Code of Conduct

This is a living document updated as of 2/9/23.

The games I, Chris Rugger (a Dungeon Master [DM], Games Master [GM], player and the sole owner of this website), participate in, and the community I build with you, should provide a safe, diverse, and engaging space. Everyone participating in them—including, but not limited to in-person games, direct messages (individual and group), and Discord—is required to agree to the following Code of Conduct.

My games are, and our games together should be, dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, neurotype, physical appearance, body, age, race, ethnicity, nationality, language, or religion. We do not tolerate harassment of participants in any form.

Participating in my games and the community around them constitutes acknowledgement and acceptance to abide by this Code of Conduct both within and outside of our games and community, including, but not limited to, digital and physical spaces. 

Anyone who violates this Code of Conduct may be sanctioned or expelled from the games at my discretion.

PRINCIPLES
In accordance with this Code of Conduct, all players shall function within the following principles:

  1. Safety. All games run for our players must use, explain, and support safety tools. This isn't to eliminate challenging content, but to make sure that everyone knows the bounds and has given consent. For more on that see our Play Guidelines and Tools of the Table presented below.

  2. Consideration. That safety doesn't end at the gaming table, but extends into our community spaces. I ask that in those spaces you consider your words and their impact. It is vital that we all can offer opinions and discuss issues, but that should be done in a spirit of support, kindness, and inclusivity. Think about your intent and act in those spaces with integrity and love. Be positive and supportive of others as you would hope they would be of you.

  3. Creativity. Players should be supportive and kind. They should think about the impact of their words, the privilege they hold, and the relative position of those they interact with. Where possible, criticisms should offer solutions and alternatives. Personal attacks, even indirect subtweeting, should be avoided. Don't hurt one another and don't mock or erase someone's life or experience. Do think about how you can model and support ideas which create rather than destroy.

PLAY GUIDELINES
In the course of exemplifying the Principles, all members of our community shall function within the following guidelines:

  • Respect player pronouns and character pronouns; routinely reaffirm these throughout play and at the start of each session

  • Practice regular check-ins for enthusiastic consent of game content

  • Respect player autonomy and practice regular check-ins to affirm enthusiastic agreement of game development

  • Clearly declare the concept, aim, tone, & subject matter (including clear content warnings) of every game we share

  • Explain and incorporate some form of tools for safe play (e.g. X-Card, Lines & Veils, etc) into every game we share

  • Plan regular breaks and outline the schedule for them at the start of each session

  • When wishing to record and/or publicly share a game session, post as such in the event description to notify potential participants before they RSVP

  • In the event a player requests that a gaming session not be shared after-the-fact, honor the request not to share the recorded session

TOOLS OF THE TABLE
Games I organize are expected to use tools for safe, welcoming play. To read about the Tools of the Table, click here (provided by The Gauntlet RPG Community).

DEFINITIONS
Harassment includes:

  • Offensive comments related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, neurotype, physical appearance, body, age, race, ethnicity, nationality, language, or religion

  • Unwelcome comments regarding a person’s lifestyle choices and practices, including those related to food, health, parenting, drugs, and employment

  • Deliberate use of incorrect name or pronouns, including misgendering or use of ‘dead’ or rejected names

  • Gratuitous or off-topic sexual images or behaviour in spaces where they’re not appropriate

  • Physical contact and simulated physical contact (eg, textual descriptions like “hug” or “backrub”) without consent or after a request to stop

  • Derogatory comments that refer to a particular person without directly mentioning them, especially for, but not limited to, means of mockery or criticism (eg, “subtweeting” or “vaguebooking”)

  • Making intentionally false communications, either written, spoken, or posted on any social media, that harms a player’s reputation

  • Stealing or misappropriation of any property (including digital) belonging to another player, without the express permission of the player

  • Acting in a manner that endangers the health or safety of another person

  • Exhibiting disorderly conduct, including but not limited to, abuse of controlled substances or overt drunkenness

  • Bringing any weaponry (including realistic prop weaponry), firearms, dangerous chemicals, or any materials specifically banned by the DM and/or venue space to a my activity or event in either physical or digital spaces

  • Defacing property

  • Any social media posting reflecting any of the above behavior occurring at my event or activity

  • Threats of violence

  • Incitement of violence towards any individual, including encouraging a person to commit suicide or to engage in self-harm

  • Deliberate intimidation

  • Stalking or following, including both physical and digital spaces

  • Harassing photography or recording, including logging online activity for harassment purposes

  • Sustained disruption of discussion

  • Unwelcome sexual attention

  • Pattern of inappropriate social contact, such as requesting/assuming inappropriate levels of intimacy with others

  • Continued one-on-one communication after requests to cease

  • Deliberate “outing” of any aspect of a person’s identity without their consent except as necessary to protect other players or other vulnerable people from intentional abuse

  • Publication of non-harassing private communication via any platform without consent by the involved parties


I prioritize marginalized people’s safety over privileged people’s comfort. To that effect, I reserve the right to not act on retaliatory complaints or other attempts to weaponize this Code of Conduct or other community processes. Such bad faith actions include, but are not limited to:

  • complaints of ‘reverse’ -isms, including ‘reverse racism,’ ‘reverse sexism,’ and ‘cisphobia’.

  • complaints against the reasonable communication of boundaries, such as “leave me alone,” “go away,” or “I’m not discussing this with you.”

  • complaints of someone communicating in a ‘tone’ you don’t find congenial.

  • complaints against criticisms of racist, sexist, cissexist, or otherwise oppressive behavior or assumptions.​

REPORTING
If you experience disrespectful or harassing behavior by a player, notice that someone else is being disrespected or harassed, or have any other concerns, please immediately contact Chris Rugger via email at chris@alwaysathief.com.

ENFORCEMENT & CONSEQUENCES
Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately.

If a participant engages in harassing behavior, I may take any action deemed appropriate, up to and including expulsion from the game and identification of the participant as a harasser to other players or the general public. 

​If you are uncomfortable putting your complaint in writing, I will create a written complaint and ask you to review and correct it and to then approve the final version. I will then maintain this in a confidential file.

You should be assured that there will be no retaliation against you for making good faith claims.

THANKS
This policy was based on the existing Gauntlet Community Code of Conduct, which is based on XOXO Community Code of Conduct, which is itself based on resources provided by Geek Feminism, and borrows heavily from similar open source policies authored by JSConf AU and Django.
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This policy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. We encourage other events to adopt (and enforce) similar policies by using and remixing ours.