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equality_and_themes

Equality and Themes

All games run by the Oxford University Role-Playing Games Society are subject to the Conduct and Acceptable Themes Policy which can be found on the OURPGSoc website. It is expected that all GMs and players will be familiar with this policy when playing Princess.

Princess is fundamentally a horror game. It is intended to be dark and it is intended that things will occur during the game to scare and terrify characters – the GM team does not, however, want to make players uncomfortable. Therefore, please find below a list of potentially upsetting topics which may be present in the game, as well as a statement on how you as a player can avoid topics that may be included that you would rather avoid.

It is worth noting that all real-life prejudices from the Conduct and Themes Policy are not permitted in Princess, but we do not wish to discourage characters from having any prejudices. We welcome characters with prejudices based on the current situation, for example: characters who have low opinions of people who have never been in Space; characters who have Opinions about people who could (or couldn't) afford their own Spaceship; anarchists vs capitalists; and so on. If you're unsure about a prejudice you're intending your character to explore, do email the GMs.

Avoiding Topics

There is a wide variety of horror that may appear in Princess, but the GM team recognise that people have OOC discomfort with certain varieties of horror and OOC phobias. As such, we would like players to let us know if there are any such topics that they wish to avoid – we will explicitly ask you to do this at Character Creation, but this can also be done at any time during the game. The GMs will do what they reasonably can to avoid bringing these topics into your game and your turnsheets.

We cannot promise that other players will not interact with the topic you are not comfortable with and bring it up IC (or indeed that NPCs may accidentally bring it up), but in this case you should simply immediately request OOC to not talk about it to you (the phrase “I am uncomfortable OC” should suffice) and we ask all players respect that request should it be made. However, we're all human and there are a lot of players to remember, so please try not to hold it against us or other players if we mess up from time to time!

Potentially Sensitive Themes That May Occur

Themes listed here may occur during the course of Princess. They may be brought in by GMs or may be brought in by players through the medium of their defined “Deep Dark Fear” (see Character Creation).

  • Self-harm
  • Consensual Sexual Contact
  • Extreme Violence
  • Extreme Gore
    • In particular as regards specific phobias, it is possible that “Medical Horror” may occur.
  • Eating Disorders
    • The Fleet represents the last stragglers of humanity on a mission of survival. Food supplies and maintenance of these represents a real issue for the Fleet and consequently serious discussion of eating disorders may well occur.
  • Discrimination on the basis of physical disability or mental health condition
    • Princess is a horror survival game in a dark setting. It is highly likely that characters may lose hands, limbs, or become physically disabled while fighting for their continued survival. While we are not banning this topic completely, the GM team consider it more appropriate for your characters to take physical disability as a sign of the severity of the situation, and for characters to moderate their language appropriately. Please note that the use of real-world slurs to describe other people is banned under the CAT policy.
  • Incest
  • Torture
  • Slavery
    • At the time that humanity left Earth, and at the commencement of the game, slavery is entirely illegal.
  • Mind Control and other means of removing agency
  • Domestic Abuse
  • Mental Illness
  • Physical Disability
  • Suicide

This list is not exhaustive. Themes that are not listed here or in the list below may appear in the game.

Forbidden Themes

The following list of themes will not appear in Princess. They may not appear as your character's “Deep Dark Fear” and the GM team will immediately reject any character concept that involves these themes.

  • Sexual assault, sexual coercion, or any other form of non-consensual sex (this applies to all OURPGSoc Games)
  • Sex with minors (this applies to all OURPGSoc Games)
  • Use of real-world discriminatory slurs (this applies to all OURPGSoc Games)
  • Miscarriage and Stillbirth
    • It can be presumed that a baby will be born alive unless its mother is killed before the baby is born. It can be presumed that there will be no debate around this and that any attempts to kill a child while the mother is pregnant or during childbirth without the consent of the mother will fail without discussion.
  • Forced abortion
    • We are not interested in dealing with the issues surrounding abortion in this game; pregnancies will only occur with the consent of all parties, and once conception has occurred the baby will be born alive unless its mother is killed before birth (see Miscarriage and Stillbirth) or makes a free choice to abort the pregnancy.
  • Genital mutilation
  • Discrimination on the basis of gender or sex
    • Society in Princess has always considered all genders equal. It does not make sense for your character to be prejudiced on the basis of gender or sex.
  • Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation (e.g. homophobia)
    • Society in Princess has always considered all sexual orientations equal. It does not make sense for your character to be prejudiced on the basis of sexual orientation. IVF techniques in Princess are advanced enough that sexual orientation is not a concern for the continuation of the human race.
  • Discrimination on the basis of gender identity (e.g. transphobia)
    • Society in Princess has always considered all genders equal. It does not make sense for your character to be prejudiced on the basis of gender or sex.
  • Discrimination on the basis of real-world ethnicity or race
    • The Fleet in Princess represents the last remnants of humanity fighting for survival, and Society prior to the exodus from Earth had long since considered those of all races or ethnicities equal. It does not make sense for your character to be prejudiced on the basis of ethnicity or race.
  • Discrimination on the basis of nationality, religion or faith
    • The Fleet in Princess represents the last remnants of humanity from across the globe fighting for survival, and Society prior to the exodus from Earth had long since considered those of all faiths equal. It does not make sense for your character to be prejudiced on the basis of nationality, religion or faith. In particular, while we have no problem with characters from specified nations, or of specific religions or faiths, we ask that such characters and their opinions are portrayed with due sensitivity so as to not cause offence out of character.
equality_and_themes.txt · Last modified: 2016/04/19 07:20 by gm_tom