Limits & Safety Mechanics

Safety Mechanics

General Rules

• For any concerns, please reach out to either your DM or the other party privately; rarely does feedback or conflict go more smoothly with a wide audience.

• If someone requests a trigger warning, or for language to not be used, don't argue, just respect it. If you strongly feel that something is being censored and are uncomfortable with this, contact your DM privately to discuss.

• Ask people if they're fine with you adding them on social media; I imagine we'll all be pretty cool with each other soon enough but it's better to be considerate.

• Let your DM know if your list of triggers/icks changes at any point (adding OR removing there's no shame or need to explain why something is on the list.

• You are allowed at any point to request DM or any of your fellow players to stop a specific joke, conversation, questline etc. If it's crucial to the plot, we can find a way to handwave your character's involvement or edit as need be and anything not crucial can be dropped immediately.

• Do not make sexual/flirtatious interactions with players OR their characters without explicit, enthusiastic consent beforehand.

• We will make use of the stoplight checkin system mentioned to the right, to be discussed before game starts and regularly adapting as we need to.

• Please review the triggers below and request any you need added, as well as take note of what content will never be allowed in game or requires content warnings ahead of time.

• If you would like to skip a particular session (mental health reasons, specific upcoming encounter includes creatures you are phobic of) just let DM know ASAP

Safety Mechanics

In general, the content of this game will be rated PG-13 to R for:

• Violence, potentially up to and including descriptions of gore, torture, or death

• Sexual content, including bawdy/lewd humor; explicit sex acts will be fade-to-black only

• Much, much, much swearing

• Examination of real life topics, such as trauma and recovery, mental health, relationship strain, prejudice, or existential philosophy

Limits and Triggers

NEVER (not in game plot, not in people's backstories)

• Rape, sexual assault

• Discrimination against real world groups (ex: sex, gender, disability, race)

• "Happy slave" tropes

• Graphic descriptions of animal abuse, domestic violence

General game content (content warning may not be included ahead of time)

• Descriptions of general violence/injury

• In-game group discrimination (ex: against gnomes, against rogues)

• Endangerment of individuals (including PCs, NPCs, animals)

• Cults, religious sects, ritualistic endangerment

• Natural disasters

• Displacement, refugees & homelessness

Never inflicted without prior consent (but may happen to NPCs without content warning)

• Pregnancy

• Permanent disfigurement or disability

Highly unlikely/rare, with prior warning given if at all possible

• Death of child

• Suicide or self-harm

• Child abuse/neglect

Creature encounters where warning will be given before game if possible

• Spiders and other arachnids

• Insects

• Swarms of any animal (inc. snake, vermin etc.)

Consult with DM before adding

• Substance or alcohol addiction

The Psychology of Roleplay

This section is optional, but could provide helpful insight into some things people feel when they play pretend and put themselves in a mindset they aren't used to. For those who have LARPed before, most of these will likely be familiar (but could still provide some useful info!).

Bleed

Bleed is a concept experienced in immersive storytelling (like an intense tabletop session, or a live action roleplay) where a person's real life emotions bleed into their roleplay, or vice versa where a character's feelings bleed into the real person behind the scenes.
Sometimes bleed is temporary and nothing serious (I'm hungry so I'm a little grumpy and so is my character), and sometimes it can be really good (I am a mother, my character is a mother, so I'm a much stronger roleplayer in this scenario because of this). But sometimes bleed can be overwhelming, confusing, or painful.
Common examples of bleed include:

• My character went through trauma similar to me, and my emotions are stirred up because of this. (Could be bad, or could be cathartic because your character got to say/do what you always wished you had.)

• My character has feelings for another character, and I'm having trouble differentiating if the other player is flirting with ME too or not.

• My character was discriminated against for something they can't control, and I'm feeling sad now because it reminded me of prejudice I face in real life.

