when your gods speak

A 24 word TTRPG on what to do when you hear from gods.

Due to the limited nature of the work, safety tools are not included in the text, but are highly recommended.

On Safety Tools

One of the ways to make sure that the game is enjoyable for everyone is ensuring that everyone is comfortable with the material that may come up during the game, and that they're comfortable with voicing their disagreement or discomfort with any content that may come up. The content of TTRPGs in play is improvised in nature, so topics and material that you are not comfortable with may come up whether you discussed them together with your fellow players are not. Here's a few tools that can be used to navigate this tricky area, so that everyone feels safe and comfortable to create a story together.

Lines and Veils

Lines and veils are a safety tool to set boundaries on content and material that you are not okay with seeing or experiencing in your game. Lines represent hard lines of topics and materials that should not appear in the game at all, whether on or off screen. Veils are topics that can be in the game, so long as they are not talked, or played out explicitly, such as cutting to black.

X-card

The X-card is a physical card, or symbol that can be used with your hands or in the chat of an online game, indicated by typing "X", to indicate that you are uncomfortable with something in the scene. The players can change, rewind, or skip the content that made the person uncomfortable--if they are not comfortable sharing what it is that made them uncomfortable, it is safer to just skip the scene.

Open door policy

An open door policy is an agreement at the table that a player may at any time leave the table without needing to explain themselves. This ensures that people do not stay at a table if they are not comfortable,

For any of these safety tools, what is most important at the table is the safety and fun of the players. The people at your table are always more important than the game that is happening.