Clarify

The Clarify call lets any player step briefly out of the fiction to ask a rules or situation question without breaking the game for everyone else.

Some games, often theatre-style and parlour larps, have a Clarify call that you use when something about the rules or the current situation is genuinely unclear and you need a quick out-of-game answer before you can continue playing sensibly. It is not a pause of the whole scene; it is a short, quiet check-in, usually between two or three people, after which play resumes. Where a game has a gesture for it, a common example is holding one hand flat above your head or touching the top of your head with your fingertips while you speak your question in a calm, ordinary voice. Some groups say the word "Clarify" aloud first so everyone nearby knows that what follows is an out-of-game exchange rather than in-character dialogue. Once the question is answered, the same signal (or a nod) shows that everyone is ready to step back into the fiction. Typical questions that fit a Clarify call include asking what a particular mechanic does, checking whether a costume prop counts as a certain item in the rules, or confirming what your character can observe about something that just happened. It is not meant for long debates or for arguing about a referee decision; those conversations belong in a proper out-of-game space after the scene or at a break. Because every game handles out-of-game signals differently, the wording, gesture, and etiquette around Clarify can vary quite a bit. Some games fold this into a broader Out-of-Game call, others have a dedicated word or sign. Always check the specific game's rules document and attend its safety briefing before play, since those materials are the final authority on which calls are used and how they work at that event.