Policies

Anomalous abides by the standard policies of Unlikely Stories with the following specifications:

• Attendees must abide by our Event Safety Policy, including our LARP Safety policy.
• All attendees must be over the age of 18. There is no capacity for including children of any age.

For convenience, the policies of Unlikely Stories are presented below.

Once bookings have opened for an Event you may reserve a place at the event by filling out a form which will be accessible when booking opens. Your place will be confirmed either by payment of the £20 Deposit or the Full Amount. Payment should be made by the Booking Deadline for the Event (specified by the Event) or your place may be offered to someone else.

Bookings made after the main booking deadline will need to be paid in full before they are accepted. No booking will be taken after late booking deadline so that we can finalise numbers.

Where information is needed from attendees — for example the creation of a Character by a deadline — we reserve the right to cancel any booking that fails to provide that information by the deadline, particularly where we have received no communication on the matter.

Unlikely Stories reserves the right to refuse a booking without needing to give a reason why.

Payment should be made by Bank Transfer to:

Unlikely Stories
Lloyds Bank
Sort Code 30-99-50
Account Number 22249963

Alternative means of payment can be arranged if needed. Please contact us to arrange this.

Concession prices (where offered) are available for those who need it, for example to:

• Students
• Those not in full time employment
• Attendees with disabilities
• Anyone attending in order to care for another attendee

Concession eligibility is taken on trust as would rather make sure that concession prices are available to all those who would benefit from them rather than overly police. If you are unsure whether you should qualify, you are welcome to email us at contact@unlikelystories.co.uk to confirm.

Cancellations before the Booking Deadline will receive a refund not including deposit.

Cancellations made after the main booking deadline but before the cancellation deadline will receive a 50% refund not including deposit. This includes cancellations that Unlikely Stories makes due to failure to submit required information before the deadline.

Cancellations made after the Late Booking Deadline will get no refund.

You may not make physical contact with another attendee without their consent except where the combat rules of an Event require it. You may always go out of character to check for consent.

You should not reference themes that are listed as restricted in the Acceptable Themes policy (see below). You should take care when referencing themes on the same policy which are listed as sensitive.

If someone asks you to stop pursuing a topic of conversation, do so without question. If someone asks you to leave them alone, do so without question. If that causes issues, contact the core team who will take appropriate discretionary action up to and including removing the attendee from the event.

You may report harassing behaviour by any attendee of an event to a member of Unlikely Stories staff. Your identity will not be revealed during the handling of this complaint.

Any and all illegal activity will be reported to the authorities. Offending players will be removed from the event.

If a member of staff makes a decision you may challenge it once. If the member of staff asserts they are still correct you must accept their ruling. If you are still unhappy with the decision you should escalate after the Event by email.

Following the spirit of the rules is just as important as following the letter. Lying about meeting game conditions, cheating in combat, and other such behaviour is certainly not in the spirit of the game and players found to be behaving in such a way are liable to be excluded. “It was In Character” or “I was just joking” are not acceptable excuses for poor behaviour.

It is always acceptable to drop out of character to correct someone's use of pronouns. If you don't feel comfortable correcting someone, it's always acceptable to find a member of staff and ask them to correct someone for you. Repeatedly failing to use the correct pronouns for someone is considered breaking the behavioural conduct rules and staff may ask you to leave the event.

At events where it is permissible to you may drink on site, but respect the choice of others not to drink. If a member of staff determines that you are too drunk to remain safely in the game you will be asked to go Out Of Character until you are able to safely participate in the game.

Players and Volunteer Crew are reminded to be respectful to one another. In particular, since Crew are volunteers, Players are reminded to be courteous of Crew and not make out of character demands on their time. If you wish to request a particular roleplaying interaction from a member of crew, seek a Ref.

It is expected that attendees will remain in-character in the in-character areas unless otherwise necessary (for example, consulting a Ref on an urgent Out Of Character query; going Out Of Character to check someone is okay to proceed with a topic of conversation). If a longer out-of-character conversation is needed, please take it to an out-of-character area.

You must not discriminate on the basis of protected characteristics. It is unacceptable to play a character who is racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, etc.

