There are things players can do to help make events go more easily. I’ve put some of mine below. You pay us to attend our events, and as such you are our customers, but the following would make things easier for me. Most of our players do do most of the things from the following list. I am grateful to each and every one of them.
There are a few things we expect from our players:
Fill in the booking form – especially the dietary and medical needs sections. This helps us with catering and enables us to identify potential issues when we’re planning the game. Also, if you’ve got a dietary need tell the chefs. We will have catered for it, we just can’t remember who you are. While we would ideally hand the right meal to the right person, that’s just not going to happen without prompting.
We quite often don’t want players on site until time in. We try and send them to a pub down the road. This is because we don’t want them to know what we’re doing until they encounter it ic. It does also mean that if you turn up early you’re a pain because you need to do things like changing and going to the toilet and we’ve not taken those things into account. So, warn us if you’ll be early. Ideally talk to other players to arrange to get to the pub, and work out what time we’ve asked your to be on site at.
Help us with take down. This isn’t compulsory, it just makes you the best person ever. Carry bin bags, take down wall hangings, pack boxes, do the washing up. Helping is good. It’s especially useful if you can clear your things to a car fairly quickly. We can start cleaning and shutting down areas a lot faster and hopefully get off site quickly. I would also like to say a special thank you to anyone who after an event does the sweeping, vacuuming or mopping. I really appreciate you. (Also washing up).
Standing around talking is bad during take down. When I’m trying to clear a room and you’re stood around chatting with your mates you’re a bad person. Go outside if you have to talk. Remove yourself from site if it’s not 3am. If it is 3am go and burn the things we don’t want and drink with friends by the fire, go to bed, or go to somewhere that doesn’t require repainting because someone somehow got fake blood on a 20ft high ceiling.
Don’t get blood on a 20ft high ceiling. Actually do. It’s funny. Just expect us to look a little pained when we find out, and please do make sure we know you’ve done it. You may then stand around and make amusing suggestions as we go through nine different types of white paint trying to find the one that matches the ceiling.
Buy in to the game. This makes you have more fun and improves the experience for everyone. Go you! 🙂 We had a wonderful game a few weeks ago that hinged on how well the players bought into it. It was amazing because they were amazing. They ran around in the dark with spaceships on sticks and it was hilarious but it was awesome. They were stage fighting with LRP weapons because they weren’t breaking character and it was amazing because of them. They bought in utterly and it made it so much better.
Give feedback. Good honest feedback helps us work out what was bad and what was good and where to go next.
Bring me lego – this won’t make you a good player, but it will mean I have more lego.
I should probably also mention that small events often can’t offer refunds and lifts from the station that some fest systems can. We balance budgets very carefully and a refund a week before will come out of the organisers pockets. However, we normally find that other players are happy to help with the first, and we’re more than happy for players to sell their tickets on.
(Via: Mandala’s Minion)
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