Consent and Source Protection

This is the important page, and everything else in the guide points back to it.

The Consent Form

The paper maintains a consent list that players have filled out, and Shauna does her absolute best to follow it strictly. A few players have opted out of appearing in the paper entirely and that boundary is respected, which is why an event’s biggest spectacle sometimes goes mysteriously unreported. For privacy purposes, the form answers themselves are not public.

Fill it out, or update your answers any time. If you’d rather just talk it through, come find Shauna.

Default Assumptions

For players who haven’t filled out the form, or for things the form doesn’t cover: the paper writes about players constantly without checking in every time, because that’s the nature of a gossip rag. Anything questionable such as secrets, sensitive subjects, or stuff that touches the line between character and player gets a conversation with the affected player before it prints. If you’re submitting something and you’re not sure which side of that line it’s on, flag it.

If Your Piece Runs into Someone Else’s Boundary

If you write a piece that features someone who has opted out or otherwise runs into a consent issue, Shauna will work with you directly to re-work it rather than scrapping your submission. For example, if you send in a hilarious piece about a specific adventurer falling into the mud outside the Spinning Jenny and that player is on the opt-out list, the focus might shift to the “suspiciously slippery state of the tavern steps,” or the subject might become an anonymous “clumsy traveler.” The goal is always to keep your voice and your core joke intact while respecting player boundaries.

When the Desk Gets it Wrong

Between writing, building the layout, wrangling the Novitas rumor mill, and tracking everyone’s preferences, getting the paper out is a huge undertaking. Shauna sticks to the consent list as carefully as one person can, but she is a one-person editorial desk and she does sometimes drop the ball. If a mistake happens, please reach out to her.

Feeding the Paper

In-world, Poppy protects her sources. Anonymous submissions or tips stay anonymous; she does not reveal them to angry subjects, curious lawyers, or anyone else, and the paper has publicly staked its reputation on that promise in game.

Your character can use this to their advantage: talking to the paper is safe, and no amount of in-character pressure on Poppy, or on you, will out an anonymous source. If someone corners your PC demanding to know who wrote something, “take it up with the editor” is always a valid answer, and the editor will use her resources to take care of the issue.

One hard limit on that: it’s an in-character deal. If game marshals or plot ask for more information about an article such as who submitted it, what it’s based on, or where a detail came from, Shauna will provide it out of game. Source protection is part of the fiction; it is not a shield against the people running the game, and the paper is not a loophole for anything that needs eyes on it. If you have an out-of-game concern about a piece such as something about you or something you think crossed a line, bring it to Shauna.