CoW18: With great power comes great responsibility…

I played the Janitor at CoW18. I’ve frothed about it over here.

Specifically, I said it was; “In charge of recording and collating points awarded in the House Trophy competition; of maintaining 100% accurate IC paperwork; and of maintaining order amongst a community of characters built to rail against authority.”

This is more how I thought about it going in, and some bits of advice that might be of interest if you ever end up being Janitor yourself.

Your duties…

The Janitor gets their own page in the Design Doc.

What I got from that is: you are pivotal. Not necessarily important, but pivotal. I didn’t expect to be the centre of attention in the way a prefect or professor would be, but I did expect to be relied on off-game like they are. Game function with sufficient character to be part of the game, as opposed to an off-game element. Which is spot on to my home turf, larp-wise, and it follows that it affected what I did and how I designed my character.

There’s an element of “Play to lift” about it, this on playing staff at a CoW is worth a look, and a load of useful reading in Nordic Larp wiki’s “Creating play in the magical classroom.”

If you like that kind of style, it’s an awesome role.

The Game Design document gives the Janitor three roles:

You introduce the Juniors to the College

One of your duties is gathering all the Juniors just after the Headmaster’s welcoming speech, and giving them an introduction to the school. This means explaining to them where they can go and where they can’t (The Dark Forest, The Teachers’ Lounge and the secret passages) and that curfew is at midnight. It’s also you who must explain to the new students that use of offensive magic is strictly forbidden without Professor supervision.

College of Wizardry, Design Doc, p26

I’d have been lousy at this without help. The speech bit was fine; I knew my rules, I’m fine speaking to a crowd, and I had enough of a character that it was Mr Collins speaking, not Harry. However, I had no clue about the layout or geography of the castle. So I asked Liselle to lead, she was at the front all along, and took us to places I had little idea even existed. Without her, there’d have been a lot of lost students…

If you’re Janitor, and you don’t know your way round, make sure you make time to understand the layout of the castle. That sounds obvious, but I didn’t do it. An extra night there before the event would have helped. 

You are the President-for-Life of the Basement Beer Brigade

Since 1974 the Janitor has been the formal leader of this unofficial club of Czocha. As the Jantior, it’s up to you to decide which direction you want to take the BBB in. Maybe it’s just a cozy social club, or maybe it’s the cover for dark and sinister activities. That’s completely up to you and the other members of the BBB!

College of Wizardry, Design Doc, p26

This one, I’m afraid I just ducked. Before the event, my intention was to use the Basement Beer Brigade as a source of snitches. Or as I wrote at the time:

• The Basement Beer Brigade on the other hand….
• …of course, we all know the BBB is merely a harmless social gathering…
• …who the Janitor will be encouraging to betray their friends and colleagues for fun and House Points.

At the event itself the event took over, and I simply didn’t get round to it. The basement seemed a long way away from a source of beer, and I had rules to uphold and corridors to stomp up and down. It didn’t help that I’d decided not to drink at all during the larp. I wanted my wits about me to deliver a better performance.

If I were there again, I’d either forcibly delegate the BBB to a player who was more into it than I, or move it to the Tavern and be louder about calling in regularly.

You are in charge of the Big Book of Points

One of your tasks is to take the points noted by the Professors into The Big Book of Points, and transfer them into the large points glasses outside the Teachers’ Lounge. The way this is done is simple. You simply add together the points noted in the book and pour the appropriate amount of water into the glasses, then clearly mark the spot in the Book of Points, so you start your point count from there next time. We’ll show you how!

College of Wizardry, Design Doc, p26

This was my role, and rules were my game.

The actual mechanical job of keeping track is relatively trivial. The Big Book Of Points lives in the staff room. (Which I pretentiously referred to as the Senior Common Room, because that’s what it was called where I went to college…)

You might get a reporting in on Thursday evening, you might not. It’s likely to be unrepresentative of the rest of the event, which is neat for the House that gets an unexpected early lead.

