Conduct and Themes Policy

“When you find your way to follow us with joy in your heart and trust in God, that is when your greatest works will be done.”
—Dadanama, February 3736

We as the Conviction GM team wish for Conviction to be an enjoyable and memorable experience for all of those players involved. We recognise that some of the themes of the game are potentially upsetting, and wish to ensure that players have the opportunity to remain comfortable nevertheless.

The Conduct and 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 RPGSoc game, Conviction is subject to the RPGSoc Conduct and Acceptable Themes Policy and it is highly recommended players familiarize 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 that apply to Conviction. 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 will use the following policy as a guideline in how themes in our game will appear and be handled, the policy should not be always taken literally and attempting to reason to the wording instead of the spirit of the policy will not be accepted or tolerated.

We acknowledge that 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 via email.

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 (or CAMPO), Andrew, via email at andrew.kenyon-roberts@merton.ox.ac.uk (rather than the usual game address, as those emails are seen by all the GMs). If you have a concern about the head GM, please contact the Society President, Ivan, at ivan.chernyshov@st-hughs.ox.ac.uk.

All Conviction players must be 16 years old or older. 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. Conviction characters must also be 16 years old or older.

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.

The GMs will avoid references to these themes during the game and ask you to do the same, both in your interactions with other players and with GMs.

• 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
• Self-harm and suicide as a way of expressing emotional distress
  • Self-sacrifice as a way of acheiving some other goal is permitted. While deliberately causing suffering as a demonic sacrifice occurs in the setting, this will not take the form of self-sacrifice.
• Miscarriage and stillbirth
• Discrimination on the basis of gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, physical disability, mental health condition or real-world ethnicity or race
• Eating disorders
• Forced abortion
• Incest
• Cannibalism
• Domestic abuse
• Genital mutilation
• Child abuse
  • Children may be included as victims of indiscriminate disasters, but will not be singled out as targets.
• Eugenics
• Real-world figures and events
  • While the setting draws inspiration from real-world regimes and religions, none of it is meant to be directly analogous to specific real-world cultures or religions.

• Discrimination on the basis of religion or faith
  • Government control of religious beliefs is one of the core themes of the game, and various other forms of this may occur. While the in-character religion draws significant inspiration from real-world religions, it is not intended to be a direct analogue to a specific one. Also, it is intended that various beliefs, including faithful and not, are viable stances characters could take, even if that is not IC allowed.
• Degenerative diseases, such as cancer
• Sex
  • While it may occur and be referenced in game, this will not be directly portrayed. If it occurs in turnsheets, a fade-to-black style approach will be used.
• Extreme violence
  • Certain acts of demons, witches, angels, saints, and government agents may fall under this description, and player characters are also permitted to engage in violence (though not during uptime, for practical reasons).
• Extreme gore
  • This will only be present for players who have opted in with the More Gore quirk.
• Torture
  • Damnation in Hell and government torture may both occur, but will not be directly depicted.
• Slavery
  • Slavery-adjacent conditions may occur in the form of damnation in Hell and totalitarian government control. Enslavement of individual humans by other humans will not occur.
• Mind control or other forms of removing agency
  • This may occur in the limited form of certain memories being magically removed or actions being prevented.
• Animal abuse
  • In the same way that deliberate cruelty to people will occur, so may cruelty to animals.
• Genocide
  • Large-scale threats to Hell, Earth and Heaven may occur or be referenced, but attempts to wipe out specific human cultures will not.
• Genocide denial
  • To the same extent that genocide is a permitted theme, so is genocide denial.