Show pageBacklinksBack to top This page is read only. You can view the source, but not change it. Ask your administrator if you think this is wrong. ====== Conduct and Acceptable Themes Policy ====== **If you have any questions about our handling of sensitive themes, as detailed below, please feel free to contact the GMs at [[gm@contagion.oxfordrpg.com]].** The //Contagion// GM team wish for this game to be an enjoyable and memorable experience for all those involved. The Conduct and Acceptable Themes Policy, also known as the CAT Policy, is the method by which we set out our handling of sensitive themes that we expect to, or that might, arise. Our intention is to provide you with knowledge of what to expect, including a list of themes we expect to require sensitive handling, and a list of themes that are relegated to certain parts of this game (e.g. backstory-only), or entirely disallowed. As with any such list, we do not claim to be comprehensive -- if you wish to raise a concern about a theme not addressed in the policy below, you can do so by contacting the GM team (see above). As an official [[https://oxfordrpg.com|ORPGSoc]] Society Game //Contagion// is subject to the ORPGSoc [[https://oxfordrpg.com/CATPolicy2025.pdf|CAT Policy]], and it is **essential** that all persons involved familiarise themselves with **both** this and the //Contagion// policies before playing. This wiki page, in some cases, reiterates the ORPGSoc Policy, and in some cases adds specific elaborations that apply to //Contagion.// Regardless of the CAT Policy, **all players, crew members, and GMs should treat each other with respect**. If someone asks, out of character, that you stop roleplaying a particular theme or topic around them, there is no expectation that a reason be provided, and **you are expected to respect this request and stop**. Whilst we use the following policy as a guideline for how themes should appear and be handled, its purpose is not to define parameters, but to create a game environment where all participants, including GMs, can feel comfortable. Therefore, where issues arise, they will be handled on a case-by-case basis, and the GM team reserve the right to exercise discretion and to make a final call as to the action to be taken. Furthermore, the policy wording should not always be taken literally, and attempting to bypass the policy by appealing to the wording instead of to its spirit and intent will not be tolerated. Repeated and/or intentional violations of this policy may be grounds for a player to be removed from the game. If you feel the CAT policy has been breached, you can reach out to any member of the GM team via [[gm@contagion.oxfordrpg.com|email]]. If you have a concern about a particular GM or crew member, you can reach out to the CAMPO, Tara S, via [[tara.sehgal@balliol.ox.ac.uk|email.]] If you have a concern about the behaviour or actions of the CAMPO, you can contact the Society President, Faith C, via [[faith.williams@stcatz.ox.ac.uk|email]], or the Society Welfare Officer, Jasper H, also via [[jasper.hopkins@stcatz.ox.ac.uk|email]]. Issues raised will be handled to the best of our ability, and with the safety and comfort of all players as the foremost concern. ===== Player and Character Age ===== All //Contagion// players must be **17 years or older** to play. Most players will be above the age of 18. If you are under 18 years of age, you **must** disclose this to the GM team for safeguarding reasons. All //Contagion// player characters must be **over 18 years of age.** ===== General Notes: Conduct ===== Society Games have [[uptime_and_sessions#safety_calls|safety calls]] that all participants **must** familiarise themselves with, and these must be respected, with no questions asked, during sessions, both Uptime and Downtime. These are: * **Stop.** This call is used when a conversation that your character is in makes you uncomfortable OC and you want it to stop. When this call is made, the current topic of the conversation will be dropped and moved on from, no questions asked. * **Down.** This call is for situations where you are okay with the topic continuing but need the intensity of the situation to be decreased. Again, no questions asked. * **Out.** This call can be used to simply remove yourself from the conversation if you are uncomfortable, or for any other reason. Due to the nature of roleplaying games, it is both important and essential to maintain a strong divide between the IC world and the OC world. This is often referred to as 'maintaining the IC/OC divide,' and in practice means being aware of and careful that arguments, tensions, and other intense features of the IC world do not affect relations between persons in the real world. Similarly, it is good practice to be careful not to bring OC feelings IC. ===== PvP ===== We foresee that physical PvP could feature in this game. PvP in Turnsheets -- whether it succeeds and how it succeeds -- will be handled on a case-by-case basis, since both players' Playstyle and Gameplay Quirks will be taken into account. PvP in Uptimes may occur in the form of a pre-planned scene between two players that GMs are told about in advance and have approved. In all cases, including emails, remember the [[:uptime_and_sessions#safety_calls|Uptimes and Sessions]] and to check for general consent before roleplaying something involving emotional intensity or the chance to cause physical injury. ===== Requesting Not to Roleplay with Someone ===== You may request not to roleplay with another player or GM at any point during the game, via email or Discord message. You may also request for this ask to remain confidential. The GM team will do our best to ensure that you come into contact with said person as little as possible, but please note that asking to keep confidentiality will prevent us from asking said person not to roleplay with you. ===== Themes that are Not Permitted ===== This section lists themes that may not show up in any part of //Contagion,// whether during a session or in backstory. * Child abuse * Dieting * For the purposes of this section, dieting **does not** include adopting a dietary pattern as a response to food scarcity. * Dieting **does** refer to altering intake for the sake of intentionally modifying shape or weight. * Discrimination on the basis of gender or sex * Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation e.g. homophobia * Discrimination on the basis of gender