Live-action roleplaying (LARP) is a ritualistic human activity involving co-creation and narrative enactment. Storytellers can more thoroughly ritualize the LARP experience in order to create a greater sense of communal trust and psychological safety before, during, and after play. For example, pre-game workshops help establish a more cohesive collaborative ensemble, enhance connections within the community, and help players learn how to prepare for intense play in a consensual manner.
During play, safety and calibration mechanics allow players the ability to adjust scenes based upon their emotional needs. After play, de-roleing is a method of gently transitioning from the character back to the player, keeping the aspects that the player wishes to retain and leaving behind the less-desirable facets. Post-game structured debriefing is a method of discussing emotionally intense experiences in a serious and constructive manner, allowing players the opportunity to process any unresolved feelings.
Direct communication and out-of-character socializing between LARP sessions facilitate a stronger interconnectedness between players, as they become better acquainted in the mundane social context. Ultimately, these activities work to create stronger, ritualized boundaries around the LARP experience in order to help players maintain friendships and transition from the game state back to daily life. Intensity is an inherent aspect of LARP, as many players enjoy engaging with emotionally potent and challenging content.
In Mind’s Eye Theatre (MET) games, this content often involves exploring characters and story lines that defy social norms, express shadow aspects of one’s personality, and touch upon taboo topics. While playing such content for extended periods of time can provide insight into the human experience through a metaphorical lens, this sort of play can also lead to a vulnerable state known as bleed, where emotions, thoughts, and relationship dynamics spill over from player to character and vice versa.
While bleed itself is a neutral experience, some players view it as intensely cathartic, transformative, and instructive. Alternately, others may experience damage to their personal lives and communities as the result of unmanaged bleed. Therefore, ritualizing the LARP experience is particularly helpful in order to afford players the opportunity to process any bleed emotions that might arise. Ritual, the Magic Circle, and Bleed Ritual is an activity in which participants leave behind their usual social roles and inhabit a temporary, performative space as a group.
LARP itself is a form of ritual. LARPers prepare to enter the ritual space through character planning, costuming, and other pre-game activities. Then, players enter what ritual theory calls a liminal space: a communal experience where social roles change and the rules of interaction are temporarily shifted. During the liminality of LARP, players adopt a new fictional reality according to the setting, rules, and norms of the play culture. After the end of the LARP, players return to their mundane social reality, discarding the roles of the liminal space, but not the memories.
Many LARPers feel fundamentally changed by the peak experiences that occur in games. Rituals are most successful when all three phases of this process are clearly denoted and bounded. LARP is no exception. In game studies, scholars often refer to the mental and physical space of games as the magic circle, where players temporarily adopt new rules of reality and identity. From a ritual perspective, the events that transpire within the magic circle occur during the liminal phase.
In order to enter this magic circle and engage in the ritual activity, LARPers must adhere to a social contract of some sort, which is established during the pre-game preparation phase. In an MET LARP, this social contract may involve conventions about not touching others without explicit consent, when to remain in character, or how to use mechanics to moderate in-game disputes. The social contract contains rules that are both implicit and explicit and, therefore, can vary from group to group.
The social contract facilitates liminality by establishing agreed-upon rules of engagement. When engaged in liminal play through the lens of the character, the fictional reality allows participants some measure of freedom from responsibility for their incharacter actions, which is called alibi. For instance, because the social contract for MET games often involves accepting that adult or “dark” content will emerge, LARPers often use the alibi of “in-character does not equal out-of-character” in order to distance their own actions from those taken during play.
From the perspective of ritual Ritualizing the LARP Experience Bowman theory, alibi is a way to delineate the difference between experiences that transpire within the liminal phase from those outside of it. Unfortunately, the social contract of alibi is not always sufficient as a means to transition smoothly between these states. Players can experience bleed, where emotions from their characters spill over into their mundane lives and vice versa. Bleed-in occurs when aspects from the outside world affect in-game experiences, such as in-character romances developing due to out-of-character attractions, out-of-character disputes impacting in-character rivalries, and so on.
