Negotiating Game-space
Because most Guild games use multiple classrooms on the MIT campus, the sheets often refer to specific room numbers so that players can find important locations in game-space. MIT’s Department of Facilities has its own schedule for room reservations and most GM teams begin their sheet writing before they know the rooms that will be allocated for their use in the game. Just as it is with the names of characters, it is easy to insert the appropriate room numbers into macros so that the correct information will appear on the sheets during prod.
However, this means that most GM teams have little certainty regarding the layout of game-space when they are balancing their game mechanics. In Live-Action Roleplaying, the arrangement of important spaces in the game is vital for the purposes of controlling the pace of game. Players cannot interact with other players or game items if they fail to locate them: poor, if a player needs to find multiple people or things to further his or her quest; excellent, if the player is on the run.
Most GM teams construct mechanics with an idealized game-space in mind, combining their knowledge of the geography of the MIT campus and their experience with past allocations by the Department of Facilities. However, GM teams know that they must design their mechanics with sufficient flexibility in room allocation. If they cannot get the rooms that they want, their mechanics must still be playable with the rooms that they get.
The fact that room numbers are so easily inserted into the sheets is one less reason for Guild games to seek room reservations far in advance. Most GM teams have to avoid designing mechanics that hinge on the availability of specific rooms on campus. Of course, there are exceptions. Some GM teams have been known to ask for their games to be scheduled contingent on the availability of specific rooms. Other GMs design games that operate entirely in corridors, which do not need to be reserved. SIK games are particularly notable in this latter respect .
Even “ideal� rooms and game-spaces have their problems. The third floor of the computer-science buildings in MIT features four large, interconnected, air-conditioned rooms with multiple entrances that are excellent for a variety of town-square-like purposes. There is also a large, flat, unwaxed space in the middle that has good illumination and long lines-of-sight, which are perfect for ranged combat. However, this also makes the space attractive for a variety of non-Guild purposes. Games in that space often feature peculiar collisions with practicing couples of ballroom dancers from another MIT student group. Similar problems arise with games that arrange their important spaces near corridors of high non-player foot traffic. Even if the layout of the rooms is ideal, such spaces have their drawbacks due to unwanted intrusions of reality on foot.
