Code of Conduct

Code Of Conduct For Worcester 1988

Version 1.0 2025

Foreword From The Director

On behalf of all the staff and NPCs of Worcester 1988; greetings and welcome to our gaming community! This game is intended to be a collaborative storytelling project, enjoyed by and played out by all the participants who have been invited to this game. Your invitation to this game denotes a base level of trust from the staff in regards to your positive participation in this community. The full list of participant expectations are outlined in the following code of conduct. Although this code of conduct is very detailed and lengthy, the staff trust anyone invited to this game to be able to agree to and abide by this code of conduct. This code of conduct is intended to serve more of a reminder to participants as to how they have already agreed to conduct themselves during the game than a discouragement of uncivil or immature behavior. The staff’s intention of this code of conduct is to keep all participants safe, to keep the game fair for all participants and to ensure a fun gaming experience for all participants.

Vampire the Masquerade is one of my favorite settings in all of gaming. For anyone who is making this their first experience with the property, I am honored that you have put your trust in our team for your first experience with it. Vampire, like all systems within The World Of Darkness setting, is a challenging property to use for storytelling. Vampire as a setting focuses on many difficult to address topics that many gamers do not incorporate into their stories. Our gaming community seeks to use this setting to tell stories that we feel are important given our current social and political climate. The staff of this game seek to use this code of conduct to make sure that all participants of this game are kept physically and emotionally safe while experiencing the many facets of this system. We seek to create a culture of participants pushing their personal boundaries in a safe and trusted environment.     

The staff of this game want all participants to feel safe during their experience and we will do everything we can to create this feeling of safety for them. If at any point in time a participant is experiencing any sort of physical or emotional discomfort tied to this game, that we can reasonably alleviate, the staff of this game will endeavor to do so. In reading, and agreeing to this code of conduct, you are signalling to the staff of this game that you are willing to work with us in order to create a positive gaming experience for all participants. I personally look forward to gaming with each and every one of you. 

* Ronald Bruce Rose JR (He/Him) 

________________

Section 1 - General Participant Behavior Expectations

Application And Invitation To The Game

Worcester 1988, is a play by invitation live action role playing game owned, operated and directed by Ronald Bruce Rose JR. Staff of the game co operate, write and organize the events of the game at the permission of the director. All other participants are considered either players or NPCs. Admittance to this game as either a player or NPC is done through the following procedures: 

Direct invitation: The director and staff of the game reserve the right to directly invite any person they find to be civil, responsible, mature and prudent to the game. Any participant invited directly by the director or the staff of the game must abide by the code of conduct like any other participant and is subject to its codes. 

Submission Of Application: Any potential participant of the game, not directly invited by the director or staff of the game, is welcome to fill out and submit an application to participate in this game. The director and staff of the game reserve the right to close or reopen the application process for the game at any time. The director and staff of the game reserve the right to deny an application submitted by a potential participant on any grounds that they find to be civil, responsible, mature and prudent. Applicants will be notified of the denial or acceptance of their application within a reasonable time frame of the submission of their application. Upon the acceptance of an application, the potential participant will be extended a direct invitation to the game. Applicants who have had their application denied may reach out to the director of the game for additional guidance in regards to possibly reapplying to participate in the game at a later date. The application and directions for its submission can be found in the appendix of this code of conduct.    

Revoking of an invitation: All participation of this game is considered to be done by invitation by the game’s director and staff. The director and the staff of this game reserve the right to revoke this invitation to any participant, at any time, for any reason they find to be civil, responsible, mature or prudent. For more details concerning this, please see Section 4 of the code of conduct under the category of “Participant penalties or removal from game” 

Mature And Prudent Behavior

The intention of this category of the code of conduct is to outline how the director and staff of this game expect any participant of this game to conduct their personal behavior while participating in any session of this game, while taking part in official channels of communication for this game or while communicating with another participant of this game in the context of this game, in general. A participant's ability to adhere to these behavioral expectations will be adjudicated by the director and the staff of this game. Participants who do not understand any of these behavioral expectations are still subject to them and should reach out to the director or staff of the game for any required clarification before beginning their participation in the game, and their signing of the code of conduct. 