identity e.g. transphobia, misogyny * Discrimination on the basis of physical disability * Discrimination on the basis of real-world ethnicity, nationality, race, or religion * //Contagion// takes place in a world much like ours, with distinct countries, territories, and regions that in some cases formed as the result of tension or conflict. All such entities are fictional, as are all corresponding features of personal or group identity (for example, ethnicities) and all tensions or conflicts. No parallels are intended between any of these and any real-world entities, nor should any be drawn. * Eating disorders * For the purposes of this section, eating disorders are those motivated by shape, weight, or control, rather than altered eating patterns in response to the environment. * Eugenics * For the purposes of this section, eugenics **does not** include discussions about increasing the chance of desirable inherent characteristics by means that are consensual and non-reproductive in nature, or attempts to do so. For example, it is permissible to attempt to create a medicine with the goal of increasing the strength of the taker's immune system, and with the aim in mind that the characteristic will be inherited by future generations. * Forced abortion * Genital mutilation * Genocide * It is **not permissible** to contemplate or act towards the eradication of the members of a group based on their membership to that group, **with the single exception of contemplations or actions relating to the eradication of those sustaining or suspected to have sustained the contagion.** * Incest * We understand that post-apocalyptic settings and small, constricted communities can provoke concerns about inbreeding depression. This topic will not be explored in //Contagion//. * Real-world current figures or events * Real-world historical figures or events * Torture * For the purposes of this section, torture includes deliberately causing, or knowingly causing, harm to another being: * for the sake of causing harm, or; * out of a sense of enjoyment, or; * as a form of punishment or coercion. * Deliberate infliction of harm on another for reasons not listed above does not automatically come under this clause, but will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. * Sexual assault, sexual coercion or any other form of non-consensual sexual activity * Sexual activity with those lacking the capacity to consent, e.g. children * Sexual harassment * Slavery or human trafficking * Suicide and self-harm as an expression of emotional distress * Use of real-world discriminatory slurs ===== Sensitive Themes that May Occur ===== This section includes themes that we suspect may become relevant, or that we plan to make relevant. Although these are allowed, they should be handled with sensitivity, and may come with some caveats to inclusion. Appropriate content warnings will be given by the GMs where these are included in turnsheets, and as a player, you should be mindful that other players might have reservations or wish to be excluded from relevant roleplay -- in these cases, refer to [[uptime_and_sessions|safety calls]]. If there are any themes below which you wish to avoid entirely, please include them in your [[character_creation#character_creation|OC notes]] during Character Creation. **There are some themes listed below that we cannot guarantee that it will be entirely possible to avoid, usually because they are fundamental to the genre. Please read with care.** * Cannibalism * Direct experience with this will be limited and moderated by a player's choice in [[quirks#playstyle_quirks|Playstyle Quirks]]. See the clauses on 'Extreme violence' and 'Extreme gore' below. * Changes to diet patterns as a result of food scarcity * Degenerative disease or cancer * The contagion is the only fictional illness being explored in this game. It is not intended to serve as a direct parallel for any single real-life disease, although it shares its symptoms and effects with various real-life diseases. As such, it can cause a number of degenerative effects on characters who sustain it. It is the only degenerative disease that will feature in this game. Players must [[quirks|opt in]] in order to sustain the contagion. * However, because it is fundamental to the game, we cannot guarantee that a gameplay experience will be completely absent of references to symptoms of degenerative disease, for reasons such as overhearing other players' discussions in Uptime sessions. * It is **not permissible** for any real-world degenerative disease or cancer to feature in any aspect of //Contagion.// * Discrimination on the basis of **fictional** ethnicity, nationality, race, or religion * //Contagion// takes place in a world much like ours, with distinct countries, territories, and regions that in some cases formed as the result of tension or conflict. Additionally, 'faiths' are a worldbuilding element which intersect with ethnicity, nationality, race, and religion in the sense that they are features of personal or group identity that a character might have a strong attachment to. * It is permissible for your character to hold a prejudice against another fictional group based on their country/territory/region of origin, or based on the faith that they follow. * It is **not permissible** for your character to invoke prejudice as a defence for targeted hate speech or violence, nor should targeted hate speech or violent acts feature as an element of backstory. * It is **not permissible** for your character to invoke prejudice which targets a specific other individual because of their country/territory/region of origin or faith. * Discrimination on the basis of mental health condition, mental ill health, or neurodivergence * We, the //Contagion// GM team, wish to make clear our OC stance: There is no intention for aspects of this game exploring the treatment of persons with mental health conditions or neurodivergence in a post-apocalyptic setting to serve as a metaphor for the 'right way' to treat people. * The team also wish to make the note that mental health conditions and neurodivergences are not the same and cannot usually be equated as having the same meaning. They are contained in the same subheading for the purposes of this policy because they are handled the same way in //Contagion.