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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Riley37" data-source="post: 7380346" data-attributes="member: 6786839">I like the Session Zero conversation, the card with the X, and the invitation to tell the DM about any tough topics. Mostly, I like the willingness to stop or re-direct the game if a player is in distress. When all else fails, compassion still works.I'm in a 5E game with the grimness level of Game of Thrones. Possibly rougher. The DM has asked players to tell him about "handle with care" topics. He stumbled across one of mine. Another player has the backstory that his PC was a soldier, had a brother who was also a soldier, and in the course of a battle, the PC ran away, leaving his brother wounded on the battlefield. A villain wizard used magic to put PCs through nightmares, so this background story emerged in play. Well, this session happened a month or two after, in real life, my brother died. I decided not to interrupt the session, I rolled with it, but afterwards I asked the DM to add "death of a sibling" to the list of tough topics, especially "PC is unable to prevent the death of his brother".Turns out, the DM had a long-term plan for the brother to return, as an undead revenant. He told me, between sessions, about that plotline, and offered to cancel it. I thought about it, and decided that I could re-frame it in a way that worked for me. When the revenant showed up, I had my paladin PC challenge whether the revenant was right to blame his brother for his death... and then, after the fight was over, my PC helped dig a grave, and cast Ceremony over it the next day. My PC said some words which echoed what I had said at my real-life brother's memorial. It was a good scene.The appearance of the revenant could have been an unpleasant session for me, if I had been blindsided. The DM trusted me not to tell other players about that plotline, and not to metagame ("an ambush at night? I ready my vial of holy water!"). The outcome was well worth the extra communication and care.The *worst* usage of sensitive material in a D&D game that I've heard of, is a male DM, with an unreciprocated attraction to a female player, pushing the storyline towards sex or sexual assault involving that player's character. Not okay. Not a responsible use of the DM's role. If you ever see something like that happen... well, size up what's your best response under the circumstances, but don't just go along with it; the more everyone acts like nothing's wrong, the harder it can be for her to express any objections.</blockquote>

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