BBR endeavours to be as open, diverse and welcoming as possible. To that end, we want to create and maintain an environment in which people can talk openly and respectfully.
While participating in our games and forums no one should feel safe to express derogatory sentiments regarding the ethnic, sexual and gender range of the human experience. Nor should anyone assume that we will protect them if they prey on our members.
We expect everyone to be on their best behaviour. What you do in your personal life is your business, but as long as you're on our turf, we are the arbiters of what's acceptable and what's not.
We define predatory behaviour as a person leveraging their experience, social capital, charm or physical presence in order to pressure someone into granting them sexual favours.
Leveraging people into sharing things they'd otherwise be unwilling to share or compromise (gear, campspace, time, emotional wellbeing) may also be considered predatory behaviour.
Harassment is persistent unwanted behaviours that continue long after it's been made clear that the behaviour is not appreciated.
Neither is acceptable. We provide you with some simple guidelines on how to avoid exposing others to the above:
1) Listen to what people have to say and respect their boundaries. If someone tells you to curb a certain behaviour, deal with the implied rejection and do it. You cannot decide for someone else what they're comfortable with or not.
2) If you already know you have a hard time reading social cues and body language, err on the side of caution and avoid situations where you may be misunderstood.
3) Do not come to the larp expecting to find a date, a hook-up or any kind of sexual attention. Come here expecting to find fellow human beings with shared hobbies and interests.
NOTE: Consensual flirting etc, is not an issue. The issue arises when the advances are unwanted and nonconsensual. Read the situation and make sure your advances are welcomed before proceeding. The lack of a yes is always a no.
Trust your feelings. If you think the situation you're in is predatory in nature, it almost certainly is. First off, please try and remove yourself from the immediate situation. We advise you to seek out a neutral location where you can sort out your thoughts such as your camp, a friend's car or the off-house.
Once you're in a place of relative safety, we ask that you call us or our safety team (trygghetsvärdar) so that we can be made aware of what's going on. We will not act on the situation without reaching an agreement with you on how you prefer we proceed.
Remember that what's happening is not your fault. We will do our best to help you, and will not judge you.
If you think you're seeing something that could be problematic in action and you want to intervene we ask you to do the following:
1) Physically get between the perpetrator and their intended victim. Make light conversation with the person being harassed and provide them with an alibi if they want to leave.
2) Listen to the person affected by the situation. If they want you to help them get in touch with our safety people, help them do that. If they want you to stay with them for a while, stay with them. If they ask you to leave them alone, leave them alone.
3) If possible, avoid escalating the situation. Don't confront the perpetrator unless the situation demands it. That's our job.
If we learn that a person behaves or have behaved inappropriately towards others, we reserve the right to ban that person from our events.
If we learn that such a person is present at an on-going event, we will contact them and let them know that their behaviour is unacceptable. If the situation warrants it, or if the person is unreceptive to our corrections, we will ask them to leave.
We define derogatory speech and behaviour as language and actions designed to hurt or deride others - individuals or groups - based on their relative minority status within the community. Please note that this applies to things you do and say in-character as well as out. "Yes, but my character is an evil asshole" is not an excuse. Find a more creative way to be an evil asshole. Simply put, the larp is an exercise in escapism. Escapism is for everyone. Don't pull people out of their escapism by casually throwing around the kinds of hurtful words they have to confront in real life.
Below follows specific examples of what to avoid:
- No one participating in BBR should ever be subject to any kind of scene or situation that deals with sexual violence or coercion, or threats thereof. You can put themes of this nature in your character background if you must but, essentially, keep it to yourself during the game.
- No real world racism allowed. This means that we don't want to hear any racially charged slurs or pejoratives. We don't want to see any characters with backgrounds or themes of modern day racially or culturally motivated hatred or exploitation.
- No real world sexism, homophobia or transphobia. Women, men and others are to be considered equally capable of being badass wasteland warriors, political leaders and mewling cowards.
Everyone is allowed to cry or sing according to need and means. Some men are attracted to men, some women are into women. Others dig on both, neither or some esoteric combination of circumstances known only to them. All of this is fine, and should not be subject to needless mockery or mined for insults.
If you're unsure if a joke or something you have to say veers into the territory of the above, don't say it.
In short: be nice. It's a small price to pay to give more people the chance to experience the larp.
If you are comfortable in doing so, you are encouraged to speak out against any and all of the above. We will back you up. However, while doing so, please try to always assume ignorance before malicious intent.
Giving people the chance of owning their mistakes is important. We want a community in which a person can make an honest mistake, apologize, correct their behaviour and be welcomed back into the fold.
NOTE: this doesn't mean that anyone is entitled to have their apology accepted.
That said, the Code of Conduct is not a blunt weapon with which to beat others.
Naturally it is more than fair game to pick on any in-game group of people. Everyone is more than welcome to display mindless distaste for baselines, mutants, medics, people with hats or those that have more or less kaps than you. Those people are the worst.
We will do our best to communicate clearly and to be as fair as we possibly can. We will take all problems brought to our attention seriously, judge them on a case-by-case basis and address them in a timely manner.
Nothing is more important to us than the safety and well-being of our participants. If you experience anything that makes you feel uncomfortable and/or unsafe for any reason, you can come talk to us or our safety team. If you don't want to talk about it, that's perfectly alright too. You're welcome to just sit in the off-site and chill.
You should never feel like you need to negotiate your safety or well-being to find a warm place to sleep. If anything happens to your sleeping arrangements, talk to us and we'll help you figure something out.