The main business starts Friday morning. After every lesson a trail of professors drips back in, shattered like veterans on the retreat from Moscow, and records their point awards. Some are positive: “1 pt to Faust for academic excellence”. Some negative “1 pt from Durentius for disrespect to the professor”.

Every break time, once they’ve done their points recording, sunk back into the silence of their chairs, and the hipflasks are out, you take the book down to the Dziobak room.

There you report in, read out all the new points scores and bring a little sunshine into the Dziobak’s lives by reading out the reasons for scores.

I wish I’d remembered to record the funnier justifications for points awards; some of them were ace. A regular reason at CoW18 was “Because: Tuuk” after a character who became known as the Prince of Pranks.

They enter them into a nice, regularly backed-up, spreadsheet which does some maths. Then you mark the scores you’ve recorded as having been recorded, and write down the new house totals.

Then you go to the water-powered House Point Recording Device, and fill each of the House totals to something that looks like the right levels.

There’s no fine graduation on the Device, for good reason: different runs have different totals, as different Senior Common Rooms are more or less generous. There are four big circles marked, and in my short experience, if the leader on the first recording is about half way up the first of those – you’ll be fine.

I found it reassuring to get a passer-by to tell you the order of the Houses when you were done, just to check your water levels, particularly between houses who were close in score.

….and I amused myself by doing the recording badly at first, and slowly, so by the time I’d finished, I had a small crowd. That was a bit of character-play, of course. Yours will be different.

The important thing, I think, is to have an up to date report every time the Head does their announcements. It’s the heartbeat of the school day, and people cheer.

You might need to brief the staff about Juniors – although I think mine knew. Juniors who’ve gained or lost points get their own, named, tally which they take to their new house when they get sorted.

I did a recording run every break, and once an evening, maybe half a dozen times per day in all? Partly because it’s reassuring to get the points recorded somewhere other than the single, easily stealable Book. But mainly because I enjoyed the little ritual of the Device.

The crucial recording comes late Saturday evening, at 9.30pm, from memory. I think we told staff that if they didn’t have their reports by 9pm, they’d not be counted, we had a rush at 9ish, and then flexed a bit.

I do remember writing the two points last scored in, although I may be wrong about the details: from memory “1pt from Durentius, Because: Tuuk” and “1pt to Durentius because of assistance given to the Janitor in recording points.”

Either way, at 11pm, we knew exactly what the records were, so I could tell the Head, and they could tell the college who had to make Losing Speeches.

What they don’t say…

That’s a lot of words on the mechanics. It’s the formal bit, the bits you have to do. If you don’t intend to do the job of keeping scores, and do it the level best you can – don’t play Janitor. Don’t *worry*, it’s not hard, but you do have to do the scores right.

However. It’s not necessarily your *game*.

No-one tells you this. It’s not in the design document. Hell, it might not even be true, I’ve not actually checked… But there’s more to Janitoring…

And more than I did too. I wish I’d made time to teach an off-curriculum lesson, for example. Wish I’d got a “Breakfast Club” organised. Heigh-ho.

You get to set the tone…

Well, a bit. The Head *really* gets to set the tone, but you do a fair chunk of it.

My tone was “In game grumpy.”

I felt – still do – that a large proportion of the players at CoW would want to rebel against authority, so they’d need an authority to rebel against, and at CoW18, that was me. Not just me, of course, but I felt someone was going to be the most visible focus of this, and that was going to be me. I know different Janitors will and should have their own take on this, but that was mine. I explained ahead of the game that while I wasn’t in the game to make The Rules unbreakable, or an impediment to folk enjoying their event, In Game, for Collins, rules would be a very serious business.

“The Janitor will ruthlessly chase down rulebreakers.” I promised, while explaining: “OG, actually, not so much. OG, the janitor isn’t really a chasing kind of guy, and he’ll probably not catch anyone except by complete coincidence.” So if a player wanted to clash with authority, I was there to be clashed with, if they didn’t, I was easily and intentionally avoided. There’s no way this’d fit every style of event, but I think this fits the CoW sandbox/collaborative style.

