Greater Expectations

How "Safety Tools" "X-Cards" & "Lines And Veils" Simply Do Not Belong

Yes, there’s a reason I used the cover to this particular…I don’t know if you would call it a game. Game in name only? Maybe. Anyway, this is second edition. The first edition’s acronym was First Adventure To Adult Lechery. I actually have a PDF of the second edition that was given to me by a friend who said it looked like fun.

Well, as anything bearing the dreaded P.M.R.C. “Parental Advisory” label, my first thought was “This I’ve got to see!” So, I delved into the 900-page …wait…900 pages for a tabletop RPG? What? Nevermind, I delved into this 900-page tome and thanked the gods that this wasn’t a physical book in my library. That’s too much real estate on my shelf and I do have two books that are respectively a colossus. Those being Starship Warden and Crown of The Oathbreaker. Oathbreaker itself is 900 pages and is the same size as Starship Warden in how thick they are. Anyway, I dived in and spent several days trying to make sense of it. There is an absolute obsession with sex and what sex acts (deviant or otherwise) that your character does. The fantasy/adventure is dealt with as an afterthought. There are even rules on rape.

Clearly, others have covered this game long before I did and you can read the reviews yourself online but my point is, for someone who’s hard to shock and unsettle, even I wasn’t exactly a fan and I found myself squirming from time to time. The biggest part, it stirred nothing in my imagination at all. I got no inspiration from it. Nothing at all. Sure, the PDF still sits in my digital library but mostly for reference.

The point, though, is that the introduction of Lines, Veils, Safety Tools and X Cards into tabletop role-playing doesn’t come from nowhere. Believe it or not, other books existed and were published, a couple of them by Wizards of The Coast, those being The Book of Vile Darkness and The Book of Erotic Fantasy. These were optional books, not core books and held no interest for me. Let’s be clear, never once have I ever, consciously or otherwise, decided that sex would be part of my games. Every one of those scenes would be faded to black and that would give me as a player an opportunity to get up for a few and stretch my legs, grab something to drink or head outside for a smoke. My character would always have to deal with the consequences. Romantic relationships were also dealt with similarly because the game was about the adventure and not much more than that.

Where this particular group of “optional tools” comes from is the BDSM scene. These tools, in a setting between consenting adults where things can (and probably sometimes do) happen that are detrimental to someone’s well-being, these make sense. Setting boundaries for a safe, sane and consensual play behind closed doors (Not To The Public) are needed so that someone doesn’t get hurt, things don’t go too far or someone suffers irreparable damage.

At a table where anywhere from children to adults sit, the biggest threat to anyone’s well-being is the junk food, the drinking (if not done responsibly) or the vices engaged. Everything else is completely imaginary.

Allow me to illustrate. I personally do not like snakes. I mean, to me, the only good snake is a dead one. That stems from a bit of personal trauma. Playing tee-ball as a kid and our practice field was shit. I’m out there in centerfield and the back of my shirt crept up, exposing my lower back. I felt something on my lower back and turned and there was a rattle snake staring at me. You have never seen a kid re-enact The Flash trying to get away. Suddenly all I hear are the sound of bats behind me pounding the ground. Turns out my teammates were beating the brakes off that thing. It had struck and got it’s fangs hooked into the hem of my jeans and my teammates were out to kill it. Ever since, don’t be in my way when trying to get away from something with a long, tubular body that has no appendages that moves any faster than I do. I will do whatever it takes to get the hell away from that snake.

Now, let’s get to the tabletop where we’re going to play a D&D Homebrewed Adventure called Temple of The Snake God.

I’m in.

See, there are no actual snakes at the table. There may be serpent people minis and snake minis on the board but there are no actual snakes. Me? I do not like snakes and never will.

My character being beset by snakes? Probably just gonna piss him off.

Under a DM asking for Lines, Veils, etc. They’d want me to list this particular issue so they don’t “offend” me. The people who propose this think they’re looking out for my well-being.

Okay, well, thanks but you’re not a psychiatrist, neither is the DM/GM/Referee/Judge of the game. It’s not your responsibility. Triggers are mine and I, being in my 40s, are well more than able to handle and manage them myself. Another one with me is anything like trauma to an eyeball. That shit turns my stomach.

That being said, however, I do still own these books and enjoy them quite a bit.

The books, front and center almost are from Lamentations of The Flame Princess. Like most game systems I own, there are the detractors who decry these games as every “-ist” and “-phobe” their mental gymnastics can possibly dredge up. Lamentations has my big two in there, snakes and eye stuff. I still enjoy them. I’m not harping on James Raggi IV or Jobe Bittman or any of the other writers and artists for inclusion of those elements. These games lean into horror and that’s what I signed on for.

