Thank you for all of your feedback, it is important to us as it allows us to grow and evolve as organisers and to create improved experiences.

We have finished reviewing the feedback provided, we have made a number of GM notes around the structure and content of some encounters. Sadly this event they did not all work as planned, some were not telegraphed well, which led to some confusion and problems on the player side.

Others were around some of the archetypes and how they fitted into the game world. The issues have been noted though and steps will be taken to avoid these issues at future events.

We won’t be going into these in detail as in some cases there are long complex trails of player background and actions which were factors in several of the noted incidents/scenes.

As well as looking at future plot activity we have also made some amendments to the mechanics primer including some more clarification on violence mechanics, a note on flagging archetypes, a change to the use of the walking away signal and future use of the networks. These have been copied in below.

Murder and Death

We trust you to die at the right time, as participants we ask that you do the same. Be generous with you role-play and think carefully before taking any action which will kill another character in an instant.

We ask that you carefully consider the timing of your actions, how much dialogue and roleplay the victim will get out of the interaction. Everyone is here to make stories and you are about to end someone else’s. The key question to ask yourself is; “How would you feel about this?” How much of the game is remaining?

This doesn’t mean murder and death won’t happen.

Have you spoken to the other participant? We have an off games pace which is perfect for these conversations to take place. If you are nervous about “tipping off the participant” or worrying about your decision come and talk to the games team. We are happy to advise on timings or to suggest other potential methods of getting a resolution for your character.

Perhaps there is a solution without murder, perhaps not.For the victims please remember this is a dramatic theme, a single knife wound won’t kill someone, someone can survive a bomb blast, gun shots and a grenade with serious injuries.

We ask that you respect actions where the time is taken to stab your character repeatedly or hack them to pieces with a chainsaw etc. If the guidance above is followed this will be an appropriately dramatic point for both parties and a great end to a story.

We’ll be on hand after the incident and available to help you recover before getting back in with another character.

Dreamweaving

A note from page 11 of the primer version 1.2.“(You do not need to have an implant port to enjoy the experience but the weaver must have a suitable method of interfacing such as headsets or detectable nodes).”

Networks and Deploy deliveries

Firstly it is clear that the use of the networks are low and that timing and being logged out meant things were missed. To resolve this issue we will be moving the IC network onto a single fixed wire network which can be accessed by terminals in play (instead of the players own device). This network should also be used for requesting items from Corporate HQ’s and from Deploy.

Corporate characters will be given briefs on this method each event however the Deploy option is noted in the mechanics guide.Note: Deploy operatives will still be contacted via radio.From page 19 of the primer version 1.2.

Contacting Deploy for deliveries

The network is monitored by Deploy delivery drones. You can request items via the terminals, there will be a Deploy bot on standby for your requests. Simply send an open message and they will reply with a price to be paid upon delivery. We have introduced this to remove the need for participants to leave the game to make requests.

There may be a short delay in responses on occasion.It does make them less private and more public but it will generate more opportunities for roleplay and investigation as it will not be clear who people are when placing orders.

Your character packs will include a unique Deploy account number which should be used for placing orders.

Flagging archetypes

We will do our best to flag higher threat archetypes in the pre-game guides to help with identifying those which we believe will be targeted more often in violent encounters from both other player characters and plot devices. This won’t mean your character is safe from the consequences of their actions or “wrong place, wrong time” but will mean we will not be planning on confrontation from the outset or clashes with other archetypes.

Consensual play and Walking away

Sadly we have to report there was a report of instances where players were not so respectful of each other’s game and space. We will not be going into detail as these reports were made in confidence and we will be contacting those responsible in due course. We realised that the current Consensual Roleplay guide and Walking away signal were not explicit enough and have made some changes to clear up any ambiguity of the behaviour we expect.

The changes have been highlighted below and they will be something we update across all Carcosa Dreams events.

Consensual role play/space

All role-play should be consensual but that doesn’t mean it has to be pre-planned in most cases.We ask that all participants take extra care when engaging in themes around relationships, whether they be platonic, family or romantic. We expect persons to approach other participants in advance before engaging in close relationships.

Do not insert your character into these interactions without permission of others.As mentioned in the respect policy certain themes and behaviours will not be tolerated and we ask that anyone witnessing them reports it immediately so that we can deal with. As part of this idea around consensual role play all person have the right to walk away from situations they feel uncomfortable or unsafe in without being confronted. In any instance where you feel uncomfortable or unsafe and want to indicate this then please use the following mechanic/prompt so those around can clearly see it.

Walking away

Shade your eyes with your hand and say the following “I’m out.” At this point both parties should stop role playing and allow the participant to leave the scene.If the scene is taking place in the participants off game or in game space then the other parties should immediately leave the area.Note: Where we mean in game space we mean the area around their sleeping area, in game place of work or in game business.This mechanic should never be used for any in character advantage, doing so not only spoils the larp for other but also make a mockery of the system.

The future

It’s far from all negative, in fact most of the feedback received was extremely positive including several of the changes made for this event. Following this feedback you can expect more of the following at events:

Smaller plot lines in play for discovery which are not necessarily connected to the overall theme of the event but help with the feel of the world and its history. Some of these will be on going so we won’t spoil them.

Black box endings. Several characters were given different endings by following some of the more secretive plot routes and sinister player actions. They led to some great story endings which we were happy to facilitate.

Deeper world lore. There were some plots and items out this event which stretched the understanding of the world and how it ended up in its current state. We’ll be including more of this.