Development Diary: Finding Safety in Horror – Content, Themes and Policies
Horror. That word has dozens of different meanings depending on who you ask. Trust me, I could easily wax on for hours about what horror means to me but that’s not the reason for this evening’s blog post. No tonight’s post is about safety – specifically in relation to horror events and what steps we take to ensure our attendees feel safe when looking to attend our events.
To help me in this task, I am going to turn to the good old Oxford English Dictionary which defines horror as an “intense feeling of fear, shock and disgust.” Using those three elements, let’s break things down further…
Fear – Safety Mechanisms
Most individuals want to attend a horror event in order to feel fear – those heightened emotions and experiences that only come from experiencing an unknown or terrifying encounter that leaves the individual wondering what will happen to them (or in the case of LRP, their character). We want our attendees to feel that fear but never at the expense of their own health or feeling of safety.
Many LRPs, horror or otherwise, over the last decade have developed a series of universal safety calls to allow individuals to safely disengage from a game should the need ever arise. Many of these safety calls are vocal in nature but as a team, we also understand that in times of great distress and anxiety, individuals cannot always vocally let people know they need to disengage. To that end, many of the safety calls for our system include physical hand gestures an individual can take should they ever wish to:
- immediately disengage from a conversation, whether IC or OC;
- request no contact with an individual; or
- check-in with another attendee and reply accordingly.
Additionally, it is our intention to create not only a dedicated space where people can safely go out-of-character but also set times where people can easily disengage from the game for a period to look after their own physical well-being. In fact our rules system is currently being written with these breaks firmly in mind. Ultimately, we want people to fear the paranatural strangeness we have created – not fear that they are missing out by taking a break or taking time to eat.
We don’t feel any of this is revolutionary but as always safety remains at the forefront of our minds. With that being the case, this brings me onto…
Shock – Transparency on Content and Themes
Everyone has heard of the classic bait and switch LRP event premise. Players expect X but instead Y happens and oh it is so shocking! Sometimes it works (if you clearly signpost it) but, speaking personally for a moment, I think it is entirely irresponsible on many levels to do this at a LRP event. Notwithstanding that people like to know what they have signed up for, the reality is that at a horror LRP such as this, a lack of transparency on content and themes can do lasting, real-world harm. That is not the experience I want anyone attending our events to feel. That’s not horror – its just cruel.
As part of our on-going goal to be transparent, we have a prepared a list which (as of writing) consists of 49 topics which are either:
- Banned – meaning they won’t appear in any way at our games;
- Restricted – meaning the topic may be discussed in-character and come-up in backstories but which have restrictions surrounding how they are roleplayed; and
- Core Themes – topics which are hard to avoid entirely and which may arise during the course of an event.
This list of topics is updated on an event by event basis so that attendees know what they have booked for and what they can expect. When we feel another topic may be becoming more prominent in the story of our event than we expected, we intend to update the list and bring it to the attention of our attendees as soon as possible. Our list also contains detailed explanations as to why we have chosen to include certain topics as well as any restrictions around roleplaying these. An example of this can be seen below.
Notwithstanding the existence of this list, we also know we can’t take into account every possible theme, so we ask our attendees to set out any themes they are uncomfortable with dealing with in the expression of interest forms for our events.
That being said, The Equinox Institute is an adult LRP written by a group that includes queer and international writers and tackles topics which are not only common in the media which inspired Equinox but which are also pertinent to us in our day to day lives. Topics which are banned at other games (such as gaslighting or select types of discrimination) are present in our stories but are highly monitored and controlled. For example, the ability to issue memory-altering drugs is available to select characters, who in order to use their abilities, must do so in the presence of a member of the Game Team.
But what about discrimination? That leads me onto…
Disgust – Behaviour Policies
We want to foster a community that feels safe playing together and one which is excited about tackling the horrors of the world – whether paranatural or mundane. We also want to tell adult stories and to create a safe environment where players can confront these topics through their characters in a way which they might not be able to do so in their day-to-day lives. This is led by us as a Game Team through written documents and props, speaking with others in the relevant communities and through carefully selecting who we want to portray certain non-player character roles at our events. Still, in order to cultivate a safe community, there can be no room for misinterpretation or misunderstandings.
With this being the case, it is never acceptable for a player to create or play a character who is discriminatory on the basis of any of the characteristics set out in our Restricted or Banned Themes. This is back-to-back with our Behaviour Policy, which requires all attendees not to be prejudiced against others on the basis of several protected characteristics. We don’t want there to be any doubt – if you intend to come along and play a character who intends to discriminate against others on grounds other than paranatural belief – then this game is not for you and you are not welcome here.
Still, we hope that by doing this we can tell stories where disgust can arise and where characters have the opportunity to make their unhappiness clearly known when engaging with our plotlines along the way.
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I hope this has provided a good overview of some of thinking behind safety at our games. More details on all of these will be released shortly and we hope you will have the opportunity to read these in detail and consider whether Equinox is the game for you.
But when will that information be released? Pop by tomorrow when things will hopefully be a little less [REDACTED] and the future, all the more clearer. Hopefully see you then!
Chris ‘Lambie’ Lamb
On behalf of The Equinox Institute Team