Code Words in LARP

[bakeneko]

This is some idle theory garble about LARPing, so feel free to move along if it doesn't interest you. I've tried to make it intelligible to non-larping folk.

Just so you won't feel like you've wasted your time, here's a picture of a cow I made.

Comments

[bakeneko]

Addressing this one in a separate comment because it'll probably be a bit lengthy:

what do you mean by 'I need out of this'? I'm just not sure what sort of situation would come up where you as a character could not walk away from something you as a player did not enjoy.

So, much as the "I want in on this" phrase isn't meant to be used every time you want to be a part of an encounter, "I want out of this" is something I'd envision for more serious situations.
ezrem mentioned oog desires for RP should be managed by actual RP. and I think that's applicable in 99% of situations. The reverse is also applicable- for desires to avoid RP. The better the staff and other players know each other, and the more considerate they are of potential problems, the less likely that 1% is going to crop up, so I can see the argument that planning for that kind of situation isn't necessary. On the other hand, I've never seen someone call "Emergency" in Madrigal, but I'm sure glad it's there.

Anyway, some examples of situations where that kind of phrase might have been useful:

1-
Years ago, in a NERO game, I'm NPCing a module in which we're playing doll golems. We're in a small building, and the PCs have been gated to the IG location, so they can't leave under their own power IG. I can only assume that the PCs didn't have foreknowledge about what kind of creatures they'd be fighting.
It turned out that one of the PCs had a phobia of clowns, which the golems were reminiscient of. She was in great emotional distress trying to remain IG for the first half of the module. It was not immediately clear whether the distress was IC or not, until she eventually called a hold and left the area OOG. Everyone felt terrible to have put her through that, and awkward about resuming the game.

2-
I was visiting a NERO game run by some friendly acquaintances. It was their custom to run an "entering game" module for everyone who came to their game for the first time, so myself and my 3 (male) friends were in this encounter, which we had to get through to enter the game space.
In the encounter, we came across some male NPCs playing orcish border guards. In the course of the RP scenario, one of the guards demanded to know which of my male companions my character "belonged" to. My character responded indignantly, but my companions decide that it would be funnier to play along. And the scene drags on, with my character protesting that she isn't a slave (with some wink, wink, nudge, nudge implications from the guys), and the 6 male characters around me insisting that she is. And maybe I thought it was cute and funny at first. But there was definitely a point when it stopped being cute and funny, and became mortifying and uncomfortable. And at that point, I had no way to say "hey, you've crossed the line" without breaking game. My character had been upset from the beginning, so louder IG protests would have continued to go ignored.

3-
I'm on a closed module in Ravenholt. We have rifted there, so we can't leave. I get hit in the eye pretty hard during a fight. I figure I'll be okay, but I need some space. I move over to the side of the mod area to wait, but PCs keep coming over to heal me, and NPCs keep coming over to hit me.

4-
I'm on a closed module, in a warded building to which I do not have the key. Someone turns on a strobe light, which I know will give me a migraine if I look at it for very long. I move over to a wall and close my eyes so as not to interrupt play until the light is turned off, but other players keep asking why I am doing this, and it creates a distraction for them.

I would imagine that, depending on the LARP, there are certain kinds of emotionally intense encounters that some people would find troubling, as described in the article I linked in my post. Most of the LARPs I play don't delve into that sort of stuff, but I've certainly heard of ones that do.

I mean, certainly one answer to this is "don't have encounters that characters can't just walk away from." But if you are going to have situations where characters are trapped in a situation, a "let me walk away from this, I'm really uncomfortable OOG" phrase might be a good safety net, maybe?

[bakeneko]

And of course, the two mentioned in the article I linked, which are not from my experience:

" * One larper I know has a real life phobia of dogs. In a fantasy larp, seeing players of gnolls in dog masks at twilight is enough to trigger this phobia for him.
* Being mugged at latex knife point might be considered to something within the conventional expectations of play in a fantasy larp. However, for a player that was mugged for real at knife point a week before the event, this may be too traumatic."

[silway]

The phobia example is a really good one in particular. I remember one revel years ago in NERO Mass where they decorated the interior of every room with fake spiders and cobwebs, except the staff knew about my phobia and thus my room was clean of it. If I walk onto a mod today and certain reps are there in certain ways that trigger me, I will likely have to walk right out. If there is an IG barrier or guards or flaming death ninjas between me and the door it might be nice to have a way to explain why I really need to leave right now without having to essentially call a hold.

"My platypus is acting up," or whatever, and now the staff knows everything they need to know, something is wrong OOG, to let me escape the situation. The details don't matter, they can find that out later, what matters is I need to step out *now*.

So yeah, I can see it having value in the rare circumstance where you a) need to leave and b) you need to do so on a sufficiently fast timetable where you don't want to have to spend the time explaining why to a staff member off to the side first OOG. And in the example like the orcs and slave thing, maybe having to explain why is only going to make it worse, so you invoke the platypus and then deal with the whys later on better terms.

