What are the DM's obligations of disclosure for sensitive game material? What is "sensitive" game material?

[DM Magic]

I just try to avoid gaming with snowflakes. Anyone that can be "triggered" by made up fantasy game content, isn't stable enough to be playing.

Unnecessary use of alt-right language. Completely undermines people with PTSD. Post reported.

 

[Morrus]

I just try to avoid gaming with snowflakes. Anyone that can be "triggered" by made up fantasy game content, isn't stable enough to be playing.

That was just obnoxious. Don't post in this thread again, please.

 

[Jester David]

I think you are right. People are people and everyone has something. I got beaten and robbed in the street by a stranger. Not cool. A real criterion A stressor in the clinical literature. Thought I could be killed...

And until I got past the trauma and sleepless nights, there was not a lot of D and D to be had. I would not have been in the right place. It was on ME 100% to get right because before I did, I was raw and might not have liked being taunted and robbed in game. I don't know for sure because I excused myself for a while.

In that scenario what was I going to ask of others? No violence until I am comfortable with it? Its not even D and D anymore at that point.

I think it is kind to consider the wishes of others. But I also think the game deserves to be open for adventures. Adventures are rough business right? If you cannot tolerate watching the LOTR or hobbit (even a superhero flick?) or whatever as an adult (because it is too triggering) it is probably time for some self care/treatment.

I don't think undermining the nearly universal themes of the game is much of an option. The game is predicated on violence, conflict, and all manner of adversity. If you avoid all of that, you are pretty much playing something else.

Not having a story line about divorce or a kid with cancer? Sure. But I am not sure how common that would be anyway. I think compassion tempered with common sense is the way to go. Be considerate but if the general underpinnings of the game have to be undone it probably is not fair to the group.

Agreed. As you say, there is some informed consent with D&D. You know there's going to be violence. No one can be surprised by that.
But there is a difference between killing a bunch of orcs in a dungeon and being attacked by a thief in a dark alley. Or being asked by a quest giver to assault someone in the street to retrieve documents and make it look like a random assault.

It's not as big an issue with 80% of gaming groups, because we play with friends. Most friends would know you had been assaulted and would have supported you taking a break, and ideally stayed away from those kind of stories.

But had you been a bit more private, you might have just said you were taking a break without specifying why. Or found a new group when you thought you were in the right headspace to play again. But assuming you're in the right headspace and being 100% sure are different. People might think they're fine until confronted with stress and then realise that they totally weren't. (Especially if the stimulus is a surprise. Hence "trigger warning".) Some wounds take a long time to heal.

I think open communication is really the key. The DM needs to warn if doing anything beyond the basic assumptions of play. The assumed consent of general murder hobo behaviour. And the players also need to give forewarning if particular aspects of the norm might be stressors.
And the DM needs to be willing to accommodate. ("Okay. No muggings. How about a haunted house full of undead? Or we can get out of the city and hunt down a hydra in a swamp? Perhaps a dungeon full of traps and puzzles?")

 

[MNblockhead]

As I read through these, one thing that I've realized is that there have been only rare few times something in the game has been an issue--whether my homegame, in organized play, or a convention event. Almost every instance of arguments, offense taken, and hurt feelings that I can think of were do to side talk or discussions during breaking, before, or after the game. Further, they were all situations that could have come up at a BBQ, party, during a classroom discussion or just about any social setting with a mix of people. The last elections in the US were particularly tough in this regard. I have two friends who I avoided gaming with at the same time for a while because I didn't want my fantasy-fun time derailed by 90 minutes of political argument. It wasn't even a pro and anti Trump thing. Things have gotten so polarized that people on roughly the same side of many arguments will argue with each other because one feels they don't support a particular issue strongly enough. There is no room for moderates and those with even slightly different view points are villanized.

This is a much harder issue to deal with than disturbing in-game scenes.