In the end I was somewhat overtaken as “Unpopular authority figure” by the Head Guardian who had the extremely popular Head arrested and took on his role for a chunk of Saturday. Best laid plans…

I left plenty of room for others to grab some sweet, sweet authority figure game: discipline during class was handled entirely by Professors, with free rein to enforce any or all College Rules and/or other rules and/or regulations of their devising. And then there was the prefects, who enforced curfew.

That all seemed to go OK.

Some stuff didn’t work out right the way I expected. I actually said: “Accusations of rule breaking outside of class will be accepted or not by the Janitor on their decision of the Evidence, such as it is.”. I’d not be so pompous if I were Janitor again

“No trials.” is almost invariably good advice at a larp. But saying “Accusations of rule breaking outside of class will be actually judged by the headmaster. No-one will be taken to find the headmaster, that’d just get in the way of their game. The headmaster’s office will be open for the judging of accusations at specific times of the day. No judging will happen at other times.” – even with the Head’s agreement – well, that was too much. Never happened, nor did it need to.

I also said “Avoiding judgement may result in a House Point fine, actually being judged and adjudged worthy of Punishment might also do so, but punishment should also include OG fun/IG horrible tasks like clearing goblins out of the basement of the north tower, boggarts out of a specific wood, a ghost out of the ritual room etc. Punishments can always be done on Monday.” I guess that *did* work out, but I wish I’d spent a bit more time working on punishments ahead of time. I think we had one actual detention, and Liselle had my back on that again, and ran it for me.

You get to set the rules…

No-one stops you.

Or at least, no-one stopped me, which I guess is the logical extension of the CoW sandbox style. Next time, I’d definitely start thinking hard about rules earlier. Some of those were a bit limp in play and would have benefitted from more hammering at in the Staff and Prefects group ahead of time. 

I did some pre-planning, with a series of Facebook posts called “30 rules in 30 days.” On the first of those, I explained how I felt about this bit of the game. On subsequent days, I expanded on that. On every day, I justified the rule of the day and why it was in. Well, that was the goal. As it was I got my counting a bit out, and rushed some of the posts out with little or no justification, but there it is… Most of them got some reaction, some got some useful explanation. For example, it turns out the meaning of Rule 7 “Don’t take the piss“, is both mostly unknown outside of the UK, and Australia of all places, and a bit of larp jargon that was common knowledge in the off-game room. I’m so proud…

“I’m playing the Janitor this run, and as well as the two things I Must Do, I’ve been thinking about how to work with the College Rules.

Professors will have their own rules in class, but I thought folk might find it useful to have a list of college rules ahead of the game, so they could know what to break. Or what not to. Or what to snitch on their classmates or enemies for breaking.

If you want a particular rule on the list, or there’s things you don’t like in a CoW college rule, then please comment. I’m going to try and publish one rule a day from now until the event.

I love the new curfew rule, I think it makes game for those who want it, and you’re unlikely to break it by accident or without actively choosing to, so it’s my rule 1.”

Me, on the CoW18: Overall group

My College rules weren’t laws, which was convenient given I’m not a lawyer. Laws are meant to be unambiguous and clear. Rules are meant to be roleplayed about, and to a variable degree, these were. I couldn’t swear which rule was broken most often, but rule 8 was talked about a lot.

I did wonder ahead of time how many was the “right” number. CoW14 had 161, plus all the sub-clauses was probably over 200, which they had on one big scroll. I wish I’d seen it. However, they had an in-game reason for that. I was just aiming at a practical number: Enough to look good on a wall, enough for me to remember. Thirty “felt” like that number, it certainly looks like a good number when you post them on the wall.

The new curfew rule cited above came from the prefect group, and is a good example of how I did it. Rules came from all over the place, some from professors, some from previous runs, (Specifically the big CoW14 scroll when – I think John Shockley was Janitor, via Liselle and from Nibelungen 2 via – I think – Stephanie.) and some from individual professors based on what they intended to do in their own lessons.

College rules, as of the start of CoW18…

The rules formatted vaguely in character are here. That last I used to print out some booklets for the rest of the staff and prefects, and also in single page per rule format to stick up in the Great Hall.