Breaking the Behaviour Policy during an event is grounds for removal from the event.

Unlikely Stories believes that nobody should be forced to roleplay with someone with whom they are uncomfortable around out of character. At any point during an Event, attendees may ask a member of Unlikely Stories Staff to ask another attendee to avoid interacting with them. No reason needs to be given, but it is expected that such requests are made in good faith. Both sides should respect this request, with the understanding that given the nature of the event interaction may still occur. If at any point either party feels that this request is not being honoured, this should be taken up as soon as possible with Unlikely Stories Staff.

When players or crew book into an Unlikely Stories event they will be added to the list of attendees on the using first name and identifying initial of the name that they booked with which will be made available to attendees.

All attendees will have the option to email Unlikely Stories for one of the following options:

• Red Flag a name - you are aware of or have experienced behaviour from this person that you believe makes them unsafe to be at an event. Examples of this may be bullying, harassment, or abuse. You don’t have to give a reason for red-flagging a name. Someone who has been red-flagged will be asked to not attend the event. We will not tell them who has raised this flag or why.
  • The exception to not needing to give a reason is if you are red-flagging a member of Unlikely Stories Staff, as we will need to investigate such a matter fully in order to ensure that the game can continue to run knowing the attendees will be safe. We will continue to avoid giving details of who raised the flag or why without their permission during such an investigation.
• Yellow Flag a name - you do not believe this person to be unsafe, but for personal reasons do not want to play closely with them and do not wish for us to contact them about this. You don’t have to give a reason for yellow-flagging a name. In this case, we will avoid writing you into the same areas of the game and will not tell them that they have been yellow-flagged. We will be unable to request avoidance.
• Request Mutual Avoidance - you do not believe this person to be unsafe, but for personal reasons you do not want to play closely with them and would you avoid each other during the event. In this case, we will issue a mutual avoidance request between the two of you.

Unlikely Stories maintains this policy to encourage a safer roleplaying environment on the basis of good faith and trust amongst attendees. Anyone found to be abusing this policy is likely to be excluded from Unlikely Stories events.

By the nature of enforcing requests, Unlikely Stories staff will need to share details of any flagging between themselves, but it will not be shared unnecessarily with additional Unlikely Stories staff.

During events you may always report harassing or unsafe behaviour to staff as well, as noted in our Behaviour Policy.

If you have a complaint about something please take this complaint to Unlikely Stories Staff either in person during an event or by contacting us by email.

When making a complaint about an incident, please provide as full an account as to what happened as you can so that the team are able to be brought up to speed as to what specifically occurred.

When working out how to handle a complaint, we will let any complainants know of any conflicts of interest from the relevant members of the team if that is relevant.

The following information is stored securely and only accessible to the Unlikely Stories team:

• Your out-of-character (OC) name.
• Your contact email address.
• List of Unlikely Stories events you have attended.
• Your photography preferences.
• Any data transmitted through Booking Forms (including dietary requirements, access requirements, emergency contact information, etc) is handled by us but deleted when it is no longer relevant.
• Email communications
• Any requests made as per the Safe Community Policy (minimal information stored to maintain our records but no information beyond what is needed is kept)
• Safety incident details

The following information is handled by the relevant external party:

• Photographs of you taken during the game (with your permission) held by our photographer
• The following information may stored on our website server and publicly available:
• Your generated content (character information, group backgrounds, etc)
• Association of your name (see below) with your character

• Publicly we will display the OC name that you provide us on your in-character bio, on your userpage, and on the Anomalous “Staff” page. This will be visible to anyone who looks at the wiki.
• By default, this will be displayed and stored on-wiki as your given name, plus the initial of your family name (e.g. Katie M).
• In the event that this is not enough to uniquely identify you, we will use up to three letters of your family name (e.g. Katie Moo). If that isn’t enough to uniquely identify you, then people will just have to deal with it.
• If you wish your name to be displayed in another form (e.g. initials only) then let us know.
• Email us if you wish to change how your name is displayed.
• We request that this name is the same as you would use to introduce yourself to other players. This does not need to be your legal name.
• If the name on your bank account differs from this name please use your preferred name in the Reference for payments or email us to let us know (otherwise we won't know you've paid us!). We will never use this name except for internal record keeping.

