RPG streams are doing more horror games as we approach Halloween so it's time to talk about BLEED and decompression again.

When out-of-game emotions and situations affect us in-game, or vice versa, that's bleed. It's a part of table safety that we don't discuss enough. Thread:

My experience with bleed comes from the larp world, where the player-to-character connection is much more immediate than at the gaming table, but the issues are the same. If OOG feelings lead to IG antagonizing, or an IG scene triggers an OOG trauma, that's bleed. Be aware of it.

I see a lot of GMs on here talking about evoking emotions, or how they ran a scene that made players cry OOG, etc. It's one thing to tell a dramatic story and another to try and induce bleed, which a lot of those examples are instances of. GMs may or may not have intended that.

Bleed is a dangerous thing to chase: players may have to relive trauma, boundaries may be pushed or broken, and games can get messy fast. If everyone consents to being scared, get scary (within established boundaries) but don't break trust trying to make people "FEEL" something.

A lot of people in RPGs seem to have the idea that a game is more meaningful (or even superior to other play experiences) if they felt real emotion during play. I've had good emotional games! But they came from mutual trust, rather than someone trying to "punch me in the feels."

Recognizing bleed is difficult but you can help yourself and others be mindful of it by normalizing decompression. Two of my larp co-directors have been developing a system that's worked well for our games. It's effectively larp aftercare, is run by players, and is opt-in.

Our specific game decompression techniques ask players to separate themselves and their characters: what was the game's high/low point for YOU vs. for your CHARACTER? Ex: I might have IG hated a scene where my character lost an important duel, but loved that roleplay moment OOG!

A decompression technique I've used before also asks larp participants to put part of their costume on the ground to represent a transition from an emotional, immersive fictional experience to the real world. RPGs are rich stories but only mean something to those who were there.

My point is that we still have a lot of work to do when it comes to maintaining a safe play environment for our RPGs, and when we put them in front of an audience we have to be especially mindful of the behaviors we're showing others and normalizing in the process.

If you want to learn more about my larp company's policies on safety and harassment, they're available at https://www.attawaylarp.com/safe-play 

You can use them at your own larps and game tables for free with attribution. Several games in our area have adopted them and used them successfully.