include
choosing `unresisting`, being cuffed, or being dazed.
Helpless
You cannot move between rooms on your own. You can be dragged with
`drag <target>=<exit>`. You are treated as unable to meaningfully
resist further restraint actions. Helplessness by itself does not
block sight, hearing, or speech; blindfolds, gags, unconsciousness,
and out cold handle those limits. Causes include being bound, pinned,
stunned, or made helpless by wounds.
Unconscious
You are helpless and cannot move on your own. Normal speech is
blocked: `say`, `say to`, `whisper`, and speech inside emotes/poses
are stopped. `look` does not show the room; it reports that your eyes
stay shut and you dimly register nearby movement. Incoming room
speech and activity are reduced to dim impressions. Private emotes
still deliver nonverbal action, but quoted speech is replaced with
ellipses. Whispers are not delivered to unconscious recipients. If
you are already helpless, you can enter this state with `knockout`.
Out cold
The deepest state. Out cold also sets unconsciousness, but it remains
the effective state until cleared. You cannot move or speak, `look`
only reports that you are out cold, and normal incoming room speech,
poses, local emotes, and private emotes are suppressed rather than
reduced to dim impressions. Whispers are not delivered. If you are
already helpless, you can enter this state with `knockout/outcold`.
Common commands:
unresisting
Toggle whether you are voluntarily unresisting.
sleep
Put yourself to sleep.
knockout [minutes]
If you are already helpless, pass into ordinary unconsciousness.
Without a timer, the default timer is 30 minutes.
knockout/outcold [minutes]
If you are already helpless, pass fully out cold. With a timer, you
use that many minutes instead of the 30-minute default.
Timed knockout wake-up
When a timed knockout ends, you are told that you can wake. It does
not wake you automatically. If you are out cold, `wake` first brings
you down to ordinary unconsciousness. Use `wake` again to wake up.
If you are no longer helpless for another reason when you wake fully,
you are dazed for 5 minutes. If you are still helpless, such as from
being bound, you wake without that default daze.
wake
Wake yourself from normal sleep. For timed knockouts, this works
after the timer tells you that you can wake.
wake <target>
Rouse another sleeping or unconscious character. If the target is
out cold, this brings them down to ordinary unconsciousness first.
hstate [target]
Show the effective helpless state and active causes.
Restraint commands:
cuff
Secure a target's hands.
bind / release
Bind or release a target more fully.
pin / unpin / release
Hold or release an unresisting or helpless target.
blindfold / gag
Toggle sensory or speech restraints.
drag <target>=<exit>
Drag a helpless target through an exit.
escape
Contest an active pin. It does not remove cuffs or bindings.
breakout
Start the Story Point escape workflow for restrained parcel
confinement.