Have You Used The X Card Or Seen It Used In Person?

[Reynard]

That's a hypothesis. It hasn't been borne out, ime. I've run AL games with X cards and without X cards and I haven't seen differences in the outcomes. Now sure, I go over table expectations up front...but I don't find the X card worth the additional investment.

I don't play in or run AL games. I assume there are built in systems for dealing with problem players, though? And, presumably, problem GMs?

 

[CellarHeroes]

The only time I have ever seen them were at conventions when I was running D&D AL. I have only had one used in those games, and it was pretty effective. One of the players was offended by how poorly the module was written...and, yes, it was terrible. The other players agreed, and we had to stop playing. We still received rewards, though.

In the games that I GM, I like to keep them thematically family-friendly. There are just some things that I believe shouldn't be brought up in games, and others that I believe should only merely get a mention.

 

[Reynard]

The only time I have ever seen them were at conventions when I was running D&D AL. I have only had one used in those games, and it was pretty effective. One of the players was offended by how poorly the module was written...and, yes, it was terrible. The other players agreed, and we had to stop playing. We still received rewards, though.

Is that a valid use of the X card?

 

[AnotherGuy]

No but I realize how biased my sample is.

I play with friends and at least one of their wives…other times it’s my kids including my daughters.

Bottom line is I include tropes of fantasy…excluding rape and such.

We kill monsters/villains, rescue people and banish evils spirits and the like. In my world
If those things call for x-card, you probably are not wanting to play D&D

Bottom line is you know your players well enough that you would be considerate not to use something that could possibly upset them. I mean I do not care much for X-cards because I play with mates (currently all guys) and the level of humour that runs at our table is not the humour you would find at cons or other forms of public play etc.
However, I can see how @Old Fezziwig' example with the Atropal/Atropal Scion could be an issue at some tables and I certainly would not use such a monster unless the theme had been established and I knew the players well enough.

 

[Bae'zel]

Oof.

Yeah, I think the X card is useful but these are the kind of nightmare circumstances where safety tool or not, I’d be saying “oh hell no. Stop the game.” There have been times where people are not in the right mood to play a game, and it’s best to just not play at all. Acting out like this though - these are RPG horror story worthy.

Yeah I agree, but my theory is that these situations might have been de-escalated if we'd had some kind of seemingly "neutral" way to tackle uncomfortable scenes. These might not have turned out to be horror stories if we'd been more... "skilled"? at handing awkward or inappropirate situations...

 

[The Firebird]

I don't play in or run AL games. I assume there are built in systems for dealing with problem players, though? And, presumably, problem GMs?

Not universal but typically yes there will be a code of conduct document setting out things like "the game is PG 13" and "no harassment" and things of that nature.

Is there really an investment in using the X card? It’s simply a tool and really, to my mind, a symbol to say it’s okay to say something is making you uncomfortable. What investment is there?

-Have cards
-Bring them to the game
-Distribute and tell people how to use it
-Include information about the card in code of conduct.

No, none of these take long or are challenging. But if you add every nice to have 30 second thing, you end up with quite a long spiel to start the game and more information for players to take in. So if the card is not materially helping games, across at least my own experience...I think it is reasonable to look at cutting it.

 

[Umbran]

That is to say: the process of presenting and explaining the X-card may mean you never need to use it -- but you might have needed it if you did not present it.

Yeah. In presenting it, you're presenting yourself, as GM, as someone who wants to be thoughtful about things. That can go a long way.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

Is that a valid use of the X card?

Why not? If you're really not having fun because, say, the module is silly and you explore and the map can't make physical sense without exploration and you find a starving groups of NPC next to the room full of food and water without any trap etc. you can certainly be miffed.

Once, we vetoed the GM who started a sci-fi adventure where we were space traders by "you're going back to planet X with an empty cargo bay after delivering supplies in planet Y". We used to speech-tool to say we all found that silly and there was surely something we could take back, especially as professional trader we'd have studied the markets before doing the trip. It had no importance for the game, it was just a throwaway sentence, but it broke immersion hard and was experienced as a suppression of player agency. If there had been an X-card, we might have used it.

 

[Reynard]

Why not? If you're really not having fun because, say, the module is silly and you explore and the map can't make physical sense without exploration and you find a starving groups of NPC next to the room full of food and water without any trap etc. you can certainly be miffed.

Once, we vetoed the GM who started a sci-fi adventure where we were space traders by "you're going back to planet X with an empty cargo bay after delivering supplies in planet Y". We used to speech-tool to say we all found that silly and there was surely something we could take back, especially as professional trader we'd have studied the markets before doing the trip. It had no importance for the game, it was just a throwaway sentence, but it broke immersion hard and was experienced as a suppression of player agency. If there had been an X-card, we might have used it.

The X card is explicitly a safety tool, and none of that seems to be a safety issue.

 

[Umbran]

-Have cards
-Bring them to the game
-Distribute and tell people how to use it

In original, there's one card, in the middle of the table. And, really, you don't need a "card" - anything you can write a big X on will do. Paper, a solo cup, whatever.

-Include information about the card in code of conduct.

How often do you do a new Code of Conduct from scratch? Normally, when I work with such things, I take an old one, and edit it for any new bits to include or take out. Which means once you've added it once, it gets inherited in every following CoC.

But if you add every nice to have 30 second thing,

So, adding one thing for you is a slippery slope to every other thing? That sounds like a recipe for paralysis.