Table of Contents

Conduct and Themes

“For your own safety, please mind the gap between the train and the platform.”
—Ancient adage of the Line’s stations.

We as the Terminus GM team wish for the game to be an enjoyable and memorable experience for all players involved. The following page concerns various sensitive themes and topics and how we intend to handle them, and advises a sensitive approach for players on dealing with these same themes within the Society Game.

The Conduct and Acceptable Themes Policy, also known as the CAT Policy, is the method by which we set out what themes we expect will or may come up in play, providing players with full knowledge of what themes to expect and how they will be handled. As an official OURPGSoc game, Terminus is subject to the OURPGSoc CAT Policy and it is highly recommended players familiarise themselves with this policy before playing for awareness of what themes are allowed and disallowed. This page in some cases reiterates and in some cases adds more specific restrictions and clarifications that apply to Terminus. Regardless of the CAT Policy, all players and GMs should treat each other with respect. If someone else asks out of character that you stop roleplaying a particular theme or topic around them, for any or no reason, respect their boundaries and stop.

We aim to create an environment in which all players can feel safe and comfortable. Whilst we use the following policy as a guideline in how themes in our game will appear and be handled, the policy should not always be taken literally and attempting to reason to the wording instead of the spirit of the policy will not be tolerated.

Many of the themes presented here and in this game are complicated and nuanced. If you have any questions about our explanations of, or our presentation of, certain themes, please feel free to contact the GMs.

If you feel the CAT policy has been breached, you can reach out to any member of the GM team. If you have a concern about a particular GM, you can reach out to the head GM, Konstantine, via email (rather than the usual game address, as those emails are seen by all the GMs). Any such issues will be handled with the specific case in mind and we will do our best to account for the safety and comfort for all players. If you have a concern about the head GM, please contact the Society President, Sophia, either on Discord or through email.

Age

All Terminus players must be 16 years or older to play. Most players will be between the ages of 18 and 30. If you are under 18 years of age, you must disclose this to the GM team for safeguarding reasons. Terminus characters must also be 18 years old or older.

Requesting not to roleplay with someone

You may request not to roleplay with another player or GM before or at any point during the game, and we will do our best to ensure that you come into contact with that person as little as possible. You may ask us to inform that person of your request or you may keep your request confidential, though keeping the request confidential will prevent us from asking that person not to roleplay with you during the course of the game.

Conduct

Society Games have certain safety calls that players must familiarise themselves with and respect in-session.

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. This is generally referred to as the OC/IC divide, and means that all arguments, tension, or other in-character feelings should not spill into the real world. Similarly, OC feelings should not be brought IC.

Themes that are not permitted

Sensitive themes that may occur

These are themes that we suspect may become relevant in Terminus.

Further sensitive themes

These are themes we are not expecting in the game, but nonetheless may arise unpredictably. These should be handled sensitively both by GMs and players.