The following codes of conduct are mandatory for all participants of the game. Behaviors outlined below are intended to set an overall tone for participant behavior rather than act as a simple ‘dos and don’ts’ list.   

1. Participants should use mature, civil and prudent content when engaging in any form of communication with another participant of this game. Examples of inappropriate content includes but is not limited to content that is racist, sexist, transphobic, ableist,  overly violent, overly aggressive, insensitive, culturally insensitive, or generally unwelcomed by one or more other participants of the game.

2. Participants are expected to present themselves physically in a mature, civil and prudent manner when attending a session of this game. All participants are discouraged from wearing clothing, presenting tattoos or waving signs, banners and or flags of an inappropriate nature. Examples of an inappropriate personal presentation include but are not limited to: Wearing clothing that has offensive symbols on them, having tattoos that are racist, sexist or overly violent openly displayed, wearing clothing (or lack thereof) that is too revealing in nature, waving a flag that supports an offensive cause or being culturally appropriating at all.

3. Participants are to respect the personal belongings of other participants. Participants are not to intentionally touch, damage or steal personal belongings owned by other participants.

4. Participants are to adhere to the rules of any venue used by this game, as well as respect the property of the venue. Participants should not intentionally damage, deface or steal anything owned or operated by the venue used by this game. Additionally, participants should only use the venue for this game for game related activities during times designated by the director or staff of the game. All participants of this game should respect the staff of any venue that is being used by this game. Any issues with the venue or the staff of the venue should be brought to the attention of the director or staff of the game. Participants should avoid areas of the game venue that have been marked with caution notices and notify the game director or staff if areas of the venue have become unsafe over the course of the session.

5. Participants should practice personal safety while participating in sessions of this game. Participants should not attempt stunts, dangerous performances or intentionally bring harm to themselves or others during the game. 

Calibration Of Interactions Between Participants

Calibration is the social tool we use at this game to negotiate any interaction between two or more participants that involves more than the most basic of game related conversations. Calibration can be initiated by any group of two or more participants, either during or outside of game sessions. Calibration can be mediated by the game director or the game staff at the request of any participant taking part in the calibration. Calibration can be ended at any time or even refused by any participant taking part in the calibration. Under the circumstances of an aborted or refused calibration, the director or staff of the game should be notified about the aborted or refused calibration before calibration involving the participants in question is attempted again and any scene in the game involving the participants in question should be paused or delayed until restarted by the game director or a member of the game’s staff. 

Calibration is not a one time thing, but must be done each time a participant wants to engage in a behavior that requires calibration. Prior instances of calibration between participants does not guarantee a continued acceptance of calibrated behavior. Below are listed some of the interactions that require calibration between participants before being allowed to take part in this game. When a participant is unsure if an interaction requires calibration, they are welcome to seek guidance from the game director or staff in the matter. Participants are also encouraged to read this game’s ‘Calibration guidebook’ in order to calibrate with other participants properly. 

1. Physical touching of another participant, their clothing or the personal belongings, of any kind: No participant, regardless of out of game relationship to another participant, should touch another participant, their clothing or any of their personal belongings, outside of an emergency situation, without first calibrating the interaction with the participant(s) in question. No participant can calibrate in a way where significant bodily harm will come to them or another participant intentionally.

2. Personal space and proximity to other participants: No participant, regardless of out of game relationship to another participant, will encroach into another participant’s personal space without first calibrating this interaction with the other participant(s) in question. Without calibration, participants are expected to keep a civil and prudent distance from one another at all, non-emergency times. 

3. Overly violent or vulgar language: No participant, regardless of out of game relationship to another participant, will target another participant(s) with overly violent or vulgar language in or out of game without calibration between the involved participants. Without calibration, participants are expected to keep a civil and prudent level of discourse between them and any other participant.

