Overview: Emotional Safety in Role-playing Communities
Welcome to our unit on Emotional Safety in Role-playing Communities! We have touched upon many of the concepts in this Unit before, but our approach in this course will focus less on game design and more around the community built around the game in terms of emotional safety. We will consider the culture of hardcore in dialectic to cultures of explicit (rather than implicit) consent. We will also read various perspectives on boundary pushing play, including issues of consent, emotional overwhelm, bleed, and alibi.
When reading these texts, consider how the container of the community might be set to try to accommodate a variety of psychological needs with regard to emotional intensity. Also, think about the ways in which the communities within which you started playing treated these topics, as well as attitudes in your current communities (if relevant).
In this Unit, we will cover:
- Diversity and conflict
- Bleedhunting
- Culture of hardcore
- Consent culture
- Triggers, activation, and emotional flooding
- Bleed
- Alibi
Note: Some of the materials below may not be available outside of this course. We are providing them as part of your education within this course. Do not distribute PDFs.
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Required materials:
- Bowman, Sarah Lynne. 2017. “A Matter of Trust: Larp and Consent Culture.” Nordiclarp.org, February 3.
- Nilsen, Elin. 2012. “High on Hell.” In States of Play: Nordic Larp Around the World, edited by Juhana Pettersson, 10-11. Helsinki, Finland: Pohjoismaisen roolipelaamisen seura.
- Content advisory for “High on Hell”: This article includes mentions and descriptions of addiction, incarceration, violence, sexualized violence, dehumanization, verbal and physical abuse, and indoctrination. Please contact your instructor if you need any alternative assignment.
- Pedersen, Troels Ken. “Tears and the New Norm.” Nordiclarp.org, February 13.
- Pedersen, Troels Ken. 2015. “Your Larp’s Only As Safe As Its Safety Culture.” Leaving Mundania, August 4.