Safety matters

What is a safety matter?

A safety matter is, basically, when a person brings to the attention of those responsible in a given context offensive, transgressive or perceived unsafe behavior from another person.

You can always raise things that have made you uncomfortable with a potential safety host without making it a safety issue. Safety issues are something that are specifically raised with the organizing team. Here are some guidelines on how to go about determining if your issue is a safety issue and how to proceed with it.

How do we handle safety matters?

There are a number of measures that can be taken to address security issues. Some you can request yourself without requiring an assessment from the organizing team (you can also request these even if your situation does not fit the guidelines for security issues), others are measures that the organizing team must make a decision on. When you submit a security issue, we ask you to describe what measures you would like to be taken.

Possible measures (can be requested even if it does not concern a security matter):

The organizing group notes what happened and informs security guards that it may be something to keep an eye on.
The organizing team ensures that you do not end up in the same room or smaller groups (such as in games like contentia mortis) as the person.
The organizing group ensures that you do not end up in any groups the person is in (such as dormitories or grade levels).

Possible measures (applies to security matters only):

The organizing group contacts the person and arranges a meeting, either with an organizer or (if possible) a security guard present.
The organizing team talks to the person about what happened, without you needing to be present.
The person is banned from the game (done very rarely and only in extreme situations).

For events that have occurred outside of Heartless larp events

For events at previous Heartless larp events

If the behavior occurred outside of one of our events, we will only accept safety concerns according to specific guidelines. We want everyone to feel safe at our parties, but we are not able to mediate in private conflicts that occurred outside of the party. We will only accept safety concerns about things that happened outside of our larps if:

A crime has been committed, such as assault, rape, etc.
The person has expressed or acted in a grossly discriminatory manner (racist, homophobic, transphobic, etc.)
The person has acted in a way that contradicts our core values on other levels.
Repeated transgressive behavior that makes you think they would be a risk to have on the team

Does what you have in mind not fit into the above guidelines? Regardless of what has happened, you can always ask not to be in the same bedrooms and groups as a person, and let us know in advance that you would prefer not to interact with a person during an upcoming event. However, we can never promise that you and another person at the larp will not be in the same social or physical space at some point during the event.

A matter where you don't want to be in the same social or physical space as another person is not

necessarily a security issue. If you decide it's not a security issue: Email us that you want to stay away from them, but we won't go into details about why.

It is also important to note that both when it comes to matters on and off the pitch, we want to speak to first-hand sources as much as possible, as events tend to become fuzzy when they have been going on for longer than that.

If the behavior in question has happened during or in relation to a previous Heartless larp event, it can always be raised as a safety issue.

We strive for open and honest communication in the game, and the goal is for all players to be able to have a constructive conversation when something has happened.

If it feels okay, we would therefore like you to open communication with the player in question yourself, and talk about what they have done that made you uncomfortable.

If they don't accept it, if you don't feel comfortable talking to them yourself or don't want to talk at all, we can provide support.

Template for safety matters

To submit a safety matter, email us at heartlesslarp@gmail.com and we will make sure the organizers have access to the case. If the case is about an Olympen event, contact olympenlajv@gmail.com

1.

Write your name.
Write your first and last name as a player.

2.

Describe why you are submitting the safety matter.
If it concerns a specific situation, describe it in as much detail as possible. If it concerns a pattern of behavior over a longer period of time, describe what happened and when to the extent you can.

3.

Tell us what actions, if any, you would like the organizing team to take.

Please use the list of how we handle safety matters as a starting point. If you don't know yourself, you can leave that decision to the organizing group, but we prefer that you make that assessment when it comes to ensuring your own sense of security at the larp.

4.

Let us know if you would like the organizers to contact you.

Describe whether you would like the organizers to contact you about the matter to follow up on what decisions are made, or if you would like us to handle it without involving you further.