In any gathering of storytellers, there will be varying degrees of comfort with different subject matter. A topic which is embraced and invited by one player may be traumatic, uncomfortable, or triggering for another.
It isn’t always easy to raise concerns about topics one wishes to avoid even within gaming groups made up of close friends, so it’s vital to normalize an environment of safety and consent within every gaming experience.
Core Principles: Consent and Safety
There are many creative and effective safety tools within RPG gaming, but the core principle driving all of them is an proactive an ongoing framework of consent. Communication in advance establishes players’ individual boundaries, and tools are established for a player to clearly and immediately alter their boundaries any time they need to.
The most comprehensive collection of safety tools we’ve found to date is the TTRPG Safety Toolkit, curated by Kienna Shaw and Lauren Bryant-Monk.
