Haunted Trails 2002 Guide Notes
Last Updated 9/22/02
I. What does a guide do?
Lots of things. First and foremost, guides are the flight attendants of Haunted Trails. It is the guide’s job to keep the group from harming themselves, the actors, and the props and sets. Their secondary function is to keep groups engaged and make sure they can see and hear all the cool stuff that is thrown at them. Guides also keep unruly groups in line, help nudge indecisive groups in the right direction, and keep group spacing correct by slowing down or speeding up where necessary. The really great thing about guiding is that you get to experience the Trails pretty much the same way the guests do, and no two groups are alike so it’s seldom dull or repetitive. Guiding is challenging, but lots of fun.
II. What skills should a guide have?
Probably the most important is the ability to think on your feet. Unexpected things frequently happen at HT. Guests will ask unanticipated questions and stations will change in unexpected ways. For example, let’s say you lead a group to a station that normally has 5 howling, cleaver-wielding cultists at it and instead there’s a cheerful 5-year-old girl sitting there alone. As guide, you must act like this is what you expected to be there all along and try to figure out how to arrange the group so they can interact properly with the new situation. You also should know the trail extremely well. Be aware of the distances between stations. Note the tripping hazards. Ideally you should know the trail well enough so you can confidently walk it while facing backwards, since between stations you should be looking back most of the time in order to interact with your group.
III. Guide do’s and don’ts
DO: Keep the guests safe. Point out low-hanging branches and tree roots on the trail, etc. Keep your group on the rope. Make up a phony story about the significance of the rope if you want to, or just tell ’em it’s for their own safety and they have to do it. Whatever works. They must hang onto it at all times when on the trail. Ham it up between stations. You don’t need to keep up a continuous commentary, but between stations the guide is the group’s main entertainment. Be prepared with appropriate stories. Tone it down at stations. The actors are in charge there, not you. Sometimes actors will explicitly ask the guide to take a more active role in their station and that’s fine. If they don’t ask you, that means you should be inconspicuous and just follow their cues. When you enter a station, try to position your group so everybody gets a good view. DON’T: Don’t try being evil or deceitful. If your party doesn’t trust you, they’re almost impossible to control. Don’t use flashlights & glow sticks except in emergencies. Most of the effects on the trail rely on low light levels. If the guide is shining a flashlight all over the place it will expose effects and diminish the experience for the guests. Similarly, do not allow your guests to use flashlights at all. Ever. Don’t go too fast between stations. You’ll know you’re doing this if you regularly end up on another group’s heels and have to stall a bit. Don’t go too slow between stations. Being too slow is much worse than being too fast. When you go too slow you screw up the timing for all groups behind you. General Notes Act confident. If you look like you know what you’re doing, the party is more likely to listen to you. Bond with your party. If they trust you they are also more likely to follow your suggestions. You can't overact. Be larger than life, louder than hell, and expressive as all get out. Steer the guests’ reactions. They will look to you. If they should be scared, be scared. Let the guests do their thing. Don't spoon-feed them unless they really, really need it. Allow the guests to experience as much as possible and solve as many problems as possible. If the guests want to interrupt you, let them. When a guest speaks, it should be the most important thing in the world to you. If they're not taking it seriously enough, you can admonish them in character. Remember that you're there for their entertainment, not your ego. Reinforce guest knowledge. If they need to know a clue, rehearse them on it repeatedly. Redundancy is your friend.
IV. So how does guiding work, anyway?
Between stations, the guide is always at the front and controls the group’s speed. At stations you will generally want to be standing behind your group, staying out of the way of the actors and making sure everyone in your group can see and hear what’s going on. Most groups are surprisingly easy to control. Skilled guides can herd groups like cattle and pose them like Gumby dolls, and most of the time the group isn’t even aware it’s happening. You’ll need to decide on a character. All of our guides are sanitarium patients this year. Being somewhat crazy is appropriate, and encouraged, but don’t go for evil or sinister characters – be sure you’re trustworthy or your groups will be very difficult to control. The more background info you figure out about your character up front the better you’ll be able to keep your groups entertained and interested. You start out milling around the Guide Pickup station, crazy as a loon. Pick your favorite flavor of crazy and go with it – Responsive? Unresponsive? Loud? Soft? Motionless? Twitchy? Delusional? All of the above? When it’s your turn to go, the orderly will bring you up and “cure” you, which should make you somewhat more lucid. How much more lucid is up to you, as long as you’re still not so out of touch that the group doesn’t trust your judgement. You’ll haul your group around the trail (See the guide script for more information)
V. Emergencies
Sometimes bad stuff happens. Someone in your group gets hurt, or occasionally someone in your group causes serious trouble. As guide, you have the power to expel a dangerous group from the trail. Use it wisely. Carry a small flashlight for emergencies. All guides and stations will be issued a red chemical glow-stick; if someone is hurt, break the glow-stick to activate it, leave it with the injured person, and take the remainder of the group to the next nearest station to report the injury. The EMTs will handle it from there. You can use the glow-stick if there is a mobile emergency to indicate to the stations that your group is off-limits. Guest and actor safety is of paramount importance. If the guests are taking actions that endanger you, themselves, or the other actors, you should warn them in character. If this fails, warn them out of character. If all else fails, take the group out of the Trails by the quickest method possible, notifying stations with radios and managers as you go. This is an extremely rare occurrence, but it does happen, so use your judgment. If you need to get in touch with me I can be reached in the following ways: E-mail: mongo@cws.org Cell phone: 785-0164 Work phone: 997-5518 Home phone: 835-0172 Thanks for your interest in guiding! I hope you come to enjoy it as much as I do. Matt Pinsonneault Guide Wrangler