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.