Similarly, bleed-out happens when in-character emotions affect players out-of-character. Bleed is neither inherently positive nor negative, although players can perceive bleed as good or bad. For example, a player experiencing a sense of greater confidence after playing an influential role in a Vampire: The Masquerade LARP might consider such emotions “positive bleed.” Alternatively, a participant facing the dissolution of a friendship due to an in-character rivalry might consider this experience “negative bleed.” Ultimately, bleed is often the reason why players engage in LARP.
LARPers enjoy the emotions experienced while in a state of play, whether tragic, exhilarating, amusing, or solemn. In order for LARP to engage players, the game operates at a higher level of intensity than daily life, with many eventful moments occurring in a short amount of time. Without some degree of bleed, players would likely feel bored. However, problems can occur when bleed is not managed well by a community. The ethos of the “in-character does not equal out-of-character” alibi often puts the onus on individual players to handle their own bleed.
This statement implies that people who experience emotional difficulties due to events in a LARP are solely responsible for their reactions. While personal accountability is important to emphasize, viewing LARP as a ritual activity extends the responsibility to the group by reinforcing the collective, collaborative nature of the game. Certain group behaviors can intensify the potential for long-term bleed. For example, many MET chronicle LARPers spend extended periods of time engaged in ifgame thinking, where they contemplate actions that their characters may take between game sessions.
The planning and deployment of downtime actions is an example of if-game thinking. LARPers also may enact scenes over email, chat programs, online forums, or in-person between sessions. While none of these behaviors are inherently problematic, they extend the magic circle for longer than a single game session. These activities also increase the Figure 1: Diagram of the relationship between the social contract, magic circle, alibi, and bleed. Image by Mat Auryn. amount of time that a player experiences immersion in the game world, whether through strategic planning or character enactment.
Through these actions, the ritual phases of preparation, liminality, and return become blurred and less distinct. While involvement between game sessions can feel invigorating, when players are consistently engaged in the fiction, they can also experience the more unpleasant aspects of bleed. Tensions in the community can increase, which may lead to groups splitting off and friendships dissolving. The potential for these problems to emerge intensifies the longer a player participates in a particular setting, MET chronicle, or character, as attachment to that particular fiction grows increasingly stronger.
This attachment causes many players to prioritize protecting the game world and characters as important parts of their lived experience, rather than focusing upon maintaining the out-of-character harmony of the group. Strengthening the Ritual Circle Communities can minimize the complications that arise from bleed and other in-group conflicts by strengthening the ritual circle in a variety of ways. These methods can help players transition from the game to mundane life, as well as reinforce communal bonds.
A few examples include: 1. Workshops: LARP groups can formalize the preparation phase through workshopping. Workshops are a way for players to get to know one another, explore their characters, practice mechanics, and build trust as a group. One helpful workshop strategy is hot seat, during which players interview someone’s character and they answer accordingly. Hot seat is used in the workshops for End of the Line, the Vampire: The Masquerade LARP by Odyssé Participation Agency.
Another workshop technique involves playing out freeform scenes as a group, including backstories, fantasies, nightmares, future possibilities, etc. This technique is formalized in the structure of Convention of Thorns, the White Wolf LARP by Dziobak LARP Studios. Workshop play increases the transparency of the fiction, as players externalize aspects of their characters that might otherwise remain hidden. Although the surprise of revealing these aspects during game is diminished, the collaboration between players to create a shared storytelling experience is maximized.
This collaborative style helps cement the group as an ensemble of players working together toward a common goal, rather than a collection of individuals with their own agendas and interests operating within the same game. 2. Safety and Calibration Mechanics: The liminal phase, while exciting, can also become overwhelming, confusing, or frustrating. Instituting safety mechanics can help players feel more comfortable communicating their needs within the group. Examples include cut, which allows players to end a scene for any reason; brake, which enables players to decrease the intensity of a scene; the OK check-in system, where participants make sure their scene partners are emotionally capable of proceeding by using non-verbal communication: flashing the “okay” hand signal, then replying with thumbs-up, so-so, or thumbs-down; the lookdown, where a player can leave a scene without comment for any reason by placing their hand over their eyes and walking away; the X-card, where players can ask for a certain topic to be excluded from play for any reason; etc.
