Have you ever experienced a situation where you can’t shake an RPG session? Like the feeling of being in character sticks with you? Or maybe you start to catch feelings for someone because of their game character, even though the two things are nothing alike?
Do you sometimes get to the table after a bad day and feel like your character has inherited that feeling? Or have you let feelings about a player who annoys you lead to your character being harsher with them?
If so, you may have experienced what the LARP community calls ‘Bleed’. It’s a moment when the lines between characters and players sort of cross over. It’s a controversial idea; it can be a great thing to feel and also a bit of a curse. In this article, I’ll be taking a look at it and what we can do as GMs to help provide a positive experience.
What Is Bleed?
Bleed, as defined by Sarah Lynn Bowman of the Nordic LARP scene, is when you get a level of emotional confusion from the world of the fiction you inhabit in an RPG setting. In experiencing something in a game, your body and brain go through that experience as it were real and the sense of it overwhelms reality, causing an emotional paradox. The same as watching a movie which stays with us for a while, the feelings of being in the moment are hard to disentangle and it can affect our mood in reality.
Bowman defined two different versions of Bleed. ‘Bleeding-in’ is when you bring something to a game from outside and can’t let go of it in a game session. ‘Bleeding-out’ is when the thing in game affects you in reality.
Why Is This Idea Controversial?
In some ways, the idea of Bleed has upset some people because it promotes the idea that media can affect how we behave. This would seem to be in the same camp that supposes that video games are responsible for school shootings and that LGTBQ+ books can turn people gay. Detractors of the theory suggest that if we accept this theory, we agree with the ‘Satanic Panic’. That the conclusion we draw is the end result of roleplaying is that we all will eventually end up confused, living in storm drains and worshipping Baphomet.
Which, coming from a performative background, I think is some very absolutist thinking. It’s possible to get stuck in a feeling without getting overwhelmed by it. While we hear stories of method actors getting affected their character, we’ve never actually had one completely go away forever, even if Jim Carrey got a bit weird for a while. But I also think arguing it doesn’t happen is mad. We’ve all seen it. I’ve seen two players fall in love because of characters, then realise they aren’t those characters in real life. The fallout of that collapsing relationship then played back into the game and resulting interparty fight nearly tore a gameworld apart. Regularly, I see players who just ‘need a bit of time’ to leave the character emotions behind when they finish a game. I’m sure if it’s happening in my game, it’s happening in others. I can’t be the most emotionally affecting GM in the world.
So It’s Bad Then?
Not always, but it can be harmful for a number of reasons. Players can end up genuinely hurt by stuff that happens in the game. I know at least one very empathic player who can hang on to emotions in a game for almost a fortnight and have it stress them out. Which is ok if you are able to hold those emotions separately. But if you are finding you can’t feel relaxed or concentrate on work because of the situation in a game, or if you’ve taken a criticism of character choices personally, it can real hurt. Bowman recorded a few instances in Vampire games where players felt like they’d been traumatised by death or extended suffering sequences they’d been through.
If It’s Harmful, Why Would I Do It?
Well, the other side of the coin is also true. Bleed can provide a feeling of catharsis or reward that is incredibly fufilling. Bleeding-Out a good emotion might get you through the week. I’ve often heard people say that RPGs saved their lives or got them through a bad spot. Some of that is down to Bleed giving them something to feel and look forward to.
It’s also a way of exploring emotions of groups you wouldn’t otherwise understand. The feelings of controlling and letting Bleed happen safely can be so satisfying some people engage with RPGs looking for that experience. This subculture of players are known as ‘Bleed-Chasers’. I think this name does a great job of portraying the rush of getting Bleed right but also in conveying exactly how this can be problematically addictive and potentilly dangerous if mismanaged. Recently, the makers of Vampire‘s latest addition caught flack for promoting the idea of Bleed without introducing any safety tools to deal with fallout, suggesting chasing Bleed was the only real way to play the game properly.
Raising/Lowering Bleed
So, with all this said, I’m going to provide some things you can do as a GM or suggest to players who are looking to slide their Bleed intensity up and down (yes, I guess this makes Bleed a RPG Dial, for those long term readers keeping score). I’d suggest before you choose to use these that you do a little more reading round than just my article, but some things to think about.
Character Connection: The close a character is to a player in real life, the more likely a player is to experience Bleed. Particulary if a character has a similar trauma or problems. While it’s hard to know this as a GM, some players are fairly open about it.
One of my Vampire players, for example, has OCD and plays a Malkavian with a more severe version of the condition.
Anything where a character shares an identity with the player can be an potential source of bleed. It’s why when someone picks a character with a protected characteristic they share, that has also historically faced oppression, I check in with the player and see what level of representation of that oppression they’d like to face/ignore. It gives an indicator of how much Bleed they are/aren’t looking for.
Also another good indicator is if someone keeps playing the same type of character because ‘this [archetype] is so me’ is a good sign about potential for bleed. Sharing this with a players and saying ‘you might experience Bleed [because of X], are you comfortable with that?’ is a good discussion to have.
Preludes & Mechanics: Breaking up the start of a session with non-game talk can sometimes help players get whatever is affecting them in real life off their chest before you dive in. It’s a sort of ceremonial shedding of the outside.
Keep an eye on this though. Players can get used to the idea of a slow start and beginning to sort of expect it. If there’s a lot of tired or down people, sometimes changing it up and just jumping into a very action heavy game can throw people into engaging in the mechanics of the game and that can be very affective to stopping Bleed-In. In fact whenever you draw attention to a mechanic it reminds people they are playing a game and can help break up the flow in a way that allows people a minute to disengage.
Aftercare: Making sure you provide an ‘off-ramp’ for a game is very important too. Let players talking about a session after it finishes, give them time to chew it around in a meta sense. This allows them to leave the game in a different space. If you’re on an online game, this might mean chatting digitally over messaging groups or providing a discord or forum for interaction and journaling. This level being able to slowly deconstruct the character and return to real life can be very helpful. Alternatively, people looking to chase can share the emotion they are feeling with others and get them to engage with it too, creating a feedback loop.
I hope this creates a starting platform for thinking about Bleed. Feel free to let me know what works for your game!
Creative Commons: LARP Norse Dragon Viking Warrior and Drachenfest LARP preparation by SchmiedeTraum with Goblin or orc shaman LARP v2.0 by Markehed.
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