The 30 I started the game with is as follows:

1. Curfew: students are not permitted in specific areas of the College after midnight.
   1. These areas are the classrooms, the forest, and the dungeon.
   2. This list may be subject to change.
   3. Students holding a legitimate hall pass are permitted access to forbidden areas named on it.
2. Students are not permitted access to the castle’s secret passages at any time.
3. Juniors are not permitted in the dark forest at any time.
   1. Except as part of a specific program of study under supervision of a professor
4. The wearing of college robes and house tie is mandatory at all times
   1. Does not apply during students’ “free time”
   2. Does not apply during swimming lessons
5. The possession of paper and a writing implement is mandatory at all times during the school day.
   1. Does not apply during swimming lessons
6. Using dangerous spells is not permitted
   1. Except as part of a specific program of study under supervision of a professor
7. Don’t take the piss
8. Inappropriate relationships between staff and students are not permitted
9. All students should be easily identified when they are present at the college or participating in college activities or excursions.
   1. It is not permitted to impersonate or otherwise pretend to be a professor or prefect at any time
10. All students are required to keep track of the school rules
11. Flight over and in the College is strictly prohibited.
12. The theft of confiscated items from the care of the Professors  is strictly prohibited.
13. The introduction of  magical creatures and plants into the college is not permitted
    1. Except when specifically approved by a Professor.
14. The imitation of wolf or werewolf howls on full moon nights is not permitted.
15. The simulation of attacks on the castle is permitted in the course of teaching Magical Defense
    1. The school management and the Head Guardian must be informed of any simulated attack before it commences.
16. Carrying dangerous reagents and other magic items within school grounds is not permitted without permission from a Professor.
    1. The carrying of  wands is mandatory
    2. The carrying of healing potions and medical necessities is permitted
    3. The carrying of reagents relevant to lessons is permitted while going to and from those classes
    4. Love potions are considered dangerous reagents without exception.
17. Staff  are not permitted to purchase drinks for more than three students at any  one time
18. The poisoning of students is not permitted.
    1. Students are permitted to be poisonous
    2. The eating of students is not permitted
19. Fireball is not to be practiced inside of the alchemy lab
    1. the use of magic when cleaning or repairing alchemical equipment as a punishment is not permitted.
20. Bringing harm to the following magical creatures or plants, those considered considered endangered in the Conflux is not permitted
    1. Dryads
    2. Eagles descended from Rocs
    3. Etruscan Stone Minotaurs
    4. Gryphons of non-European origin, including Akkadian, Arimaspian, and Syrian
    5. Jackalopes (Except for Bavarian Jackalopes and Skvader-Jackalope hybrids)
    6. Lamassus actively guarding a specific location
    7. Male Sirens
    8. Reindeer
    9. Unicorns (harming a Royal Unicorn will additionally result in persecution by the Guardian Order.)
21. Bringing harm to  werewolves is not permitted at any time
    1. With the exception of werewolves posing an active threat to a member of the student body
    2. The registration of werecreatures  with college authorities is mandatory.
22. Bringing harm to the goblins of the Czocha Conflux is not permitted
    1. “Harm” includes forcing them to relive or otherwise remember the Witchard/Goblin Wars
23. Any person, spirit, or entity, of whatsoany sort introduced into the College as a guest or otherwise by invitation or summoning by a student at the  College shall be subject to the relevant rules applicable to the student, and that student shall bear full and entire responsibility for their conduct.
24. The consumption of magical creatures outside the classroom is strictly prohibited.
25. As a consequence of  their customary duties, Prefects are granted additional rights and privileges
    1. Prefects are permitted port and cheese during conflux studies lessons.
    2. Prefects are permitted to graze sheep on the college green.
26. Members of the book club are permitted to carry swords within the college grounds.
27. Students who miss 13 consecutive classes without permission from the headmaster will be expelled.
    1. Attendance at class whilst on the ethereal plane does not fulfil the requirement for attendance.
    2. Attendance at class whilst invisible does not fulfil the requirement for attendance
28. Passing off another student’s work as your own is not permitted.
29. Students must greet professors in an appropriate fashion
    1. Students carrying books or other educational material are excused from this obligation.
    2. Students who are late for class are excused from this obligation.
30. The Codified Traditions of the Treaty of Avalon are incorporated whole and entire into college rules.
    1. The Tradition of Word, you shall not speak of magic to the Mundane.
    2. The Tradition of Action, you shall not practice magic with the knowledge of the Mundane.
    3. The Tradition of the Bound, you shall not practice the arts of Demonology, Necromancy, or Chronomancy.
    4. The Tradition of the Domain, you shall not seek to usurp the legitimate government of a Conflux.
    5. The Tradition of the Lock, you shall have your magic sealed away if you break these Traditions.
    6. The Tradition of the Key, you shall be entitled to practice magic no matter your family.
    7. The Tradition of Gold, you shall not influence the Mundane economy with your magic.
    8. The Tradition of Iron, you shall not seek to deceive others into believing that you are a Guardian
    9. The Tradition of the Whisper, you shall allow none to break the Traditions knowingly, lest you be punished.
    10. The Tradition of the Barrens, you shall submit to the Guardian Order itself if caught outside of any Conflux.

