# Forum > Technical > Board/Site Issues >  Request for clarification: what level of abstraction is necessary re: politics?

## Quertus

From thread Looking for flavor spells for the rich leaders of our world could like.




> *Sheriff*: Posters should interpret "our world" in the thread title to mean the poster's fictional D&D world. Applications to the real world will inevitably lead into real world politics and get you in trouble.


Request for clarification: a lot of RPGs are set in an Earth-like setting (World of Darkness, Call of Cthulhu, Dresden, most supers games, etc). These games often have alternate histories on how things _mechanically_ occurred, but look superficially / significantly / sufficiently like our own to the average citizen living therein.

In that context, at what point does asking what would people want? become political? When you target World leaders? Worlds leaders in any way that isnt obviously caused by the difference of them being a vampire / alien / whatever? People in general? People of a specific X?

Alternately, if it were a future Earth (Abberant/Trinity, <game with Transhumanist PCs>), or simply an earth-like world (so many from Star Trek and Dr. Who), is it political to ask what out-of-context magic their leaders might want?

Or - and Im guessing the answer is no, given the admonition - is the inclusion of magic supposedly not present on this world sufficient to make the world in question so substantively different as to avoid issues of discussing real-world politics?

(And was this the right way/place to ask this question?)

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## Grey_Wolf_c

I'm not a mod, so the best I can do is quote previous clarifications on the theme:

(All the following quotes are Red Text in the original)




> Sheriff: Do not discuss real world politics or religion in any context, even one related to gaming. So don't post anything that raises those topics. And even if your post doesn't, try not to lead others into it.
> 
> In game, if it's a PbP, you have more leeway, if you keep it entirely within the fiction. For example, your World of Darkness character can have dealings with the (obviously fictional) Catholic Church. But anywhere else, avoid all real-world religion and politics references. For example, don't use the OOC thread to discuss the real world Catholic Church.





> Sheriff: There is no time limitation. The distinction is real world vs. not real world. If it involves the real world and politics please leave it out of the Playground. If you wonder how broadly to interpret "politics," give it a very broad interpretation, and err on the side of caution in what you post.





> Sheriff: If you keep it in-character and within the fiction, it's fictional, and thus fine. If you start discussing it in the out-of-character thread in a way that references the real world analog, that's not fine.





> Sheriff: In-character in a PbP, real world religion and politics don't exist. You are discussing the fictional Catholic Church or U.S. President. Just make sure it doesn't spill into the OOC or any real world discussion. Getting into an OOC discussion of "the U.S. President doesn't actually have that power..." would violate the Forum Rules....And, as always, when in doubt, leave it out.


(this one I believe predates red-texting, but it's still effectively so):



> [...]fictionalized real world religion and politics. I'm not sure how this could be discussed in any meaningful way without reference to their real world analogs. Without seeing a specific application, it's hard to judge, but I believe this would usually violate the rules. So in a PbP game, where it is clearly all fictional, I don't think it presents a problem, as long as you keep it fictional and don't get into discussions of real world doctrine, etc. But in any of the discussion forums, I think it would be a problem almost every single time.






> (And was this the right way/place to ask this question?)


It is, but given the time of year, I'd imagine it might take some time for the mods to address your specific questions. I recommend searching for "politics" and "religion" in this subforum to find a wealth of answers on the topic (that's where those quotes above came from). My rule of thumb, for what little it is worth, is to give politics and religion a wide, wide berth even in games like WoD. I'd try to have the plot focused on vampires that run corporations, rather than the ones that run governments, so to speak.

Yours,

Grey Wolf

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## Roland St. Jude

*Sheriff*: Thanks for the extensive review of prior comments!  That just about covers it. As my red text mentioned in the OP indicates, if you can keep the discussion clearly and entirely within the fiction, it's within the rules. But to the extent it discusses or calls for discussing our real world religion or politics (and those have exceptionally broad meanings here), it's against the Forum Rules.

Keep in mind that you're responsible for your own post, but we also moderate with where your comment might lead people in mind (hence my thread nudge quoted in the OP). We're probably going to nudge or even close a thread that seems to call for (or result in) rule-breaking posts.

Alternate history and historical fiction can be particularly difficult to discuss here. This might just not be the place for them. As noted above, when in doubt, just don't post it here.

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