> We're talking about playing a boardgame with friends, do we really need to have a trigger-warning session?
First, it's not a "boardgame." It's a Role Playing Game. It's much more unbounded than a board game and you are actually playing. Not just rolling dice but acting and imagining and adding to the experience. You play your character and you decide how that character acts.
> do we really need to have a trigger-warning session?
You could have one. Generally cover strong NOs and decide on hot-topics that often make people uncomfortable:
racism/slavery, romance/sex, phobias, etc.
Then setup a system to halt if anything new comes up.
People throw around "trigger" and "safe-space" like they're above feeling anything but sometimes it's just being considerate. It's not just about language but situations.
We play D&D to have fun. For some, that means "leaving politics out of it" but for others, those "politics" impact our actual daily lives. To pretend they don't exist or to have to interact with them in a game can be just as un-fun.
> And when does that end? Every time I hang out with my friends should we update our daily list of no-no words first?
Now you're being facetious. You communicate like people. That's it.
If someone was recently mugged in real-life, you probably wouldn't have their character get attacked by a rogue. If someone had arachnophobia, you probably wouldn't drop down the RPG-cliche giant spider. If someone has to deal with real-life racism, you could probably understand why "knife-ears" wouldn't feel fun. OR maybe they're all okay. It's all about opt: opt-in and opt-out.
> oupled with that we are increasingly unable to fluidly deal with differences this creates as they arise.
I think that's a YOU-issue. My friend group is a complex group of people, and yet we find a way to have fun every week with D&D while also respecting all members of the game.
First, it's not a "boardgame." It's a Role Playing Game. It's much more unbounded than a board game and you are actually playing. Not just rolling dice but acting and imagining and adding to the experience. You play your character and you decide how that character acts.
> do we really need to have a trigger-warning session?
You could have one. Generally cover strong NOs and decide on hot-topics that often make people uncomfortable:
racism/slavery, romance/sex, phobias, etc.
Then setup a system to halt if anything new comes up.
People throw around "trigger" and "safe-space" like they're above feeling anything but sometimes it's just being considerate. It's not just about language but situations.
We play D&D to have fun. For some, that means "leaving politics out of it" but for others, those "politics" impact our actual daily lives. To pretend they don't exist or to have to interact with them in a game can be just as un-fun.
> And when does that end? Every time I hang out with my friends should we update our daily list of no-no words first?
Now you're being facetious. You communicate like people. That's it.
If someone was recently mugged in real-life, you probably wouldn't have their character get attacked by a rogue. If someone had arachnophobia, you probably wouldn't drop down the RPG-cliche giant spider. If someone has to deal with real-life racism, you could probably understand why "knife-ears" wouldn't feel fun. OR maybe they're all okay. It's all about opt: opt-in and opt-out.
> oupled with that we are increasingly unable to fluidly deal with differences this creates as they arise.
I think that's a YOU-issue. My friend group is a complex group of people, and yet we find a way to have fun every week with D&D while also respecting all members of the game.