For the Queen

[natknight]

Interesting discussion of For the Queen!

I agree that putting safety tools in the rules is aesthetically suboptimal, but I'm fairly sure Roberts has spoken to why it's in there: part of the idea with FtQ is that it's a box that a totally new player could pick up in a big-box store and play with their friends. Of course the sickos (complementary) in this forum don't need to be told to put it there, but it feels irresponsible to throw totally un-enfranchised players in with no tools, especially given the charged nature of some of the questions.

[misha]

Yeah, I think it makes sense with all the other design choices of the game. I am sympathetic to being uncomfortable with making safety tools too tied into the game's rules proper, though--you don't want to accidentally create a scenario where one player can counterspell another's X-card use, but this is a long way from that.

One thing I wish I had said in the episode is that ultimately, I see the main value of a safety tool existing being to communicate that this group respects people's comfort and boundaries with triggering subject matters. The specific mechanics matter less than players realizing that speaking up if they feel uncomfortable is both an option and something that will be welcome and respected by the other players.

Also, I moved this thread to Episode Discussion, since it's pretty directly about the episode and we didn't have a thread for it yet.