In game, rules got added…

I definitely added 6 new rules, but the documents and the notes I made them from… All lost. One was the result of a student petition: the imprisonment of pixies was forbidden, much against Collins’ advice.

I’d said ahead of the game: “Rule amendments may be suggested which add, remove or modify any rule of part thereof, by petition from either senior common room or student body, or any properly constituted part thereof. The headmaster’s decision on amendments is final.” However badly worded, that approach seemed to work.

I enjoyed posting new rules up, I’m pretty sure people liked watching, and absolutely sure those involved enjoyed the new rule that got made by student action.

“No capering in the corridors”
“The imprisonment of pixies is forbidden”

…and four more.

More crowdsourced rules…

I’ve dropped a document on Google Drive: the rules I ended up with and any sources I used that I can still find are here.

I had a shedload of rules ready to add if I felt the need, the result of some asking around late on. I don’t think I actually mentioned these in game, and reading back think some of them are better than the rules I actually published, but there it is.

1. Wearing items of clothing, jewelry, or insignia from a house other than a student’s own is not permitted without permission from:
   1. The Headmaster or Janitor
   2. A prefect of the house the item represents
   3. Students who have permission to wear three or more orphaned items from the same house or more than one item from two or more houses other than their own must inform the Janitor.
2. Any pupil caught cheating in exams will be expelled.
   1. Any pupil not caught cheating but able to prove that they did will receive an extra two House points.
3. No fraternising with the Centaurs.
4. No fraternising with the house elves.
5. Horse-play is not permitted before breakfast.
   1. Unicorn-play is similarly not permitted.
   2. Excessive and/or unwarranted pedantry is not permitted at any time.
6. All students must keep their wands in a good working state of repair.
   1. Wands that are proven not to work must be replaced
7. Seniors must keep to the right
   1. Juniors and Sophomores should keep to the left
8. Apportation within college grounds is STRICTLY prohibited.
   1. Except as part of a recognised program of study
   2. There is no exception for attempts to reach class on time.
9. Reserving a seat for an imaginary friend is not permitted
10. Duelling challenges may be made at 6 Oclock, Midday and Midnight.
11. Doodling in the margin of library books is not permitted.
12. It is not permitted to impersonate any staff member whatsoever.
13. Students caught mindreading will be…. you know the rest.
14. No talking in the corridors when moving between lessons.
15. No unauthorised pets, familiars or spirits to be allowed within the school.
    1. Authorised familiars must be house-trained
16. The breaking of oaths is not permitted, and will be punished extremely severely.
17. No running in the corridors
18. As magic is pure chaos only slightly harnessed none will be punished for the results of their unpredictable spells only for casting when forbidden, e.g. in the corridors or while a tutor is talking.
19. As clairvoyance has largely invalidated formal written papers all testing will be delivered on a randomised quiz basis, preferably when the student is most stressed elsewhere. “Oh crap a dragon is attacking the school, I knew I should have done more ancient Sumerian revision last night.”
20. Your library book will decide when the study session is over
21. Please remember to scream politely when first approached by a school ghost.
22. No summoning spells in the dorms.
23. Students are not allowed in [place] (**)
24. Any students suspected of making deals with Fey should be reported to the Student Fey Support Committee. (*)
25. No broomstick flying on school grounds.
26. [Magical Creature] is hard to summon and difficult to control, but mischievous towards its summoner rather than dangerous. Any student capable of controlling one will receive [prize].
27. No use of magical communication devices after curfew.
28. Magic shall not be used to aid with tasks during detention.
29. Unnecessary activation of the Schools Magical Emergency Alarm is STRICTLY prohibited
30. Spreading rumours in order to avoid exams is not permitted.
31. Any efforts to deprive staff of tea and/or coffee are not permitted.
32. Running with wands in the hallways is not permitted.