• Our Mailing List is managed by SquareSpace where email addresses are stored. Subscribees may unsubscribe at their leisure using the link in the email.

• At Events, photographers may be present to take photos. If you wish to take photos please request permission from the Ref Team first and prior to the event.
• Exact distribution is up to the discretion of the photographer but takedowns will always be available by contacting the photographer directly.
• You can opt out of having photos of you taken by contacting Unlikely Stories or the photographer.
• With your permission, photos may be used for advertising and display purposes. You can revert your permission at any time.
• Some Ref-provided props may be used to take photos by Players: any digital photos will be subject to the rules on Recordings (see below) and any physical photos from these must be returned to the Game Team at the end of the event to be destroyed.

• At some Events, with your prior consent, the Ref Team may make audio or video recordings for use during that event and only during that event.
• Nobody except the Ref Team is permitted to make recordings and recordings will only be made for this purpose.
• All such recordings will be deleted at the end of the event and will never be distributed.
• You can opt out of having recordings of you taken by contacting Unlikely Stories.

By default, your personal information will be deleted once the event us over and we have no more reason to contact you (for example to inform you of Lost Property).

The person responsible for enforcing this policy is Katie Moore. She can be contacted via email directly at katie@unlikelystories.co.uk.

Safety is of utmost importance at Anomalous. Anyone who engages in combat must be aware of the rules listed on our LARP Safety Policy page. In particular:

• Do not make physical contact with an attendee without their explicit consent.
• All weapons or prop guns must be checked by a Ref (or member of Crew designated by a Ref).
• If someone is hitting you too hard in LARP combat then you should tell them so. If you feel unable to do so, ask a Ref to tell them so or call “STOP THE GAME”.
• If a Ref tells you you are doing something unsafe, or if you are told by any attendee that you are hitting too hard in LARP combat, listen to them and amend your behaviour accordingly. If you disagree with that call, still amend your behaviour accordingly until you have a chance to speak to a Head Ref about the situation.
• The Head Refs reserve the right to restrict access to combat encounters or to the game as a whole for attendees who persistently fight in an unsafe manner.

The call “STOP THE GAME” is our safety call. If you hear this, stop what you are doing and stay where you are so that the situation can be addressed. This is always an Out of Character call and should never be used in character.

The call “OC: ENOUGH” indicates that the speaker needs to disengage from the current roleplay for OC reasons (such as anxiety, feeling overwhelmed by the situation, etc). It may also be represented non-verbally by crossing one's arms in an X shape over their chest which is a gesture that should never be used in character. When “OC: ENOUGH” is called (whether verbally or not), all parties involved in the current roleplaying interaction should stop the current interaction without question while the person who called “OC: ENOUGH” leaves the In Character space, and then resume as normal. You may ask the person if they require company but must respect their choice if they say “no”. If the person does wish company you are not obligated to drop out of character yourself but may ask a Ref or volunteered Mental Health First Aider to do so. If you believe “OC: ENOUGH” has been called but not respected, call “STOP THE GAME”.

The call “OC: DIAL DOWN” should be used to indicate that the speaker would like to de-escalate the current roleplaying interaction without stopping it. This may be non-verbally communicated by holding two fingers in the air and waving downward. All parties involved in an interaction when “OC: DIAL DOWN” is called should de-escalate the situation - e.g. reduce volume or intensity of speech - and accommodate this request. When calling “OC: DIAL DOWN”, you may also specify anything in particular about the interaction which is causing discomfort – e.g. “OC: DIAL DOWN - please lower your voice,” or “OC: DIAL DOWN - I don't want to talk about addiction.”

The identities of First Aiders and Mental Health First Aiders on site will be made clear to everyone at the briefing before TIME IN.

If an incident occurs, please report it to the Head Refs. When you do so, please provide as full and clear an account of what occurred as you can so that the Refs can be quickly brought up to speed as to what occurred.