Stage Managers (Refs)

 

If you see someone all in black, with a radio headset and possibly a clipboard - no you don’t. Stage managers are not there in-character, but are there to help the game run (or for you to approach with any out-of-character issues/concerns).

 

At other times, you may see someone with a finger/hand in the air to indicate that they are not there in-character, or with a fist on their head, to indicate that they are there in-character, but they are invisible - you can physically bump into them and hear them, but you cannot see them. Stage managers do not need to use hand signals to count as not-there-in-character.

 

Only Stage Managers can use the following calls:

• “Time In” - initiating/continuing the roleplay

• “Time Freeze” - pause the game briefly - this may be to allow something to be magical represented that cannot be done via normal means, or it may be for safety reasons, such as needing to move combat to a less hazardous terrain. Roleplay will only continue when a Stage Manager calls “Time In” again.

• “Time Out” - ending the roleplay for the day (either until “Time In” again the next morning, or forever at the end of the game!)

• “Drop” - if you hear this call, you must immediately stop what you’re doing and fall to the ground, as if you are on 0HP, at which point the Stage Manager will brief you - it might be called for safety reasons, or it might be because you have triggered an unavoidable magical trap - this is an OC ref call and cannot be resisted or ignored in any way.

• “...And Scene” - this ref call indicates the definitive end of the previous encounter - all MP and HP (if above 0HP) are refreshed to maximum.

Stage Managers are also there to facilitate Sonnets/Alchemy, Monologues, Masques and Using Quills.