One code, both rooms

How we treat each other.

This applies at the tables in Prior Lake and in the Discord server, because it is the same community either way. If you are barred from one, you are barred from both.

Draft — not yet adopted. These rules were written as a starting point for the owners to cut, rewrite and approve. They are not in force, and nothing here has been read and approved. The two questions that needed a real decision are now settled: the shop is not licensed, so no alcohol at all, and reports go to an owner on site.

The short version: be the person other people are glad to see walk in. Everything below is detail.

1. 01

   Treat people like you want them at the next table

   Shop & Discord

   Everyone here is welcome regardless of age, race, gender, sexuality, disability, faith or how long they have been in the hobby. Harassment, slurs, and sexual or unwanted attention get you removed — the first time, not the third. Persistent unwanted contact after someone has asked you to stop counts, including in DMs.

2. 02

   Nobody gets made to feel stupid for not knowing something

   Shop & Discord

   Half the point of this shop is people learning. Correcting a rules mistake is helping; sighing about it is not. If someone is playing a deck or an army badly, they did not ask you to fix it unless they asked you to fix it.

3. 03

   This is an all-ages room

   In the shop

   Families and kids are in most days, and at any open table. Keep language and subject matter to what you would be comfortable saying in front of somebody else's ten-year-old. Some products we carry are marked 18+ — that label is the rule.

4. 04

   The tables are shared, so leave them ready

   In the shop

   Clear your dice, sleeves, tokens and cups when you finish. Terrain goes back on the shelf the way you found it. If you moved a table, move it back. Paint bench: clean your palette and your water pot, and put brushes back tip-up.

5. 05

   Play honestly, and slowly is not a strategy

   In the shop

   Cheating gets you removed from the event and usually from the shop. Deliberate slow play to run out a clock is cheating. Sanctioned events follow the organizer's rules and the judge's call is final on the night — take a disagreement up afterwards, not at the table.

6. 06

   Borrowed things come back

   In the shop

   Loaner armies, demo decks and the board game library exist because people return them complete. Tell staff if something is damaged or a piece is missing — that is a normal thing to happen and a much smaller problem than finding out later.

7. 07

   Close quarters, long sessions

   In the shop

   Six hours at a table is close company. Turn up clean, and take the hint gracefully if a member of staff has a quiet word — they will only ever have it quietly and in private.

8. 08

   No alcohol on the premises

   In the shop

   We are not licensed, so no alcohol is served and none may be brought in. That applies to every event, including evening ones. Staff can ask anyone who has been drinking elsewhere to come back another day.

9. 09

   Deals between members are between members

   Shop & Discord

   Buying, selling and trading with each other is part of the hobby and we are not going to stop it. But the shop cannot referee a private deal that goes wrong, and we will not adjudicate one. Meet at the shop, in person, during opening hours — that alone prevents nearly all of it. If you want the shop to stand behind a transaction, sell it to us at the trade-in counter instead.

10. 10

    Self-promotion has a channel

    In the Discord

    Commissions, streams, your own shop, your Kickstarter — post it in the right channel and not across the server. Do not DM members cold to advertise. Recruiting for other stores' events is fine in the events channel; running a competing sale in our server is not.

11. 11

    Spoiler-tag new sets and new releases

    In the Discord

    Preview season and new video game or film releases: use a spoiler tag for the first two weeks. It costs you three keystrokes and saves somebody their weekend.

12. 12

    Photograph models, not people

    Shop & Discord

    Photos of the shop and of painted models are welcome and we love seeing them. Ask before you photograph or stream someone who is in shot, and delete it if they ask. This matters most with kids: never photograph somebody else's child.

13. 13

    Keep the server safe for work and for teenagers

    In the Discord

    No NSFW content anywhere in the server, including avatars and profile banners. Discord's own terms require members to be at least 13. Mature-content games get discussed with the same restraint you would use on the shop floor.

14. 14

    Staff decisions stand while you are in the building

    Shop & Discord

    You can disagree, and you can take it up with the owners afterwards — we would rather you did than stew on it. But arguing with a decision in the moment, in front of a room, is not the way to change it.

If something happens

Tell any owner on site, at the counter or in the server. You do not have to be certain, you do not have to have proof, and you will not be asked to confront the person yourself. If it is easier in writing, email sales@northstarhobby.com.

Reporting somebody does not make you a problem customer, and we will not discuss who reported what.

What happens next

1. 1

   A quiet word

   Most things stop here, and staff will always do it privately rather than in front of a room.

2. 2

   Asked to leave for the day

   For something that has already been raised once, or that is spoiling an event in progress.

3. 3

   Barred for a set period

   Weeks or months, said plainly, with the date you can come back. Applies to the shop and the server together.

4. 4

   Barred permanently

   For harassment, theft, cheating in a sanctioned event, or anything involving a child's safety. No warning is required first.

Not every step happens every time — serious things skip straight to the bottom. If you think a decision was wrong, say so to an owner in writing after the fact. That is a real route and it does get used.

See also the events calendar, where most of this actually matters.