Post by Storyteller on Apr 21, 2016 4:45:16 GMT
The storytelling team from the beginning of Pillars of Eternity have emphasized that we are a community and not a dictatorship from the top down. It is our responsibility as the storytelling team to ensure that we provide a fair, safe and enjoyable playing space for all of our members. The storytelling team has taken great efforts to ensure that we treat all members equally and fairly in all the decisions we have made and allowed the maximum inter-character interaction possible. We will never allow any unsafe or unwelcome threats, intimidation, insults or harassment of any kind if a member feels unsafe ever please inform us immediately. The storytelling team takes as much or more enjoyment from putting together a great setting for our members to play within hopefully as much as our members enjoy playing in. If you are not enjoying the setting or feel that you in anyway are uncomfortable with the direction of the setting please come and speak with us. We understand that a character idea sounds great in our minds but once put into practice may fail or may not fulfil our requirements to enjoy ourselves. Together we create the story so together we can create a new character that will hopefully fit you better and will allow you to better enjoy what we create.
We as storytellers have taken the basic principle of Vampire the Masquerade and have begun to expand on that foundation. We have taken elements from our past experiences with VTM to help progress our abilities not just as players but as storytellers. We have begun and will continue to experiment with different elements of role-playing by including ideas from American Free-Form LARP and Nordic LARP. Our first major steps included full emersion of the setting, we do not have many castles or medieval buildings in Red Deer to use so we attempted to transform the inside of the building to fit the setting. Our use of the shadow style techniques and amateur sound effects to include our senses are taken directly from these styles of LARP. Our next major challenge is to create a safe enough space for our members to start making emotional investments that enhance their experience. This will be very difficult for some members and will be very easy for others this is why clear lines of communication are required between the members and the storytelling team. We understand asking for emotional investment can be a very delicate line for anyone to cross and again we must stress the importance of communication.
Speaking solely for myself now, I have been in situations where I have bought into a character fully well role-playing and have faced challenges that I have not handled very gracefully. Looking back now with hindsight it was that very emotional connection that allowed me to lose myself in my character but also made me feel a sense of loss. Both of those emotions are what role-playing and LARP should be about the failure was the communication with the storyteller about how I felt. It was this break down that allowed myself to direct my positive feelings I had felt about the experience into a negative and unproductive experience for not just myself but the other players. Looking back I did not trust the storyteller to voice my concerns and my feelings on the situation enough to help me grieve my loss. Well I understand that there is no “winning” at LARP there is loss not just a test or scene but sometimes an emotional loss.
This is where we need to as storytellers help provide you with a safe and honest place to feel these emotions. This is where we as a community must start building an emotionally safe place to allow ourselves the room to grow into these characters. This will help enrich our experience by allowing us to better feel the in-character drama that we are striving for. To feel love, hate, jealousy, scorn, disappointment or any other emotion brings a brand new element to LARP and gives us room to push of boundaries. With emotional commitment comes the tools and abilities to limit the bleed of drama into our out of game personalities.
The first is very simple and very straight forward the use of “safe words” for example;
“Brems” (slow down) is a tool for players who feel that they are closing in on their personal boundaries, either physically or psychologically. It can be interpreted as "this far, but no further" or even "one step back, please", depending on the situation. It can be inserted into ordinary conversation, as in "please - 'brems' - don't be so mean". Recipients of a brems have a collective responsibility for resolving the situation.
Unlike CUT, brems does not declare a crisis or stop roleplaying, which lowers the threshold for using it. By saying "brems" a player is implicitly making the statement that "I am in control, and the roleplaying we did leading up to this situation was OK", which can have a reassuring effect on the recipient.
nordiclarp.org/wiki/Brems This article is a more in depth explanation on “Brems” and it uses.
Some LARPs also employ "CUT" for situations that are not universally recognized as emergencies, but where the personal boundaries of an individual player have somehow been crossed and the player needs to extract themselves from the situation. This is more common at LARPs with some degree of hardcore play, or that deal with sensitive subject matter - such as sexuality and intimacy, violence and abuse, or mass suggestion. In such instances, players' thresholds for acceptable role-play may vary widely from issue to issue and player to player in ways that are difficult to predict in advance, and hence the CUT and Brems rules become a personal safety vent.
nordiclarp.org/wiki/Kutt This article is a more in depth explanation on “CUT” and its uses.
These tools are not meant to get yourself out of difficult situations but should give you a safe guard to experience the situation in a safe and enjoyable manner. We as the storyteller team do not know what you have experienced in the past and some difficult situations can make you uncomfortable or even cause trauma. So we propose experimenting with these two basic rules to allow for the emotional investment but at the same time provide a safety net of sorts to allow you to control your investment level.
