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]

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.