Conduct and Acceptable Themes Policy

We as the Ventures 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, Ventures is subject to the OURPGSoc CAT Policy and it is essential that 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 Ventures. 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, Harry W, via Email. 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 of all players. If you have a concern about the head GM, please contact the Society President, Konstantine, either on Discord or through Email.

All Ventures 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. Ventures characters must also be developmentally adults, even if they are not necessarily over 18 years of age. This means that they would have all the freedom of adulthood, as well as the emotional intelligence and capacity for reasoning expected of adults in the real world. For example, an Android character could have been constructed 5 years ago, and may lack life experience, but could still reasonably behave like an adult, expected to understand the consequences of their actions and make well informed judgements.

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.

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.

• 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
• Use of real-world discriminatory slurs
• Suicide and self-harm as an expression of emotional distress
• Miscarriage and stillbirth
• Discrimination on the basis of gender or sex, sexual orientation (e.g. homophobia), gender identity (e.g. transphobia), real world ethnicity or race, real world nationality, real world religion or faith, or neurodivergence
• Discrimination on the basis of physical disability or mental health condition
  • Themes that in the real world relate to discrimination on these bases may come up in Ventures, like with current bioengineering technology. However, in the world of Ventures, this should not result in discrimination on the basis of physical or mental ability. In Ventures, while people who have inherent, modified abilities will be differently abled, and may perform better than others without modifications in certain fields, it is not permitted for people OC or IC to invoke this maliciously. Characters should feel like they are able to survive and thrive without needing Augmentations. Despite this, we do recognise that aspects of the game might stray close to sensitive themes around disability and mental health, including matters of equality/equity, so please get in contact if you have concerns.
• Eating disorders
  • It is possible that characters may go hungry if stranded and isolated from food, but this should not be likened to an eating disorder.
• Forced abortion
• Incest
• Torture
  • Physical or psychological abuse of prisoners is not allowed. However, other things that might resemble torture (some physical conflicts) might come up, but we consider this broader definition as just “extreme violence”, not torture.
• Cannibalism
  • In Ventures, this refers to the consumption of a sapient species by any sapient species, not necessarily the same. Sapient species eating non-sapient species (and vice versa) is not considered cannibalism, and is permitted.
• Genital mutilation
• Child abuse
• Genocide denial
• Real world current/historical figures and events
  • Ventures is set in an alternate universe, and does not share history with the real world. Meta-level or OC references to our reality are allowed (provided it does not fall under other unacceptable themes), on the understanding that any reference made within the context of Ventures is distinct from the real world thing, since our real world history does not exist in setting.

These are themes that we suspect may become relevant in Ventures. Although they are allowed, they should be handled with care, and may come with some caveats to inclusion. Appropriate content warnings will always be given. If you have any particular themes you do not want brought up at all, please include them in your OC notes.

• Consensual sexual activity
  • This may arise, but will be left implied and not narrated.
• Extreme violence and extreme gore
  • This will be locked behind the “More Gore” Playstyle Quirk. Without the Quirk, injury and conflict may occur, but detailed descriptions (such as narration of blood) will not be given.
• Childbirth and pregnancy
  • While childbirth may occur, no explicit descriptions of the process will be given.
• Medical malpractice
  • While medical procedures in Ventures do not meet real world ethical standards, it will be clearly communicated IC and OC if a procedure is dangerous or experimental. Medical professionals will not gaslight patients.
• Discrimination on the basis of fictional species and fictional nationality
  • This may arise as results of aspects of the worldbuilding, such as historical tensions on Kallimar. There are physiological differences between the various species, and it may result in some being more physically able to perform certain activities, and hence be chosen to do these over other species. This is not intended as a real world analogy, and should not be invoked maliciously, such as refusing to speak to Balra characters because of their species.
• Discrimination on the basis of fictional religion or faith
  • It is possible that members of certain faiths or belief systems may experience conflicting ideas and problems. This is not intended to be an analogy for any real world religions or faiths. Please handle this theme sensitively, and talk to us if you have concerns about boundaries.
• Systemic/chattel slavery
  • Defined as when a specific marginalised group is enslaved and discriminated against on a systemic level. This has existed in the world of Ventures and may be referenced IC as history, but will be depicted by us and is seen in-universe as morally wrong. It will not occur during the course of the game.
• Modern Day slavery and human trafficking.
  • Ventures will depict facets of capitalism, which may reference, or draw close to the boundaries of, aspects of modern-day slavery. We do not intend to have modern-day slavery as a theme, and you can play Ventures and not interact with it at all, but, as in the real world, the boundaries between problematic working conditions and modern-day slavery may be blurry, and it is permitted to discuss this. Trafficking sapient beings is not allowed.
• Mind control or other means of removing agency
  • This will be locked behind the “Mindbender” Playstyle Quirk. If you do not take the Quirk, you will not experience this theme. Even if you do take the Quirk, you may not experience it, depending on the situations you end up in.
• Emotional/physical abuse, e.g. domestic abuse or bullying
  • Please be particularly mindful of the IC/OC divide here, and the wellbeing of your fellow players. The game is meant to be fun.
• Animal abuse
  • Animals (typically non-sapient creatures without capacity for reasoning) may be injured, and meat may be hunted for. Suffering of animals will not be described in detail.
• Eugenics
  • Genetic modification does exist, but the larger societal considerations of eugenics (such as population control), will be left implicit, and not described in detail. The population control aspect is prohibited from being invoked during the play of the game. This includes societally-mandated erasure of disabilities/mental health conditions.
• Genocide
  • Due to the galactic scale of the game, events leading to mass death, both from artificial and natural sources may arise. In all cases, genocide is and should be seen as morally wrong, and cannot discriminate based on those aspects which are prohibited.
• Colonialism
  • Any reference or analogy to specific real world colonial powers is prohibited. While settlement of space is allowed and enabled by Influence mechanics, most outposts created will be in space devoid of sapient life. While a range of attitudes exist in setting towards space, the prevailing purpose for the Cartographers is to discover space, not conquer it, although this ideal is not shared universally. Exerting control over people and the place they occupy is generally seen as morally wrong IC, even among groups who support space expansion.
• Degenerative diseases or cancer
• Gambling
• Homelessness
  • This may arise in terms of people being displaced due to incidents. We do not intend to explore themes related to real world, modern homelessness.
• Indiscriminate violence
• Physical disability

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.

• Mental illness
• Suicide and self-harm as anything but an expression of emotional distress, e.g. self-sacrifice
• Drug or alcohol addiction
  • Criminal irresponsibility while under the effects of alcohol/drugs should not come up.
• Terrorism in all its forms, including state terrorism
• Other real-world biases and discrimination not covered within Appendix B
  • Except where the bias concerns material unique to the real world and not applicable to Ventures, in which case it is not permitted.
• Dieting
• Chronic illnesses