The key to managing bleed is first to recognize it's happening, and then to sit with the feelings and understand why they're happening. Sometimes you may need to renegotiate certain in-character factors (like pausing an in-character romance or dropping a part of your backstory that causes pain). Feel free to examine this with yourself, your DM, or the other players. Bleed is nothing to be ashamed of and can be a powerful tool for good storytelling, but not at your own personal health expense.

Metagaming

Metagaming is a term, generally derogatory, for using external knowledge in game in a way your character should not be able to. For example, if your character has never faced a gorgon like Medusa but they somehow know to use a mirror because you remember the myth of Perseus, that's metagaming, and is considered unfair to others.
Of course, we are human, and it can be difficult to a) know what our characters know in a situation, b) remember if your character does know something (ex: was I there in character when you all had that conversation? I remember it OOC but I'm not sure...), and c) keep our knowledge from bleeding in. It's natural, it happens sometimes.
It is highly unlikely that we will see people maliciously or intentionally metagaming, and a gentle "I don't think you were there for that" does not mean that you "messed up" or that anyone is mad at you. At most, your DM will take you aside to talk with you about it if it keeps happening or is highly disruptive.
(Minmaxing, a way to play that involves strategically planning your character for the best possible stats and power over choosing things for roleplay sake, is a type of metagaming. It isn't banned from this campaign, but players should remember that this is a story-based campaign and not one primarily focused on combat numbers, so the effort for going the minmax route will likely not yield the results they are hoping for in their experience.)

Godmoding

Godmoding is another term, used primarily in a derogatory way, for out-of-character influence bleeding in. Godmoding refers to controlling things outside of your agreed-upon sphere of influence (usually your character, their familiars/summons, and/or nudging along NPCs specifically created by/for you), such as describing what another character is thinking/doing without the other player's consent. In other words, godmoding is doing things like you're an all-powerful god of the situation.
Again, it is highly unlikely that we will see any situations of intentional or malicious godmoding. This also is not written to discourage people from proposing cool ideas for how a scene could go, such as "I picture your character leaned back with a cigarette in their mouth casually while this is happening" to which the other player may laugh and say "you know what? You're right, that is ABSOLUTELY what they're doing." It could also be a suggested outcome or reminding the DM of a detail that could impact the situation, such as "can I land and roll into the fire to shake them off? I still have immunity to fire for 2 rounds."

Remember: You are always welcome to negotiate how a scene is handled to propose a more fair, logical, or badass outcome. That isn't godmoding, that's just a conversation.

Despite having a clearly established trigger warning and idea of what people are generally comfortable with, there may be times that a scene shifts in a way one or more people aren't comfortable with. It doesn't have to be a trigger; maybe you're just not in a good headspace and the things the character is yelling at yours hit a little too close to home and you want to stop, or maybe you're just not feeling great so hearing a description of an eating contest makes you queasy.
Whatever the reason, we will be using the following safety measures in our game.

Traffic Lights

A mechanic often seen used in BDSM spaces, this is a simplified check-in system based on traffic light colors. The simplicity of the system is beneficial for when someone is especially emotional (such as experiencing a trauma trigger) and may not be able to communicate complex needs clearly.
DM may check in with players regarding a particularly heavy scene and request responses from everyone. However, players can also play a card (particularly a yellow or red) if they need to at any point. Players can also request a check if they sense someone else at the table may need a moment.

• Green: Full speed ahead, everything's great! I'm feeling energized, engaged, happy, enjoying myself.

• Yellow: Hold up, I need us to slow down. I don't need everything to stop, but we may need to adjust. (Maybe a fade-to-black needs to happen, or a conversation can be dropped.)

• Red: Hard stop, pause everything, I need to stop. Maybe just for a moment or maybe for the session. (Player may step away, scene may skip forward etc.)

There is zero shame or judgement for playing a card, or simply requesting to step away from the voice chat and be pinged in text when it's safe to come back in, if you're not wanting to interrupt the flow of the other players' conversations. (That being said, you are never a bother for "interrupting" a scene, even if others are enjoying it; we are a community, and we care about each other's safety more than the bawdy jokes or whatever that's happening in the game.)