Safety Techniques

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Safety Techniques

In every role-playing session, but especially in a game with horror elements, topics or game situations can arise that can be unpleasant for individual or all players (this includes the game master!) or even trigger memories of traumatic events. In a game session, everyone should feel comfortable and have fun, even if terrible things happen in the game - after all, it is a horror role-playing game!

It is therefore most important to talk to each other before the game or the start of a new session and to find a consensus about the content of the game (group contract). As the game master, you can also ask your players to tell you in advance about taboos or boundaries in person. Safety techniques can help prevent uncomfortable situations, but as always, empathy and common sense are key. It is by no means a must to use safety techniques and ultimately each group should decide together what arrangements they will make and if and which techniques they will use.


X-Card (John Stavropoulos)

The X card is placed on the table as a physical card. If a player feels uncomfortable about a topic or situation, the card can be held up or tapped to immediately end the uncomfortable topic without justification. Alternatively, the word "X" can simply be spoken or arms held out in front of the body in the shape of an X.

Lines & Veils (Ron Edwards)

Boundaries and veils are agreed upon before the game. 'Boundaries' are game content that players generally want to exclude from the game, and 'veils' are game content that can be hidden or occur behind a veil, but should not be played out.

Traffic light

A traffic light with the colors green, yellow and red is placed in the center of the table. The other players can tap on the colors as needed to signal whether the scene should be continued (yellow), intensified (green) or stopped/mitigated in this way.

CATS

In the sense of a group contract, the "Concept", "Aim", "Tone" (atmosphere) and "Subject Matter" of the planned game are briefly discussed before the game, so that all players are on the same level.