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larphacks · 4 years ago

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FAKE IT - Six Tips for Tacticool Radio Chatter

Hi all! From an off-Tumblr friend:

“How do you sound tactical on a radio?”

For anyone who plays a sci-fi, postapoc or modern military LARP, short-range walkie-talkies/UHF radios will be a familiar sight from the field. They can add a great coolthentic vibe to a group and allow people far away from the action to participate in missions.

But how do you sound tactical (or, more importantly, tacticool) without proper training? Talking clearly and correctly over a radio is a skill that professionals devote days and weeks to learning. You don’t have time for that! Instead, I’m going to give you a few quick tips to sound like you know what you’re doing, without doing any of the work.

Photo from Gruntz, by Oliver Facey.

Master Tip: Confidence and Consistency

Different professions have totally different protocols for speaking over a radio. Ambulance dispatchers, military units, merchant navies and astronauts all have their own way of doing it. Each protocol comes with its own unique set of grammar and vocabulary - often varying wildly between countries - sometimes called “voice procedure” or VP. There is no single “right” VP that will instantly make you sound professional, and this post isn’t going to teach you VP.

Instead, you should focus on confidence - practicing a few hacks to make your voice come out fluent, clear and reliable. The first few tips will focus on ways you can fake this. Then try to achieve consistency - a set of mutually agreed rules which mean you’ll communicate information the same way every time you pick up a radio, and more importantly, that your fellow LARPers will do the same.

As an example of the latter, in my professional life, I use the word “roger” to mean “yes, I’ve understood you”. But when I volunteer as site crew for a major UK LARP, everyone I work with uses the code “JG” - short for “jolly good” - to mean the same thing. If I’m the only person saying “roger” in that context, I don’t sound professional - I sound like an outlier. Better that I say “JG” instead, because then I’m widely understood. Consistent group language very quickly creates a group identity through shared speech (a sociolect) which sounds impressive and slick to an outsider listener. This single shibboleth makes it sound like we’ve all had radio training (most of us haven’t!) and that we’re sticking to a defined procedure - one of the hallmarks of professional voice communication. It’s more important in LARP to be consistent than to be “correct” by real-world standards.

Photo from Gruntz, by Oliver Facey.

1. Think, Rehearse, Press, Pause, Speak

One of the biggest mistakes unpracticed radio users make is working out what they’re going to say after pressing the transmit button. Two-way radio isn’t like a phonecall - people can’t talk over the top of you or interrupt: when you have that button held down, you’re broadcasting to every other set on your channel. That means you need to work out what you’re going to say before you start saying it!

Mentally rehearse the exact words you’re going to use before pressing the button. In a crisis, when you’re stressed, take the cognitive load off by physically rehearsing - whispering or subvocalising - before sending. You might think this slows down your chat, and it does, but you’ll save more time in the long run by not babbling, saying “ummm... errr....”, or using long inconvenient pauses.

Once you press the button, pause for a moment before you speak. Most handheld radio sets have a delay of up to half a second before your voice is actually transmitted. Always think - rehearse - press - pause - speak.

2. Use the ABCs

The ABCs of good radio communication are Accuracy, Brevity and Clarity.

Accuracy - strive to use precise, unambiguous language. Say exactly what you mean in the simplest terms you can manage. If you’re asking for something, be clear on precisely what you need, when, and where. If you’re relaying information, ask them to “read-back” or verify they’ve got it correct.

Brevity - Say as little as possible. Time on the net is precious. Aim to never speak for more than 20 seconds at a time; break your transmission into multiple bursts if it’s long. If you need to have a drawn-out conversation with someone on a busy net, consider switching to another channel or moving to their location instead, rather than clogging up the main channel.

Clarity - your voice will be distorted over the radio. Speak slower than you think you need to, enunciate clearly, leave gaps between words. Don’t whisper or shout. High voices carry better than low voices over most frequencies, so consider altering your pitch if people are struggling to hear you.

A note on roleplaying. There are always going to be times when you’re going to want to convey emotion through a radio broadcast - this is LARP, after all, and if you’re panicking because you’re pinned down under a horde of zombies you want your fellow players at the other end of the line to be panicking too! Of course you can, and should, break these rules when it’s IC appropriate. If you play a character who has great VP most of the time, it’s even more harrowing and effective when you suddenly break down sobbing or screaming!

Photo from Arkfall, by Oliver Facey.

3. Callsigns

Everyone loves callsigns, right? They make you sound badass. They’re like the nickname you wish you had in school. Every action hero has a callsign.

Callsigns are great - in real life, they’re used to clearly identify who’s who on a busy radio channel. In military and paramilitary contexts, they also protect the identity of the speakers by avoiding the use of real names.

When picking a callsign, consider the cultural context of your character. How did they get their callsign?

If they’re a hot-shot independent type - a pilot, or a bounty hunter, say - perhaps they have a badass nickname which says something about their character. (”Goose”, “Maverick”, “Iceman”). In some organisations, these are picked by the individual; in others, they’re agreed by their peers during training. Link the callsign to a significant background incident for additional colour.

If they work for a hierarchical conventional military organisation, they’re more likely to have a standard pattern given out from above and based on their current role. This might be a string of letters and numbers - let’s say they’re the squad commander of 3rd Squad, 2 Platoon, they might be called 23A on the radio. This works great when you’ve got a bunch of characters from the same military unit who agree to use the same pattern, and gives an immediate impression of professionalism.

A nice midway point between the two is to give your whole group a team designation (this can be something “cool” - Kryptonite, Jackal, whatever) and then assign each individual a number or letter code. (Jackal-One, Jackal-Two or Jackal-Alpha, Jackal-Bravo and so on.) This is great if your group’s going to be interoperating with other groups also using the same net.

