D&D General Of Consent, Session 0 and Hard Decisions.

[Zardnaar]

Safety tools aren’t about making everyone eat seafood pizza cause that’s what you like.
They’re about making sure there is no seafood pizza if someone is allergic to seafood.

Up to a point but if everyone's chosen to dine on seafood the campaign won't be appropriate.

 

[Zardnaar]

Nope. That's not it, Zardnaar.

Look, I get it. You see yourself as a hard-swearing Aussie MAN DAMMIT, and you have no truck with with peoples' feelings. Or grammar. It's nonsense, you don't care that you're one of the most ignored people on the forum, social interaction isn't your thing, I get it.

But your analogy sucks.

The correct analogy is you order pizza for everybody and somebody says they're allergic to nuts, so you order Extra Peanut Pizza, like a dickhead.

Maybe... just... be nice to people?

Calm down chief and I said I have seen exactly that. Not theoretical.

It's more I might be offering an extra peanut game. A new potential player will be advised it's a peanut based game. If I've already cooked it I'm not changing. If I haven't made it absolutely speak up.

So if you don't put words on my mouth that would be great. Not the first time you've done it so please knock it off.

 

[Belen]

This thread is way too charged.

Have fun all.

 

[Steampunkette]

"Litmus Test"

I like that. Knowing when people are going to be corrosive to you is apparently a "Bad Thing" for some folks.

That said: I didn't assign a moral value to whether or not having an ideological stance over safety tools was a good or bad thing. I only acknowledge that it is, in fact, political.

Like literally -everything else- in the world.

I was just pointing out the hypocrisy of saying "No politics!" and then making a political statement in the same post.

 

[Zardnaar]

"Litmus Test"

I like that. Knowing when people are going to be corrosive to you is apparently a "Bad Thing" for some folks.

That said: I didn't assign a moral value to whether or not having an ideological stance over safety tools was a good or bad thing. I only acknowledge that it is, in fact, political.

Like literally -everything else- in the world.

I was just pointing out the hypocrisy of saying "No politics!" and then making a political statement in the same post.

Generally not a problem here. Student city fairly chilled out and relaxed.
I've got a rough idea where everyone lies I filter out the chuds.

 

[MGibster]

While I'm not a big fan of X-Cards or any sort of consent form, if you find players abusing them you don't have an X-Card for consent form problem, you have a player problem. A player who deliberately abuses safety tools is likely a player who also abuses other social norms and game rules to get what they want. i.e. They're probably a jerk and you might want to rethink gaming with them.

Like I said, I'm not a fan of most safety tools other than having a heart-to-heart and talking lines & veils, but I only do that for horror games. I don't believe RPGs are an inherently dangerous activity necessitating the use of safety tools. Honestly, when I talk lines & veils I'm more concerned about liking or disliking the content than I am with emotional damage. There's a lot of stuff I won't ever role play in a game of mine not because it'll induce anxiety but simply because it's not fun. If you're running a game for people who have anxiety disorders such safety tools might be useful but for the vast majority of games I don't think they are.

 

[Zardnaar]

While I'm not a big fan of X-Cards or any sort of consent form, if you find players abusing them you don't have an X-Card for consent form problem, you have a player problem. A player who deliberately abuses safety tools is likely a player who also abuses other social norms and game rules to get what they want. i.e. They're probably a jerk and you might want to rethink gaming with them.

Like I said, I'm not a fan of most safety tools other than having a heart-to-heart and talking lines & veils, but I only do that for horror games. I don't believe RPGs are an inherently dangerous activity necessitating the use of safety tools. Honestly, when I talk lines & veils I'm more concerned about liking or disliking the content than I am with emotional damage. There's a lot of stuff I won't ever role play in a game of mine not because it'll induce anxiety but simply because it's not fun. If you're running a game for people who have anxiety disorders such safety tools might be useful but for the vast majority of games I don't think they are.

The problem is what counts as a jerk. And yeah I've seen people try and veto whatever and weaponize it. You also hear about it online I'm not to worried about that.

Using food allegory if I'm feeding a crowd I wouldn't serve up seafood or vegan across the board. I would include those options.

Generally I'll book somewhere with a large menu.

 

[SteveC]

I was going to run some demos of my own game system along with co-run some Con games, so this issue was pretty important to me in the last few years. I talked it over with my co-GM and we were going to do something formal when I was talked out of it.

It was suggested to me that if you have a form saying "X, Y, and Z are off the table," it implies to certain gamers that A, B, and C are on the table, when they wouldn't normally be. Here's what I do instead:

I start a session with people I don't know by saying that I'm going to be the GM and that means it's my job to make sure we all have a good time. I talk about the game being a group experience and asking people to hit a PG-13 level and not to do things to antagonize other players. I also say that if you're uncomfortable, just let me know any way you'd like. If it seems like some of the players are really shy, I make a note of it and come back and talk with them about things during the session.

I have never had any trouble with this, largely because I have the GM Empathy feat. I've taken courses on being a teacher, and was a trainer for 14 years. I also keep the game size reasonable, so I can dedicate time to players, and have a co-GM if people want to have a side conversation.

All of that sounds like a lot of work, but it really isn't. I've never had an issue that couldn't be resolved by just being flexible. I've never had to kick anyone from a table for a session despite having people game together who would not get along outside of gaming.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

I am particular who I play with as player and dm. I mostly play with friends and family so it’s kind of easy.

I have never had a weird objectionable/upsetting experience at a con.

Keeping it roughly PG-13 seems to work for me…I don’t have rape or related things in frame.

If people cannot handle general fantasy tropes I would hope they would opt out knowingly…(monsters, swords, being captured like dwarves in the hobbit, etc.) are implied to me in dungeons and dragons and I think 99.99 percent of would-be adult players expect it as well.

 

[MarkB]

Using food allegory if I'm feeding a crowd I wouldn't serve up seafood or vegan across the board. I would include those options.

Generally I'll book somewhere with a large menu.

And how exactly do you think that analogy translates to a game you're running? Players don't get to pick and choose what they experience at your table, they all have to dine on the same meal.