Consent

From time to time, players may wish to engage in adult themes in their roleplay. It is the opinion of Rhizome's administration that there is no value in attempting to litigate the ethical, moral, or artistic value of those desires, and therefore, we won't! We are, however, game developers, and we'd be abdicating our responsibility to all of our players if we didn't attempt to develop tools to support and assist player safety for as fraught a subject as adult themes.

BANNED CONTENT:

Let's start with the strict stuff. All players of Rhizome are over 18, and all of their player characters are as well. Roleplaying, in any capacity whatsoever, any sort of sexual content involving characters under 18 will result in an immediate, permanent ban. This includes inventing virtual underage NPCs, or setting your character as 18+ in chargen and then roleplaying them authoritatively as if they were less than that.

Secondly, no plots involving sexual assault or rape, even if you 'do it off stage'. Suggesting or mentioning a rape occurred in character will result in a ban -- the length of which may in fact be permanent depending on the circumstances surrounding the violation. There is zero tolerance on this rule.

CONSENT TOOLS:

Rhizome provides a consent system that aims to accomplish a number of goals: allow people who wish to see no adult content the ability to avoid that content, allow those who wish to engage in adult content to do so safely, and provide an authoritative signal to players when they are breaking the rules. The latter is extremely important, as it allows players to report offenders confidently, and allows staff to immediately ban them, as there can be no confusion.

Here is how it works.

All players enter Rhizome with Consent disabled by default. Their prompts appear normal. Players may choose to toggle general consent to see adult content in the game with CONSENT ON. All players with this toggle enabled will see the word CONSENT appended after their prompt.

If consenting players are currently in a location with ANY player with consent disabled, the word in their prompt will be a bright, notable red in coloration. If this is the case, explicit general themes in roleplay in that location are disallowed. This is to be considered an 'enthusiastic no'; players with consent toggled off are declaring openly that they are not interested in adult content, not any character generally, nor with another character specifically. Players wishing to roleplay around sexual themes must do so in a location where all players have consent toggled on, at which point, the CONSENT flag in the prompt will be a cheerful green.

STEALTH:

Hidden players with consent toggled off will not flag consent; this is unfortunate, but it prevents people from gaming the system, forcing others to consent to adult roleplay in order to maintain stealth. If you are hidden and adult roleplay begins to happen you do not wish to see, you must leave. If you cannot leave, for example because you shadowed someone past a locked door, type CONSENT PANIC and you will be moved to the nearest outdoor room and a log will be sent to staff for investigation to prevent this feature being abused.

Toggling consent on signals an openness to adult themes in roleplay in general. It does not signify consent in specific -- that is, just because someone is willing to attend a strip club, does not mean they are willing to have a direct encounter with anyone dancing there. If you wish to engage in directed sexual roleplay with another player, you must enable specific consent. A good rule of thumb is if scenes of a sexual nature involve one of either: a private, one-on-one environment OR physical touch between characters.

To accomplish this, we use a handshake protocol where both characters must approve the other. CONSENT character APPROVE will add that character to your register, CONSENT character RESCIND will rescind your approval. Both characters must approve the other, or other(s) depending on the circumstances, before scenes pertaining to specific sexual exchange can continue.

You can rescind anyone at any time, even if they are not logged into the game, and especially if you are in the middle of a scene. If you find yourself feeling uncomfortable, rescind immediately. The other player will receive a message informing them of this, and be prevented from using verbal or emoted communication for a few seconds to prevent them firing off an accidental emote before realizing they've been rescinded. If you have been rescinded while offline, you will receive a notification as soon as you log in regarding who has rescinded your permission for that sort of roleplay.

If you are rescinded, you are not permitted to ask why, or pressure for reapproval in any way. If you attempt to continue to toe the line, you will be banned. CONSENT character REPORT will instantly report a character that is not on your approval list, and automatically sends a timestamped authoritative log of what has been happening to the staff. CONSENT character WARN will send a private OOC warning to the character that they need to stop, but players are not obligated to do so and may skip straight to REPORT if they feel it necessary. If you find yourself in a situation where you have warned/reported and the offending player will not stop and you are concerned administration will not be able to respond fast enough, check the section on CONSENT PANIC above. Keep in mind that this system does log itself and people misusing it may also face bans.

These systems are designed to let our players explore the content they want while safely avoiding the content they do not, and Rhizome is committed to maintaining a healthy, welcoming community.

Review of commands:

    CONSENT                       Show whether consent is on or off, and everyone you have approved
    CONSENT ON                    Show adult content; adds CONSENT to your prompt
    CONSENT OFF                   Stop showing adult content; removes CONSENT
    CONSENT character APPROVE     Add a character to your register
    CONSENT character RESCIND     Remove your approval of a character
    CONSENT character WARN        Send a character a private OOC warning to stop
    CONSENT character REPORT      Report a character to staff with a timestamped log
    CONSENT PANIC                 Escape adult roleplay you are trapped in; moves you outdoors and logs to staff