One of my other things and possibly the only thing I’d list as a huge no no for me, graphic depictions of bad things happening to innocent children and/or babies. Here’s the thing about anything I find objectionable, it’s my problem. Not yours as a writer, artist, publisher or GM. Period. If you’re running that table, I will always stand by Your Table, Your Rules. If I find something truly offensive to me (trust me, I’ve listed it all, it’s very little) then I have a decision to make. I can suck it up and play at your table or I can let the GM know this isn’t the game for me, thank them politely for the invitation and leave. I will not demand that a GM ixnay or change things in his or her world because it upset ME. If the GM responds by stating that they’d like me to stay and wants to hear me out, fine. If the GM wants to shake my hand and announce to the group that they need to recruit a new player, also fine. When it comes to my own lines, I’m still pretty flexible within reason from the perspective of a player.

When it comes to hosting a game, I’m not without reason. I may have had a near-20 year gap but I know that graphic descriptions may not vibe well with everyone. Sometimes, fading to black and leaving it up to the imagination is best. In any case, I know how to word things to convey the sense of danger, make my BBEG (Big Bad Evil Guy) hated, not misunderstood and put things to players in a way that’s tasteful without going into gore porn descriptions. In some cases, should a player make a great roll and dispatch one of their would-be dispatchers, I’ll let them do the description of their own heroic moment…or anti-heroic moment.

These so-called safety tools have no place at a gaming table. It’s a ridiculous imposition (one of a great many these days) on the GM and prone to abuse. There are also sections like these in games like Kids on Bikes that I not only find unnecessary but distasteful…

Before starting to create your characters, you and the gamemaster (GM) should address the kinds of things that the players want to see in the game and the things they don’t want to see. You’ll already have agreed on the overall tone you want the game to have, but it’s important to know what narrative elements might upset players so the group can avoid them. Doing so will make the game more enjoyable for everyone. To start this process, the GM will ask whether the players would like to discuss these boundaries or simply give the GM lists.

If players agree to have a discussion, everyone will talk about what they’re okay with and what they want to avoid. During this discussion, don’t ask others to explain why they don’t want certain elements in the game; take their requests at face value and respect them. However, do feel free to ask for clarification.

If players would rather give the GM lists, they’ll each write down the topics they’d like to avoid, and the GM will compile that list anonymously. As with the other method, there shouldn’t be discussion of why players don’t want to address certain topics. In addition to the group’s comfort, another factor to consider while establishing boundaries is where you’re playing the game.

If you’re playing in the privacy of your own home or in a conference room at a convention, you only need to consider the players’ preferences. However, if you’re in a public place, if you’re around younger people, or if there are other factors beyond the preferences of the group, you should consider them when establishing boundaries.

In general, you should be playing the game in a way that will be comfortable for everyone who may hear it. For example, your group may be comfortable addressing issues of race in ’50s suburbia — but if you’re in public, everyone who overhears you might not be. Try to keep this in mind and be respectful to anyone who might overhear your game.

If, during the game, someone accidentally brings up one of the topics that should be avoided — or if anything that is part of the story is making you uncomfortable — simply knock quickly and lightly on the table. Whoever is currently narrating should simply rewind and proceed down a different path. There is no need to discuss your request to go in a different direction; the group will just move on with the story in another direction

Already, and this is just one page, you can see the problems. You, as a GM are not allowed to discuss it but then they give their permission to ask for clarification?

It seems reasonable on paper but you can see where the contradictions lie. Any GM worth their salt should be able to proceed on-the-fly, on that much, I can agree, however, if a player is going to literally rule against me and veto what may be parts of the entire adventure for everyone when they’re in no literal danger at all, then I’m going to have questions and I will absolutely open it up for discussion because I will absolutely want to know why. If I think it sounds reasonable, then I will proceed in a manner other than what the publisher may have in mind but if I get “You’re not supposed to ask me that.” I’ll be deferring to the table. If the table is okay with the plan, then this may not be the table for you. Otherwise, sitting down and playing at my table comes with the understanding that, especially in the case of horror, it is player discretion that is advised.

In this one page alone, had I known that the game included such, I probably would not have purchased it and would have passed on it instead and here’s where I get to the meat of this entire article. I know it’s been a long road to get here but this needed a hell of a lot of context to really drive the point home.

Passages like this set the expectation to the player that the GM is not to be trusted. Having played many games of varying varieties and having read more than I’ve played, I can tell you, I’ve had some great GMs, a few really terrible GMs and have held the chair myself even just recently as seen here from my POV

When we sat down to play this game, I read from the book the words of Mentor and even the words of Zargon as to what the expectations would be. They didn’t get far before being hunted down and killed. Yes, character death occurred and this was The Trial, a simple, but challenging dungeon crawl where both of my players made two critical mistakes. First, I did inform them and strongly suggest that they each select two characters. They selected one. Second, they were informed well in advance that teamwork is what would get them through the adventure, they split the party and were hunted down and killed by orcs and a few bad dice rolls.

Still, despite it bothering me the next day, I still recall their words post-game as I was cleaning up. They both loved the game. They both had a great time, despite their first foray into dungeon crawls not being a walk in the park and both of their characters dying rather ignobly.

