X-Cards
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@surreality said in X-Cards:
I know I was looking at a general RP-prefs setup on-wiki. It wasn't meant just for 'I hate this, don't go there', but with general categories where people could write whatever was relevant to them on any given subject. (Subjects were fairly broad and would have been customizable for any given setting -- ex: 'law enforcement', 'crime', 'romance', 'horror', etc.)
Ares has an optional RP Preferences plugin that lets staff define areas relevant to their game so players can register their preferences and view each others'. I think folks can mention those in their scene/plot/event descriptions if they were so inclined. I personally would have to see that catching on broadly before I would find it worth the effort to codify prefs/tags in a dedicated field in a scene/plot/event description, but that's just mean. Other games could certainly do that with custom code.
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@Roz True story. He was a work friend invited by another player, and was obnoxious the whole session, culminating in deciding that his PC had decided that nothing that was happening was real (it was a portal fantasy 'normal world characters end up in fantasy world' - I WAS FOURTEEN OKAY?? scenario) so he'd naturally start raping the women he met.
That said: portal fantasy is a wonderful genre and I will fight anyone who says otherwise. My current 5e game is not a portal fantasy, but I have played in and run several of them, and I always think it's fun inasmuch as the characters have every IC excuse for being as unfamiliar with your newly-concocted world as the players themselves are.
On the topic at hand, though? Honestly, there are times where an X-Card would've been nice even in my old tabletop group where everyone involved had known each other for years.
At one point, the person GM'ing concocted a world shift (i.e., we were in this world and it started to change, a'la magic coming back and forgotten legends being rediscovered) around our (player) phobias. Which could have been very interesting, mind you, if it had just danced along the edges, using it to make for a little bit of psychological discomfort!
But it ended up pushing those phobias a little too hard but no one said anything—not wanting to be the one who ruined the game—until one player finally hit a wall and said bluntly either we needed a new campaign or she needed a new tabletop group. Having an X-Card to raise when we started to cross that boundary from 'a thematic element that introduces unease' to 'yeah I am actively no longer enjoying this' might've let the campaign redirect before it veered too far into that territory.
(To his credit, when he then realized players were getting not just that 'edge of unease' he was aiming for but actively squick/yuck/discomfort, the GM promptly went, "Alright, this obviously didn't work as I'd hoped, I'm really sorry, let's flip to one of the other GMs for a bit and I'll come up with a new campaign for my rotation in the meantime." And his eventual replacement one was one of my favorite setups we ever played in that group—maybe of all my tabletop experiences.)
a.k.a. Packetdancer (or "Pax" for short)
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A GM once surprised my SO and I (well, my SO's character, but I got to witness) with a "roofie/video camera" scenario at an IC house party in Beverly Hills.
Our "X-card" was our feet in his ass.
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not wanting to be the one who ruined the game
The thing is - that's a valid concern. (Generic) you might be the one that derails the game for everyone else. I once noped out of a plot that a good friend of mine was running (and in fact, had put together in large part for me). They were a good sport about it, but they were understandably bummed.
That's why communication is key. Sometimes players need to bend. Sometimes the GM/game/story needs to bend. Sometimes both can bend a little to meet in the middle.
Maybe tools can help communication, but I'm leery of trying to use code to solve social problems. I think GMs/storytellers/game policies being more up-front that this kind of communication is not only acceptable but encouraged would go a long way.
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Maybe tools can help communication, but I'm leery of trying to use code to solve social problems.
It is such a relief to see this mentioned. And this:
It's important to remember - the 'X-Card' nor any of the other affiliated ideas is not a 'rule' by which anyone must abide.
And this:
The X-Card thing feels too thin to even be called a system
And this:
The X-Card is a message from a player to a storyteller regarding the content of the story being told.
A social rule is not the same as a business rule. The social space is the space all this comes from and returns to. The rules we play with are rules we agree on, not rules we are forced to engage with.
I am enjoying thinking about the idea of FTBing certain elements of a scene, not just the scene itself. I like "instead of drugged your character gets conked on the head" level of meta-scening.
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But part of what I think Sparks is saying (and Faraday pulling out) is that people often don't know they have options.
I don't think it matters which of the many systems people have come up with to make things as comfortable as possible as long as people are comfortable enough to say anything.
(no john cusack in the rain; it's not that kind of "say anything")
I think a lot of us in this hobby (and other close-knit social hobbies; we act most similar to local theatre) are still used to just accepting whatever it is that's put in front of us that we're myopic to the first-look, the fresh view of a newbie who is trying to learn the rules from Step Zero.
I think that's waaaaay overthinking the whole concept.
I think a lot of us are.
Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.
The best way to know you know something is to teach it to a child.
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Eyyyyyy. Resurrecting with new information.
Over the weekend I was privileged enough to get a game in with the creator of "Happiest Apocalypse on Earth". He is an avid fan of the "X CARD" and he described it in a way that clicked well with me.
He said that he finds that players often seem more likely to get grimdark (my fave!) when there IS an x-card on the table because they can do so knowing everyone has the ability to opt out at any time; that the existence of the X-card makes it more okay to make bold/daring IC decisions because theyre comfortable knowing that anyone who doesnt like it can X it.
The X card can make a player less nervous to try things.
I really liked that.
