Privilege
Themes surrounding privilege and the financial comforts required to be an artist will be reinforced through privilege mechanics.
In the real world, privilege (financial or otherwise) is a major factor in how much time, energy, and resources an artist has to create. In this game, characters will gain and lose certain privileges depending on their performance at the retreat, which will be continuously evaluated by the faculty NPCs. The more your character impresses the professors, the more privileges they gain; therefore, the more time they will have to focus on their art.
The background and financial status of the characters will also be a factor in the time, space, and resources they are awarded at the start of the larp —but, aside from a select few, these privileges will likely increase or decrease over the course of the game.
Privilege Mechanics
- Dishwashing Duty: the five students in the worst standing with the professors will be assigned to wash dishes after each meal
- High-performing students will also occasionally be assigned to dishwasher duty, seemingly at random, as a reminder of the constant excellence and output that is expected in order to maintain relevance in the art world
- Evaluation Slot Preference: Entrants will be expected to sign up for evaluation slots for the competition over breakfast on Saturday. Students with a familial relation to major school donors or influential members of the art world will be given the earliest opportunity to sign up. Secondary preference will then be granted to whomever the professors favor that morning
- Room Assignments: The wealthiest students will receive the best rooms, and those favored by the faculty will receive the second-best. The less privileged a student is or the worse their standing within the school, the more roommates they will have for the duration of the retreat
- Note for prospective players: Please consider your sleeping comfort and room assignment needs when filling out the sign-up form with your character preferences. Wealthy, well-connected students will be assigned two-person rooms while disadvantaged students will be assigned to a six-person room full of bunk beds. Sleeping preferences should definitely be factored in when considering and communicating the player experience you desire in this game
- Rooms will not be reassigned at any point in the game, regardless of any changes to a character’s “privilege”
Meta-Techniques
What is a meta-technique? The Nordic Larp Wiki defines it as a “loose term encapsulating various rules and narrative tools/practices which are carried out by players rather than characters but still part of the improvisational flow.” It is a means of communicating to your co-players without interrupting the scene, breaking character, and/or adding to the canon of the story’s continuum.
In this game, we will be employing three meta-techniques, which will be demonstrated and rehearsed in the pre-game workshops
- Tap Out
- Look-Down
- Cut!
When someone wishes to calibrate or have an off-game discussion with another player, they are expected to communicate this verbally and find a quiet corner to go off-game without disturbing other players.
Tap Out
A double-tap signal which indicates that a player wishes to redirect or reduce the intensity of the current scene. By tapping another player’s body or tapping twice on a nearby surface, a player can communicate nonverbally that they don’t wish to play on the last thing that happened.
Tap Out was first introduced at the 2015 production of Inside Hamlet.
Look-Down
If you would like to remove yourself from a scene (or simply walk through it) without your character’s actions or presence being played on, participants can position their hands over their eyes as they walk out of the room to convey that they are not, at that time, part of the canon of the story.
Cut!
Anyone present at the larp can shout “Cut!” at any point to stop gameplay at once. This option exists to communicate to all present that there is a potential dangerous situation that must be dealt with before gameplay can proceed.
Common uses of the “Cut!” mechanic include
- Something has broken and the resulting glass and/or sharp edges must be gathered and disposed of
- Someone is injured or in the midst of a medical emergency
- Someone is at risk of being injured or enduring a medical emergency
- Furniture, personal possessions, and/or the venue itself is at risk of being damaged
Opt-Out Versus Opt-In
This larp employs opt-out design and mechanics. An opt-out approach dictates that the responsibility resides with each individual player to communicate when they feel discomfort or a boundary has been crossed in a scene.
With opt-in, the assumption is that your co-player will calibrate or check with you off-game before engaging in new storylines or intimacy. With opt-out, the assumption becomes that you are comfortable seeing how the scene unfolds and letting the characters naturally evolve and interact.
Opt-out should by no means lead to players accepting or engaging in play they are not comfortable with. Opt-out simply offers players the opportunity to gauge their boundaries in the moment, and the immersion that comes from minimizing calibration and off-game breaks.
We will hold workshops on site, prior to gameplay, in order to familiarize players with our various meta-techniques, mechanics, and opt-out approach. One of the most important being the escalation workshops, which allow participants to practice verbally and nonverbally establishing boundaries in-game.