2015 - AHC 1 - Frank Romeo

I've been a LARPer since 1983. I mention that not in an attempt to flaunt my experience or argue from authority, for as Michael Pucci recently quipped, “If we knew how to LARP better back then, we would have.” Rather, so that when I say I've formed certain opinions when it comes to LARPing, I'm not just shaking my cane and yelling at Those Damn Kids Today to Get Off My Lawn. This is pretty basic stuff, but as I may be called upon to mediate disputes between players, or offer advice to the HC during mediation, I believe that some of those opinions are relevant to this position, such as:

I prefer the term CvC to PvP.

PvP is holdover term from MUDding and MMORPG's, and it doesn't (or shouldn't) apply in a LARP setting. Our characters may be at odds, but as players we should exercise good sportsmanship, (there should really be a better gender-neutral term for that than sportspersonship) meaning, simply and with slight paraphrasing: “an aspiration or ethos that a [game] will be enjoyed for its own sake, with proper consideration for fairness, ethics, respect, and a sense of fellowship for other enthusiasts.”

People have different definitions of the word “fun” and that's okay.

Short of behavior which qualifies as griefing or harassment, if someone's play style is different than yours, it doesn't make them wrong. Are you both having a good time? Great!

There is good metagaming and there is bad metagaming.

Have you ever decided not to start a combat scene because it's 3 minutes til game wrap? Good Metagaming. Remember when you rolled up a Human Cleric (even though you really wanted to play a Gnome Illusionist) because your party didn't have a healer? Good metagaming. Picture yourself not greasing a new player's PC because of some imagined genre abomination, and instead taking that player under your wing to bring them into the fold with some serious RP... good metagaming. (And possibly great player retention in an era when we could sorely use it.)  If you’ve altered your course of action because being true to your character would ruin someone else’s fun, that’s good metagaming, and also good sportsmanship.

There is good bleed and there is bad bleed.

Bleed is a term borrowed from Nordic LARPs, and basically means when emotions “bleed” from the scene into real life. This can be potentially awesome, but it can also potentially suck. For example, if you decide you hate someone in real life because their character was a jerk. (See PvP vs CvC, above.) And it's part of the reason why the transition to RL that is shout-outs and “afters” is an important part of immersive and salon style games.

ICly, things may be (should be!) skewed against you, OOCly, things should always be fair.

The ST's may not immediately give you more information than “trust me, this is legit, but I can't tell you why.” Sometimes you just get out-played, and it doesn't necessarily mean the other person cheated in order to do it. Approaching each situation with an expectation of OOC fairness goes a long way toward alleviating the negativity that is so often prevalent in the organization.

Codes of Conduct & Terms of Service are, properly written and judiciously enforced, a Good Thing.

They're an explicit expression of what should be an implicit social contract, but ones which are increasingly necessary in an era of keyboard commandos in order to preserve harmony and promote the free exchange of ideas in an online environment. If you choose to participate, and if you're found in violation of a CoC and whinge about it, the moderators haven't violated your right to free speech, they've only violated your sense of entitlement.

FAQ: Hey man, why is your primary toon based in Florida if you live in California?

I'm glad you asked. You may recall that part of the Year of Fire plot involved the Brujah losing their collective minds. You may also know that he highest concentration of Brujah is in the Free States of the greater Los Angeles area. You may further surmise that this naturally resulted in Masquerade breaches beyond the scope of any ever seen before. You may have heard that the resulting controversial nuke was redlined. You may not have heard that the bright light in the sky and the EMP blast were not. My character has Demolitions 5 and Nature: Survivor. Hence: Operation AMSCRAY and no hard feelings. I’m grateful to the staff of G:NC for tossing me a delicious plot hook at a time when I had lost most of my “happy-thoughts” about the organization.

FAQ: I see that you are still part of /u. Why?

I was a part of the initial discussion on /owbn which led to the creation of /u, and while I think that the free speech argument was spurious (owbn is not a government entity) the stifling discussion argument was not. There are cooler heads at the wheel now at /owbn, and that's a good thing. And, while /u’s detractors paint it as owbn’s 4-chan, I’ve personally taken part in reasonable debate and interesting discussions on that forum. I have larger problems with Facebook due to privacy concerns. Some of those concerns are mitigated by the fact that both /owbn and /u are closed groups now, which I also see as a good thing. (The groups are still searchable, but only members can see posts, which keeps our comments from popping up on muggle’s feeds.) That said, should I be elected as AHC, as an official voice of the organization I would go into lurk only mode on /u.  

Special thanks to Daniel "Scooby" Abreu for Portuguese translation.