4. Sexual content of any kind: No participant, regardless of out of game relationship to another participant, will engage another participant in any sort of narration of sexual acts, the solicitation of sexual acts, or the recounting of past or future sexual acts without cailibration concerning this engagement. Participants are not allowed to engage in physical sexual contact, including sexual gestures and the physical touching of another participant or their clothing even with calibration during a session of this game.  

Section 2 -   Online And Between Sessions Conduct

Online / Discord Participant Behavior Expectations

The intention of this category of the code of conduct is to outline how the director and staff of this game expect any participant of this game to conduct their personal behavior while engaging in any form of online communication with other participants of this game for any correspondence related to this game. A participant's ability to adhere to these behavioral expectations will be adjudicated by the director and the staff of this game. Participants who do not understand any of these behavioral expectations are still subject to them and should reach out to the director or staff of the game for any required clarification before beginning their participation in the game, and their signing of the code of conduct. 

The following codes of conduct are mandatory for all participants of the game. Behaviors outlined below are intended to set an overall tone for participant behavior rather than act as a simple ‘dos and don’ts’ list. 

1. Participants should use mature, civil and prudent content when engaging in any direct form of online communication with other participants of this game in the context of this game. Examples of inappropriate content includes but is not limited to content that is racist, sexist, transphobic, ableist, culturally insensitive,  overly violent, overly aggressive,  insensitive or generally unwelcomed by one or more other participants of the game.

2. Participants should use mature, civil and prudent content making any post on this game’s official discord. Examples of inappropriate content includes but is not limited to content that is racist, sexist, transphobic,culturally insensitive, ableist,  overly violent, overly aggressive, insensitive or generally unwelcomed by one or more other participants of the game.

3. Participants should not damage or disrupt any website, email address or discord server used by the game. Examples of damaging or disrupting websites, email addresses or discord servers include but are not limited to; Hacking the game’s website, spamming email addresses with inappropriate messages, or doxing any participant of the game.   

Between Sessions Correspondence Behavior Expectations

The intention of this category of the code of conduct is to outline how the director and staff of this game expect any participant of this game to conduct official correspondences between themselves and any other participant of the game in the context of this game. A participant's ability to adhere to these behavioral expectations will be adjudicated by the director and the staff of this game. Participants who do not understand any of these behavioral expectations are still subject to them and should reach out to the director or staff of the game for any required clarification before beginning their participation in the game, and their signing of the code of conduct. 

1. When engaging in official correspondence with the director or staff of this game, participants must use content and tone that is mature, civil and prudent These correspondences include but are not limited to; asking questions on an open discord channel, a direct message such as a discord direct message or an email, or a ‘post event letter’ (Commonly referred to as a PEL).

2. When engaging in official correspondence with the director or staff of this game, participants must be truthful (To the best of their knowledge) during these correspondences. Participants who are intentionally untruthful or misleading during these correspondences will be subject to penalty or removal from the game.

3. During important, official correspondences between participants and the director or staff of the game, participants are expected to make a good faith effort to respond to these correspondences in a timely manner. Depending on the nature of the correspondences, a delayed response, or lack of any response at all, may result in penalty or removal from the game. 

Section 3 - Creating A Fair And Safe Play Environment

Participant Sportsmanship And Emotional Regulation Culture

The intention of this category of the code of conduct is to outline how the director and staff of this game expect any participant of this game to conduct their personal behavior while participating in any session of this game in regards to creating a culture of good sportsmanship among all participants as well as making sure participants are able to regulate their emotions during sessions of this game. A participant's ability to adhere to these behavioral expectations will be adjudicated by the director and the staff of this game. Participants who do not understand any of these behavioral expectations are still subject to them and should reach out to the director or staff of the game for any required clarification before beginning their participation in the game, and their signing of the code of conduct. 

The following codes of conduct are mandatory for all participants of the game. Behaviors outlined below are intended to set an overall tone for participant behavior rather than act as a simple ‘dos and don’ts’ list.

