Commentaries from the Dungeon Master of Blackthorne Manor, where any who seek ritual pain, rare exotic pleasures, or cathartic punishment will find a Welcome. The entire household of the Earl from the Lady Eleanor to the scullery maids, are devoted to pleasure, healing and enlightenment through the corporeal arts.

Hello folks.  Back from a business trip and trying to get  the backlog down a bit after the holiday weekend. I haven’t forgotten I was in the middle of talking about parties, and how to make them a success.  We’d pretty much covered  how to set the space up.  Now I want to talk  some about what to do when the guests turn up.

If parking around your area is tight it might be a good idea to have someone outside during arrival time to direct cars to side streets to avoid annoying neighbors who haven’t been invited and who find themselves lugging bags of groceries and a screaming kid back to their nuclear family holocaust from a parking space eight blocks away.  Doubtless this hapless soul will be the first to call the police when your guests flash butt in the driveway.  Your parking warden can easily mention that privacy is not available until you are safely inside.

Once through the door and changed, street clothes safely stashed where they are easy to find again, guests will naturally congregate in the kitchen for drinks and munchies.  Once everybody is there, it is a good idea to have a quick orientation.  Either you as the host can do this, and then introduce the dungeon master, or have the DM give the main talk after a brief introduction.  Explain the layout; which dungeon is for general play and raucous fun, which space has been reserved for heavy players with a bit more privacy.  Show where the first aid , disinfectant and safe sex supplies are, and say what your expectations for safe sex are.  My personal preference is to let established couples do what they normally do, but ask people who are new to each other to observe the “no exchange of bodily fluids” rule.  That is, use condoms, latex gloves and dams (latex or saran wrap sheets placed over the woman’s pussy or asshole when giving oral sex).  Some folk are allergic to latex; vinyl condoms and gloves are also available.

Now if you’ve really thought this through you’re going to be ready for questions such as “if I want to piss/shit  on my girlfriend  is that ok?”  “Is it ok to do a cutting scene?”  “Do you have an old sheet so we don’t get hot wax on the carpet?”  “Is it ok to draw blood during a caning?”  The answers you give will depend on your own personal comfort level, your confidence in the players to clean up after themselves and in the case of a caning drawing blood, the spectator’s safety from flying drops of bodily fluid. Extreme scenes (branding or needle play for example) are best arranged in advanced for a private space at a specific time, with a notice on the door warning what is going on.  You had best know the players well to let them do these scenes at your event, and be sure of their ability to cope if anything goes wrong.  (Are you prepared to call in the paramedics if necessary?) Speaking of which – if you made any equipment for the party, now is probably a bit late to say be sure to make weight bearing items from oak, not pine.  A real life incident this year highlights the problems that can arise. A gentleman had constructed a suspension device that held him upside down by  his ankles and let an increasing proportion of his body weight be taken by rope attached to a rather delicate and essential body part.  All was well until the beam bearing his body weight fractured, thus briefly suspending him by his defining anatomy until it gave way dumping his castrated body unceremoniously on the carpet.  The doctors were unable to re-attach, and his wife is now suing him for divorce.  I hate to imagine what his friends call him behind his back!  So don’t abandon sound engineering principles, or “getting your rocks off” may be uncomfortably literal.

You probably want to remind the party about the use of safewords,  red/yellow being good all-rounders.  If there are some who either are not very experienced, or who are playing for the first time in a public setting, a brief word about etiquette would not be amiss. Simple things like not intruding on a scene unless invited, don’t walk behind someone using a flogger unless you want the backswing in your face, don’t talk to a bound submissive who has been left alone, and don’t “puppydog” (Please can we play, now, please, now?)  Remind people about drinking plenty of fluids, and if anybody has a problem with anything or anybody they should bring it to the attention of either the host or the dungeon master, not keep quiet at the time and then complain afterwards.  Your reputation as a host is largely dependent on people being fully aware of and following this rule.  Mention that if anybody has a special skill, or impresses someone watching them do their stuff, then perhaps opportunities can be created for demo’s, mini-classes etc.

Following the orientation, you can either just open the dungeons up to play, or, if so inclined have some kind of simple opening ritual to get everybody in the same head space.  This could be the topic for another week, as ritual elements abound in the scene.

I hope this gets you set up for a great party – so until the next time..

Happy spanking -

Simon Blackthorn.