Bias is a natural part of every human being’s psyche. Each person’s background, history, and personal experiences form how they think about and approach a person. Sometimes, these preconceptions are helpful and provide useful context for an interaction, but often they are harmful and cause people to ignore important social cues and treat others based on stereotypes. While these biases are natural, it is not compulsory that they influence every thought and action. A vital part of being human is dissecting these thoughts and realizing they are not some unavoidable pathway.
They can be recognized and analyzed, and then you can take steps to create a more welcoming environment outside of those biases. This practice is especially important in the Mind’s Eye Theatre (MET) environment, where games can live and breathe, or wither away slowly, based on how their participants treat individuals. MET Live-action roleplaying games (LARPs) are an avenue to express and explore aspects of our personality, both as a person and a community. As a result, LARPs attract people from various backgrounds, which diversifies our experience and brings both new blood and original minds to the game.
Despite this, LARPs can fail to create an inclusive environment for these people in both noticeable, and not-so-noticeable, ways—such as falling back on tropes and stereotypes that make others feel unwelcomed or unwanted. When this happens, everyone loses. The MET game loses the opportunity to include a new member, and the new member loses their taste for LARP. In Mind’s Eye Theatre Vampire: The Masquerade and Werewolf: The Apocalypse, there are a number of ways, both tangible and intangible, to alter the LARP environment and promote inclusivity.
These tools reflect that LARP is made up of people of different abilities, cultures, backgrounds, genders, and sexual preferences in respectful ways, and they encourage visibility while not resorting to stereotypes. These techniques reassure our players that our LARP games seek to include them, rather than exclude them. They create an environment where our players feel safe and welcomed, and where a healthy LARP environment can flourish. Note: Players should not be made to feel that accommodations were made especially for them as a method of singling them out; the techniques should be utilized to improve the MET environment for everyone.
These methods can be used to adjust games and meld them seamlessly into the environment or gameplay. In addition, when these techniques are established at the beginning of a LARP, they will need to be reevaluated throughout the lifetime of the game to ensure that everyone’s needs are still being met. Choosing Advocates One person in a MET game cannot effectively manage all of the different tools needed to create an inclusive game, nor can one person represent the breadth of experiences for a group of players.
In order to better to service the game’s participants, a Storyteller may wish to appoint, or have the game vote on, one or two advocates who can assist in gauging player issues and helping players communicate needs to the Storyteller. For most games, these advocates will not have any decisionmaking authority, but they act to facilitate information between players and staff. In addition, players should be encouraged to act as their own advocates when they feel there is room for improvement.
Tangible Tangible techniques focus on alterations to the LARP environment that players often touch and see when they visit MET games. For many, these qualities influence the first impressions others form about a LARP and help set the level of initial comfort. These are suggestions. You may find additional ways to assist your player base. Site Accessibility Physical Accessibility Physical accessibility to the game site refers to how easy the site is for others to use. Take into consideration whether the site has wheelchair access, or if players who may have mobility issues can easily navigate the entire site.
Bringing Others into the Fold How to Create Inclusive Mind’s Eye Theatre LARPs While decorations and room set-up encourage immersion, the Storyteller and event staff should keep in mind that people need to move through each room in a safe manner, so keeping main pathways clear of obstacles ensures those who need to move throughout the space are able to do so. Physical and Emotional Safety The game site should be located in a place where a diverse player base feels comfortable.
While some game sites are hard to come by, a Storyteller should research a chosen area and poll players to ensure that everyone feels comfortable traveling to and from it. Game sites in locations that have a history of violence or discrimination against People of Color (PoC), the LGBQT community, or women are not the safest place for those players to attend a LARP. Using those types of locations can immediately put them ill at ease. LARP Tools Materials Materials for your MET LARP, such as handouts, character creation guides, and character sheets, should come in a variety of formats for players to choose from.