1. Participants should work towards building a culture of encouragement and support of other participants during game sessions and in correspondence between games sessions. Examples of encouragement and support include but are not limited to: Complimenting another participant in a civil, mature and prudent way. Helping another participant find a rule in the rule book. Providing links to props or costuming pieces that could improve the game for other participants.

2. Participants should not disparage other participants during a game session or in correspondence between game sessions. Examples of disparagement include but are not limited to: Criticizing another participant’s costuming choices, openly scrutinizing another participant’s knowledge of the rules in a condensing way, or talking over another participant during an out of game conversation.

3. Participants should be mindful of sharing staff run content evenly amongst willing participants. There will be only so much content available to participants and participants are expected to be mindful of measuring their content consumption compared to that of other participants. Participants who have been noticed by the game director or staff to have engaged in excessive amounts of content may be asked to allow other participants to engage in content before them. Participants seen to be actively excluding other participants from staff run game related content without in-game reason may be subject to penalty or removal from the game.

4. Participants should not target other participants with in-game actions based on out of game reasons. All in-game participant interactions should be based on in-game activities, roleplay and conversations. Participants found to be excessively targeting other participants with hostile in-game actions may be called on by the game director or staff to justify their actions with in-game reasons. Participants unable to properly justify their in-game actions targeting another participant may be disallowed from pursuing that action, or even become subject to penalty or removal from game.

5. Participants should be mindful of allowing in-game events to affect their out of game mood. Participants who find themselves having a hard time processing game related events are encouraged to remove themselves from the game and take time to take care of their mental health. Participants who appear to be emotionally unwell may be asked by the director or the staff to take time out of game to take care of their mental health. Participants who remove themselves from the game to do so should inform the director or the staff. Participants who remove themselves from the game or are removed by the director or the staff to take care of their mental health will be given a calm and quiet place to do so. A scene involving a participant who has removed themselves or has been removed by the director or the staff, may be paused by the director or the staff. Removal from a scene does not spare that participant’s character the consequences of previous actions in that scene if that scene continues on without them. Participants who have removed themselves, or have been removed by the game director or staff from a scene should check back in with the game director or staff before rejoining the game. If participants are becoming constantly unwell during game sessions, the game director may have a conversation with that participant to try and help that participant, moving forward.          

Abiding By Game Rules And Mechanics   

The intention of this category of the code of conduct is to outline how the director and staff of this game expect any participant of this game to conduct their personal behavior while participating in any session of this game in regards to following rules set forth in rule books being used by the game, house rules that have been written by the game director or staff or on the spot rule clarifications made by the game director or staff. A participant's ability to adhere to these behavioral expectations will be adjudicated by the director and the staff of this game. Participants who do not understand any of these behavioral expectations are still subject to them and should reach out to the director or staff of the game for any required clarification before beginning their participation in the game, and their signing of the code of conduct. 

The following codes of conduct are mandatory for all participants of the game. Behaviors outlined below are intended to set an overall tone for participant behavior rather than act as a simple ‘dos and don’ts’ list.

1. All participants should make a good faith effort to abide by all rules laid out in rule books being used by the game, house rules that have been written by the game director or staff or on the spot rule clarifications made by the game director or staff. Participants who intentionally disregard, misinterpret or mislead others in regards to the rules of this game will face penalty or removal from the game. Examples of disregarding, misinterpreting or misleading others in regards to the rules of this game include but are not limited to: using abilities in game that your character does not have, telling the game director or staff wrong information about your character, and lying to other participants about how a rule works.

2. During any instance of a rule being unclear, participants should seek guidance from the game director or staff. Participants who are not the game director or staff are not allowed to make definitive rule declarations whenever a rule is in question by one or more participants. Seeking a rule clarification may result in the pausing of a scene. If a scene is paused for a rule clarification, a scene cannot resume without guidance from the game director or staff. Participants who are not the game director or staff found to be making definitive rule declarations for unclear rules may be subject to penalty or removal from the game.  

