Night Knights

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======Tips for Roleplayers======
For those new to roleplaying, there's a lot of little things that may not be immediately obvious, but when you think about them they make a lot of sense. Even for more experienced roleplayers, it's easy to forget these things when getting involved in a game - this page may have something for everyone!

See the [[introduction#what_does_it_all_mean|Glossary]].

====Talk to the GMs====
In a PvE game, it can be easy to fall into the trap of thinking "I'm working against the environment, and the environment is controlled by the GMs, therefore I am working against the GMs". Incorrect! The GMs are first and foremost here to create a fun games **for you**. That does mean creating challenges in the environment, yes, but also giving you the means to overcome those obstacles.

In practice, this means you should tell the GMs your plans, so we can help make sure they happen. We're not going to use that information to make some contrived reason your plan can't happen, we're gonna use that to make it look really cool when your clever plan works.

Similarly, it can be useful to make it clear the difference between your OOC desires and your characters desires. There is nothing more fun as a GM than seeing a turnsheet say "Sam wants to fight Charlie [OOC: Charlie is clearly much more powerful than Sam, I'm looking forward to cracking out the injury makeup for next session]".

====Character Bleed====
Character bleed is the concept of your feelings and emotions getting blurred between your character and your OOC self. Often character bleed is talked about as some nasty thing that must be avoided at all costs, but in reality it's perfectly natural; in LARP you are embodying your character, you are having the interactions that cause that emotional reaction, and if your character is hugging someone, your body is physically hugging. It is natural for your brain OOC to react to those experiences, even after dropping out of character.

Rather than simply saying "you shouldn't do this", there are more useful approaches to take to character bleed. The first thing is being aware that it's happening - this is usually a case of spotting when your OOC feelings start to change to match your IC ones. Then you can begin the work of trying to uncouple those things again. One way you can do this is by [[sessions#ooc_gestures_calls|dropping OOC]] and talking to the person/people that the character bleed is about, either during the session or afterwards. This can help you get to know the OOC person as a separate entity to their character, and to firmly differentiate your IC and OOC feelings and reactions.

Getting to know people OOC is a great way to preempt some of these things - one of the reasons we have an official((but entirely optional)) [[when_and_where#pre-_and_post-session_social|pre- and post-session]] social is that it provides a great chance to get to know people better. 

====Talk to the Players====
Building on the points above, if you're playing an antagonistic character, or engaging in deep emotional roleplay (AKA "ballgowning"), checking in with the other players out-of-character can be a very useful tool.  You don't have to fully reveal your plans to betray them, or plot out your entire romance arc((or both at once)), but a quick "hey, would you be alright with some PvP here?", or "What are you comfortable with in terms of ballgowning?" can save some issues later.

How deep to go with these is always a judgement call, and some players will prefer to let things happen organically.  This is also where getting to know people out-of-character comes in, so you can gauge what approach to take.  From experience, receiving a "Hey, would you be alright with some PvP?" message from what you thought was a reliable ally can result in some really fun moments.  Note that a check-in is not required for non-violent and non-lethal PvP, but is for violent or lethal PvP and for deep emotional roleplay such as romantic relationships.

Out of character conversations should not affect your in-character knowledge - e.g. if a player has checked in to see if you'd be alright with a sudden but inevitable betrayal, your character should not start acting more suspicious without an in-character reason.  This can be a hard balance to strike, but getting it right results in better stories.

The check-ins, and any further discussions that might result from them, are about creating an engaging story for your characters, that you as players are working together on (even if your characters may be working against each other).

====Character Design====
We all love our characters - coming up with a cool character for the setting is heaps of fun, especially when you think of a cool aspect of the world you want to interact with. However it can be easy to forget that given it's a LARP, you need to play that character, and it should be fun to play that character.

What this means in practice is that while a cool brooding character who sits in the corner alone might sound like an interesting character, if you end up spending an entire session sitting in the corner not talking to anyone you may not have a lot of fun in sessions. This is not to discourage you from exploring different kinds of characters, it's just worth keeping in mind how this character is going to be fun for **you** to play. Different people enjoy different kinds of things, after all!

We ask that people do not play characters which are directly lifted from other sources - taking some inspiration is fine, but your character should be distinctly yours, and ideally take inspiration from multiple places.  Otherwise, this can cause issues when the themes or abilities of that character do not fit neatly into the game - meaning that something which seems like it should be possible for the character is not possible in the world of this game.
====Timing====
There are only a limited number of sessions in the game. A bit of thought into how your actions will affect the overall pace of your story arc can have great benefits - leaving too many problems until later can result in a very rushed final turn, or sudden swings in character development at the end of the game.  Creating a grand invention which will solve everyone's problems in the last turn of the game is likely to be less satisfying than doing so one turn earlier (allowing it to get used the next turn).  Similarly, pulling off your inevitable betrayal in the final turn of the game is often less dramatic than doing so one turn earlier, and giving others a chance to react.

The GM team will have a hand in this, and will be trying to feed events into the story to encourage appropriate pacing through the game.

The turnsheet after the final session works a little differently to other turnsheets - this lets you sketch out what your character is doing for the future, as far as you wish to.  This "[[endgame|Eternity]]" turnsheet is less suitable for the final resolution of shorter-term problems and plans.