At The Time In

Here’s what you can expect when you show up at a game.

“Time in” is the term used to describe the period of time when the game is ‘live’ and players are playing their characters. During this time you are expected to look, speak and behave entirely “in-character” (also referred to as IC, as opposed to Out Of Character or OOC). We aim to time in around 7pm, and time out between 10:30 and 11pm. We’d ask that players aim to be at the venue at least half an hour beforehand, longer if you know you’re going to need help with a character, or anything that’s likely to take much of the refs time.

Rules During Time In

• Refs: If you are given an instruction by a ref, follow it. This is a catch all rule, as much for saftey reasons as anything else. Obviously instructions like “You, go to the bar and buy me beer.” are not really legitimate instructions. (Although, if you’re buying…)
• No fighting: In the event that in-character violence occurs during a time in, you’ll first need to work out the exactly what happens with a ref, and which point the players can mime as much or as little of what other people would see as they are comfortable with. Anyone being physically aggressive in any way during a time in will be asked to leave.
• Out of character remarks: Try and keep these to a minimum. There may be times when you need to ask about player, or a ref, for information, and that’s fine - preface your question with something like “Sorry, quick out-of-character question”, find out what you need to know, then continue with your in-character conversation. There is a designated out-of-character area - if you need to have a lengthy bout of character conversion with someone, please do so there so as not to disrupt other people’s in character experience.
• Hand signals: There are a number of hand signals that can get used to indicate the use of various powers. The refs will run through these prior to time in, but if someone is making a gesture you don’t understand, just ask them what it means.
• Time stop: If one of the refs yells “Time Stop” then stop what you’re doing, listen to them, follow their instructions, and then, if/when instructed to do so, time back in and react to whatever the ref has just told you is happening as your character would.
• Cost: Your first game is free. After that, we ask that you chip in toward venue hire - it costs us 50 quid a time for the room we use, and we try to split the cost evenly between all the players and refs, but you won’t be asked for more than a fiver, even if there are less than ten people present.
• Drinking: The game takes place in a pub, and we want them to like us, and let us keep using the facilities, so please, do try and buy a drink or two if your budget will stretch to it. That said, while we’re not going to dictate what is a matter of personal responsibility, we would prefer it if you didn’t turn up and get drunk - even if it doesn’t spoil your gaming experience, it may spoil other peoples’. Buying soft drinks is an excellent option.

Costume

You should wear clothing that is appropriate to your character. When in Time In the clothes you are wearing are the clothes your character wears. Similarly if your character has a scar, is deformed (Nosterfatu and Tsimisze particularly) it is important that this is represented by make-up etc. Effort put into this really enhances the experience and mood for everyone.

The game is set in the present day, so it is perfectly possible to come with costumes out of your own wardrode, but we do encourage people to think about their character’s mindset, and how they would dress. A stuffy lawyer with a century of formality behind him is as unlikely to dress in ripped jeans and an old t-shirt as a 21 year old former gang member is to wear a suit. Which isn’t to say that there couldn’t be reasons for either, but if you dress in a way that’s at odds with your character background, there really ought to be a reason. There are plenty of second hand shops in London where you can pick up excellent costume items cheaply.

Particularly good costumes may receive a small amount extra XP in consideration of the effort the player has put in, and conversely, someone who consistently dresses inappropriately is likely to find they will lose out on a small amount of XP.

Props

If your character owns any unusual items that you think may be relevant or useful - jewelery, mystic items, books and so on, you’ll need to bring along something appropriate to physically represent them. It doesn’t have to be a perfect copy, just something that looks a bit like the thing in question.

Weapons

There are a couple of extra rules that apply to people who want their characters to carry weapons.

• Absolutely no real weapons. Period. Guns should be toy guns (and should look like it - please do not bring anything that could possibly be mistaken for anything other than a toy - think brightly coloured plastic, please), and any melee weapons should be LARP-safe - made of foam rubber. This also applies to “magical objects” like ritual wands/knives/staves. Nothing real.
• If the refs haven’t seen it and approved it as safe, your character is not carrying it. It’s that simple. We don’t care how self-evidently safe an item is, we still need to see it and OK it. Anything not approved by a ref must be put in the out-of-character area and not used.