Depending on the Dungeons & Dragons group, mature topics can be part of the story. Even if everyone at the table knows how to deal with it, it can still make the player uncomfortable. Or it is important to ensure that people's expectations for games do not cause accurate and negative feelings.
To ensure that the game is a great experience for everyone at the table, you can use safety tools during the session or even in between before the campaign begins. In this way, you know the topic that is safe and preferred to deal with a topic, and you can have an amazing experience for everyone.
Session zero
More than explaining the world
Session Zero is often used by players to discuss games and premises with general ideas and expectations for the campaign. Nevertheless, you can also discuss the boundaries with these expectations.
A general example is a story of exploring heavy topics such as the curse of Strahd, the relationship between Strahd and IREENA, or a story of hags and conspiracy to kidnap children. Use this moment to talk to the player about the themes you have in the story, or if you are home bruish and ask for the theme you want to avoid.
Line and Bale
By Ron Edwards
Another common tool is known as a line and a veil, and the list of this topic can be displayed as a line unless you want each player to handle this topic at all. Or if you don't care, you can leave the object. You can add more topics or review the player from time to time so that the opinions are still the same or the topic associated with romantic interactions, such as a specific player seducing the NPC.
You can add preference options in case you want to interact with them without creating and avoiding these topics. You can also leave an empty area that can be free to forget to add it, such as mentioning phobia. Finally, if you think that the player is too uncomfortable to vocal against them, you can see if this input is anonymous.
Your line and veil pool can also be performed during the session.
Same page tool
What is D & D for you?
The same page tools work somewhat similar to the lines and veils, and can be performed in Session 0, but focus on expectations for the game rather than avoiding them. You can present some questions online or some of the questions that you can choose from, and provide some answers that the player can choose (or you can leave an open space you want).
You can ask things like 'Is it better to do bad things for you because other players match your character's actions?' Or similar things. To improve this, you can ask questions based on the Dming style and see if they are cool, and these questions can deal with the topics you want to use in narratives. You can also wait for all players to answer this, then create things in a way that already work on everyone, and keep these expectations in mind.
X-card
By John Stavropoulos
X-cards are also effective tools. The idea is that during the session, the player feels triggered or uncomfortable, simply raising the card and the scene stops. Then the current moment is quickly returned and changed. If it works better, there may be alternative cards, such as gestures or words, such as what players can express.
This option allows DM to continue the storytelling line for everyone involved. As one of the above veil options, you can actually skip something or add more card options, such as a card to create a fade to black moment.
Open door policy
It's okay to breathe
If you are not enough to use a card or gesture, you can handle the idea of a player that is temporarily leaving when you feel uncomfortable without justifying your vacation. Some groups can do that without talking about it, but they can mention this option and make sure it is okay to do so, so you can avoid strange conversations about why someone suddenly happened.
There's not much to improve here because the idea is to leave when someone's bad things come out. Nevertheless, you can choose to finish the scene, and you can select the player to return or take a quick bathroom rest for everyone, so you can check the player and check it.
Star and wish
By Lu Quade
Roses and thorns or stars and wishes are two similar concepts, so we can't prevent them from mixing it. The idea is to talk about expectations. But this time, I do so after the game rather than before. Feedback is about what you like (rose or star), what you do not like (thorn), and what you want to see according to what has happened so far.
The biggest problem here is that you can feel it on the spot if you ask about what you like, depending on the player. They may be uncomfortable, so they may not be constructed on your face. Therefore, it is a good way to make work smoothly to be able to share it later, similar to other safety tools mentioned above. To play online or later handle these lists and questionnaires on your computer, you can easily create all these lists in the Google form.
- Original release date
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1974
- Number
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2+
- Length
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From 60 to hours.
- Age recommendation
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12+ (Although youth can play and enjoy)
- Franchise name
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Dungeon & Dragon
- Publishing
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Coast