You can create brief how-to videos on YouTube, reading materials, or podcasts to appeal to a variety of learners. In addition, when creating reading materials (including those on a LARP-specific website), consider how the font format and page layout make the materials easy to read and digest. The person preparing the documentation should use headers to make information easier for players to parse, as well as research which fonts may be ideal for your group, in both written and online formats.
Free online classes are available teaching the basics of graphic design and how to incorporate the best practices. Variants on Character Creation Some people are kinesthetic learners, especially those who may have faced difficulties reading or in academia. Storytellers should sit down on request, without asking for more details, with any player who requests help, walking the player through each step of the character creation process—including any necessary house rules, approvals, or other documents for their characters.
Intangible Intangible techniques focus on alterations in mindsets and LARP direction that might not necessarily be obvious. These practices help build a foundation for your LARP in less-obvious ways and reduce the amount of distraction and discomfort players may feel when they enter certain situations. Social Safety Definitions At the beginning of any LARP chronicle, and throughout its span, it is important to get all of the players and Storytellers on the same page regarding the meaning of certain words or actions.
Everyone should gather and determine what slang, slurs, and other language, as well as themes, are acceptable within the context of the game and what things are forbidden at all times. While everyone has their own perceptions of any one phrase or action, having clear definitions of acceptable behavior helps prevent negative feelings out-of-character when someone says something in-character that may be offensive. Conduct Guides Once of the basic definitions have been set up, another important step is establishing a conduct guide for the LARP.
This guide should address how players are expected to act and provide clear consequences for failing to adhere to the conduct standards. Players should know what is expected of them and feel safe in knowing that when someone violates this conduct policy, it will be addressed. The conduct guide needs to be applied fairly, even to a Storyteller or other staff, to show that everyone is beholden to the social contract of the LARP. Spirit of the Rules Sometimes players in a MET LARP will try to skirt the letter of the law in the conduct guide and claim they have done no harm.
This situation is frustrating to other participants and can cause friction and dissatisfaction, especially if that player continues to toe the line of conduct guide. It is often effective to deal with players who do this by adding a clause to the conduct guide regarding the importance of adhering to the spirit of the rules, and stating that repeated behavior intentionally meant to antagonize others out-ofcharacter will be addressed with consequences. Speaking Up It is everyone’s responsibility to speak up when they see issues of harassment or discrimination.
No one person is responsible for policing the community, and the conduct guide should state that such behavior will not be tolerated. Horizontal Communication Horizontal communication is the communication that occurs between two people of equal standing. As a Storyteller, many feel that they are “in charge” of a LARP; however, the game doesn’t run without its players, and they own the story just as much as the staff responsible for telling it. It is vital that players feel comfortable communicating information horizontally to Storytellers.
While upward communication—where a player reports information to someone who can more appropriately handle it—will occur, most feedback loops work better when people feel as though they are speaking to their social equals. Safe Spaces LARPs should establish a location out-of-character that is a safe space for players to use as a retreat. Sometimes, situations in a LARP can seem overwhelming and cause distress. The OK Check-In method addresses one way to handle this, but ensuring a player has somewhere to retreat and someone to speak to (if they desire) confidentially is important.
Information exchanged between a player and the advocacy staff/Storyteller should be held in confidence from the rest of the players. Players should know their staff will keep their concerns private. Workshops Workshops are another way players and Storytellers can communicate with one another. They allow participants to focus on issues that may need a bit more attention, and they provide an environment where people work together to create a common goal. Social Meetings Social meetings occur outside of the game space.
Many players only know each other through their characters, and this circumstance limits their experience with other game participants. Since their experience is confined to these situations, they may have negative feelings based on their in-character interactions. Using the game space to have movie or board game nights, or just having dinner together prior to a game session, can increase bonding between all members of the LARP and help them feel more comfortable communicating with one another.
This practice also reduces bleed and helps people decompress in an environment of peers and friends. One-on-Ones and Suggestion Boxes Some players may feel they are better served either bringing their concerns to the Storytelling and advocacy staff or by submitting them anonymously. For the former, it is simple to schedule one-on-one sessions with each player, giving each person 5 to 10 minutes before a game quarterly or bi-annually to discuss any concerns they have or ways the game could be improved.
