“Consent is critically important.” That’s what the Dystopia Rising Rulebook says about Character versus Character (CvC) conflict (page 159). However, the rulebook doesn’t discuss exactly what consent means, or how to signal, obtain, and confirm it. As consent has to be clear to all people involved, we at Dystopia Rising New York (DRNY) want to talk about how it applies to our game. To begin our three-part series on consent and CvC, we’ll focus on the different groups of people who have to consent to CvC.
Whenever consent comes up at a larp, remember that there are three groups of people who have to consent to an action. This goes not only for CvC but any activity performed at a game. The three groups are the people engaged in CvC, the people watching, and the people running the game.
The People Engaged in CvC
The first, and most obvious, group of people who have to consent to CvC are the people actually fighting each other. Both the attacker and defender must agree to the conflict. Remember - if two people are fighting, and you’re not in the fight… you’re not the people engaged. You can’t barge into the conflict they’ve agreed to and say they have to renegotiate.
The People Watching
Your conflict doesn’t just affect you; it impacts everyone around you. They have to accept the presence of CvC as well. Everyone should have the option of leaving the area and still having meaningful role-play. If you’re in a central location and someone asks you to leave, you should relocate. Another important point: if you’re watching a conflict, and want to get involved, don’t ask the people engaged in conflict to renegotiate their consent. It doesn’t matter if your character’s best friend is about to die… you can’t jump into the scene without consent and change the rules.
The People Running the Game
One group players often forget: the staff have to consent to the sort of CvC you want in the game. They set the rules for a variety of reasons: liability, game play, and consideration of other players. Don’t change the rules without the staff’s consent. For example, we’ve seen people do “friends rules” where they actually fight. However, if someone gets hurt, it’s still the staff’s responsibility. Other examples include limitations on sexual contact that can cause the staff to lose their site. Remember, the staff’s rules are their statements on their consent, and they will not consent to actions they consider unsafe.
As long as all three groups consent to a scene, you can do whatever scenes you want, including CvC. There aren’t hard and fast rules like “always negotiate out-of-character” or “never attack new players;” the only rule is “everyone makes an informed consent decision.” We’ll cover how to do that in larp in Part II.