If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

When

September 14-16, 2018

Where

2640 Falling Springs Church Rd, Bonnieville, KY.

Inside Avernus is located in a saltpeter cave system about an hour from Louisville, KY. The site is private with open areas and shade, and the large caves, of course. The experience takes place in the caves and grounds surrounding them. We will have two certified cavers with participants at all times when in the caves.

	The Mess Hall & “Facilities”
	For scale, the Mouth of Avernus is able to be walked into. This person is over 6′ tall.
	The entrance to solitary confinement
	The view out

Getting there

The closest airport is Louisville, KY. The next closest airport is Nashville, TN.

Sleeping

Sleep accommodations are on tarps inside the caves in sleeping areas for your faction. You will roll-out and roll-up your sleeping materials each night and adhere to inspections of your cell space. You may also sleep outside of the caves in tents. You need to bring your own sleeping materials, such as sleeping bags, mats, pillows, etc.

Bathrooms

There will be portapotties on site for participants to use. There are camp showers.

Electricity & Internet

Access to electrical power on site is limited; it exists in the kitchen building only. We will have extension cords and powerstrips, but it will be impossible to charge everyone’s devices simultaneously and staff and kitchen electrical needs will take priority. There is no wi-fi on site. Cell phone service is reliable outside, but does not work inside the caves. Cell phones will not be used in-game and will not be immersive, so we ask participants to only use or check their devices off-game and away from playspaces.

Food

We will prepare meals on-site and they will be served in-character. Prisoners will be served the day’s prison menu, in controlled portions and will have assigned seating. Food will be fresh and edible, with meat-based and vegetarian options, and will consist of mostly stews, soups, casseroles and other “slop.” Meals will be healthy and balanced, and we will attempt to work around food allergies identified ahead of time. However, it is not possible to accommodate other special dietary requirements. If you have special dietary requirements, you may bring your own food and step off-character to get as needed. Mealtimes will be important times for play, and will take place above-ground.

Costuming

As we get closer to the event, we will let you know which level of Avernus your character is in, which will dictate the color of your costuming. We’ll be asking you to get industrial work clothes (or some approximation): a collared shirt, pants, in a particular color that indicates your level (e.g. orange, blue, khaki, white). You are encouraged to distress those clothese as you like, to fit your character and their sentence. You’ll be given a baseball cap to wear as a prisoner. You will need sturdy shoes for caving: we recommend work boots or hiking boots that you don’t mind getting dirty. You will also need a headlamp.

Accessibility

Physical

The site is physically challenging and does not adequately meet sight or mobility accessibility needs. You must be able to carry your belongings to the campsite and/or into the caves. You must be able to walk into the caves, and you may opt-in to crawling into smaller caves. The footing inside the caves may be uneven, and the light will be dim. The temperature will be cool inside the caves and some areas are damp, though sleeping spaces are dry. We will be using theatrical lighting, strobe effects, smoke machines, and scents within the caves. Although there may be times when all prisoners are on “lockdown,” you as a player will always be able to leave any location or situation to use the bathroom or tend to needs.

Emotional

This larp is designed to be emotionally challenging, and it will be difficult to opt out of all emotionally challenging content, especially bystander or witness scenes (scenes your character may not be involved in directly, but will see and hear due to proximity). The larp will use a system of safety techniques and we will have an off-game space for players who need a break or to speak to our Safety Coordinator. Some roles may be more intense than others, but it is not possible to steer or calibrate your experience for a “lighter” feel. Please consider this, and the list of potential themes and content strongly when deciding if this is the larp for you. If you have past trauma and could become severely distressed by this content, please know that it is not something you can completely avoid in this game.

Safety Tools

We believe that with clear guidelines, functional safety tools, player-to-player negotiation, mindful steering, and managed expectations that players can confidently explore MORE intense scenes. We believe you can play harder with the safety and calibration tools than you can without it.

This larp will use the following safety & calibration techniques: the Lookdown (to exit a scene for an off-game or player reason, without remark or consequence); Dial-it-up and Softer, to calibrate the intensity of interactions, as well as “cut” to halt the scene completely and request game-off. Other safety techniques may be added.

Prohibited Content

Players are expressly forbidden from including racial stereotypes in their performance; this will be considered a Code of Conduct violation. Players are expressly forbidden from adopting a racial identity of a marginalized group that is not their own; this will be considered a Code of Conduct violation. Mass incarceration is among the issues explored in this larp. Mass incarceration is indisputably a racially sensitive issue, and players are expected to approach this issue with a respectful level of sensitivity.

Rape and sexual assault are not acceptable subject matter for scenes or plot in this larp. To be explicit: gameplay will not include rape or sexual assault. Players may elect to include those topics in their character history at their own discretion, with the understanding that it is to remain exclusively “off-screen” and that the existence of it in their co-created character history does not make an exception to the rule regarding bringing rape or sexual assault into gameplay. To be explicit: it can be in the background, but never brought into the foreground. In a larp this small, it is not possible to include this subject matter without also exposing many other players to the same subject matter. There are plenty of horrible things to do that don’t include rape and sexual assault as alternatives. Bringing rape and sexual assault into gameplay will be considered a Code of Conduct violation.