Larps that run at The Smoke are required to have comprehensive content warnings, so that prospective participants can form a good idea of whether or not the larp will be suitable for them.

Content warnings should cover any material that may be upsetting to participants. Please don’t be concerned that your content warning is excessive: it is much better for it to be too long than not complete enough.

Content that might require warning could be something described in a character’s past (eg. they once had an abortion), or something that may happen or may be played on during the larp (eg. they are currently pregnant); and it could be relevant to all characters (eg. all are under sentence of death) or only to some of them (eg. one of them has a terminal illness). These different possibilities may affect participants differently. We need your warnings to make clear which of these are applicable. Even if this content is secret from other characters within your larp in general, we still need you to be absolutely transparent in warning about it, so that participants are giving fully informed consent.

(If you do have content that will be relevant only for some characters, then you must give participants the chance to opt away from those characters. Either in advance, with a casting questionnaire; or during your pre-larp workshop, if that’s when characters will be created. And during character creation, participants must have the right of veto for content that they have not been warned about.)

We also need warnings about structural elements of the larp which players may find difficult, eg. “this larp will involve loud noises and flashing lights”, “this larp will require you to go on a simulated date in London with a fellow-participant”. (But we’ll be asking you separately about general accessibility requirements for your larp, so you don’t need to cover that in a content warning.)

Here’s a good example of the kind of content warning that we’re looking for.