Another tool we can use is the position of Player Advocate;
The Player Advocate works as a in-between for the players and the storytelling team. The Player Advocate does not have any in game power to change scenes or make in game decisions but allows the players a person to discuss their feelings about a situation. Ideally the Player Advocate allows for an impartial ear to bring situations, grievances or conflicts to the storyteller. This can be beneficial to the setting as the storyteller can make a fair judgement or help disarm a conflict by not having to mediate the situation directly. The Player Advocate would make written reports when possible to be submitted to the storyteller to be kept on record for future reference.
De-briefing is another effective tool as well;
The de-briefing technique happens at the end of the night.
Here’s a fairly standard formula for a de-brief:
1) A short talk by the storyteller, outlining the nights plot and questions.
2) Communal debriefing, lead by the storyteller.
The participants take turns talking, one after the other, each having a set amount of time to talk. Questions or interruptions are not tolerated. The storyteller keeps time. One minute is the customary maximum per speaker. Participants should give their answers to a single question – for example “how was your experience?” “how do you feel now?” “Were there any situations that were particularly intense or emotional?” or “Is there anything you experienced during the larp that you haven’t experienced before?”
At this point should players wish to continue sharing their experience or wish to table a question for open discussion five minutes is given by the storyteller.
3) Summary, the storyteller offers suggestions for further processing.
Debriefing has three goals:
1) Each player should have their LARP experience, whatever it was, validated by their co-players.
2) Each player should have a chance to begin processing the LARP, translating from the immediate experience and emotional bundle into lasting memories, reflections, and learning.
3) If a player experienced anything particularly difficult, the debrief should provide an arena for others to become aware of the problem, and take steps towards solving it.
Useful rules for debriefing sessions
The third person rule: When talking about something that was done at the LARP, avoid the use of the first and second person. Not “You screamed at me” but “Your character screamed at my character” or (even better) “Father Balaam (Your Character) screamed at Ampion (My Character)”.
No interrupting each other. Let the current speaker finish.
All experiences are equal. This LARP may have been experienced very differently and may mean different things to each of us. Accept that, and do not challenge it.
The door is open: You can opt out of anything at any time without giving an explanation. If you don’t want to talk, don’t. (This rule applies to LARPing as well).
The Vampire LARPS I played in Calgary in the 90s & 2000s, for example, would have benefited greatly from some serious debriefing. Their content was silly and the production values low. Some how though we were so deeply involved in the game that it was hard for us to talk entirely out-of-character. Even when we met professionally outside the LARP context and real-life relationships were affected negatively by in-game events.
We are very open to any suggestions or oversights we may have made. Together we create the story, characters and experiences so together we can create a safe place to allow our emotions to be shown. We are not expecting nor are we even forcing anyone who is not comfortable exploring these ideas. We are however asking that we now to take baby steps toward developing and growing our community in a mature and responsible way.
We as storytellers have taken the basic principle of Vampire the Masquerade and have begun to expand on that foundation. We have taken elements from our past experiences with VTM to help progress our abilities not just as players but as storytellers. We have begun and will continue to experiment with different elements of role-playing by including ideas from American Free-Form LARP and Nordic LARP. Our first major steps included full emersion of the setting, we do not have many castles or medieval buildings in Red Deer to use so we attempted to transform the inside of the building to fit the setting. Our use of the shadow style techniques and amateur sound effects to include our senses are taken directly from these styles of LARP. Our next major challenge is to create a safe enough space for our members to start making emotional investments that enhance their experience. This will be very difficult for some members and will be very easy for others this is why clear lines of communication are required between the members and the storytelling team. We understand asking for emotional investment can be a very delicate line for anyone to cross and again we must stress the importance of communication.
Speaking solely for myself now, I have been in situations where I have bought into a character fully well role-playing and have faced challenges that I have not handled very gracefully. Looking back now with hindsight it was that very emotional connection that allowed me to lose myself in my character but also made me feel a sense of loss. Both of those emotions are what role-playing and LARP should be about the failure was the communication with the storyteller about how I felt. It was this break down that allowed myself to direct my positive feelings I had felt about the experience into a negative and unproductive experience for not just myself but the other players. Looking back I did not trust the storyteller to voice my concerns and my feelings on the situation enough to help me grieve my loss. Well I understand that there is no “winning” at LARP there is loss not just a test or scene but sometimes an emotional loss.
This is where we need to as storytellers help provide you with a safe and honest place to feel these emotions. This is where we as a community must start building an emotionally safe place to allow ourselves the room to grow into these characters. This will help enrich our experience by allowing us to better feel the in-character drama that we are striving for. To feel love, hate, jealousy, scorn, disappointment or any other emotion brings a brand new element to LARP and gives us room to push of boundaries. With emotional commitment comes the tools and abilities to limit the bleed of drama into our out of game personalities.
