Visual Social Distancing Indicators

Introduction

After a year and a half of Plague, Witchwood is finally resuming. We are very excited but understand that many staff and players are taking different levels of precautions and have different levels of comfort with being in-person. We would like to allow people to signal their comfort level visually such that those who are taking increased precautions don’t need to be repeatedly asked.

There are three levels of indication, described below. These roughly correspond to default precautions, more precautions, and lower precautions.

  • Someone not wearing a wristband is assumed to be taking default precautions
  • A Red wristband indicates that the person is taking more-than-default precautions.
  • A Blue wristband indicates the person is taking fewer-than-default precautions…

Wearing a wristband for a period of time does not lock you into wearing one the whole event. You can also change your mind at any time and choose to act with less precaution than your wristband currently indicates. The overall goal here is to have people communicate with each other about their comfort and to allow people who don’t want to be asked repeatedly to visually signal what their answer will be.

These wristbands will be available at check-in. If you lose yours / want more, ask Logistics.

Note: While we as staff will be operating under these guidelines to the best of our ability (mistakes will probably be made), we are not enforcing players doing the same. That being said, we ask you to be respectful of each others comfort levels

OTHER IMPORTANT NOTE: These guidelines do not restrict engaging in Boffer Combat. If you aren’t comfortable doing so right now, you should use our noncombatant system as described in the rulebook.

Default

Please keep reasonable physical distance from me and understand that I may not want to go inside. Please ask about getting closer than 6 feet or going inside with me. Yes, you can still stab me.

Red Wristband

I’m being extra cautious. I probably don’t want to go inside. I may not want to touch things that you have touched. Stay at least 6 ft away from me. Yes, you can still stab me.

Blue Wristband

I’m generally comfortable being near others and inside. You don’t need to ask before being closer than 6 feet. Yes, you can still stab me.

Distancing and Touch Range Effects

If someone is wearing a red wristband and you need to use an instantaneous touch range skill on them and there is nothing that would prevent you from reaching them (e.g. acid pits, monsters, etc.), you should instead cast that spell on them from 6 ft away as a by my voice spell. e.g. By my voice, Strigford, Awaken. If you are wearing a red wristband and someone casts a disk spell on you (Spirit Shard or Void Shard), you may choose to not take the physical disk and instead verbally tell the Gatekeeper that you were given a shard. Make sure you indicate what kind of shard.

For skills that require extended roleplay, such as Tend, you should verbally state that you are beginning the effect and perform the relevant roleplaying from 6 feet away. If someone is performing an extended action in this way, you may stop them within 6 feet of either person by pointing at the person performing the effect and saying “I stop you” in addition to any other actions that would cause interruption.

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What would be best practice for doing touch-range stuff (Tend, Awaken) in combat situations with red wristband folks? Out-of-combat it can be easily and quickly negotiated doing “touch” stuff like putting buffs on people. Is it permissible to squat 6 feet away, mime reaching towards them and say to them “Begin Tend / Awaken” or whatever, assuming there are no bad guys or acid pits or whatever between you?

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Yes, that is a good approach to that situation.

That’s a really excellent question thank you. I have added text to the original post that covers that case

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