Pineapple Express: Someone Is Wrong on the Internet?

[Autumnal]

There are at least two categories of situation where honest people of good will can’t just plan ahead avoid them.

1. Someone is stressed to the point of wanting to use an X, red card, etc, and genuinely didn’t know that kind of thing would hit them so hard.

2. Someone gets that sort of reaction to some instances of a thing but isn’t bothered at all by others, and their danger zone has complicated boundaries. I’m this way with head trauma, because when I was in college, one of my brothers spent months in brain injury rehab after a car accident. Certain of the sights I saw there on visits to him became PTSD triggers for me. In general it’s fine now - Cronenberg, Lynch, and Fincher are among my favorite directors. But when it hits me, man ii it mad. And I cannot give you (or myself) enough examples and descriptions to protect against the bad stuff and let the safe pass freely.

So a bunch of people benefit greatly from tools that let them react as needed in the moment no matter what’s done on before.

 

[Thomas Shey]

There are at least two categories of situation where honest people of good will can’t just plan ahead avoid them.

1. Someone is stressed to the point of wanting to use an X, red card, etc, and genuinely didn’t know that kind of thing would hit them so hard.

2. Someone gets that sort of reaction to some instances of a thing but isn’t bothered at all by others, and their danger zone has complicated boundaries. I’m this way with head trauma, because when I was in college, one of my brothers spent months in brain injury rehab after a car accident. Certain of the sights I saw there on visits to him became PTSD triggers for me. In general it’s fine now - Cronenberg, Lynch, and Fincher are among my favorite directors. But when it hits me, man ii it mad. And I cannot give you (or myself) enough examples and descriptions to protect against the bad stuff and let the safe pass freely.

So a bunch of people benefit greatly from tools that let them react as needed in the moment no matter what’s done on before.

Out of curiosity, would a Veil do when those come up?

The reason I ask is that I respect the idea of safety tools, but maaan I can't say but that it would sometimes make it impossible for me to properly plan for some kinds of games if I got an X-Card or after-the-fact Line applied in some situations. Up-front I can just avoid the whole idea (unless the idea is so fundamental to the campaign that I and the player just have to part ways) but on-the-fly I could see it being a real problem if I had to avoid it completely.

 

[prabe]

Saying people should play horror games without safety tools is like saying the audience doesn’t get to know which horror movie they’re about to watch only that they’re about to watch one.

Could be Saw or Hereditary or Human Centipede or Ring. Or it could be Tucker & Dale vs Evil or Army of Darkness or Aliens or Once Bitten.

Doesn’t matter what you like or want. Strap in. Here’s your popcorn. Good luck.

In principle, I absolutely agree that safety tools should be in use in TRPGs, probably not just for Horror games--mainly because genre borders are often blurry and/or porous--even though in practice I'm utter garbage at using them. (Fortunately, I know the players really well; I pay attention to reading-the-room stuff; and I throttle back my dark narrative impulses substantially.)

However, I'm not sure the comparison to more linear pre-authored fiction holds up--there is some where the surprise and shock of the content is at least part of the point, and there's a good argument that the Glass Wall Effect is part of the author's intent and should probably be honored. I mean, there are some genres that more or less tell you to be prepared for Bad Stuff, even if the exact nature isn't always announced. I agree that if someone has specific triggers that might show up in a given genre they enjoy, there should be ways for them to avoid those triggers while enjoying the genre. Fortunately, for movies and novels there are often reviews available.

 

[MoonSong]

Puzzles are OK, but not really my thing. I knew one person who was a nut for them though. Unfortunately, he passed a decade or so ago. Otherwise, I know of a few I’d buy for him.

I like puzzles a lot. But there's hardly enough space for the process. Still I can't say no to one.