The first is very simple and very straight forward the use of “safe words” for example;
“Brems” (slow down) is a tool for players who feel that they are closing in on their personal boundaries, either physically or psychologically. It can be interpreted as "this far, but no further" or even "one step back, please", depending on the situation. It can be inserted into ordinary conversation, as in "please - 'brems' - don't be so mean". Recipients of a brems have a collective responsibility for resolving the situation.
Unlike CUT, brems does not declare a crisis or stop roleplaying, which lowers the threshold for using it. By saying "brems" a player is implicitly making the statement that "I am in control, and the roleplaying we did leading up to this situation was OK", which can have a reassuring effect on the recipient.
nordiclarp.org/wiki/Brems This article is a more in depth explanation on “Brems” and it uses.
Some LARPs also employ "CUT" for situations that are not universally recognized as emergencies, but where the personal boundaries of an individual player have somehow been crossed and the player needs to extract themselves from the situation. This is more common at LARPs with some degree of hardcore play, or that deal with sensitive subject matter - such as sexuality and intimacy, violence and abuse, or mass suggestion. In such instances, players' thresholds for acceptable role-play may vary widely from issue to issue and player to player in ways that are difficult to predict in advance, and hence the CUT and Brems rules become a personal safety vent.
nordiclarp.org/wiki/Kutt This article is a more in depth explanation on “CUT” and its uses.
These tools are not meant to get yourself out of difficult situations but should give you a safe guard to experience the situation in a safe and enjoyable manner. We as the storyteller team do not know what you have experienced in the past and some difficult situations can make you uncomfortable or even cause trauma. So we propose experimenting with these two basic rules to allow for the emotional investment but at the same time provide a safety net of sorts to allow you to control your investment level.
Another tool we can use is the position of Player Advocate;
The Player Advocate works as a in-between for the players and the storytelling team. The Player Advocate does not have any in game power to change scenes or make in game decisions but allows the players a person to discuss their feelings about a situation. Ideally the Player Advocate allows for an impartial ear to bring situations, grievances or conflicts to the storyteller. This can be beneficial to the setting as the storyteller can make a fair judgement or help disarm a conflict by not having to mediate the situation directly. The Player Advocate would make written reports when possible to be submitted to the storyteller to be kept on record for future reference.
De-briefing is another effective tool as well;
The de-briefing technique happens at the end of the night.
Here’s a fairly standard formula for a de-brief:
1) A short talk by the storyteller, outlining the nights plot and questions.
2) Communal debriefing, lead by the storyteller.
The participants take turns talking, one after the other, each having a set amount of time to talk. Questions or interruptions are not tolerated. The storyteller keeps time. One minute is the customary maximum per speaker. Participants should give their answers to a single question – for example “how was your experience?” “how do you feel now?” “Were there any situations that were particularly intense or emotional?” or “Is there anything you experienced during the larp that you haven’t experienced before?”
At this point should players wish to continue sharing their experience or wish to table a question for open discussion five minutes is given by the storyteller.
3) Summary, the storyteller offers suggestions for further processing.
Debriefing has three goals:
1) Each player should have their LARP experience, whatever it was, validated by their co-players.
2) Each player should have a chance to begin processing the LARP, translating from the immediate experience and emotional bundle into lasting memories, reflections, and learning.
3) If a player experienced anything particularly difficult, the debrief should provide an arena for others to become aware of the problem, and take steps towards solving it.
Useful rules for debriefing sessions
The third person rule: When talking about something that was done at the LARP, avoid the use of the first and second person. Not “You screamed at me” but “Your character screamed at my character” or (even better) “Father Balaam (Your Character) screamed at Ampion (My Character)”.
No interrupting each other. Let the current speaker finish.
All experiences are equal. This LARP may have been experienced very differently and may mean different things to each of us. Accept that, and do not challenge it.
The door is open: You can opt out of anything at any time without giving an explanation. If you don’t want to talk, don’t. (This rule applies to LARPing as well).
The Vampire LARPS I played in Calgary in the 90s & 2000s, for example, would have benefited greatly from some serious debriefing. Their content was silly and the production values low. Some how though we were so deeply involved in the game that it was hard for us to talk entirely out-of-character. Even when we met professionally outside the LARP context and real-life relationships were affected negatively by in-game events.
We are very open to any suggestions or oversights we may have made. Together we create the story, characters and experiences so together we can create a safe place to allow our emotions to be shown. We are not expecting nor are we even forcing anyone who is not comfortable exploring these ideas. We are however asking that we now to take baby steps toward developing and growing our community in a mature and responsible way.