Section 4 -  Application and Adjudication Of The Code Of Conduct 

Staff responsibilities

The intention of this category of the code of conduct is to outline how the director and staff of this game expect to adjudicate the adherence of the code of conduct by the participants of this game. This category will help participants understand the limits of the game director and staff’s ability to monitor the behavior of participants as well as better help them understand how the game director and staff will be applying this code of conduct to any interaction involving this game.

1. The game director and staff will apply and adjudicate this code of conduct in an unbiased manner across all participants. If biases are alleged by any participant of this game, they are welcome to speak with the game director and staff. Any conversation of this nature should be conducted in private, while participants are using mature, civil and prudent methods of communication.

2. The game director and staff will resolve any infractions of the code of conduct by any participant as soon as possible. This could be as quickly as in a matter of moments if the game director or staff were present for the infraction, or may take weeks if the infraction warrants fact gathering efforts from multiple sources and a meeting of the game director and staff. The game director and staff should be able to resolve any infraction before the start of a new session under most circumstances.  If the resolution of an infraction were to take longer than the time between two sessions of this game, participants involved in the infraction may be asked to not attend the next session of the game. If a participant is asked to not attend a session while an infraction is being resolved, they will be notified at least 48 hours before the session. Any conversations of this nature should be conducted in private while participants are using mature, civil and prudent methods of communication. 

3. The game director may ask members of the game staff to recuse themselves from the handling of an infraction depending on the circumstances of the infraction. Game staff may also ask to be recused from the handling of an infraction. Participants may or may not know which game staff are resolving an infraction. Some infractions may require involvement by all of the game staff. The game director will be notified about all infractions and may take part in the handling of any infraction, even those that have been already resolved.

Participant advocacy 

The intention of this category of the code of conduct is to outline the ways a participant can and will be expected to advocate for the betterment of their own gaming experience in regards to their personal safety, equity and overall enjoyment as well as the safety, equity and overall enjoyment of other participants. All Participants are encouraged to seek their own enjoyment from this game and the game director and staff are dedicated to actively assisting the participant in this objective. This game however does require self advocacy from the participants in order to achieve the full experience that this game offers. Below are listed the ways in which a participant is able to advocate for themselves or others in regards to their safety, equity and enjoyment. 

1. Participants who feel their gaming experience, or the gaming experience of others, is or may be inaccessible due to a mental or physical disability, are encouraged to bring these concerns to the attention of the game director or staff in a mature, prudent and civil tone as soon as possible. Participants are welcome to share these concerns with other participants outside of the game’s director and staff in communications that are mature, prudent and civil tone as well. Participants do not need to disclose these concerns to other participants, but should be mindful of other participant’s inability to work on these concerns given a lack of communication about them.

2. Participants who see other participants violating the code of conduct or suspect a participant of violating the code of conduct, are strongly encouraged to bring these violations to the attention of the game director or staff as soon as possible, even if this requires pausing a scene. Scenes that are paused for this reason require the restarting by the game director or the game staff. Players should not directly address a violation of the code of conduct unless imminent mental or physical harm could come from these violations. If a participant does need to directly address a violation of the code of conduct to prevent or lessen harm to themselves or other participants, they should then bring this to the attention of the game director or staff as soon as possible, even if this requires pausing a scene.

3. Participants are welcome to advocate on the behalf of other participants who may be unable or unwilling to do so for themselves. Whenever a participant is advocating for another participant, they should inform the participant they are advocating for before doing so. If after informing another participant of the game that a participant is willing and able to advocate on their behalf that participant does not want that participant to advocate for them, a participant is still able to do so, but should inform the game director or staff that they were asked not to do so while advocating for that other participant.  

4. Participants should always be truthful with the staff whenever staff are looking into any concerns regarding advocacy of a participant. Participants who are found to be intentionally misleading or avoiding the game director or staff in regards to advocacy concerns may be subject to penalty or removal from the game.     

