My retro-SF Asimovian robot larp, “Persephone’s Choice”, will be premiering at Phoenix in August. Pretty obviously, there will be robots, who in genre are obviously not human (unless they’re not). At the moment I’m planning to distinguish this by costume and name badges: all robots will have robot names (e.g. R. Daneel Olivaw), and all robots will be asked to wear black. However, I’m also wondering whether to ask the robots to wear plain white masks.
Normally there’s a simple rule for larp and full face masks: don’t. Masks prevent people from properly expressing emotion, which hinders roleplaying. OTOH, limiting emotional expression is exactly why I think they might be a good idea for this game - Asimovian robots don’t have emotions, so blocking them from view with a physical barrier actually seems to work. It also reinforces their non-humanity, which might help with enabling appropriate interactions.
(There is also a player comfort issue, especially for players who normally wear glasses, which is definitely a factor to consider).
So, is this worth experimenting with or not?