*Note, it should not involve invoking the platypus.

[bakeneko]

"My platypus is acting up," or whatever, and now the staff knows everything they need to know, something is wrong OOG, to let me escape the situation. The details don't matter, they can find that out later, what matters is I need to step out *now*.

Yes, this is exactly the sort of thing I was thinking.

[bakeneko]

I'm actually going to add a fifth example, even though different rules could have avoided the situation entirely:

5- A staff member delivered an effect (Arcane Love 9) to cause my character to be in love with a PC I didn't know at all. I quit the game, and never went back, but I have no idea whether the staff member even understood that the situation made me uncomfortable.

[silway]

When we got rid of Love effects, people complained. I have rarely seen such a quick validation of a decision in my life that we had done the right thing. ;)

Anyway, totally not a helpful reply, just wanted to share that tidbit.

[pbsweetheart]

Best.change.EVER!

[jjmarika]

I HATED Love 9 and am SO happy it is gone. Happy happy happy. I've only got hit with it once (Love 9 contact poison, woo hoo?), and thank goodness the guy I happened to look at was someone I was friendly with OOG, and who was a complete gentleman, but OMG so very happy it's gone.

[pbsweetheart]

The phobia thing makes total sense to me. A code word or phrase would definitely be nice. Not sure what that could be, but yes - I understand now.

[ezrem]

"The reverse is also applicable- for desires to avoid RP."

Ah that and the rest of your post, does make more sense to me. I suppose in regard to plague type issues I set myself up with my own version for 7V. Planning to play a more fighty character I thought I might have trouble when old back injuries protested. Thus Nehalennia has a back injury in her history.

I guess that sort of planning isnt always workable, and the ability to "invoke the platypus" would be very useful. (Sorry Silway, thats just stuck in mah brains now =P)

[bakeneko]

Looking back over some of the comments here, it looks like there's two important concepts that should be paired with the introduction of these kind of codes, whether it's "plague," "clarification," "let me out of this," "let me into this" or something else. These are pretty much subconscious or obvious things in a lot of game cultures, but maybe it helps to spell them out?

#1- Immersion is valuable, and any code phrase can be disruptive to it. Therefore, don't use it unless you feel like you really need to. Injury, health risks, mental/emotional discomfort, and tiredness are all potential reasons, but often these things can be planned around, or IC solutions can be sought instead of using a code phrase. Question yourself seriously before you use one.

#2- Once someone has concluded that an IC solution is not reachable, and used a code phrase, no one else should question it. It should be understood that the person went through #1 before they got to that point, and whatever their reason is, it's a good one and it's OOG, so they should not be given a hard time about it.

Sound fair?

[ezrem]

Fair, and a good way to add things in writing to a rulebook.

[karishi]

If it had been a Madrigal game, we probably would have called Emergency when I managed to hit someone in the eye with a spell-bag (seems the closest choice). As it was a NERO game we just called Hold.

[bakeneko]

If they were seriously hurt, that would seem like the proper call in Madrigal.

I *think* I've seen people use Caution in Madrigal in some similar situations. So, for example, I have a klutz moment and hit you in the face with a foam sword. I stop for a few seconds to confirm if you're okay or not. If someone else approaches, I use "Caution" to indicate that we're having a brief OOG moment for a safety reason. Then, if you're okay, we continue play. If you're not okay, we call Emergency and get you medical attention.

But perhaps someone who's played Madrigal and similar games more than me could confirm whether that's how it typically goes.

[jjmarika]

'Caution' is actually usually used to warn people before the injury occurs. As in "Caution!" to the NPC who's about to back over a bench.

That said, it is sometimes used when fighting in a very localized area needs to stop for a few seconds. It's totally legit to call 'Caution!' when you take a hard head shot or drop your glasses and just need everyone within 4 feet to pause for a few seconds so that you can leave the area/indicate glasses are lost/whatever.

Emergency tends to be used for actual, 'get the EMT here right now' emergencies. I think I've seen it used once ever in Madrigal. Most injuries we have, even if they're bad enough to require medical intervention, don't actually occur in the midst of combat, so yelling for an EMT is sufficient, you don't need to halt anything. The big ones I can think of where we had to get an ambulance on site involved things like slipping on stairs (not while being attacked), tripping over tree stumps (while attempting to check on NPCs), and kneeling next to a bed. There was one that happened in combat when someone re-injured something they'd hurt before, but I don't think they were actually struck by an NPC when it happened and the fight moved away so fast that there was no need for a call of any sort.

[marcus_sez_vote]

Yeah that's how it goes. In fact people do preemptive 'cautions' if someone is about to step on a stump, person on the ground, etc.

Be well.