These two players, having never played with me running a game ever before, trusted me to run that game for them and provide them with challenging scenarios that they would have to overcome. I didn’t handle them with kid gloves, I did what I though a truly evil wizard should and the expectations were set before the adventure even began.

They talked about wanting to do a game night once a month, possibly using Basic Fantasy RPG or White Box: Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game. Naturally, I’d be happy to run those for them as well as any other settings or genres they may have in mind.

Now, let’s get down to the real point: Trusting the GM and Player Expectations.

See when the company decides to put things like the passage from the one page of Kids on Bikes in there or even this

Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Sexuality

When creating your character, carefully consider their race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. These parts of your own identity are important to who you are — and they will be important to who your character is, too.

As a group, you will need to decide to what extent historical accuracy influences the treatment of different races, non-local ethnicities, and LGBTQIA people within your game.

However, keep in mind that historical accuracy is not an excuse to be horrible. “But this is how people would have talked back then” doesn’t go far when you’ve established boundaries.

If paranormal events can happen regularly in the town, then a mining town in the 1950s can be accepting of all people.

If handled appropriately, race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality contribute quite meaningfully to your sense of the character and to narrative elements in the game. As long as your group agrees on the way these elements will be addressed and everyone is comfortable with these decisions — and as long as you are addressing these issues seriously and compassionately — you’ll be playing within the spirit of the game.

In a game where you’re playing children, sexuality is not going to be an issue and yes, the past in some smaller towns were horrible to people who were different. If the book truly expects me to maintain authenticity by not including cellphones and the internet as they are today then historical accuracy will be a thing and of course will be set up in the expectations before character creation.

It would seem that those who purchase these books will read this and automatically have expectations of the GM that will, inevitably, become unrealistic and, this is why I largely do not purchase these books, especially if I know going in that it contains these types of passages. If I purchase this book as a player and someone says to me that they’re running the game that I’m currently reading and I’m invited to join, well that’s great but I’m letting the GM know ahead of time that I trust them to make good calls and impartially referee the game. I can handle history even as ugly as it was. Especially if I can handle people calling me an “-ist,” “-phobe” or something equally as vile for merely owning other works like The Wretchedverse, Lamentations of The Flame Princess, or even older rule sets like B/X, BECMI, AD&D First and Second Editions, just to name a few. Mama didn’t raise a bitch, peeps.

The company or corporation wanting to bring the bedroom to the tabletop has largely been decried by the same people wanting to bring the bedroom to the tabletop.

I have nothing against kinks, by all means, explore them with other consenting adults and leave children out of the equation but it doesn’t need to be shared at my table, and if it ever does, it will be done as everything else, faded to black.

If a player feels at any time like they should be the one calling the shots then I invite them to do one thing and do so politely. Get up, excuse yourself and run your own table with my blessings and best wishes that it works out for you. Go have your fun.

While I’ve bought games on concept alone, I was disappointed to find these passages in my book. We, as players and GMs who can handle our own issues should be sending one clear message to the companies. Just Make The Damn Games And Leave The Running of Our Tables To Us.

Any company fostering this level of distrust between players and GMs should absolutely be avoided at any and all costs.

Recently, I’ve heard that one of my favorite podcasts Old Gods of Appalachia has actually created a TTRPG on Kickstarter and are now taking late pledges. Personally, since this is by Monte Cook games and Shanna Germaine is attached, I’m not jumping on it right away. I want to know if it contains such things and, should it not, then I’ll go in and purchase a copy. If it does, then, sorry Old Gods Family, I will not be joining you.

The reason I won’t is because I won’t be inviting players, especially strangers, to the table with the expectation that they can veto the horror or elements of it. If you haven’t listened to the podcast, I definitely recommend it. Yes, there’s even graphic descriptions of eye stuff in there but keep in mind, as you listen, that if you were to run these scenarios, you may have a player constantly vetoing things and you’ll forever find yourself being rudely interrupted. Just as I would not allow players at my table I don’t trust (because I do vet them, I have to know if you’re a good fit or not) I also wouldn’t want a player that doesn’t trust me as a GM.

Many who try engaging this as a discussion are just asking a series of incremental questions in search of a “gotcha” moment and that’s something of which I as a GM am not interested in in the least. Another tactic is the GMs and players making proclamations that those like me should be deemed “unsafe” if we do not acquiesce and use these “Optional Suggestions.”

It’s an imposition of peer pressure and force.

To me, they’re optional and, if they’re such great ideas, they do not require force.

Thanks for reading everyone. If you stayed til the end here, know that you have my sincerest appreciation.

Author’s Note: This content will always be 100% Free to you. There are no plans to monetize it ever. If you really want to contribute, simply comment, subscribe and share these posts with friends. If you feel like I’ve earned that something extra, hit any of the wish lists (There are only two) in the link tree below and you can send a gift. If you send something, please be sure to include your name so I can personally thank you. If you don’t, then simply feel free to enjoy the content with my deepest appreciation for your visit. Thank You.