New to Parlour LARP?

Hello, and welcome to the wiki for The Social Season If you've never played a parlour LARP before, or if you're completely new to roleplaying games, we're very glad you're here! This page aims to give you a quick introduction.

One important thing to be aware of first: you don't need to read this entire website! There's a lot of material here, and you certainly don't need to know all of it to start playing (although if you do want to, that's great!). Read only what interests you, and please reach out to the GM if you want to be pointed to the sections of the wiki which are most relevant to your character ideas. In addition, every player should be familiar with the game's Conduct and Acceptable Themes policy. You will find a guide to sections of the website and what they tell you below.

There is a glossary page, which will explain jargon used on this page and elsewhere on the wiki/in the society. You may also find the Tips for Roleplaying page helpful.

Any questions, concerns, and feedback should be emailed to the GM or shared in your Discord private channel.

A roleplaying game is somewhere between amateur dramatics and collaborative storytelling. You turn up, create a character who you will inhabit, and play them! There are no scripts or lines, no set outcomes to what will happen — just a setting, a bunch of other characters to interact with and a GM (Game Moderator) to make sure it all runs smoothly.

Most importantly: roleplaying is about having fun and creating stories with other players. Absolutely no experience is required to play a game like The Social Season, and there will be plenty of supportive people on hand to help you out if you're confused about any aspect of the game. Turn up and enjoy yourself!

You may be looking into this game expecting a bunch of tables and a chance to use your no-doubt fabulous dice collection. If so, you certainly wouldn't be the first (a lot of our veteran players expected a tabletop before their first games), but Society Games are not tabletops. Instead, they're a roleplaying system where players mill about a room talking in-character to other PCs (Player Characters) and NPCs (Non-Player Characters) to share information and move plot forward.

You also need to look at the CAT (Conduct and Themes) policy before starting a game. The CAT policy will let you know what potentially upsetting topics to expect in the game, and which you should not bring up while playing.

The game consists of a combination of Uptime and Downtime. In Uptime (our term for events happening at in-person sessions) your character attends a gathering in which you play them talking to, and plotting with, other characters, pursuing GM-led story, and making arrangements for Downtime. For more information, see here.

Downtime is our term for any story that happens in between Uptimes in game. In this case, Downtimes represent three in-game months. You will have several out-of-game days to send emails to other players, crew and the GM after each session which represent in-character letters or conversations. Emails are good for interpersonal character moments and for planning, but they are not good for making actions that impact the world as the GM is less able to moderate.

After session, you will have the opportunity to submit a Turnsheet through this wiki, detailing the actions your character takes in Downtime. Turnsheets come in two parts: the Turnsheet submission, which you write to tell the GM what your character does with the time between sessions, and the Turnsheet response. Before the next session, each player receives a Turnsheet response, which is a short piece of writing custom written for your character by the GM. This contains how you got on with your main action last Downtime (during the three in-character months), and forms some starting points for plot going forward into the next session. You can read more about Turnsheets and how they work here.

If you've made it this far, you should be all set to start playing! To sign up, fill in the character creation form by 19:00 on Sunday 19th of July. Details of how to do this are on the Character Creation page. There is also an optional character creation session online on Discord at 19:00 on Wednesday 15th July to discuss through any ideas or concerns you might have. Don't worry if you still have questions – I’m excited to have you playing and always happy to answer any questions. You can contact me (GM Isla) on Discord or via the GM email, gm@season.oxfordlarp.com.