These mechanics also serve as a form of calibration, allowing players to adjust the tone, intensity, and content of a scene in order to better align with the rest of the group. 3. De-roleing: One effective strategy for formalizing the return phase is de-roleing, where players ritualistically shed their character after the game session is done. Group de-roleing strategies include taking a piece of costuming and placing it in a circle; verbalizing what elements of the character the player would like to take with them and what characteristics they wish to leave behind; a player writing a letter to her character; introducing oneself with one’s player name rather than her character’s; and using the third person to describe character actions in post-game stories. 4.
Debriefing: Additionally, LARP groups can formalize the return phase through structured and informal debriefing. Structured debriefing is a facilitated form of storytelling after a LARP, during which each participant is encouraged to share moments from the game that elicited strong emotions. Other players are discouraged from commenting or interrupting during this sharing process. The debrief practice tends to be serious in tone and focuses on emotional content, such as bleed.
Debriefing is distinct from the war story practice, during which players enjoy telling informal narratives about the game, often in a humorous or excited tone. Both practices help participants process the experience and transition to mundane life, but debriefing makes space for players to discuss the more complex and confusing emotions that may arise from bleed. Game critiques are discouraged within debriefing spaces, as are accusations toward players due to their characters’ actions. 5.
Direct Communication: When problems arise due to bleed or other game-related conflicts, mature direct communication between players – whether moderated or on an individual basis – can help tremendously. Some players harbor grudges or hurt feelings that can last months or even years due to unresolved tensions. Many of these tensions are resolvable through immediate and direct discussion between the parties involved, with an emphasis on empathy, kindness, and trust. 6. Out-of-Character Socializing: Many groups host informal social gatherings as a way for players to get to know one another outside of the game.
These events can include charity drives, dinners, parties, or other meetups. Additionally, online discussion through social media or other forums can increase people’s engagement with the community. The more people learn about one another’s mundane social lives, the easier they can contextualize each other’s in-character actions from a broader perspective. Additionally, out-of-character social activities allow space for informal debriefing, war story telling, and direct communication to take place.
While many other strategies exist, these practices can help reinforce the boundary between fictional events and mundane life. Conclusion By emphasizing the ritualistic nature of the experience and strengthening the magic circle, LARP groups can demonstrate that emotional responses such as bleed are a normal part of roleplaying. Furthermore, ritualized practices such as workshopping, safety mechanics, and debriefing make clear that individual and community health are more important than games.
Ultimately, these techniques can help Storytellers establish more distinct boundaries around their LARPs, creating a more cohesive and intense ritual experience. Biography Sarah Lynne Bowman (Ph.D.) is a role-playing games scholar, designer, and organizer. McFarland Press published her dissertation in 2010 as The Functions of Role-playing Games: How Participants Create Community, Solve Problems, and Explore Identity. Bowman served as an editor for The Wyrd Con Companion Book from 20122015 and is a Coordinating Editor for the International Journal of Role-playing.
She was the lead organizer for the Living Games Conference 2016 and helped coordinate the Role-playing and Simulation in Education Conference at Texas State University. Bowman has played and organized World of Darkness larps since 1998. In 2016, she helped design workshops for End of the Line in New Orleans and Convention of Thorns in Poland, as well as contributing character writing for Enlightenment in Blood in Berlin. Bibliography Bowman, Sarah Lynne. 2010. The Functions of Role-Playing Games: How Participants Create Community, Solve Problems, and Explore Identity.
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Originally published in Mind’s Eye Theatre: Immersion Secrets by By Night Studios. Presented here under Resources for chronicles and live play.