"One day you may find yourself walking alone through a wooded path to confront and evil that can no longer be ignored. You know in your heart you are walking to your death and your hands and arms tremble"
I had that at the June Event. One of the NPC Gypsies was kidnapped, and MAth (who did not know how to use a weapon) was part of the group that ventured onto Smuggler's road to try and find her, with his huge basket of alchemy and not much else. He and another non-combat healer wound up sneaking through the brush to untie her while everyone else was busy fighting (tee hee) so he didn't feel useless - it was the first time he had left the commons area, every other time people went somewhere dangerous he stayed in town, but he had a REASON to, because he had a vested interest in Nadja's safety.
As for the rest of the topic - I think the parking lot area is big enough for people to congregate in OOG. Sure it doesn't have the fire, but maybe if we moved a picknic table to, say, the path leading up to logistics then people can go OOG and relax w/o interfering with anything else? (Granted, I noticed the Logistics windows were open and it might be a problem if someone overhears something they shouldn't)
I would also suggest this - the Tavern hall is a large place. There is plenty of room there to set up a table far away from all the others to sit and talk quietly if you are OOG. This would be good for people who want to be OOG, as they will not draw anything away from those who are IG in the rest of the camp site, or at the IG tables in the Tavern.
This could work! Set aside one or two tables for 'OOG' maybe with a white banner near them or w/e off to the side.
As for 'baby steps' vs 'forced into full immersion' I had that the first morning when I was in the Imperial's cabin. I quickly learned as soon as I was crawling out of bed "Oh.. my cabin mates are already in-character *grumble*". The 2nd morning I got right into it as soon as I woke up - let me tell you the 2nd morning was a WHOLE lot better (ofc then at breakfast a few people were engaged in OOG conversation at my table, which was a little annoying, but I just ignored that conversation. Actually that would be another good reason to have an 'OOG' table at the tavern. Don't want to have breakfast in character? Go sit over there!)
One of the Edmonton players came over to the campfire on Saturday night to complain, because she could hear bits of OOG conversation off and on for the past 3 hours. Most people didn't get what she was complaining about (because the current conversation was one that could be IG or OOG), but I totally got it, and appreciated her having the courage to speak up, because I had been feeling the same way, just didn't want to be rude.
If your OOG chatter is affecting people's RP who are not even at the campfire too, then it's a) too much and b) too loud.