The player hears or reads about the event. This is an important step. Without communication you won`t have an event. Or at least, you won`t have an event with players.

The player decides he wants to play and enters his name _and_ pays the event fee - anything from his share in the costs of running the event, like places to play and things to eat & drink, to a full share of running and organizing, including things like the organizers` cost of getting to and from the event terrain, and some ‘profit’ to be set aside for future investments, like buying props and monster-kit (costumes, masks, weapons); and a cash reserve (in case attendance is extremely low at a future event but the organizers don`t want to cancel it, or when something gets broken and the organization has to pay for it. Bigger events will usually allow players to subscribe and pay ‘at the gate’, and so will smaller events if they`re having trouble attracting players. The more popular small to medium sized events which are booked full in a matter of days - if not hours - only consider a player as entered if he both subscribed and payed, mostly because they need a way to figure out who can come for sure and who goes on the waiting list. Maximum number of people a site can accommodate is one consideration for setting a number of how many players you take in, but the number of crew members who can play monsters/NPCs is also important. Since crewing is often less popular than playing, the Belgian club I play with will initially set the number of allowed players low, and will then raise it (to include the first people on the waiting list) when crew-entries pass a set treshold. Both the entry list (alphabetically) and the waiting list (in order of potential entry) are published on the forum as soon as they become available. (Since payments across borders are usually slower than those within the same country, they have an affiliated club in the Netherlands who accepts entry fees in their stead for Dutch players, so players from both nationalities have equal chances. This does mean they have to wait for the results to come in from the other club, before they can publish the lists.) When players see they are (low) on the waiting list, they will often reapply as crew, and sofar the crew treshold has always been reached. (One time they`ve even had to put a stop on allowing crew until they had enough players. )

The player then fills out and sends in a few forms. These can contain a waiver of responsibility. Whether this has any legal consequences is debatable, but that doesn`t matter really, it serves to make the player aware of the fact that he is engaging in a pastime which does involve certain risks - hitting eachother with fake weapons, running around in the woods and over other unpaved terrain well after dark, and playing in and around abolished buildings, and to get it through to him that he has a personal responsibility both towards his own safety and towards the safety of others. Another favourite is the medical form, in which the player is asked if he`s physically fit to enter in sportslike activities, if he wears spectacles or contact lenses, whether he has any food allergies (important for catered events, which will also ask the player whether he prefers vegetarian meals) or any other allergies, whether he is currently on medication, who his family doctor is, and who to call In Case of Emergency. This serves to have some basic information available if the player should run into any kind of accident on or off site. They are, after all, away from home, where such info might be readily available, and even if they come with friends, friends don`t always know such details. Under the laws on privacy players can refuse to volunteer such information, but being private organizations, club can than refuse to allow such players, although there isn`t really reason for them to do so, unless they`re completely safety-paranoid. The player also indicates which character (if he has more than one) he will be playing, or will fill out a character creation form if he will be playing a new character. Especially on smaller to medium sized events that involve personal plot (plot written especially for a single player or small group of players, based on background, position within the game world and involvement with main plot on previous events) it is desirable for the plot team to know which characters will be attending. All these forms can be filled out at the gate as well, but unless you check in a day early, it`s all time taken off the time you can play, so you`d better do it beforehand.

The player lives in happy anticipation for a few weeks, which he may spend working on his character`s costume. This anticipation may be further fueled by involvement on game forums, meetings with other players, training days or kit making workshops prior to the main event, and game background being ‘trickled’ down to the players via mailings or the club`s homepage. During this time he may also try to get a ride to the event site, if he doesn`t have personal transportation to carry him the distance. The club can assist in this by encouraging players to carpool and asking people to volunteer to drive other players to and from the railway or busstation nearest to the site.

The player turns up and goes through the check in. The three basic steps in check in are player check in, character check in and weapons` check. The player`s name is checked against a list of participants (it will also be established whether he`s there to play or to crew), he will be assigned or allowed to choose a place to sleep or to put up his tent, and sometimes offered the chance to buy tokens to exchange for consumptions during the event - to prevent someone playing a thief to mistake the OC cash register of the bar for IC treasure, the tokens are usually destroyed when used (they`re mostly made out of paper) so there`s no worry about someone ‘accidently’ stealing those. The character check in may follow immediately after that, or may be postponed until the player has changed into his IC clothes and gear, and usually involves handing the player his character`s envelope of achievements (money, spell components and other stuff acquired by the character, that is considered property of the club instead of of the player), which may also contain some random or not so random ‘rumours’ and other IG info. Sometimes a player is taken apart by one of the refs to get a quick last minute briefing before play begins. The weapons` check may be part of the character check in, but often clubs insist to check any weapon the moment it is brought on site, so it may even preceed the player check in. At big events players often get some mark to prove they`re allowed in the game, a paper bracelet with their entry or player number, event name and date, and sometimes some medical info; but just as often a stamp or felt pen signature (often in combination) on the back of the hand. On small and medium events the organizers will usually know everybody by face. At medium sized events people may not know the names belonging to those faces, and the organization may ask for a mugshot (a polaroid or digital picture) of the character (!) so that when briefing monsters and NPCs for specific plot they can simply show those pictures and say: these are the people you`re looking for. (Of course, there are few things the plot team enjoy more than to get a rookie crew member who doesn`t know any of the players yet, and tell him to obtain - as in steal, or get somebody else to steal - item X from character Y, and no, you have no idea what he looks like, you just know he`s supposed to be on site. Good luck.)

When accommodated and changed into character, the player then waits for the time in signal. At big, fest style events, players are sometimes allowed to put up camp an organize themselves a full day before play actually begins. At smaller events the game often begins with the adventurers (i.e. the characters) arriving in town, sometimes being led by an NPC guide along a short circuit of ambushes or encounters the plot team wants everybody to witness in order to set up the starting situation and to make sure everybody understands what that is. In such instances, players are requested not to wander the grounds, but to stay together in one place until the game starts. Exploring the terrain before time in is discouraged.

Game starts.