Our Philosophy

What This Is, And What It Isn't

Staff are here to facilitate a cooperative storytelling situation.

So what does that mean?

We'll sign off on your characters and ask you to give us workable Breaking Points as well as a brief 'who are you and why are you here' sort of background. A couple sentences.

We'll trust you to talk to each other, and us, and collaborate. From Dusk Till Jawn doesn't have any antagonist PCs, and we definitely don't want any antagonist players. That's not to say we don't want drama in-character, because that's what drives stories. But we definitely want a collaborative environment OOC.

To that end, we're going to use two mechanics which have done a lot of good in terms of preserving the Good Fun Time. In the Safe Table rules, there is a mechanic for checking in, and a mechanic for stepping out of scenes that are overwhelming you. In LARPs, we often just toss a quick thumbs-up during a scene to check in if the other player seems not okay, at which point they can check in. That's because in LARPs, there's no OOC chat command. So we highly, highly encourage people to take that step during tense scenes or situations to say 'hey, you doing okay with this scene?'

And if people aren't? Pause. Negotiate. Talk. Set down the scene and come back later, and if you really can't come up with a way to resolve the scene between the two of you? That's what staff are for.

Likewise, if you are in a roleplay situation that's making you agitated or uncomfortable on an OOC level, please say so. Immediately. If you need to leave the scene? Do it. Do it immediately, don't feel guilty. And if someone says 'Red light, guys, I gotta go.' then you play on around, or you pause and you come back to it later. One of the ironclad rules of the LARP groups we're part of -- which IMO keeps stuff p healthy mentally -- is that if someone has to peace out of a scene, you don't ask them to justify that later, or hold them responsible as if they have sinned. This is a collaborative game and absolutely nothing is more important than your mental health. We can always come back together later and say 'okay, so what happened after we faded that scene to black/paused it?' when folks are feeling better.

All players are encouraged to come up with stuff for others to riff off of and to run scenes if they feel inspired to do so. To that end, please always remember that Theme is more important than rules, and having fun is most important of all. The golden rule of nWoD/CoD games is that the rules are there to facilitate the story. The story is not there to facilitate the rules. So if someone Does A Magic Wrong, roll with the scene and talk to them/us about it later. The rules are there to be the bones of the story and to help it stand upright. They are not there to be a cage.

If someone comes up with a ridiculous idea, it's better to say 'yes, how can we do that so it's the most fun for everyone' rather than 'this is why the rules say it wouldn't work.' If it would break the theme, that's a little different, because theme is what helps us all tell a story in the same shared universe. We'd rather keep an eye on theme and break the mechanics than stick to mechanics in a way that makes theme not work.

We are super excited that you are here, and we can't wait to see the kind of stories we can make together.

A Special Note About Content Notices

In case it needs to be said, nWoD/CofD doesn't shy away from difficult themes and we, as storytelling staff, won't either, as long as they suit the needs of the story we're trying to tell.

You can expect staff to clearly indicate if you'll be presented with any challenging material in a plot, so you know what you're in for and can actively opt in. That said, headspaces change, and something that may have been cool with you before the plot may no longer be something you want to deal with in the moment. If this happens, just tell us privately or announce on OOC that you need to peace out; see the section above for more on that.

TL;DR: Content warnings are a part of active, healthy communication, and storytelling staff plans to use them when we run plots, as necessary. We encourage you to do so, too.

Please reach out to staff if you have any questions about this or anything else.