Mechanics and Safety

This game is intended to be mostly systemless, with just a couple of mechanics to aid in specific situations.
Player safety will be very important, so we will be using several safety techniques.

There will be a workshop before the game to go through all these mechanics.

Combat

Although combat and violence will happen, it's not intended to be the focus of the game. Violence between characters will be resolved using one of two available mechanisms:

Option 1 (Preferred): Participants should OOC negotiate the outcome in advance in order to decide who wins. This can be based on logical parameters such as who has better weapons or the most supporters, or it can simply be a narrative decision regarding what would be most cool and fun for the story. It's entirely up to you!

Option 2 (Backup): If negotiating the outcome doesn't work, then this backup mechanic can be used instead. Every character will have a number between 1 and 5 to represent their combat strength, where 1 is low and 5 is high. Compare the numbers, and the highest wins (or a draw results). Using a weapon will add a point or two to your score.

Note: if you are using the negotiated outcome, the numbers are irrelevant. If you negotiate that the strength 1 character gets a lucky punch on the strength 5 character because that would be awesome for the story, then that is what happens.

Characters cannot be killed until the Saturday afternoon of the game. This is because the guards will break up any fights before fatalities occur (this happens even if the volunteers playing guards are not physically present... just roll with it). Combat prior to this time will result in the loser being knocked out/injured, but they will be able to continue playing the game, and may well bring some tough friends back with them for some payback.

From Saturday afternoon onwards, a riot will occur, and the guards will flee. This means combat becomes more deadly, and the loser can die - however the means and manner of this must be negotiated in order to make the death fun and memorable for the loser.

Prison Riot

During the game, it is intended that tensions will keep rising until a riot breaks out towards the end of the game. There will be some organiser-led plot and audio cues (see below) to help with this.

When the riot happens, all the guards will attempt to flee the area, and the prisoners are free to do absolutely anything they want (within the conduct rules for the game). Want to take hostages? Murder somebody? Raid other wings for contraband? Do as much IC drink/drugs as you want? The solution is a riot.

However, a riot comes with a significant downside - after the riot is over, there will be a brutal crackdown on the prison. Every single person will lose all privileges (mail, commissary, personal visits etc.) for a significant period of time. The instigators will be brutally punished, with solitary confinement, government-mandated torture, increase in prison sentences etc.

While these consequences wouldn’t occur until after the scope of the game, they should still be forefront on the mind of anyone who is looking to start a riot. A successful riot will allow characters to get away with a lot of stuff they wouldn’t otherwise be able to do, but everyone will pay the price afterwards. As such, the riot will only happen when the need is so great that the majority are willing to accept those consequences. This should be a source of debate within the game.

Anyone can start the riot, just by yelling RIOT, RIOT... and see who takes up the call. But anyone calling for a riot too early (ie before Saturday afternoon), may find that support is lacking and they could end up in trouble with the guards.

Tannoy, Music and Audio Cues

There will be some form of amplified communication system, whereby the Warden and guards can make public announcements to the prison as a whole. These announcements will mostly be for IC flavour and plot, and you can react to them however you want. However, certain announcements should be listened out for as they will provide an important audio cue - the LOCKDOWN warning.

At the start of the game, the LOCKDOWN warning will be announced as being 5. This indicates a low security level and thus low tension level inside the prison. As the game goes on, the LOCKDOWN warning will count down to 1, which is highest security and highest tension level.

These cues serve two purposes - one is to guide you into escalating the tension level throughout the game. Your character sheet will continue some suggestions of increasingly vicious things you could do at each LOCKDOWN level. The guards will also get more ruthless as the LOCKDOWN level decreases. The second purpose is to announce when you can start calling for a riot - at LOCKDOWN level 1, which will be on the Saturday afternoon.

(Accessibility note: For any players who are hard of hearing or generally struggling to hear the audio cues, we will use an alternate mechanism to make you aware of the LOCKDOWN warning (We'll try to have some kind of visual cue as well, or otherwise simply tell you in person). Please let us know if this is an issue for you, even if you only discover it to be a problem during the game, so we can accommodate it.)

One of the communal rooms will have some sort of music player with a variety of playlists of different genres. If your character wants to relax with some music or enjoy a bit of dancing, this is the place to go. Who controls the music player and what's playing on it is an entirely IC problem to solve. No amplified music is allowed anywhere else (including in the cells) as the noise pollution will quickly become unbearable for many people.

Intimacy and Sex

Players will have a ribbon or badge to display on their costume if they want to opt in to intimacy play. If they are not wearing this, then do not initiate intimacy play with them. Remember that even with a ribbon, all intimacy and sex play must be enthusiastically consented to by all participants, both IC and OC. There is to be no form of non-consensual sex in the game - all characters must be as willing as the players.

To simulate sexual encounters, we’ll use a simple system (thanks to David Proctor for this). This mechanic aims to present a safe way for players to show that their characters are getting intimate, while adding potential for gossip about who's doing it with who to spread around the prison and potentially cause trouble. The mechanic is as follows:

Players of characters engaging in heavy intimacy or sexual acts should stand or sit near each other and optionally make light contact with each other. If anyone walks by close enough to see what's happening, immediately break off contact, act surprised/annoyed at the interruption, and loudly say "Do you MIND?". This conveys to the witness that they saw you in intimate acts and roleplay can continue accordingly. Spreading gossip is highly encouraged!

