As an official Oxford University Roleplaying Society game, this game is run in accordance with the Conduct & Themes Policy. The full policy is reproduced below, and can also be found on the society website.
These are themes which the GMs have explicitly written into the game. Extreme violence is something which will only be described in turnsheets, but injuries sustained may be discussed in sessions. There are tropes which feature mental illness and physical disability, but any players choosing to play characters which feature these aspects should be respectful in their portrayal of them.
These are themes which may appear in the game if player actions cause these things to happen. Discrimination may be done in session by characters, in the way they choose to act or speak to other characters, but we expect players to be wary of the potential to distress or upset other players. The other themes, if they come up, will only be detailed in turnsheets, although the result of them (such as lasting injuries) may arise in session.
The Oxford University Roleplaying Games Society is committed to ensuring that anyone and everyone can enjoy its games. As such, it recognises that certain behaviours and themes can harm someone’s enjoyment of an event or even cause emotional distress and so endorses this policy on Conduct and Acceptable Themes as of the Extraordinary General Meeting of Hilary Term 2015.
In particular, the rules and guidelines here apply to all OURPGSoc events that are advertised on the termcard (and henceforth referred to as “official”) and behaviour which violates these guidelines at official events will be dealt with as a problem by the Society. An event or game may gain special exemption to the rules in this policy by a majority vote of the Committee or a ruling by the President. Either of these may be overruled by a quorum at a General Meeting.
If someone wishes to advertise other events through official society channels (such as through the Mailing Lists, Facebook Group or Announcements at official events) they must consider whether these guidelines should be followed even though the event is unofficial, and if these guidelines will not be followed they have a duty to give suitable warning of this.
If you wish to organise an event that would violate these guidelines, it cannot be an official event while the society endorses this policy unless it has gained an exemption by a majority vote of the Committee or a ruling by the President, and this has not been overturned by a quorum at a General Meeting.
For this purpose a “suitable warning” should be a simple and direct statement along the lines of “this is an unofficial event and OURPGSoc policies, including the Conduct and Acceptable Themes Policy, do not apply to it”. If you event has its own Conduct and Acceptable Themes Policy differing from the Society’s, it is encouraged that this is linked in any message you send out promoting the event.
If an announcement of an event fails to address whether or not it is held under the Conduct and Acceptable Themes policy, Society members are positively encouraged to ask for public clarification.
The following themes will not be permitted in Official OURPGSoc Events:
Appendix A lists topics that may require careful handling. GMs should make a judgement call as to whether such themes are needed to deliver a better game. GMs should make clear which of the topics in Appendix A a player can expect to come across in a particular game before game start, so each player can make an informed decision as to whether or not they choose to play that particular game. In addition, players are always allowed and should feel comfortable to raise with the GMs, in confidence, any topic which would cause personal distress to them, whether or not it features in Appendix A, and the GMs should do as much as is reasonable to prevent that player coming into contact with that topic.
If a game declares at the start that it will not be including a theme listed in Appendix A, it must not later be included in the game.
The list in Appendix A is not exhaustive and may be added to by majority vote of the committee, and the both added to and removed from during General Meetings by majority vote. The Secretary is responsible for notifying the membership of such change as soon as practicable.
At all times during official games, all participants (GMs or Players) should be able to (and feel comfortable to) ask to pause the roleplaying if a topic is causing distress, and GMs and Players should under no circumstances belittle or shame someone because it caused them distress and should treat all issues raised with confidentiality. Participants should treat issues raised to them in confidence with confidentiality - while they can talk about the issue with others they should do what is reasonable to avoid disclosing identifying information about the person who raised the issue.
Society members are reminded that OURPGSoc is bound by its constitution to conduct its activities in accordance with the following Oxford University polices and codes of conduct: Integrated Equality Policy, Code of Practice on Harassment and Bullying, and Code of Practice on Free Speech. Both In and Out Of Character behaviour should always be held in accordance with these during Society Activities.
In view of sensitivity, members are asked to be careful Out Of Character when discussing issues listed as banned themes or listed in Appendix A. This policy does not aim to censor discussion, but due attention should be paid to the distress that some of these issues may cause to other members.