Alternatively, you might simply give people callsigns which reflect their role in the mission or team, particularly if it’s a small team. “Guns”, “Med”, “Base” and “Bossman” all clearly indicate who you’re talking to.

Photo from Contact LARP, by Oliver Facey.

4. Grammar and Vocabulary

Like I said at the start, I’m not here to teach you one set of VP. I could write a post explaining why in my profession you should never say “repeat” over the radio unless you want a lot more artillery than you bargained for, or why I immediately know someone who says “over and out” hasn’t had much training. But that isn’t why I’m here - you’re here to fake knowledge!

What I will say is that you should construct, or adopt some set of radio grammar and vocabulary, and agree it with your fellow players. It doesn’t matter what it is - what matters is you do it the same way every time. That’s how you quickly sound tactical. If you want to adopt an existing one, a fellow LARPer has written a great guide to the basics of the British system which is easy to steal, here.

If you’re constructing your own, I’d suggest at a minimum you probably want to consider:

a) How do people introduce themselves? You can’t always recognise voices on the radio - somewhere in the transmission they need to use their own callsign.

b) How do they make clear who they’re speaking to, or asking to speak to? “This is Iceman, I need backup!” is going to cause confusion as everyone tries to answer at once. “Hello Zero, this is Iceman, send reinforcements to Hut Three!” is going to get you what you need.

c) Do you have special words for encountering the enemy (”contact”)? For asking someone to repeat their last transmission? For acknowledging you’ve heard someone (”roger”) and/or that you’ll comply with what they’re asking you (”wilco”)? Do you use special words for different types of enemy?

(If you’re in a sci-fi or postapoc setting which is not strongly tied to modern militaries, this is a great time to start adding in your own distinct flavour. Pick something that isn’t “roger” or “affirmative” to mean “yes”, make sure everyone understands it. Use a few words in second languages to emphasise a linguistic legacy from particular modern Earth cultures, or add in bits of religious language for an occult vibe. It doesn’t take much before your sociolect is very distinctive and recognisable - great for group cohesion.)

d) How do you end a transmission - do you use a special word to make it obvious you’ve finished?

(Many organisations in real life use “over” as the last word in a message to mean “I have finished speaking and expect a reply”, and “out” to mean “This conversation is over, do not reply”.)

e) Do you launch straight into transmissions, or do you use a “warning” transmission first to get their attention?

(Some organisations find it polite to send a message like “Hello you, this is me, message, over” to make sure they’ve got someone’s attention. This saves you talking to thin air as someone on the other end has left their radio on the table!)

f) Do you have specific types of report you will ask people to give - for example, instead of “how are things going”, might you ask for a SITREP (situation report)? Or a report on the status of casualties? Talk through these scenarios in advance and try to agree a format for what a “standard” report might include. Don’t be afraid to write down these formats on little laminated cue-cards so you can read them off when sending a report - professionals use these cheat cards in real life!

g) How do you tell someone that their message is clear? Or that it’s broken up and you’re struggling to hear them? Are they too quiet, or too fuzzy?

h) Do you have a special way of saying numbers or letters (which are often misheard over the radio)? For example, in a modern or near-future sci-fi LARP you might want to consider using the NATO phonetic alphabet.

Photo from Before the End, by Oliver Facey.

5. Check Your Comms!

LARP radios are notoriously unreliable. They will break down, constantly. This can be great fun when it happens in the middle of a tense stand-off! But to avoid it happening too much, make sure you check how reliable your comms are before setting out on the big adventure. Stand a good distance away from “base camp” and make sure the radios can hear each other. Plus, the action of conducting this comms check IC immediately establishes your professional credentials and is a nice bit of flavour roleplaying to get you in the zone.

If you have a particular pattern of checking, you can use this when you’re out and about on a mission just to check in and make sure your radios are still working.

6. Code Words

There will be times you want to communicate without everyone understanding exactly what you mean - this is a great opportunity to use code words. Code words might be used for the objective of a mission (a person, place, or enemy base), particular locations, or particular scenarios you’ve foreseen in enemy planning.

Remember, code words sound extremely cool, but they’re only useful if everyone remembers them! - so try to keep it simple. If you have three objectives to complete, calling them “bronze”, “silver” and “gold” or something equally logical is fine. You might feel super tacticool muttering down your mic that you’ve neutralised Objective Sparkling Thunder, but if nobody at the other end knows what you mean, you’ll end up looking a bit daft.

Location identifiers can be invaluable when you’re trying to talk someone on to a target. “Behind the tall tree” isn’t great - “fifty metres west of Hut Five” is much better. Helps if you have a map of your site and a compass, but even without that, you can designate location names on a site walk-round.

One particularly fun example of code words is a duress code - a phrase spoken over the radio which secretly tells your mates that you’ve got a gun to your head. This needs to be something sufficiently innocuous that you can work it into any normal speech without alerting the baddies. You might never use it - but agreeing it and rehearsing it with your colleagues can be a great piece of roleplaying!

Photo from Death Unto Darkness, by Oliver Facey.

Final Note: It’s OK to be wrong!

This stuff should help you fake a character who is professional and familiar with communicating over radios. As with all my advice posts, it is okay to get it wrong and that doesn’t make you a bad LARPer. Indeed, if you’re playing a character who isn’t familiar with the local standard for radio communication, getting it flagrantly and excessively wrong can be a great piece of roleplaying!

#larphacks #Fake It #military #voice procedure #radio protocol #larp

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