Explicit vs. Implicit

[tetsujin28]

One thing that seems to come up often is the discussion of implicit vs. explicit sexual content in LARPS.

Discuss.

[Ketra]

Do you mean actually having sex vs. say, hanging out in a secluded area for like 5 minutes (and making appropriate sound effects, if you're cursed with that sort of sense of humor)?

[Requiem_17_23]

Our LARP's unwritten social contract says 'keep sexual content implicit, if you must include it at all'. We wish to stay within the bounds of common taste and decency here.

Besides, many of the player characters would be breaking the rules by removing their clothing without also slathering themselves in body paint. And they'd have to keep the masks on.

>_> <_<

What?

[Levi]

Okay, here's my own basic rule.

You're in a space that people can move around pretty freely; they're gonna see whatever you're doing, so don't be doing anything in front of all or some of them of them unless you'd be willing to do it in front of any player in the game entirely alone.

And if that makes you go "well, in front of this one, but not that one", you've hit something to not do.

You want to neck with the pretty girl? Would you be willing to neck with her if it was just the two of you and that one guy in the corner over there in the room, as your audience?

Right.

Now, this is *my* personal rule. Might not work for everyone.

[Ketra]

Most of the LARPs I'm in tend to be pretty heavy on the "game" side, and rather less with the RP, so it's highly unlikely that two people are going to feel compelled to start boinking or necking or hell, even hand-holding because their characters are getting all doey-eyed. (Though, we are blessed with a rather larger multi-room gamespace, so I suppose there's actually more scope for hanky-panky while remaining within Levi's rule of taste.) Explicit sexual behavior would be greeted with choruses of "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?" (Well, maybe not hand-holding. You get the idea.)

Our games also sometimes contain seduction mechanics (which are usually part of a larger info-gathering mechanism, not just there to mess with people's heads. :P). Since it's possible for your PC to get pulled into sexual actions without the player's consent, it's imperative that in these cases the sexual content be abstracted away into something will not be odious to a player.

[Jadasc]

Well, on the explicit front, there are games like Orgia ad Domus Lomaximus (http://interactiveliterature.org/G/Schedule.php?action=25&EventId=65) and The Green Fairy (http://www.vialarp.org/greenfairy/). Restricted areas of game space set are aside for explicit activity, and the name badges indicate on an "A" through "E" scale the level of intensity with which the player is comfortable.

[NERO Aeon]

While I advocate as much roleplaying as possible to represent the scene, this is one area where I truely believe that you should be necking the pretty girl after the game is over.

There are just too many variables in an over-sensitive society such as the one we live in (I'm expressing my views of North America, no Europe which is vastly different). For example, what age is your LARP catering to?

Many NERO Chapters have players as young as 14, and run their game on a large campsite where there are many places to dart off to. Without a 'no sexual contact' rule in place it would be too easy to take advantage of the situation and make NERO a convenient place to larp and make out where your parents wont be the wiser. Whether or not they are wise to whats happening is another debate all together.

[NERO Aeon]

Well, on the explicit front, there are games like Orgia ad Domus Lomaximus (http://interactiveliterature.org/G/Schedule.php?action=25&EventId=65) and The Green Fairy (http://www.vialarp.org/greenfairy/). Restricted areas of game space set are aside for explicit activity, and the name badges indicate on an "A" through "E" scale the level of intensity with which the player is comfortable.

Brings a whole new meaning to "Getting on your A Game." :eek:

[Jadasc]

Brings a whole new meaning to "Getting on your A Game." :eek:

:D Ironically, the "A" badge indicates a person who wants nothing more explicit than, say, handholding and sweet words.

[angelsorayama]

Hmm... I'd have to say that I stand generally by the implicit rather than the explicit.

Of course, I don't consider holding hands or even hugging to be explicit. People getting naked or feeling each other up... that's explicit.

As a storyteller, I don't want to see anyone getting naked or making out... so I don't generally support it in my games.

[invisible_al]

In a public game you really have no idea what people's boundaries are so its best to play it safe, you also have no idea if any 'explict' actions are going to bump into anyone's issues so it really is best to keep anything beyond hand-holding and the occasional hug out of the game.

This also avoids the issues of sexual harassment, no one wants to be sleazed by someone and having very firm boundaries on what is acceptable is one good way of stopping this.

[tetsujin28]

:D Ironically, the "A" badge indicates a person who wants nothing more explicit than, say, handholding and sweet words.Interesting approach, and certainly a cool period for a game.

[Jiituomas]

Interesting approach

The big (by local standards, anyway) Finnish "Wanderer" series of sci-fi larps used a similar approach. Example: at #2, everyone had a code badge that reported their socio-sexual and violoence game limit. That worked rather well - I played a "Patrick Bateman" kind of guy, and, for instance, it was alot easier to spontaneously feel up my colleague's secretary under the table during a business meeting because she was wearing a "HardCore" sign.

I personally have been, for the last 8 or so years, typically using the explicit approach in larps that I write - usually with some restrictions, though. Safe & code words, a strict age limit,, genre-based rules, sheer nastiness. (Of the last type, in our latest game: "feel free to have sex, but you may not come." Which, implicitly, means "if you come, you'll be banned from all of our larps in the future". End result: lots of frustrating dry-humping, which was precisely what the game needed.) An explicit approach - especially in a quite tolerant society like ours - is often more powerful than the more limited version. Not because people actually have intercourse (99,9% of the time they don't, even when it would be allowed), but simply because the potential for it exists. Creating tension where there's actual tension is a lot easier than creating it from scratch.

In reality, as I already wrote on the "teh sexy" thread, you can circumvent most problems by knowing your players and tailoring the material to suit the participants. And it's not usually a major issue, unless you (like I and my co-authors) continuously experiment with using strongly sexual hemes in your larps. And, for the record: I strongly recommend that in places/countries with tighter laws the organizers keep to much more strict rules than we do.