Playstyle
Our larp is a place for collaborative storytelling. Rather than trying to best our co-players, we aim to engage in mutually fulfilling play. This means there will be situations in which you will come out on top and others where your role will be to suffer a dramatic loss. The most gratifying stories are a good mix of failure and success.
Dos
Slowly escalate into physical touch.
State your boundaries in negotiations
Say “Yes and”...
Use larp-safe weapons for fighting
Use the safety and game mechanics provided by the organisers.
Respect your co-players for who they are.
Involve people in your play.
Take your turn doing the dishes.
Discuss your pre-written relations with your co-players before the larp.
Don'ts
Touch people who haven’t indicated their consent.
Steal other players’ belongings.
Use any safety or game mechanics NOT in the game design.
Exclude players based on their physical appearance, quality of costume, or their character groups, clan, social standing.
Go off-game in a public area (except for safety reasons.)
Reveal your character’s secrets to your co-players before the larp.
Violence, intimacy and other intense play will always be opt-in and therefore we ask our players to slowly escalate these scenes (using escalation and deescalation mechanics). We also suggest pre-negotiation in an off-game setting especially when it comes to intimacy, all parties involved must always be comfortable to end the scene or to call for a calibration. We suggest that you negotiate such aspects of the larp with your co-players before runtime, during the allocated time in the workshops. Fighting will always be opt-in and we strive to provide meaningful alternative activities while it is going on.
Mechanics
There will be a number of game mechanics and metatechniques that we will learn and practice during the workshops. These will include:
A Simple Combat System - There will be larp fighting during the event, it will be done with larp safe weapons. The fighting will be supported by a simple system for counting dramatic hits in spontaneous fights, and mass combat. Characters can only die if their players so choose. A holmgang is a formal duel to the death; so accepting the challenge for holmgang is opt-in for the possibility of character death.
hólmganga (genitive singular hólmgöngu, nominative plural hólmgöngur)
holmgang, duel, single combat
Seiðr - During the larp prophecies will be foretold, omens will be deciphered and interpreted and your deeds might tell of a fate soon to come. The characters of our larp believe in fate, and magic, and Gods old and new. To support this cultural aspect a mechanic will offer the players ways to direct each others stories.
Vǫlva (genitive vǫlu, plural vǫlur)
Völva; prophetess, seeress, witch
Memory Scenes - During the larp we may play out significant scenes from the character’s pasts. These scenes will include NPCs and Shadow Game Masters, and will be run in locations away from the rest of the players. If we remove big groups of players for larger memories scenes, there will be an ingame reason for them to disappear like “Planning of the next seasons raids” or “Boar Hunting”.
Escalation and De-escalation - During the larp we will be using escalation and deescalation mechanics (both verbal and non-verbal) will be used to signal and establish boundaries between players.
Cut - is a safe word that signals that the personal boundaries of an individual player have somehow been crossed and the player needs to extract themselves from the situation. If another player uses this word, then immediately cease the scene and check in with them.
Code of Conduct and Safety Policy
In addition to these mechanics, it is important that all participants adhere to our code of conduct. If you break our code of conduct, we reserve the right to remove you from the larp, in accordance with our safety policy. You can read both here: http://avalonlarp.studio/safety.