How to Keep It In-Play in Thought, Word, and Deed
It is paramount to successfully achieving a believable fantasy world that everyone contributes to the effort. First and foremost, role-play is the name of the game. Literally. Take everything said in-play as your character would. If your best friend (out-of-play) is playing a malicious character and calls your innocent character a whoreson, take it in-play. Don’t be upset at your friend on an out-of-play level. Likewise, if he murders you and steals your stuff, don’t take it out on him out-of-play. If you find out about it, take your revenge in-play. Some of the best interactions are between out-of-play friends who are in-play enemies. These same principles also apply to people that you don’t know out-of-play. On the subject of friends, try to remember that if your friend plays a new character, your old character probably doesn’t know him, so don’t walk over and give him all of your Experience Tags and loot as soon as you see him. Unless, of course, your character does the same thing with all newcomers.

An important point to address here is what information you can know and use in-play as your character that another person tells you out-of-play. The simple answer is: everything. If your buddy tells you out-of-play how much fun it was to murder another character, you may take that as his character telling your character how much fun it was to kill someone. If you and your friends make a pact to not take things in-play, that’s fine. However, no game representative will enforce these promises. If your friends decide to take something in-play after they promised not to, you must deal with the consequences. Every actor likes to boast or gush about what their character learned or did, but the goal of this rule is to minimize boasting or gushing on an out-of-play level. This is because information learned out-of-play is hard to forget in-play, especially if it pertains to your character. It also ruins the unique joy of discovering a secret in-play that your character worked hard to learn.

A huge issue that most actors forget to do is to forget 95% of what you know out-of-play. This includes everything, whether it is about the game or not. For example, your character is very familiar with “rule by might” types of governments, which run their lands either through strength of arms or money. Democracy is a very foreign concept in our world. Your character would likely have never even heard the term, and if someone explained the theory to your character, your in-play reaction would likely be to laugh in their face at the absurdity of it. This same concept applies to anything above a fifth grade level, for the most part. For example, your character won’t be calculating the trajectory of a throwing knife taking into account the wind speed/direction. Your character would probably be able to figure it out by throwing it and adjusting his aim, however. In essence, your character has knowledge of things, but only in a practical way. Another common thing to keep in mind is how hard travel generally is. It takes not only hard work and money to travel through the wilds, but also a lot of courage to brave vicious animals and bands of highway men. Most people generally do not travel more than 10 or 12 miles from where they were born. However, feel free to take some liberties with these guidelines. Adventurers do tend to travel more than the average person; alchemists by profession must know some chemistry, etc.

Your character has been hunting down goblins for hours, pursuing them far into the forest to eradicate every last one of the vermin. Finally, sweating under your armor, you corner the last one. The goblin stands just out of reach, mocking your character, “Dude, you’re a wuss, and your mom’s trailer-trash!” Suddenly, you’re just an actor facing another actor in the woods. This is a perfect example of the power of language. It can immerse you further into the game world or it can easily rip the fantasy away. Modern language whether used as insults or not, is frowned upon. If in doubt as to whether a word or phrase is too modern, don’t use it. Some actors are okay with some words but not others. For example, your group of friends may be okay with the word awesome. Some others may consider it too modern. Please try to respect other actors’ wishes in this area. The game, however, will never enforce true historical accuracy in speech. Actors will never be punished for not saying “thee” and “thou.” Actors may be subject to disciplinary action if they constantly disrupt the game atmosphere with modern word usage.

Costuming is a big part of making the game world real. Actors have a responsibility to look like their character would if he or she were real. If an actor cannot make or acquire minimal costuming within three events in which they play a character, they will be asked to not return until they have basic costuming. Some things that will not be tolerated after the grace period include: sneakers, jeans, sunglasses, goggles, anything with a modern print (bandanas with flaming skulls, sweatshirts with your fraternity’s letters, etc.), plastic clothes (such as pvc and latex), and other things that common sense dictates is wrong in a medieval fantasy setting. Any clothing from any culture from any period is acceptable up until the Victorian Era. The Victorian Era-style clothing is the cut off because it is simply too modern for our setting. As a side note: this is not a steam-punk world. Do not wear watches, gears, or steam engines. That said, go nuts with your costuming! Wear what feels right for your character. If he was raised by wolves, a pair of ragged leggings may be enough. If she is a wandering knight, then some battered armor may be the centerpiece. If he’s a shady mercenary, then perhaps some dark voluminous clothes to conceal hidden weapons with a bright slip of cloth tied to his belt to declare his current loyalty. What you wear is the best description of who and what your character is.

How you think is not what your character thinks, ever. (Unless, of course, you’re plagued by goblins in the real world, too.) While your character may have similar morals and ideas as you do out-of-play, you are not the same person. Try to immerse yourself into the fantasy world. While you’re putting on your costuming and make-up on Friday night, review your character’s history. Go over what events helped define them, what they hate, what they love, what they hope to achieve that night, what they hope to achieve in their life, and so on. If you play a barbarian, then your character’s answer to most problems will probably be to smash something or someone, even though you know out-of-play that attacking that two-headed giant is probably a bad idea. The further you are able to throw yourself into your character, the more fun you will have playing them.