Charter
This Charter has been set forth to direct the community representing the ShadowHaven living Shadowrun campaign, to facilitate a mature community of Shadowrun players playing together in an accessible manner, to provide guidelines for a welcoming community with strong moderation, and to collaboratively tell and enjoy a compelling and engaging Shadowrun story.
We explicitly do not seek to maximize the number of people in our group, but to focus on making the group as fun and stress-free as possible. We do not accept antisocial behavior here. We seek to create a space where every member feels free to bring up issues that they may have and can expect civil dialog on the topic. We understand that the time and energy of our members is preciously limited and aim to make time spent here as joyous as possible. We set strong boundaries on the type of gameplay and community we expect while acknowledging and accepting that some may not fit with us. However, we are more than happy to play with anyone to see if there is a fit.
Article I: Guiding Principles
1. Freedom to pick: GMs being free to choose their players and players being free to choose their GMs creates accountability on the part of all people involved to play the game in good faith.
2. Trust each other: Our players and GMs can trust each other for anyone who dares violate that trust will be removed.
3. We’re Busy, Slot Paperwork: Our member’s time is valuable. Any paperwork we ask for should be for world building, not administrative measures that attempt to guard community integrity with record keeping. Most our time should be spent playing games.
4. No pulled punches: We will not implement policies that encourage pulled punches and sugarcoating of game content.
5. It's better to ban one than lose two: The integrity of the community will be guarded.
6. Open Dialog: Provide spaces to members to community their grievances, make sure they feel comfortable enough to share them.
7. Permissive, but not sugarcoated: While we let our players play what they want, we will not sugar coat the world to make more oddball concepts work. We aim to achieve verisimilitude.
8. Rules as Commonly Interpreted: While we do not have a RAW mandate, we also try to avoid house rules as much as we can. Further, we will bring our interpretations of the rules in line with vetted sources like GM Screen where new players can easily learn the game. If a mistake in RAW is obvious, we will correct it.
Article II: Organization Structure
Moderation Division
Head Moderator Duties and Powers
1. Acts as a member of the senior staff.
2. Interprets the community standards.
3. Brings cases that need a ban length longer than what the moderators can do to the co-sysops.
4. Recruits, interviews, and disciplines the moderator staff.
5. Reviews complaints about moderator staff.
6. Vetos moderator ban votes.
Term Length
Term ends on the first day of an odd-numbered month.
Individual Moderators Duties and Powers
1. At their own discretion, Informally Warn, Kick, or Mute members who are breaking community standards
2. Mediate interpersonal conflicts
3. Interview members when investigating cases
4. Access to all ShadowHaven documents and chat channels when investigating cases
5. Any moderator can issue up to a 3-day ban. Any two moderators can issue up to a two-week ban. Any 3 moderators can issue up to a one month ban. Any 4 moderators can issue up to a three-month ban. Any 5 moderators can issue up to a six-month ban.
6. When taking any action, moderators must document their action and reasoning in the report form in order to document incidents.
7. When issuing bans, moderators much inform the banned of their right to appeal the case to the co-sysops.
The Council
The 3 members of the council shall represent the heads of the following divisions:
- Mechanics
- Thematics
- Character Generation
Term Length
Term ends on the first day of an odd-numbered month.
Duties
1. The Council, as a whole, shall work together to collaborate between the three divisions and their branches, facility open discussion and approve full house rules.
Division Descriptions
Mechanics Duties
1. Review new Shadowrun content for use on ShadowHaven
2. Ban Shadowrun rules not fit for community play
3. Maintain the ShadowHaven experience that is a refined version of the Rules as Written and provide clear documentation on any house rules should they be required.
4. Review and approve mechanical changes proposed by Thematics in the form of State of Seattle posts and similar effects.
5. Review and approve the mechanical aspects of contacts.
6. Organize a department to perform the above duties.
Thematics Duties
1. Organize a department to manage and oversee the storylines of the Game Masters on shadownet, ensuring maximum GM freedom while minimizing unwanted intersection of plotlines.
2. Resolve conflict between GMs in regards to the use of setting pieces.
3. Oversee presentation of post-mission consequences upon the world of the ShadowHaven living campaign to members of the community.
4. Investigate reports of GM misconduct.
5. Interview new GMs to ShadowHaven to see if they are fit for the community.
6. Organize the recording of run information in the form of wikipages.
7. Oversee the thematics of contacts.
8. Conduct investigations into GM misconduct.
Character Generation Duties
1. Ensure the ShadowHaven legality and adherence to rules of player characters proposed by members of the ShadowHaven living campaign.
2. Organize a department to offer constructive criticism of the concept and mechanicals of proposed player characters.
Co-Sysops
Duties and Powers
1. Review ban appeals and votes to nullify bans.
2. Votes to increase the time moderation bans people, as suggested by the head moderator.
3. Conduct technical upkeep on the community.
4. Resolve conflict between departments.
5. Interview and elect council members and senior staff.
6. Votes to renew the terms of council members and senior staff.
7. Issue votes of non-confidence against council members and moderators who are acting against the community standards.
8. May ban people or participate in votes to ban people, however, must abstain from ban length decisions on that ban.
9. Advises the Sysop on issues facing the community.
Sysop
Duties and Powers
1. May modify the charter
2. Act with the powers of the Co-Sysops