Participant penalties or removal from game

The intention of this category of the code of conduct is to outline penalties that participants can expect to be issued for violations of the code of conduct as well explain the process of being suspended or expelled from the game. Although all penalties and instances of suspension or expulsion from the game are handled on a case by case basis, this section will serve as a general guideline that the game director and staff will be using when dealing with any violation of the code of conduct. Any participant who has signed this document should consider themselves ‘forewarned’ of these guidelines. 

1. Participants who have had a single minor violation of the code of conduct can expect a minor penalty. Minor violations include but are not limited to: The first intentional misuse of a game mechanic, intentionally going to a section of the game venue that is labeled to not be used by the participant, using some inappropriate content without targeting another participant directly such as overly vulgar or violent language. Penalties for a first minor violation could include but is not limited to: Losing the ability to post on the game’s official discord for an amount of time decided by the game director or staff, having the game director or staff examine a participant’s character sheet throughout an event, being removed from a single scene or a formal warning from the game director. 

2. Participants who have multiple minor violations of the code of conduct can expect a moderate penalty. If the multiple minor violations are several different instances of the same violation, the violation will eventually be considered a major violation. A moderate penalty may include but is not limited to: Entire removal of the use of the game’s official discord server, significantly restricted game play during a session, or the removal from an active game session for the rest of the session.   

3. Participants who have a major violation of the code of conduct can expect a major penalty. Major penalties include but are not limited to: suspension or expulsion from the game. If a participant is suspended from a game, they will be given clear guidelines on when and how they can return to the game. Expelled participants should not expect a chance to return to the game at all. Any suspension or expulsion from the game that happens between sessions of the game will be explained to the participant at least 48 hours before the start of the game, unless the infraction occurs within 48 of hour the start of a game session. Any suspension or expulsion that occurs during an active session of the game will begin as soon as the participant is informed of the suspension or expulsion and will result in a refunded game cost that will be organized by the game director as soon as possible.  

4. While a participant is suspended from the game, they are still subject to the game’s code of conduct for any game related activities. Minor violations accrued by suspended participants may be elevated to a major violation at the discretion of the game director or staff. 

Appendices

List Of Game Staff

• Game director: Ronald (Ronny) Rose (He/Him)

• Jayda Medina (They/Them)

• David (Dave) Carey (He/Him)

• Paige Herrmann (She/Her)

• Joseph (Joe) Bruce (He/Him)

Intention Of Participation Application

Anyone who intends to participate in Worcester 1988, who has not already been directly invited by the game director or staff, should fill out and return this game application. Please email all applications to staff@ne-gg.com.

Name:

Date:

Email Address:

1. Are you at least 18 years of age or older? (Y/N)

2. How did you learn about this game? 

3. Have you played a game with any members of this game’s staff before? (If so, please list who and the game(s))

4. Do you know anyone who’s been directly invited to this game or has applied to play this game? 

5. Have you played a game set in the World Of Darkness before? (If so, please list the game)

6. Have you played in a LARP (Boffer or Parlor) before? (If so, please list the game)

7. Is engaging in content of the following kind something you are interested in taking part in during this game: (Y/N)

   1. Political intrigue

   2. Occult mystery

   3. Depictions of Physical Violence

   4. Horror

   5. Complex interpersonal relationships

   6. An examination of American culture

   7. Puzzles

   8. The exploration of religion and the divine 

   9. Referencing historical events

   10. Aspects of the World Of Darkness setting 

   11. Personal exploration of spirituality

   12. Depictions of substance abuse

   13. Overt vampiric themes

8. Do you think you will be able to attend at least five of our seven planned events? (11/9/25, 11/30/25, 12/21/25, 1/11/26, 2/1/26, 2/22/26, 3/15/26) (Y/N)

9. What aspect(s) of this game are you most excited about? 

Participant Acknowledgement Document

Every participant of Worcester 1988 will need to read the code of conduct document in its entirety and then sign this document below. In signing this document, a participant is acknowledging that they have read, understood, and agreed to abide by the code of conduct for this game. A refusal to sign this document will disqualify anyone from participating in this game.

Name:

Date: