*Taps ear*

I’m being told #SafetyTools discourse is returning.

May literally any divine entity help me.

I guess it’s a good thing I have a good case study on the value of safety tools from the other day.

STRAP IN.

CW for Mention of War Crimes.

So this isn’t the first time I’ve talked about adding fucked up shit to your #ttrpg sessions before:

This one was for going beyond standard safety tools a bit, but it assumed readers were bought in on safety tools.

Some folks are...not. https://twitter.com/ajeypandey/status/1246209423724417024

Well! If you think safety tools are toys for wusses who are scared to run games about The Real Grim Shit, let me point you to the @WelcomePartyRPG stream game I ran on 25 May: PAIN AND REGRETS, a Star Wars LASERS AND FEELINGS hack: https://twitter.com/welcomepartyrpg/status/1265085241640673280

So the gist of PAIN AND REGRETS is that—like the game it’s a hack of—it’s a “You Have Two Stats” game: Pain and Regrets.

Your characters are terrible people who have done terrible things, and they’re meant to reckon with their actions in this game.

So in a game that’s basically “You’re a Monster Who Must Repent,” where I hadn’t run a game for more than half the crew, I started with safety tools—Lines, Veils, Things To Tiptoe Around.

It was a pretty exhaustive list—like 20 things, easily.

BUT IT WASN’T EVERYTHING.
You know what wasn’t on the list?
- Killing PCs
- Severe Permanent Injuries
- WAR CRIMES

So we started the game four of the five characters having done war crimes.

That’s the STARTING point.

By the end of the one-shot, there had been two PvP duels, and:
- One character was dead
- Two were permanently maimed
- Another was stranded in a forest fire with no means of escape.

Again, PUBLIC STREAM. The VOD’s up, if you want to witness this shit!

Throughout the game, I was checking the internal game chat for X- and O-cards, and I was repeating on the stream itself “This shit’s gonna be GRIM, hold onto your butts!”

Because can you imagine getting Guillermo Del Toro levels of GRIM without ADVANCE FUCKING NOTICE?

Safety tools don’t hamstring your ability to tell grim, painful, horrifying stories in RPGs.

They’re a tool for doing so with tact and advance notice.

And it means that I was able to run a STREAM GAME with folks I’ve NEVER played with about UTTER MONSTERS being monstrous.

If I didn’t use safety tools for that game, someone could have gotten hurt—whether it was a player, a spectator, or even me.

Instead, the game finished with frayed nerves and a “holy shit, that was incredible.”

Here’s a shortlist of useful starting safety tools.

Please use them. They’re an important part of every game I run.

And if a GM now known for lavishing anguish on his players leads with safety tools...

...you should too. https://twitter.com/kiennas/status/1216048663526543360