Another way to collect feedback is by using an anonymous suggestion box. Both of these methods can be used to identify areas where the game can improve and craft workshop material to teach players and staff, as well as foster an environment of contribution and inclusivity. NPC and Character Creation Seeing yourself represented in your favorite media can be an exhilarating experience. For many, such representation communicates acceptance and confirms that they are finally visible to the community.
However, there are few things that can kill a welcoming high faster than seeing those representations fall back on old tropes and stereotypes. Nothing can alienate a player faster than making their ethnicity, gender, sexuality, sexual preferences, or disability a joke. The first thing to remember when creating both non-player (NPC) and player-characters (PCs) is that those representations never show the whole of a person. They are small part of an overall picture, and while they may help form some experiences and anecdotes, they aren’t the only story a PC or a NPC has to tell.
If either falls back on tropes repeatedly, the player or Storyteller needs to go back to the drawing board to flesh out the character’s concept more. One person’s sexuality, race, or other feature is never a concept. The best characters are those with complicated motives, often-conflicting goals, and complex stories; not one of those can be reduced to an angry black woman or a flamboyantly gay male. In addition, Storytellers and players should not assume that their experience represents a whole.
Listen to other players and their feedback. If they identify something as problematic, do not disregard their thoughts out of hand because they don’t match your own. As roleplayers, many people choose to portray character aspects that are not their own, but others will have a deep well of experience from which to draw. Certainly don’t treat anyone as the token member of their race, gender, or sexuality, but ensure if you are going to incorporate parts of those concepts into your character’s background that you research them well.
Playing outside of your own experience takes 100 times the research and willingness to listen to others. Example: Kim is starting a new MET Werewolf: The Apocalypse LARP. Her initial player base are all friends that she knows well, but she wants the game to grow. She searches out a site that is easily accessible to the players, which has wheelchair ramps. She knows her friend, Joe, has dyslexia, so when she’s creating her player materials, she researches what fonts are helpful to him, and also holds some Skype sessions to go over character creation and find out what themes work best.
The player base says they’re okay with slurs, but they want to stay away from using themes of sexual violence during game sessions. As the game grows, some new players come to Kim and tell her that not only does she have a problematic character—one of her players decided to play a transgender individual and is falling back on tropes—but also that the slurs used during game sessions are becoming overwhelming. Werewolves have bigger things to worry about. Kim meets with all the players during a workshop and reassesses the conduct code—the game adjusts them, indicating that slurs are no longer acceptable.
The game staff sits down with the player of the problematic character during a one-on-one session to rework elements of its background, pointing out specific concerns with previous portrayals. If the player continues to intentionally portray the character in the current manner, staff informs the player that the character will be retired and the player will need to make a new character. Throughout the game, Kim and her staff listen to the players, adjust the game’s needs, and ensure that the game is welcoming to all.
Conclusion Live-action roleplaying in MET is a hobby that draws people from all walks of life— there is nothing more alluring than slipping into the skin and thoughts of another person or creature for a few hours and becoming someone else. However, those players are still people, and they still deserve for their game sessions to suit their needs. Creating LARPs that are accessible and confront bias head-on are vital to a healthy community. Biography J. Childs-Biddle is a horror and role-playing game writer, experimenting with their life and fiction.
Their stories focus on stories of Old Gods, anguished spirits, and terribly unfortunate people, while also spending time digging into articles about LARP Safety calibration, microbiology, psychology, and cephalopods in wild attempts to piece these elements into dark horror, blog articles, or designing educational games for children. Currently, their work can be found in Under the Stairs, Apotheosis: Stories of Human Survival After the Rise of the Elder Gods, and the new Mind’s Eye Theater: Werewolf: The Apocalypse.
Originally published in Mind’s Eye Theatre: Immersion Secrets by By Night Studios. Presented here under Resources for chronicles and live play.