Time Out

Time out is a term most commonly used in Live Action Roleplaying to indicate when people are not actually playing the game, acting as their characters, etc. but are waiting around to things to start, get organised or are packing up. In fact time out is any time spent out of the game.

Live Action games generally start with the call "Time In" and end with "Time out". Time out is often called during a game when a referee (GM) needs to spend some time setting something up, briefing the people playing monsters or whatever. In some games this is a signal for the players to drop out of character, in others they will remain in character but not perform any action that might require a ref (or go wandering off to investigate something). This latter situation has been called "Time Faff" by some.

In some games "Time Out" is also called if anyone is injured, or if anyone suspects someone may be injured. For this reason it is very important that when time out is called it is obeyed swiftly and everyone engaged in combat (or whatever) immediately stops what they are doing. This is also the reason why anyone may call a time out. Sometimes "Man Down" is used in this situation rather than time out.

If someone wishes to talk out of character during a time in, or make an out of character comment or rules query they will often indicate this by making a T shape with their hands in front of them (one hand vertical, one horizontal).