House of Cards: Safety Rules

House of Cards is Not a "Safe" Game

The GMs cannot guarantee emotional safety because of the topics included in the game.

• The book canon for the game includes unsafe topic areas such as torture, murder, fratricidal fighting, incestuous desires, and more.
• The book canon involves major characters as rivals for prizes such that there are winners and losers.
• The game metaphysics have dealt with touchy issues including sex and reproduction, life and death, and identity (e.g., the apparent possession of certain characters).
• Parts of the game's story have dealt with issues like the treatment of women in a Renaissance-level society and the disability of a major NPC.

The GMs Have Rules to Improve Safety

Harassment

• The GMs forbid harassment of other players or GMs. We will remove any players who harass other players. Please bring harassment to our attention so we can deal with it.
• The GMs particularly forbid harassment of players over character choices. Because Amber as a genre involves competition, characters may find themselves opposed to or in a rivalry with other characters, and there may be hard feelings about competition/rivalry. While we don't require it, we strongly encourage players whose characters are opposed to reach out to the other players involved to ensure all the players are comfortable with the situation. It's not mandatory but it has worked well in other groups we've been in to keep play social and the community on an even keel.
• While biases are built into the game world, the GMs forbid any real-world harassment over those game-world biases. We expect players to appropriately separate themselves from their characters' biases, especially where another player might see it as applying to them personally and not to their character.

Banned Topics

The GMs also have some topics we straight-up don't allow in the game:

• Sexual assault/rape (including sex with children);
• Torture (using pain or deprivation);
• Deliberate harm to children or animals;
• Other topics that may be added at the discretion of the GMs and player request.

To add a topic to the ban list, please contact the GMs.

While we have never formally addressed content bans for bigotry, the GMs strongly discourage all real-world forms of bigotry in the game other than those addressed in canon. We haven't had to address this issue so far in the game but if it comes up, we will add topics to the ban list as appropriate.

Content Warnings

The GMs have never had a formal system for content warnings, but if the players ask for one, we can add them to the subject lines. Please contact the GMs if you're interested in content warnings.

House of Cards Has a PG-13 Rating.

If House of Cards were a movie, we'd want it to be rated PG-13: dealing with adult concepts and themes, but without too much sex and gore and swearing.

• The GMs want combat to be strategic and tactical, literary or cinematic or even cartoonish rather than gory or dwelling on injury and death. Injuries may become important, but writing about them doesn't require a high gore level.
• Similarly, the GMs require all sex to be "fade to black" on the list; you can write up to the point where it's clear the characters are having sex and then write about the aftermath, but what happens between doesn't belong on the list. This applies to straight couples, gay couples, threesomes, and moresomes.
• The GMs also ask that you use euphemisms or grawlix out swear words, particularly the F-bomb. It's not as important as it was in the days when some people had net-nanny software on their email, but it's still courteous.

Player Characters Have Autonomy

While there are situations where characters appear not to have autonomy, the GMs give players as much free choice as they can behind the scenes. Despite the biases of the game world (particularly Corwin's apparent sexism) we allow players to opt out of the following sorts of plots for their characters:

• Pregnancy & paternity (we will ask first).
• Discovery of a previously unknown child (we'll ask first).
• Dealing with any form of bigotry in the game, particularly sexism/sexual harassment.

In addition the GMs will help players avoid any subject area or plot that a player asks us to avoid, with a caveat that we may need help or provide guidance to keep a character out of a plot that a player wants to avoid.

CAVEAT: Sometimes players surprise the GMs by performing game-altering actions that we haven't foreseen. If a player's surprise decision puts their character into a problem plot, we'll do our best to inform them and give them an option to walk back ASAP.

The GMs see character-chosen restrictions as different to player requests to avoid topics and plots. We test character restrictions to give players spotlight time and to establish their persona in the game. If the GMs err and come too close to a problem area for the player, please let us know ASAP. The GMs' goal is to cause character drama, not player drama.

Agreement to the Safety Rules

Joining or playing in the game counts as agreement to these rules. Any changes will be announced on the OOC list.