Tiêu đề TTRPG Safety Toolkit Guide v2.5.pdf ✅

TTRPG Safety Toolkit A Quick Reference Guide Playing tabletop roleplaying games can be fun and fulfilling experiences. However, making sure that the GM, players, and potential audience feel safe is important. This is a quick reference guide on how to incorporate safety tools into your TTRPG games to make sure that everyone is having fun. Safety Tools What are Safety Tools? Sometimes games have content or situations where a player or GM may feel stressed out, unsafe, or otherwise not having fun. Safety tools are a way for players and GMs to communicate and check-in before, during, and after a game in order to make sure everyone is still having fun, and to provide the right support when needed. Communication, Trust, and Care The key to safety tools is communication and trust. There needs to be open and respectful communication alongside a culture of trust for these to work. As a GM, player, or organizer, you can create this culture by making it clear that the care and well-being of everyone at the table comes before the game or story. This can be done by actively listening to everyone, offering accomodations and safety tools, implementing actions when asked while not prying (nobody owes you their trauma as explanation), and actively checking in before, during, and after a game. The Toolkit Different safety tools work better for different people and games. Finding the ones that best suit the needs of everyone at the table is important, and should be facilitated through discussion at the start of every new game or new group. This guide provides summaries of some safety tools and techniques (with the original designers’ permission) to add to your own toolkit. This includes the X-card system, the Luxton Technique, and more. Sources and links are provided at the end of this guide for the full original materials, and the toolkit is regularly updated with new tools. Before the Game Begins Session 0 Session 0s are a great way to begin communication, set expectations on the kind of story and play, and introduce and discuss what safety tools will be used at the table. Lines and Veils Lines and veils are used to set boundaries on content in a game. Lines are hard limits on content, things that the GM or the players don’t want to engage in. Setting up a line means that content won’t show up in the game at all. Veils are soft limits, things that are ok “behind a curtain” or when they “cut-to-black.” Setting up a veil means that the content might be in the game but not spotlighted or described in great detail. Lines and veils can be adjusted as needed throughout the game. For additional nuance in setting boundaries, you may also want to set up “Ask first” for content that is ok to show up in the game but requires a check-in before implementing, and “Yes please” for content you definitely want to include. Luxton Technique Discussion In the Luxton Technique, have an open discussion between everyone at the table about potential trauma triggers. This is with the understanding that it’s not possible to identify every single possible trigger or trauma, and that there is no social pressure to go into details or individual justifications for a trigger. Monte Cook RPG Consent Checklist The RPG Consent Checklist created by Monte Cook Games as part of their Consent in Gaming resource is another approach you can use for setting expectations and content boundaries. Kienna Shaw and Lauren Bryant-Monk V. 2.5 Page 1

Kienna Shaw and Lauren Bryant-Monk V. 2.5 Page 3 After the Game Bleed Emotions and stress from the game can bleed over into post-game life. This can affect the enjoyment of the game, as well as out-of-game relationships between players and GM if not worked through. Being open and honest about where the game begins and ends, and being conscious of which feelings belong to the player and which are just bleed, helps to mitigate the effects. Aftercare Together as a group after the game, check-in with everyone to see how they are feeling. This is an open way for everyone to emotionally decompress, talk through, and process the events of the session in a safe environment. Encourage everyone to practice their own forms of self-care and remind them that their mental health comes first. Debriefing Debriefing as a group is a great way to reflect on the game, identify possible issues, highlight the fun things to continue, and work through potential bleed. Debriefing can happen right after the game or in the days following the stream. Stars and Wishes Stars and wishes are used to reflect on the session and communicate feedback in a positive and forward-facing way. At the end of the game, go around and get everyone to state a star and wish. Stars are things that the participants really enjoyed and loved about the game. This could include a particular moment of roleplay, an encounter created by the GM, or anything else that stuck out as something awesome during the game. Wishes are things that the participants would like to see in future sessions. This could include particular interactions between characters, potential story moments and development, or anything else that could make the game even better in the future. TTRPG Safety Toolkit A Quick Reference Guide Safety in TTRPG Actual Plays Applying Safety Tools to Actual Plays When sharing your game via livestreams, podcasts, videos, etc., safety tools become incredibly important as there is another level of performance and intensity that is now public. Audience as a Participant Because of the interactive and immersive nature of actual plays (especially livestreams), your audience becomes another participant in the game. Therefore, safety tools can and should be extended to them to some extent. Open Door The Open Door is also extended to the audience. State at the beginning of the game and periodically throughout that they can leave or stop listening/ watching at any point for their own safety and well- being without being judged. Content Warnings Consider including a content warning about potentially uncomfortable content that regularly appears in your game. This can be done on streams via commands or within the overlay, and on podcasts and videos somewhere on the hosting site or in the episode description. Other Tools For livestreams, you can implement other tools like the X, N, and O cards or the Luxton Technique for the audience via the chat. However, consider how to best implement them for your game and audience to accomodate needs while also mitigating possible misuse and disruption. Audience Bleed and Decompression Audience can experience bleed as well, so having a space for them to discuss and decompress is recommended. Consider implementing tools such as stars and wishes. This can be done in a post-game on-stream chat with the cast, or in a community forum like Discord or Twitter.