New Sexual Misconduct Policy

You may have heard some of us Directors gush about how wonderful it was to have RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) make a presentation at the Director’s Retreat in June. If not, prepare to receive a small gush and also an explanation.

The presentation from RAINN included facts and statistics about sexual harassment and assault, but more importantly it gave us expert advice on how to make our communities unwelcoming for perpetrators.

To that end, the Directors for Dystopia Rising Texas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma put our heads together and developed a Sexual Misconduct Policy that we could all agree on. Since our communities mingle and overlap in wonderful ways, we decided our policy should reflect that.

This behavior wasn’t acceptable before we wrote this policy, however RAINN taught us that making these  policies visible does a few very important things.

1. Showing specifically which behaviors won’t be tolerated will discourage predators  from joining or remaining in the community. Predators thrive where they can push boundaries without consequence.

2. Outlining which behaviors are inappropriate and the procedure when misconduct is reported helps members of the community enforce standards, empowering them to help keep their community safe.

So yeah, here’s us saying that this kind of behavior is not only unacceptable in our spaces - but showing you exactly how we’ll handle it and supporting our community in creating safer spaces for gaming.

July 2018 - New Things

Heya Survivors!

This month we've got a few new things in store for you all - and one of them is trying to post more of our announcements here.

Schedule Change

Last month we tried a pretty tiring schedule where mods ran from game start on Friday night into the weeeee hours of Sunday morning. In unrelated news everyone was tired as hell and we love ya'll but we don't want to do that again. >_>

Instead this month we'll be using the following schedule:

• Game Start, Friday 9pm
• Quiet Hours, Saturday 4am-8am
• Heat Adv. Hours, Saturday Noon-4pm (No mods for player safety)
• Quiet Hours, Sunday 4am-8am
• Game End, Sunday Noon (Also there aren't any NPCs scheduled for Sunday morning, but with Dave that doesn't always mean you're safe. >_>)

New Things from Director's Retreat

1. No more mailing policy, mail things directly to other players. If you end up receiving a Unique Item Card, you need to bring it to Dave or myself for approval before it can enter play in Arkansas. You can still send mail to us if you want it delivered by Blue Birds. 

2. Marketing photos and use of specific color palettes. We all love new players, and we know that one of the best ways to snag the attention of people who don't know us is through awesome photos. So to that end we've created a color palette and we'll work with photographers to make really good photos match that palette. We're also going to set up a small 'staged' area near the pool house where you can pose and photographers can take pictures for both you, and us, to use. To make this all nice and legal we're going to have photo waivers for everyone to sign during check-in, that way if you want to opt out of having your photos used for marketing (not everyone's job is cool with the post-apocalyptic lifestyle >_>) you can let us know in writing. 

^This also means we're gonna start using our Instagram! o.0

3. We're learning new things from other people in the industry, and the industry is larger than you think. You can expect to see us continuing to add things to our set up and experience - some of them we'll ask you to be involved in, but as always...we encourage you to opt out when you're not interested/comfortable in participating.

Opening Narrative/Warm-Up

After opening announcements (around 10-15 min after) we'll have a guided opening narrative. This is our version of a tool other games use to help players transition from their own headspace into the headspace of their character. They've found that having opening and closing narrative sessions can help reduce bleed.

So how does it work? We come up with a few words to encapsulate the theme of the weekend. This helps frame the phrases used during the guided narrative, which is accompanied by a heartbeat rhythm provided by those involved. It'll speed up or slow down as part of the process, but don't worry - all you have to do is follow the guide's instructions. :)

This month's theme is overcoming obstacles. 

See you all in the wastes! <3
#WeAreBecauseYa'llAre

Concerned? I recommend Communication (No one is surprised)

Well, in case you missed it there's a new Corrective Actions system that's been laid out in a pretty awesome blog post by Jeff Moxley.

So why am I writing this? Because there's still some "this part makes me nervous" - because it depends on the judgement of either Marshals, Directors or both. And that's fair, other people may not make the same decision we would - and the unknown can be nerve-wracking.

I'm a fixer though, so I'm going to offer a solution. Ask your Director. About this, about their thoughts on specific pieces. About things that aren't related. Get to know them as people - because when given one of those situations that make you nervous I bet you can tell people what your friend would do. Don't be acquaintances with the leaders of your community, offer to be their friend and be genuine about it.

