Conduct and Themes

While Origin Story is intended to emphasise a supportive community, the world discriminates against Sparks and some unsettling themes may occur. To ensure that everyone feels safe and comfortable when playing the game, the GM team have written a Conduct & Themes Policy, which is designed to inform you of acceptable conduct when playing the game, as well as potentially sensitive themes that may occur.

Our policy is based on the Oxford University Role Playing Game Society's Conduct and Acceptable Themes Policy, and it is expected that all players and GMs will be familiar with this policy when playing Origin Story. When in and out of character, all players and GMs are expected to conduct themselves in a respectful manner toward all other players and GMs and in accordance with the Society's Conduct and Acceptable Themes Policy, as well as the University policies mentioned within it.

We ask that above all, players and GMs uphold a supportive and respectful environment where participants can feel comfortable discussing sensitive themes both in and out of character. The spirit of the policy is always more authoritative than the exact wording, and so legalistic attempts to defend breaches of acceptable behaviour will be interpreted as being in bad faith and will not be accepted.

You must be 16 or over to take part in the game.

It is important to have someone's consent before writing fanfic or making artwork involving their character or NPC. If you wish to draw artwork or write fanfic about another character or an NPC, please ask the character's player or the relevant GM whether they would be alright with that, and you should give them a heads up as to the type of artwork or fanfic that you plan on creating. If they say they're not okay with it, you must respect their decision.

Given that this is a Discord game with no video element, photographs of the players will not be requested by GMs and will not be taken during sessions.

A list of OC safety calls that may be used during Origin Story can be found here. You can use these to make requests for other participants to adjust their behaviour and/or the themes they are roleplaying if you feel uncomfortable at any point during the game, and these requests must be respected. If you have concerns about behaviour during the game that you do not wish to raise publicly, please do contact the GM team and we will do our best to help.

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. We will still be able to keep your characters apart in turnsheets, and avoid directing you towards the same areas of plot.

If another player makes you uncomfortable, please bring the matter to the GM team via email, which will be seen by all GMs. If a GM makes you uncomfortable and you wish to discuss it confidentially, then please contact the head GM Oli via their personal email. If the head GM makes you uncomfortable then concerns should be raised with the Society President, whose contact details can be found here.

The list below, based on the OURPGSoc CAT Policy, is a list of sensitive themes which are and are not allowed in Origin Story.

These themes will not occur in Origin Story. They are not to be portrayed, mentioned or alluded to by players or 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
  • This is a forbidden theme. While character romance is permitted with careful handling – see here – sexual content is not allowed, explicit or implied
  • Note that, as explained in the link above, romantic relationships may only occur involving characters above the lower PC age limit (16), and only between characters within 1 year of each other in age
• Sexual harassment
• Use of real-world discriminatory slurs
• Miscarriage and stillbirth
• Forced abortion
• Incest
• Cannibalism
• Genital mutilation
• Animal abuse
• Eating Disorders
• Real-world current figures and events
  • Citropolis is a self contained fictional world, and as such, such figures and events don't exist in the world of Origin Story
• Real-world historical figures and events
  • Citropolis is a self contained fictional world, and as such such figures and events don't exist in the world of Origin Story

These are sensitive themes that may occur during Origin Story, and require careful handling. If players introduce these themes they should consider appropriate content warnings. You must use appropriate content warnings and spoiler tags to discuss themes that state they require content warnings.

