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

[Old Fezziwig]

What is CATS?

Concept, Aims, Tone, Safety (The CATS Method – P. R. O'Leary).

 

[Reynard]

I intellevtually understand that arachnophobia is a real thing, and I have empathy for people that suffer from it, but I really, really can't imagine having such a strong fear or revulsion to a thing that it's presence in a RPG would cause such distress.

Though it makes more sense in video games or even minis. As an aside, I had a friend who used to make minis out of actual arthropod carapaces, including spiders.

 

[Umbran]

I intellevtually understand that arachnophobia is a real thing, and I have empathy for people that suffer from it, but I really, really can't imagine having such a strong fear or revulsion to a thing that it's presence in a RPG would cause such distress.

Well, the GM didn't just say, "..and there's a spider." There was vivid description, focus on the size of the body, the hairy, jointed legs, the many, many shiny-but-dead eyes, the glistening fangs, drooling venom... I can't do it justice here, but in context, it got that it was a valid trigger.

In horror games, there's a fine line between the good way, and the bad way, of freaking people out.

 

[RenleyRenfield]

What is CATS?

Not to give you a hard time, but....... Fairly certain I have posted this to you at least once, if not several times. But just in case =

C.A.T.S.
Use this and make agreements during Session 0

Concept
This is the main concept of the game and the type of
overall plots everyone wants to play out in this game.
The GM does not have to give away secrets here, but
it does allow the players and GM to talk over what
their expectations are for this game. Players
should have two or three character ideas that excite,
then tweak the one that best fits the rest of the group.

Aim
Aim allows everyone to talk about what the ideals are
for their characters and personal character goals they
want to play into. This is the time to admit you may
want to play “the baddie”, just in case that could ruin
the fun of others, or simply conflict often.

Tone
Will this be a serious game of dire consequences? Will
it be gonzo plots of songs and soap? Is this shoot-first
action combat? Will this be a game of romance and
drama? Whatever it is, everyone should agree on a
unified tone so that everyone knows best how to
respond and play into scene drama or dangers.

Subject
Discus the subject matter and lore that may come up
during gameplay. Is there a lot of bookkeeping? Does
the game require players to "buy into" certain plots?
Does any of the subjects of the game make anyone
uncomfortable? Draw “Lines” where content should
not be discussed, and “Veils”, where it’s ok to have
the content, but only off-screen, behind the veil,
mentioned, but never roleplayed out.

 

[Reynard]

Not to give you a hard time, but....... Fairly certain I have posted this to you at least once, if not several times. But just in case =

C.A.T.S.
Use this and make agreements during Session 0

Concept
This is the main concept of the game and the type of
overall plots everyone wants to play out in this game.
The GM does not have to give away secrets here, but
it does allow the players and GM to talk over what
their expectations are for this game. Players
should have two or three character ideas that excite,
then tweak the one that best fits the rest of the group.

Aim
Aim allows everyone to talk about what the ideals are
for their characters and personal character goals they
want to play into. This is the time to admit you may
want to play “the baddie”, just in case that could ruin
the fun of others, or simply conflict often.

Tone
Will this be a serious game of dire consequences? Will
it be gonzo plots of songs and soap? Is this shoot-first
action combat? Will this be a game of romance and
drama? Whatever it is, everyone should agree on a
unified tone so that everyone knows best how to
respond and play into scene drama or dangers.

Subject
Discus the subject matter and lore that may come up
during gameplay. Is there a lot of bookkeeping? Does
the game require players to "buy into" certain plots?
Does any of the subjects of the game make anyone
uncomfortable? Draw “Lines” where content should
not be discussed, and “Veils”, where it’s ok to have
the content, but only off-screen, behind the veil,
mentioned, but never roleplayed out.

I suppose that is possible. If so, it didn't stick. Which means it isn't a good paradigm for me. NBD

 

[Vael]

Yes, although we hadn't explicitly talked about it, and in retrospect, that was the problem. The GM had us do a time jump and a PC had a family that "lost" him for several years. The GM described that they'd moved on and the player flipped out. It killed the campaign. We should have talked beforehand, I felt that this could've been avoided

 

[Reynard]

Yes, although we hadn't explicitly talked about it, and in retrospect, that was the problem. The GM had us do a time jump and a PC had a family that "lost" him for several years. The GM described that they'd moved on and the player flipped out. It killed the campaign. We should have talked beforehand, I felt that this could've been avoided

Was this a case of the player being upset that the GM messed with their backstory, or did the player have some family situation that made it painful?

 

[MGibster]

I intellevtually understand that arachnophobia is a real thing, and I have empathy for people that suffer from it, but I really, really can't imagine having such a strong fear or revulsion to a thing that it's presence in a RPG would cause such distress.

I've witnessed a severe case of arachnophobia come up in one game. It was running a bog standard fantasy using Savage Worlds where the PCs encountered some spiders. Player was weirded out, so we paused the game, I asked if it was okay if we continued if I cut out any description of spiders, I received the okay, and when we continued the encounter I eliminated the spiders' web attack. Spiders weren't a big part of the campaign, they likely wouldn't have made any other appearances anyway, but I made a mental to make sure they were excluded from any future sessions.

Revulsion to spiders is pretty common, but having such an extreme reaction to even mild descriptions is a pretty extreme and rare occurrence. But it happens on occasion.

 

[Vael]

Was this a case of the player being upset that the GM messed with their backstory, or did the player have some family situation that made it painful?

We didn't get too into the weeds about the whys, but the PC's wife had remarried in the time jump and the player said it was a "type of drama that I didn't sign on for" ...

 

[The Soloist]

No X cards, but I had a few instances were I had to act as if:

• Severe arachnophobia, remove the spider miniature from the table.
• Unwarranted sexual behaviour towards the character of a female player, even though she specifically banned it at the start of the campaign.
• Weird sexual jokes: Cleric "I touch his penis and heal him."
• One attempt to rape a peasant woman front of the other players, two of which were female players.

I'm sure there were a few others instances, 45 years is a long time.