 

[Warpiglet]

As I read through these, one thing that I've realized is that there have been only rare few times something in the game has been an issue--whether my homegame, in organized play, or a convention event. Almost every instance of arguments, offense taken, and hurt feelings that I can think of were do to side talk or discussions during breaking, before, or after the game. Further, they were all situations that could have come up at a BBQ, party, during a classroom discussion or just about any social setting with a mix of people. The last elections in the US were particularly tough in this regard. I have two friends who I avoided gaming with at the same time for a while because I didn't want my fantasy-fun time derailed by 90 minutes of political argument. It wasn't even a pro and anti Trump thing. Things have gotten so polarized that people on roughly the same side of many arguments will argue with each other because one feels they don't support a particular issue strongly enough. There is no room for moderates and those with even slightly different view points are villanized.

This is a much harder issue to deal with than disturbing in-game scenes.

That is very true. And what I cannot tolerate in a game is someone saying they are "triggered" by a different point of view.

I understand they might be upset, but I generally hold the direct experience of trauma (to self or the unexpected threat of serious harm/risk to someone close to the individual) to be categorically different than differing opinions about the right kind of government, division of wealth or whatever. Of course that is why I steer clear of and avoid playing with people who make this stuff the topic of the night. I play D&D to get away from this nonsense.

Of course if that is what the group wants to do and I am an outlier, I know who needs to walk. I own my own stuff.

But more to the point, I don't play with weirdos. Well, I am sure we are weird, but I DO NOT need graphic discussion of sex, sexual abuse/assault or sadism in game. On that end I don't think most people have to worry so long as they play with a reasonably mature group. Thus, my definition of being triggered probably skews to the absurd since such obvious things don't and won't come up in one of my games to begin with. Yuck already. Or the extra creepy super drawn out hitting on other player's characters...just no. Yes, you ARE going to creep the other person out...

 

[Lord Mhoram]

Our table rules:

No smokers. We have two very asthmatic people in the core group (one of whom is the host), and that can be triggered being a room with a smoker, even they hadn't lit up in the last 4 hours.
No alcohol at the table or beforehand. Have had some very unpleasent sessions with tipsy/drunk people. Don't want a repeat.
When I GM - I let the players know I don't allow evil, and if someone is nuetral, they need to have a reason beyond "I want" to be adventures. I prefer running groups of heros rather than people out for themselves, and that works its way into the plotlines and the world.
PG or PG13 in level of swearing, sexual content, gore, evil events and such.

 

[ad_hoc]

A wise someone once said, 'You are responsible for managing and maintaining your emotional health as much as your physical & psychological'.

A person can both be emotionally healthy and not want to engage with certain things in the game they are playing.

I would even go so far to say that not having any limits is a sign of being emotionally unhealthy.

I personally wouldn't care for a game where gore from combat is described in detail. That just isn't fun for me.

 

[Gardens & Goblins]

A person can both be emotionally healthy and not want to engage with certain things in the game they are playing.

Yes

I would even go so far to say that not having any limits is a sign of being emotionally unhealthy.

Most likely

I personally wouldn't care for a game where gore from combat is described in detail. That just isn't fun for me.

Ok

 

[Slit518]

Things I would consider sensitive game material:

1. Rape
2. Molestation
3. Pedophilia
4. Racism (though this is very common, human, dwarves, elves vs orcs, goblins, etc...)
5. Sexism
6. Murder (probably the most common)

To get around this, you can ask the question in a generic manner and the player can fill in what is a sensitive subject to them.

 

[seebs]

Ask every new player in private if they have any taboos or triggers that you should be respectful about. Then respect them. E-mail or text works great, and gives them time to think about their answer.

That seems a good starting point.

I had a friend who was in a game where the GM thought that "ahh, yes, the big bad threatens to rape a PC and everyone laughs" would be good character development, and it went poorly. And I feel like you could reasonably infer that this would be a high enough risk of distressing people that the GM was making a poor call there in the first place. Another of my friends was worldbuilding and had a sort of "implied rape off-camera" aspect to a social group, and a couple of players said "hey could you not?" and he agreed that he could, in fact, not. He was exploring interesting themes, he wasn't thinking about player impact, it was upsetting to people, he dealt with that gracefully. Seemed a lot healthier.