Supporting players

Overview

One of the primary responsibilities of all Empire crew is that you will provide some basic support for players. Although all Empire crew have different responsibilities, with some in more player-facing roles than others, players attending the event have a legitimate expectation that crew who are asked will support them if they need help. For this reason you should be ready to provide basic help in the circumstances outlined below.

In general this page complements the generic guidelines for helping players, which are laid out in our crew protocol. Those rules apply in all circumstances where a player asks you for help, but the situations below have their own, additional, requirements.

Cheating

• Please try to ensure that every report of cheating involving specific individuals is reported to Graeme Jamieson or a head referee
• Generic reports of cheating involving entire nations should be ignored

If you believe that you have seen a player cheating or you receive a report that a player is cheating, then please report this to Graeme Jamieson at the first available opportunity. Graeme can be contacted by radio, or is usually working in the Matt Bunker near monster.

The most effective report is a first-hand account - ideally delivered in person. If you are speaking to a participant who is reporting an incident of cheating, please try to persuade them to make the report to Graeme in person. If they do not wish to do this then ask them if you can take the report to Graeme on their behalf - either openly or anonymously.

We wish to chase up any report of cheating that involves one or more specific individuals - provided that there is some identifying information more specific than the characters' nation. It is always best to have the names of the players accused of cheating, but a description of some kind is sufficient for us to chase a matter up.

What we don't deal with is completely generic descriptions of cheating - it is extraordinarily unlikely that every single member of an entire nation of players is cheating, no matter what any individual claims. We cannot take action against an entire nation if some of their players are breaking the rules but we have no idea which ones. Be polite, ask for any identifying details and explain the difficulties involved.

Conduct

• Try to ensure that any breech of conduct is reported to Emma Woods or a member of the conduct team
• Respect the wishes of the participant you are dealing with

If a participant approaches you with a report of harassment or discrimination, please stop what you are doing and give the person your full attention. Listen carefully to everything they say and then follow the simple guidelines laid out below:

• Ask them if you can arrange for a member of the conduct team to talk to them
• If they want to report, ask them if they have a friend who can accompany and support them (you may be the friend they are hoping will do this)

Do not try to deal with the problem yourself, in particular do not make assumptions about the severity of the situation or whether it needs to be passed on. Ask the participant you are speaking to for permission to contact the conduct team - if they give you that then contact us as quickly as humanly possible.

Please listen to the person who is talking to you and respect their wishes. If the participant does not give permission for you to contact the conduct team then you must not do so, but please consider the points laid out in the supporting guidelines written for all participants to see what help you can give. If a member of the hobby has chosen to approach you for help then it is likely that they will feel most comfortable with any help that you can give them.

Whatever happens, please ensure that you do not do any of the following:

• Do not pressure them for details of what happened, leave any investigation for a member of our conduct team.
• Do not comment on anyone's state of inebriation, dress, emotional state or any other factor.
• Do not try to persuade or dissuade them from any reasonable course of action
• Do not make any promises or judgements

Welfare

• If any participant is experiencing obvious distress then you can contact the Participant Welfare team by radio
• Respect the wishes of the participant you are talking to

While all participants are expected to plan for and manage their own practical and emotional needs, sometimes things happen that are beyond their control. Participant Welfare (PW) are here to support participants — both players and crew — who experience unforeseen practical or emotional problems while on site.

This support might be for practical issues, like missing or broken camping equipment, or for emotional support. The Participant Welfare team does not provide therapy or counselling, but are trained to give short term support to people in emotional distress. 

If a participant brings an issue to you and you feel that we can help please contact us. If you are unsure, always radio in: we work with lots of departments on site, and if we are not able to help, we will support you in finding the department that can.

Always radio Participant Welfare to request support — don't come directly to the PW tents. Our tents are shared with a number of departments, and we need to maintain a safe and confidential space for everyone using them.

• We can be contacted on the appropriate channel any time between 8 a.m. and 1 a.m., from Thursday afternoon onwards (depending on arrival time of crew members).
• Between 1 a.m. and 8 a.m., please contact Security, who will contact a member of the PW team.
• In order to maintain confidentiality, we only ask for basic details over the radio. This will help us assess the support needed.
• Please be careful not to offer, or suggest, support to participants that PD might not be able to provide.
• We will usually meet the participant outside GOD. We may ask you to stay with the participant until we get there if they are distressed.
• If there is an issue that prevents the participant from getting to GOD, let us know. We will arrange to meet you and the participant in the IC area.
• If you suspect the participant is drunk, on drugs, or a risk to others please call Security. Security will contact us if appropriate.
• If a participant has medical issues that need to be addressed, please contact the First Aid team. They will contact Participant Welfare if appropriate. 

Event Experience

• Please try to ensure that any negative event experience is reported to the appropriate person or to Adam or Erin in GOD

There are a range of possible experiences that players can have that will impact negatively on their event. If a player approaches you to describe a problem they have had or are having - or you overhear them talking about it - please encourage them to bring it to our attention.

Most problems fall into three broad areas:

• Problems with the site facilities, the toilets, the showers, etc should be reported to Alison Pennington or a senior member of the site team.
• Game problems such as plot inconsistencies or failed conjunctions should be reported to Matt Pennington (or Andy Raff or Graeme Jamieson or Clare Evans if Matt is not available).
• Administration problems such as resources missing from a pack should be reported to Erin Knott or Adam Dinwoodie in GOD.

If you are in any doubt who to report a problem to then please report it to Erin Knott or Adam Dinwoodie in GOD, who can then help ensure the right person is informed.