I have heard before, and I believe it, that some people are wary of talking to Directors - because we sit on the lofty and precarious perch of 'Authority' (tongue in cheek!). For those people - talk to your Marshals. They see how your Directors make decisions far more regularly than just during game weekends and I promise you they'd rather talk to you than have you keep your concerns quiet and to yourself. 

As with all things requiring a new local policy, Dave and I will be discussing what we want ours to look like. This may take a bit of time, so please be patient with us. We prefer to discuss and get outside opinions on our thought process to make sure we're establishing a good policy the first time that can be fairly applied to all parties. Or, as Dave says, "If I know the policy is fair for the little shit that annoys me, then it's fair for my buddy."

As you've seen, Directors value the voices of their players - so now is a good time to engage in those discussions and help shape your local community and local policies. In the end our community is the reason we all play this game, and only we can take the steps to make it continue to be the safer space we love - and that means we have to communicate. <3

Build the Community You Want to Live In

It sounds cheesy, but we firmly believe in the idea of 'be the change you want to see'. We tell people it all the time in various ways. It comes back to the idea of leading by example.

"Krista/Dave, how do we make players more strainist?"
"Be more strainist, compliment people afterwards on their hate of X strain. Be what you want to see and then show others how much you appreciate it when they do it."

Recently some new players in Arkansas experienced something we would have said wasn't a part of our community. Their characters were attacked and had all their starter gear stolen. We don't know who was involved and honestly, at this point, We're not sure we care to know - so please don't use this to start a witch hunt. (Note: We're not giving a lot of details on purpose.)

We were a little confused when new players in August talked about the blue armbands/glow being used to target new players and we reassured them that such a thing wouldn't happen and explained how the marshals could actually better scale threats in the dark to account for new players if they wore the glow. We still firmly believe the blue system is amazing and we're going to continue to promote the heck out of it. 

We've got a few other new-player friendly things in the works that we plan to bring into play for Season 3, but the blue armband system is the key. We know we all like being able to identify new players so we can encourage them and give them good deals and really make sure they have fun. That way they'll come back and get stuck in our nerd-family forever!

So what's the point of letting everyone know about this? Let's be a little more pro-active in watching out for our new players. Let's make sure they know people they can come to if there's a problem. Sometimes the official team is intimidating (cause we're official!) - so offer to be there if they need something and make our community that much better.

Now, let us put on this Official Director Hat....
New Player is an Out-of-Character status, so if someone (in the future) attacks a new player character, depending on the circumstances it could result in Out-of-Character consequences.
Engaging in ANY Character versus Character action without a Marshal will likely result in Out-of-Character consequences.
To refresh your memory on what those are please see pg. 29 of the Survivor's Guide 2.02

As always, feel free to reach out if you're confused on any of this. 

I am because you are. <3

Some Things You Should Know - Krista Edition

I’m former military, from a military family and I married a military guy - this informs a lot of my mental framework and word choice. If you catch me using a phrase you don’t understand, please look at me like I’m silly and say “Civilian please” and I’ll have that gobsmacked look and quickly translate.

I’m a communications nerd, but more than that I often look at why people make the choices they do in communication and action, because I feel like knowing that makes everything else make sense. I firmly believe that communicating well is worth the effort and I will often call people out on lazy communication tropes such as rape/racist jokes or using hurtful terms/words because it was an easier word choice.

I am firmly of the opinion that people will make the right choice if they are given all the related facts. This means that I find manipulation to be super distasteful and if I catch you attempting such on me we’ll be less good friends than before.

I prefer direct communication, but I recognize that not everyone does and most of the time I will try to match your preferred communication style. Unless that style is passive-aggressive. I have trouble with it and if I feel you sliding into that style I’ll likely say something. Sorry - everyone has to have a hang up, this is one of my many. <3

I have PTSD from a vehicle accident during my senior year and my time overseas. If you can remember, please don't touch me from behind - even if I saw you walk back there I might swing back with an elbow and I like ya'll way too much to be okay with doing that even on accident. 

I’m also a firm believer in “I am because you are.” I plan on reading up on Ubuntu itself eventually, but in the meantime I lean on what my Drill Sergeant told me it meant. It means that the qualities I have, I have because you have them and we reflect one another. You have your qualities because I have those qualities. This means that I always want to work hard to show the qualities I admire - because I want my community to reflect those back at me, and I hope everyone else does the same.