D&D General [+] Ravenloft, horror, & safety tools...

[Umbran]

I'm not sure I understand where the distinction is between "Having this in the game is emotionally harmful" to me and "I just don't care for that". when it comes to lines. Or maybe there is no distinction?

Well, that depends on how you want to relate to your players.

One way to look at a line is, "This will ruin my night." Sometimes, knowing exaclty how can be helpful, but overall... do you care if you ruin a player's night?

 

[DemoMonkey]

So it's more "This will ruin my night." rather than "This is not my preference."

That is clearer. Thank you for the explanation Umbran.

 

[billd91]

So, if you honestly can't trust your players to not abuse the thing, you probably shouldn't be playing with them anyway.

It might simply be a misunderstanding of the tool's use and not necessarily trust. My expectation would that it's really about safety, not irritability. If a player presented it in a way that suggested the latter, then we need to hash that out.

 

[overgeeked]

It might simply be a misunderstanding of the tool's use and not necessarily trust. My expectation would that it's really about safety, not irritability. If a player presented it in a way that suggested the latter, then we need to hash that out.

Why? If it will make the game suck for them either way, what does it matter which it is?

 

[AnotherGuy]

Why? If it will make the game suck for them either way, what does it matter which it is?

Maybe because its in the word safety

 

[Umbran]

So it's more "This will ruin my night." rather than "This is not my preference."

That is clearer. Thank you for the explanation Umbran.

That is how I understand it, anyway.

I have a player that has bona fide, diagnosed PTSD. On a bad day, angry shouting at her can send her into a panic attack. It ruins her night. Line on shouting at her.

I have a player who has a thing about bees. I don't know (and don't care) if it counts as an actual phobia, they freak him out - line on bees.

I, personally, am one of those people for whom cilantro tastes like soap. It does not harm me in any way, emotionally or physically. If I eat it, nothing bad happens to me. But, if it is in my burrito, I am probably not going to eat it, and no dinner for Umbran. Line on cilantro.

 

[tetrasodium]

Well, that depends on how you want to relate to your players.

One way to look at a line is, "This will ruin my night." Sometimes, knowing exactly how can be helpful, but overall... do you care if you ruin a player's night?

I think your looking at it the wrong way. I can't drive over certain bridges like the terrifying sunshine skway bridge, I'll just shut down & be going 2mph on the other end or stop & need to get towed off. I'm perfectly fine enjoying the view as a passenger over that bridge. The movie arachnophobia is about spiders, ask any person with arachnophobia the best part of that movit & they will tell you about the fire... Likewise with fear of clowns & every movie with pennywise. Speaking of clowns, Timothy is a mostly first personseries of books written about a zombie clown. I once contacted the author years ago about them relaying a question from a clown-pobic friend of mine to which he said

Thank you man. I truly appreciate your support and you taking the time to let me know. Just so you know, I friggen hate clowns my damn self. I wanted to make a character that would scare the bejesus out of me while I wrote it, figured it'd be easier that way. Have a great day and again thank you.

I've seen him say disparaging things about pennywise & how he wanted to write a book that shows people who don't mind clowns a clown that's actually scary. Mention to that friend of mine that left4dead has clowns in it & she will gleefully point out how "it's the best part cause you can kill them!" while cackling with glee

The distinction between not caring for something & finding it traumatic can be important, that goes double for fiction & horror especially.

 

[Umbran]

Maybe because its in the word safety

Hey, if in the process you get things that help work with your other players, there's no harm in that.

There is a current in the world that people should not get benefits they "don't deserve". Like, you have to have "legitimate" (whatever that means) mental health issues to get consideration, and otherwise, tough luck on you. This seems like a poor position to take when engaged in a cooperative leisure entertainment.

"I do want to be sure you suffer no emotional harm or duress at my table, but if you have a lousy night, too frelling bad," is maybe not a position that'll win you accolades.

 

[billd91]

Why? If it will make the game suck for them either way, what does it matter which it is?

Because maybe some issues are things that should be under your responsibility to control, not mine to omit from the game. Whose responsibility is it to keep you from having your night ruined by failing as save vs charm person or by Dr Mindbender forcing you to let him escape from the bank robbery before the police arrive? Mine or yours?

 

[AnotherGuy]

Hey, if in the process you get things that help work with your other players, there's no harm in that.

There is a current in the world that people should not get benefits they "don't deserve". Like, you have to have "legitimate" (whatever that means) mental health issues to get consideration, and otherwise, tough luck on you. This seems like a poor position to take when engaged in a cooperative leisure entertainment.

"I do want to be sure you suffer no emotional harm or duress at my table, but if you have a lousy night, too frelling bad," is maybe not a position that'll win you accolades.

I understand your position but I thought this thread was about safety tools for things that actually traumatise people.
It certainly does feel like the OP is threadcrapping their own thread (which is ironic, given the meta thread created) when we are talking about issues which have nothing to do with safety. I mean we may as well add 1e level drain to that list if we are talking about things that could "make the game suck for them."

EDIT: Those issues brought up are certainly session 0 issues but don't belong in a discussion about safety, IMO.