// * The opt-in mechanical system dubbed 'paranoia' is neither a literal nor metaphorical representation of any mental disorder with paranoia as a symptom, including Paranoid Personality Disorder (PPD). It is a fictionalised experience of this symptom which does not intend to parallel real-life pathology. * It is **not permissible** for characters to invoke prejudice against groups of people or individuals on the basis of mental health conditions, symptoms of mental ill health, or neurodivergence that would lead to their treatment as fundamentally different to other people, **with the single exception of persons sustaining or suspected to have sustained an altered mental state as a result of 'paranoia'**. * Emotional/physical abuse, e.g. domestic abuse or bullying * It is permissible for instances of intimidation through verbal or physical threats to occur during gameplay. * It is permissible for emotional or physical abuse to feature as part of a player's backstory. We ask that you abstain from using a player-created NPC to bring an abusive relationship from backstory into active gameplay. * On the same note, it is **not permissible** to form in-game abusive relationships with other characters. As a general guideline, if a relationship features consistent and recurrent instances of intimidation, manipulation, or coercion, it is likely to fall under this category. * Extreme violence, and detailed violence * On-screen violence is a hallmark of zombie and post-apocalyptic media, and //Contagion// is no exception. However, we endeavour to give players agency over both the level of **intensity** and the level of **detail** that their game experience will have. For further information, please see the relevant quirks, [[quirks|'Hit Me Harder' and 'Gore']]. * Despite the above, since violence is fundamental to the genre of the game, we cannot guarantee that gameplay will be completely absent of references to it, for reasons such as overhearing other players' discussions in Uptime sessions. * Extreme gore, and detailed gore * On-screen gore is given a similar treatment to on-screen violence in //Contagion//. For further information, please see the relevant quirk, [[quirks|'Gore']]. * Despite the above, since gore is fundamental to the genre of the game, we cannot guarantee that gameplay will be completely absent of references to it, for reasons such as overhearing other players' discussions in Uptime sessions. * Gambling * Genocide * Please see the 'Themes That Are Not Permitted' section for further detail. * Genocide denial * It is **not permissible** for a character to lie about their intentions or actions they have committed toward the eradication of the members of a group based on their membership to that group, **with the single exception of intentions or actions relating to the eradication of those sustaining or suspected to have sustained the contagion**. * Indiscriminate violence * You must seek OC permission from involved players **and** GMs well in advance if you wish to act out pre-planned PVP in an Uptime. * Medical malpractice * Acceptable medical procedures and acceptable standards of care are key points of contention in the world of //Contagion//. While NPCs and other IC sources of information about medical procedures may be unhelpful, negligent, or inaccurate, GMs will not lie to players OC nor will they omit important details about the nature of these procedures when asked directly. * Mind control or other means of removing agency * There will be no instances of direct mind control. * Characters can be impacted by the opt-in [[quirks#paranoia|paranoia mechanical system]] and/or by sustaining the contagion, both of which are ways in which their agency might be constrained. Please see the linked pages for further details. * Other real-world biases and discrimination not covered within Appendix B * It is permissible for your character to hold a prejudice against another fictional group or against individuals on the basis of class differences. It is **not permissible** for your character to invoke this prejudice as a defence for targeted hate speech or violence, nor should targeted hate speech or violent acts feature as an element of backstory. * It is permissible for your character to hold a prejudice against the fictional group of individuals suspected or confirmed to have sustained the contagion. Please review the rest of this section carefully with respect to other clauses about discrimination. * Physical disability * Suicide and self-harm as anything but an expression of emotional distress, e.g. self-sacrifice * Suicide and/or self-harm as means of self-sacrifice in light of a life-or-death situation are likely to arise in this game, for example, in the form of amputations to reduce the spread of infection. * Terrorism in all its forms, including state terrorism ===== Further Sensitive Themes ===== These are themes we are not expecting to arise, but that may arise unexpectedly nonetheless. Similarly to themes in the section immediately prior, these should be handled sensitively and may come with caveats as to their inclusion. * Animal abuse * Instances of violence against animals, notably hunting for food or sport, and the use of animals as test subjects, may be referred to in Downtime (emails or Turnsheets) or in backstory. It is permissible for players to commit or refer to such events, being mindful to provide warnings where a write-up consists of explicit details. * It is **not permissible** for an animal who is a companion or pet to another character, whether named or unnamed, to be the subject of any acts of violence. * Chronic illnesses * Consensual sexual activity * This topic may arise in-game, but must be treated in a "fade-to-black" manner -- it should be left implied and not narrated. * Childbirth * This topic may be referenced or be a significant part of a player's backstory, but we would ask you to refrain from extensive detail, and do not expect it to arise actively in-game. * Drug or alcohol addiction * Mental illness * Please see the clause entitled 'Discrimination on the basis of mental health condition, or neurodivergence' in the previous section. * Miscarriage and stillbirth * This topic may be referenced or be a significant part of a player's backstory, but we would ask you to refrain from extensive detail, and do not expect it to arise actively in-game. * Pregnancy * This topic may arise in-game or be a significant part of a player's backstory, but we would ask you to refrain from extensive detail. cat_policy.txt Last modified: 2025/10/09 15:48by gm_tara