• Self-harm
  • Self-harm as a means of expressing emotional distress is a forbidden theme
  • This may occur in other forms, particularly in the form of powers that harm their user – see the Double-Edged Sword Quirk
• Extreme violence
  • This may occur during the game
• Extreme gore
  • This may occur if some powers are particularly vivid, but there won't be a focus on descriptions of gore.
  • If this does occur in a turnsheet, it will be marked with appropriate content warnings
  • If this is described on the forum, please apply appropriate content warnings
• Discrimination on the basis of gender or sex
  • Such discrimination doesn't exist in the world of Origin Story
  • Sparks are discriminated against in Citropolis, and as a game built on allegory this theme may be paralleled during the game
• Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation e.g. homophobia
  • Such discrimination doesn't exist in the world of Origin Story
  • Sparks are discriminated against in Citropolis, and as a game built on allegory this theme may be paralleled during the game
• Discrimination on the basis of gender identity e.g. transphobia
  • Such discrimination doesn't exist in the world of Origin Story
  • Sparks are discriminated against in Citropolis, and as a game built on allegory this theme may be paralleled during the game
• Discrimination on the basis of physical disability or mental health condition
  • Some sparks could be considered disabilities, and such Sparked people may struggle to find appropriate support
  • Sparks are discriminated against in Citropolis, and as a game built on allegory this theme may be paralleled during the game
  • This theme will not be explored pertaining to real world physical disabilities or mental health conditions
• Discrimination on the basis of real-world ethnicity or race
  • Such discrimination doesn't exist in the world of Origin Story
  • Sparks are discriminated against in Citropolis, and as a game built on allegory this theme may be paralleled during the game
• Discrimination on the basis of nationality, religion or faith
  • Such discrimination doesn't exist in the world of Origin Story
  • Sparks are discriminated against in Citropolis, and as a game built on allegory this theme may be paralleled during the game
• Torture
  • This is not planned to occur as part of Origin Story, but could arise in the form of interrogation or similar. If this theme does occur it will be tagged with appropriate content warnings, and the emphasis will not be on vivid descriptions
  • This could also occur in a mild form in the context of bullying
• Slavery or human trafficking
  • We don't plan to introduce this into the game
  • This may be alluded to in the form of Sparks, especially in The Alan Hoyne Institute, having very limited personal liberties
  • In the unlikely event that this theme arises explicitly it will be tagged with content warnings
• Mind control or other means of removing agency
  • This may occur as part of the game, in the form of agency removing spark powers
  • This will not happen to player characters unless they opt in with the Mindbender Playstyle Quirk
• Domestic abuse
  • Some Sparks, including some player characters, are likely to deal with difficult home lives in which non-physical forms of this could occur
  • Physical domestic abuse will not occur as part of the game
• Child abuse
  • For domestic child abuse, see the above point
  • Children in Origin Story may face violence outside of home. This will broadly be in the form of superhero violence or bullying. Descriptions of violence won't be dwelled upon
  • As a guideline, violence against children (at most) be comparable to the kind of violence against children you would find in a 15 rated film, or a YA book
  • Player characters who are children may die during Origin Story. This will only occur in situations which are telegraphed to be extremely dangerous – such as intentionally fighting in lethal combat, or trying to control an extremely dangerous power. In general we will avoid character death in favour of more narratively interesting outcomes
• Eugenics
  • Attempts to understand the origin of The Spark during the game will be met with failure. No player or non player characters will attempt to remove The Spark from the population
  • This theme may be alluded to in the form of villains who attempt to find scientific methods to identify Sparks. Such attempts will not be successful. Any content with allusions to this theme will be tagged with appropriate content warnings
  • If this is discussed on the forum, please apply appropriate content warnings
• Genocide
  • This may be explored in the form of disasters threatening the entire city - the entire world of Origin Story - such as The Fallout
  • Other depictions of genocide, specifically trying to eliminate a specific person in population, are forbidden themes
• Genocide Denial
  • Genocide will only be explored in the form of city wide threat
  • Denial of such events will not occur during the game, and is a forbidden theme
  • There may be confusion, lack of information and misinformation about the exact events of The Fallout during the game

These sensitive themes will be handled with care, but are from appendix C of the CAT policy and so may arise more spontaneously than the section B themes above.

• Mental Illness
  • This may occur as part of the game
• Physical Disability
  • This may occur as part of the game
  • Some spark powers could be considered physical disabilities
• Suicide
  • Suicide as a means of expressing emotional distress is a forbidden theme
  • Suicide may occur in other forms, in particular self sacrifice or self destructive powers
• Degenerative diseases or cancer
  • This may occur as part of the game
  • Such diseases may be paralleled by certain sparks
• Drug or alcohol addiction
• Gambling
• Homelessness
• Terrorism in all its forms, including state terrorism
  • Is likely to occur as part of the game
• Indiscriminate violence
  • Is likely to occur as part of the game
• Other real-world biases and discrimination not covered in the previous section
  • Sparks are discriminated against in Citropolis, and as a game built on allegory this theme may be paralleled during the game
  • Class and economic disparity exists in the world of Origin Story
• Spark Discrimination
  • Discrimination against Sparks is part of the world of Origin Story. This occurs personally, in the form of people who dislike and distrust Sparks, and institutionally, see wiki pages about healthcare, insurance and The Alan Hoyne Institute
  • This will be frequently explored during the game and has parallels to real world discrimination. There are some differences though, and being a Spark should not be read as a one to one correspondence with being any real world minority / oppressed people
• Historical Erasure
  • Erasure and ignorance of Sparked history, in the public consciousness and academic contexts, are part of the game
• Police Violence
  • Anti Spark discrimination is a part of the game, and this extends to law enforcement
  • Sparks are seen as a threat to society, and can be treated as such by police and non police enforcers such as Wallace Udarnik. Such enforcers may act dispassionately and act to contain a perceived threat, even if their judgement is incorrect
  • There will not be emphasis on descriptions of police violence, or drawing parallels to real world police brutality