Code of Conduct / Safety

Due to the intense nature of the game setting, nature and location, we will be taking player safety extremely seriously.

This is a game where characters will be horrible to each other. Players are expected to keep safety in mind at all times and to remember that there are other players behind the characters.

We will use the following safety techniques - all players and volunteer guards are encouraged to use these often.

OK Check - To silently check in with another player at any time, make the OK symbol with your hand.

They can respond with one of the following:

Thumb up: They are fine and play can continue.
Thumb horizontal: They are feeling a bit unsure, and calibration may be needed.
Thumb down: They are not fine - Stop play and find out what they need (maybe just a change of direction, maybe just a quiet break, maybe help from an organiser)

Traffic Lights - To verbally express discomfort

At any time, a player can say one of the following words to communicate how they are feeling:

"Green" - I'm fine and having fun, let's continue. Useful in particularly tense situations where you just want to reassure other players that all is good.
"Orange" or "Amber" - I'm feeling a bit unsure about this. Let's calibrate.
"Red" - I want to stop right now. Play should halt immediately until the situation can be resolved (may be the uncomfortable player just leaving the scene, or recalibration needed etc.).

Note: These words should be stated clearly, and not hidden in IC chat where they could be easily missed. (Ie, don't say 'This pie is making me feel ever so green'. Just say 'GREEN' clearly on its own.

Escalation/De-Escalation - Is a scene getting too tense, and you want to reel it down without breaking immersion? Or the vice versa - you want more tension and drama from the scene? These phrases can be used to communicate your desires.

"Enough, already!" - This is an order. If a player says this, then you must try to lower the tension level, particularly if they are being subject to IC bullying, harassment or violence. If they say it again, then stop completely and move on to something else.
"Is that all you've got?" - If a player says this, they are inviting you to ramp things up and get more intense. It's an invitation rather than an order, so it's up to you how you respond, but see what you can do within your own comfort level.

Remember - all these techniques can be used with and by the NPC guards as well as with other players. Try to use them often to create a safe play space for everyone.

Other conduct rules

Play generously. Try to involve people in the game, don’t cut them out. Playing to lose will be a good strategy for this game.

Despite the prison setting, there will be NO sexual assault, sexual violence or sexual harassment of any kind during the game. There is also to be no play on gender identity of other players (eg sexism, misogony or transphobia). We will have a zero tolerance approach to this – if you break this rule, you will be kicked out of the game and off the site immediately. No refunds will be available. Just don’t go there at all.

By the time of the future depicted in the game, discrimination based on characteristics such as gender, race, sexuality and disability are very much a thing of the past. As such, there is to be absolutely no such discrimination or bigotry based on these types of things in the game. Believe me, you’ll have plenty of fictional stuff to be awful to each other over without needing to use real life characteristics (see below for more information on this).

Physical contact and intimacy must be opted into with an enthusiastic YES! Use of phrases like 'Maybe' or 'Uh, okay' won't cut it. Only a YES will do. This rules applies both during the game and out of it (eg at the afterparty).

If you need to touch another player's bunk space (eg to search for contraband), you must NOT touch their personal things or bedding. Each IC bunk or cell will come with a small box for hidden IC objects. If you declare you are searching their bunk/cell, roleplay it for a while without touching anything, and then check this box to see if you find anything. In reverse, please don't violate this agreement by hiding IC objects among your personal things! If you just want to sit on someone else's bunk while talking etc, then you must get permission from that bunk's owner first.

Safety Area and Support

There will be a designated safety area/quiet room away from the rest of the game. Players will be able to use this room at any time if they need to get away from the game for a bit. An experienced volunteer will be available for mental/emotional support.

Bullying and Harassment

LOCKDOWN is intended to be a completely safe OOC experience for everybody. As such, there is to be absolutely no bullying and harassment based on any real life characteristics. This includes race, religion, gender, gender presentation and identity, sexuality, disability, body shape/size and more. If it's a real life trait of the player, then you are not allowed to give anybody grief about it in game, or indeed on site, or in any real or virtual spaces associated with the game (eg faction Facebook groups). Doing so will get you kicked out straight away. We don't want people like that.

However, we do want bullying and harassment to be a part of the game as it is fundamental to prison culture. So, here's how we are going to do that without bringing real life traits into it.

Every character will be assigned certain completely fictional traits appropriate to the setting. These include:

Your

Your status within the society
The city/neighbourhood you are from
What school you went to
The religion you belong to
What sports team you support
Which political party do you belong to, and whether you support the regime or are against it.

Players are encouraged to make these allegiances known, either through talking about them, or displaying symbols of them on your uniform or in your cell (we will provide guidance on symbols and colours nearer the time).

And so, bullying people or harassing them based on these completely fictional traits is completely fair game. Of course, you may want to be careful with who you target - giving the mob boss grief about her favourite sports team may go poorly for you.

Be aware that characters of the Outcasts faction are designed specifically with bullying in mind, and it can be assumed that players who choose to play those characters are keen to opt in to suffering in this way (until they use a safety technique), so give them that game if you can.

Remember, even though the traits are fictional, all bullying and harassment must be in line with the safety rules and code of conduct, and please bear in mind the safety techniques, particularly for escalation and de-escalation.

Workshops

There will be several workshops about the game on the Thursday evening after arrival. These will include:

Combat and Mechanics
Safety
Setting/Lore
Relations
A special one for faction leaders.