(* Make a Student Fey Support Committee. The support committee’s job is to help other students get out of stupid deals they’ve made. Possible additional – the Fey don’t like it when students who’ve actually made deals are reported to the SFSC and try to frame students who’ve not made deals to deflect attention from those that have.)

(**  Put [thing] in [place]. With a potential twist: It’s a plot to identify students capable of getting into [place] and finding [thing] because you need curious students with no respect for rules for some reason.)

What I said before…

This might be interesting, maybe not. It’s how I explained how I wanted to play the rules to the Staff and Students group ahead of the game.
I got some really useful feedback ahead of the game; specifically “make it more opt-in” from Liselle.

1. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1r_bpbrYRGx0WZ_qsEe87YcGSYNkPWuCVbgovDjTkdLU/edit is the list of rules the Janitor will be enforcing.
2. …well, it’s a good start. A bit short of actual approved rules, maybe. The CoW14 rules are there for inspiration.
3. Rules are a very serious business
4. …IG, for the Janitor.
5. OOG, not so much.
6. Rule amendments may be suggested which add, remove or modify any rule of part thereof, by petition from either senior common room or student body, or any properly constituted part thereof.
7. No trials.
8. The headmaster’s decision on amendments is final.
9. The Janitor will ruthlessly chase down rulebreakers.
10. OG, actually, not so much. OG, the janitor isn’t really a chasing kind of guy, and he’ll probably not catch anyone except by complete coincidence.
11. The Basement Beer Brigade on the other hand….
12. …of course, we all know the BBB is merely a harmless social gathering…
13. …who the Janitor will be encouraging to betray their friends and colleagues for fun and House Points.
14. And then there’s the prefects.
15. Discipline during class will be handled by Professors, who may or may not enforce any or all School Rules.
16. …or other rules and/or regulations of their devising.
17. Accusations of rule breaking outside of class will be accepted or not by the Janitor on their decision of the Evidence.
18. …such as it is.
19. Accusations of rule breaking outside of class will be actually judged by the headmaster.
20. No-one will be taken to find the headmaster, that’d just get in the way of their game…
21. …the headmaster’s office will be open for the judging of accusations at specific times of the day.
22. No judging will happen at other times.
23. Avoiding judgement may result in a House Point fine…
24. …actually being judged and adjudged worthy of Punishment might also do so, but…
25. Punishment should also include OG fun/IG horrible tasks like clearing goblins out of the basement of the north tower, boggarts out of a specific wood, a ghost out of the ritual room etc.
26. Punishments can always be done on Monday.
27. College rules aren’t laws. Laws are meant to be unambiguous and clear. Rules are meant to be roleplayed about.
28. …this is convenient when the person drafting them isn’t a lawyer.

PS. I’m not going to try and thank everyone who helped – I’d just forget someone. There’s some named above, but there’s a couple who need calling out whose help I didn’t realise I needed until the workshops before the game – Agata Świstak and Books gave some excellent advice about playing collaboratively and respectfully with folk you don’t really know, and I hope I got some of it in my play.

PPS. Some dreadful students even stole some of my lovely rules!