Attention is also brought to the Oxford University guides on Accessibility for Society Events as in the Constitution. (see http://www.ox.ac.uk/students/welfare/disability)
Due to the nature of Roleplaying Games, it is necessary to maintain a strong divide between In Character (IC) and Out of Character (OC) issues. Not only does this help maintain a good roleplaying experience, but also it maintains an atmosphere in which all should feel comfortable roleplaying.
It should be very obvious that excluding or insulting another player based on an out-of-character attribute is completely unacceptable. To make this clear, consider the following example: Say that Alice is playing an Elven Wizard called Theran in a game where Elves are considered to be jerks. It is fine for other characters to insult Theran for his Elvishness, but not to insult him for Alice’s natural accent.
It is also unacceptable to bring IC grudges into an OC setting or indeed to bring OC grudges into an IC setting. Again, to make this clear, consider the example: Using the previous example, if Bob’s Orc Barbarian, Throg, steals Theran’s magic wand, it is not fair for Alice to exclude or insult Bob out of character (or even in another game) because of this. Similarly, however, Throg should not steal Theran’s magic wand because Alice ate the last biscuit.
Nobody should ever be forced to roleplay with another player who they are uncomfortable with OC. People should respect when this decision is made about them. In situations where a player has requested not to roleplay with a particular GM, or with the event organiser, this should be mitigated as much as is reasonably possible in good faith given the time constraints on GMs and the practicalities of running the session.
Physical contact during games is something that sometimes occurs - particularly in Live Action Roleplaying (LARP) which has its own more specific rules on this. At all times during all events, however, physical contact should be something all players involved with are happy with and agree about, and players should feel comfortable saying if they wish to avoid it.
If you suspect that your character may have reason to have physical contact with another character, make sure you have checked beforehand OC with that player whether they are comfortable with that - this can take the form of blanket consent (e.g. “I’m happy to be hit with LARP weapons during LARP”, “I am happy with physical contact for the course of this campaign”) or more specific consent (e.g. “Do you mind if we join hands while completing this ritual?”). Players are allowed to and should feel comfortable withdrawing consent at any time.
Obviously, certain physical contact is never acceptable during games: unsolicited sexual contact and bodily harm or threat of such through intimidation are both illegal and will be dealt with extremely seriously.
OURPGSoc takes a very firm line on inappropriate behaviour and encourages anyone to feel comfortable raising an issue. In any instance, whoever is organising a game or event is chiefly responsible for dealing with the issue as they see appropriate and in accordance with University regulations (see http://users.ox.ac.uk/~rpgsoc/constitution.shtml), but to allow for circumstances where the issue is with the organiser, the following system is in place to ensure issues can be handled as appropriate:
It is expected that most breaches of this policy will be dealt with either unofficially at the time the incident occurs by Society members, or by a quiet word with the accused by the relevant game organiser. The Society recognises that the fact that an issue has arisen does not mean anyone is necessarily at fault.
Issues should be resolved in good faith in a manner that is appropriate to the matter in hand. For instance, if a player has unintentionally insulted another player, then a simple apology and recognition of fault would be expected, whereas if a breach of the guidelines on OC Behaviour had occurred then it would be more appropriate to consider more serious measures such as removal from the society’s membership under the Constitution and with possible reference to the Senior Member.
Of course, if an issue is perceived to have been resolved unfairly then this should be taken up again with the relevant authority.
Responsibility for promoting an inclusive environment lies with those running and attending the Society and its events.
This policy can be lifted or amended by vote in a General Meeting with quorum.
The following list contains topics that may require careful handling. GMs should make a judgement call as to whether such themes are needed to deliver a better game. Even for themes passing this criterion, GMs may wish to consider if they can be addressed “off screen” (e.g. fade to black). The following list may be added to by majority vote of the committee, and both added to and removed from during General Meetings by majority vote.
If a topic from Appendix A is declared to be included in a game, this declaration should include warnings of how that topic is expected to be portrayed or manifest itself during the game.
The following list contains topics that are likely to appear in many games or may arise unpredictably and therefore their inclusion does not need necessarily to be declared at the start of the game. However, these themes should still be handled sensitively, and GMs should consider whether or not an explicit note about how these topics will manifest themselves in a game is necessary.