Planet Smasher Games Community Rules

Without Rules, There Can Be No Fun

Tabletop miniatures games rely on their communities to thrive. If you can’t find people with whom to discuss the game, share your hobby or play with, a minis game essentially doesn’t exist.

For that reason, I hold the communities for my games very dear. It is important to me that those communities be relaxed places, full of supportive conversation between people sharing a common interest and passion. In the recent Gaslands survey, you took the time to make it clear that I could be doing better.

I intend for these Community Rules to make it clear what is and isn’t acceptable in the communities for my games. I hope you will take the time to read them.

Where Do These Rules Apply?

These Community Rules apply to everyone that is hanging out in any of the official communities for any of my games. This includes the official communities on Facebook for Gaslands, A Billion Suns, Perilous Tales, Hobgoblin and Mystic Skies, as well as the Planet Smasher Games and Rule of Carnage Discord servers. 

There are other community spaces for my games that I do not run, such as /Gaslands on Reddit and Discord, A Billion Suns on Discord, Hobgoblin on Electi’s Discord, other Gaslands Facebook groups, BoardGameGeek forums, and more: those spaces have their own rules, which you should read and adhere to.

THE QUICK VERSION

I want my rules to be clear, so I’ve taken the time to explain them below. However, they basically boil down to:

  1. Stay classy
  2. Share your work
  3. Stay on topic

The Rules

These are the rules:

  1. Respect. We are respectful of each other and seek to create a relaxed and welcoming environment.
    1. Welcoming: We do not tolerate any form of hate or discrimination. We welcome diversity in race, ethnicity, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, ability, national origin, decision to base your Hot Wheels, and anything else.
    2. Kind: We do not bully anyone in the community or interact with others in a way that is perceived as predatory, threatening, intimidating, lewd, demeaning or derogatory.
    3. Chill: We do not set out to deliberately provoke others or cause offence, even in jest. We don’t troll each other. If someone or some discussion is upsetting you, let the individuals know that and then step away from the discussion.
    4. Personal Information: We do not share other people’s personal information without their permission.
    5. If you break any of these rules in particular, expect to be unceremoniously kicked out.
  2. What We Do and Don’t Talk About.
    1. We talk about the games. This means discussing the games, their rules, our game sessions, our hobby progress and other people’s inspirational hobby work. If it is directly related to the game (and obeys the other rules), it is welcome.
    2. PG-13: We are a community of adults, but we keep it mostly clean.
    3. Low-effort content is not something we celebrate, and I urge you to consider delaying posting until you have more to share. I consider ‘low-effort’ content to be:
      • A photo of something that you just purchased but have not done anything with; 
      • An image that vaguely relates to the theme of the game, but you have not done anything to directly connect it to the game or to the community;
      • (If the content is shared with a question to the community, designed to spark debate or engagement, that’s not low-effort);
      • Spamming very similar content over and over is not welcome.
    4. No politics. Discussion of politics, social issues or current affairs is not welcome. While I believe such discussions can be important, they are complex and emotive issues that my tabletop game-focused communities are not the correct forum for.
    5. If you break any of these rules, let’s have a chat, as this stuff is often a bit less cut and dry and you may not have understood exactly the sort of community we are trying to create together.
  3. Advertising your business. (This one doesn’t apply in the Rule of Carnage Discord). As an independent game maker, I am very supportive of other indie-makers and have benefitted from their support and collaboration through schemes like Friends of Gaslands. My communities are spaces for my games, which I create to support and maintain my own business. You are welcome to advertise your product, webstore or crowd-funding campaign in my communities, as long as you follow these rules:
    1. Patreon Supporter: you must be a member of my Patreon at Bronze level at least, and thus a member of the Friends of Planet Smasher scheme (click here for more details).
    2. Directly relevant: your product must be directly relevant to the game or games under discussion. (For example, post-apocalyptic terrain is cool, but needs to be in 1:64/20mm scale to be directly relevant to Gaslands).
    3. Not a miniature game: your product cannot be another miniatures game. Sorry!
    4. No AI: You may not advertise the sale of anything that contains content created using Generative AI tool in my communities.
  4. Credit Where Credit Is Due
    1. When sharing content, we like it best when you share things you made yourself.
    2. If you share something that you didn’t make, please credit the original creator.
  5. Generative AI. The use of content created using Generative AI tools is a spicy topic for many. Our rules are:
    1. You may post content that contains content created using Generative AI, as long as it obeys the other rules.
    2. If you do, you must disclose it in your post, something like: ‘The background image was created using Midjourney’.
    3. You may not advertise the sale of anything that contains content created using Generative AI tools in my communities.
    4. Please don’t use my communities as a place to attempt to solve the AI Art debate. As with the ‘no politics’ rule, these are complex and emotive issues, for which regulatory frameworks don’t currently exist, and my communities are not the correct places to debate.
    5. For interest, you can find my Planet Smasher Games AI Policy here.

What to do If you see something you think breaks these rules?

Planet Smasher Games is run by one dude: me! I don’t have time to keep an eye on all the various social spaces my games are discussed as much as I would like to, so I rely on the inherent and overwhelming positivity in the miniatures gaming community to help me nudge folks and politely remind them of these rules. 

If you see something you think breaks the rules, let the other person know–respectfully. 

Our online worlds are complex. If you see someone acting out of line, chances are they haven’t had the opportunity to see these rules, or didn’t understand some part of them, so I would love you to give them the benefit of the doubt and point them towards this set of rules as a first action.

If that doesn’t work out, hit whatever ‘report’ button the platform provides and we’ll endeavour to set things straight.

Thanks for being wonderful, stay classy!

– Mike

These rules were last updated: 06 March 2024.