MCDM Tabletop

Safety Toolkit
If you’ve ever stopped mid-roleplay to say, “Wait, sorry, is this description too gruesome? Let me fast-forward
to the part where they’re dead,” or asked your GM, “How goofy can we get, because I’m thinking of naming my
rogue Harold Coins and basing him on Roger Rabbit?” then congratulations, you’ve (inadvertently, maybe) used
RPG safety tools! Safety tools—the X-Card, Lines and Veils, and others—are simply ways to formalize the process
of getting everyone at the table on the same page about the topics and themes you’ll be exploring as you play.

Why Use Safety Tools?

Because boundaries are good. Safety isn’t just about staying
physically safe from harm. It also means saying emotionally,
mentally, and psychologically safe. In a social game where we
spend a lot of time playing a fictional character, safety tools
give us a way to communicate our own likes, dislikes, com-
forts, and discomforts.
These tools minimize the likelihood that your roleplaying
game will veer into territory that makes someone feel unsafe
or uncomfortable, they provide a framework for how to deal
with those moments if they do occur, and set an intention to
prioritize the comfort and fun of everyone at the table. All of
these things together set us up for rich storytelling and gam-
ing experiences. For example, if you play a horror game and
discuss the topics and themes everyone is okay with and not
okay with, you know what you can lean really hard into—and
tell an awesomely creepy story—while avoiding the stuff that
people don’t want to touch.
Incorporating Safety Tools
The way you approach and incorporate safety tools into your
games depends on multiple factors—like whether you’re
playing with friends or strangers or tucking into an ongoing
campaign versus a one-shot. The good news is that safety tools
are modular and flexible and can be implemented in tons of
ways.
If you want to introduce safety tools into a campaign that
hasn’t started yet, start with the following “Session Zero”
section. If you are introducing safety tools in a campaign
that’s already underway, skip ahead to “Recommended Safety
Tools.”
This isn’t an exhaustive guide to planning a session zero,
but an overview focused on topics related to safety and com-
fort.
Campaign Details
Whether the GM is running a published adventure, a cam-
paign in a homebrew world, or some combination, talking
about expectations for the campaign and style of play is
a must for any session zero. The CATS method by Patrick
O’Leary is great for getting everyone on the same page. The
GM explains and discusses the following ideas about the cam-
paign with the players:
/ Concept: The campaign’s high-level overview. For
example, you might say, “In this game you’ll play kids in
an alternate version of the 1980s running around your
small town solving mysteries.”
/ Aim: What the player characters are trying to accomplish
/ Tone: Is this game serious, goofy, gonzo, dramatic,
spooky, or something else?
/ Subject Matter: What kinds of subjects are likely to come
up during gameplay? Ending on subject matter is great
because it leads the group directly into a conversation
about safety tools.
Gameplay Expectations
If you don’t touch on it while using CATS, make time to go
over what the game requires of players in terms of things
like bookkeeping, math, tracking resources, drawing maps,
and other work. Ideally, the GM or other players can offer to
support those who want or need assistance with these parts
of the game.

Logistics
Session Zero
Session zero is the session your group holds before you start Like safety tools, figuring out logistics is part of making sure
actually playing the campaign. It can be facilitated by the everyone has fun.
GM, another player, or a combination of people at your table. Some things to go over:
Session zero is a great time to hammer out all kinds of details / How often you plan to meet
about your campaign—from the administrative details, like / How long sessions will be and whether there will be
scheduling and snacks, to story stuff, like what players can breaks during sessions
expect from the campaign.
MCDM Tabletop Safety Toolkit 1

/ The best medium for communicating when someone’s
running late or has to cancel
/ What happens if one or more players can’t make it to the
session
/ For in-person games, discuss who’s hosting, how you’ll
handle meals or snacks
/ For in-person games, discuss any COVID-19 protocols
(masks, rapid testing before meeting, etc.).
/ For online games, discuss what virtual tabletop and voice
chat you’ll use, whether video is optional, encouraged,
or required, and whether side discussions in chat during
roleplay are okay.
Comfort and Accessibility
Have a conversation about what everyone at the table needs
to make it comfortable and accessible. Some ways to make
your time together more comfortable for people:
/ Make it clear that it’s okay to get up and stretch or move
away when they need to.
/ Let people knit, crochet, draw, color, or otherwise occupy
their hands during play.
/ Allow phones or tablets at the table for anyone who is
using them to take notes or keep their hands occupied
with apps for fidgeting. Discuss this with your table to
make sure that everyone has what they need and uses
devices responsibly in a way that doesn’t distract them or
other players from the game.
/ The goal here isn’t to anticipate everything people might
need, but to make it clear that everyone should feel safe
and comfortable asking for what they need to enjoy and
engage with the game.
Talk Safety Tools
Discuss the various tools you plan to use in your campaign
and tell the players how they work. If you’re sending out a
survey or using a checklist for Lines and Veils, you may wish
to do that before session zero so you can discuss any details
and make sure the group is aware of the lines and veils in
play. No matter which tools your table uses, the goal of any
session zero or conversation about safety is establishing an
environment of open communication where people feel com-
fortable talking about their boundaries.
Wrap-Up
After you’ve talked through safety tools and completed the
safety checklist (if your table is using it), you can discuss any-
thing else you (or anyone at the table) might want to go over
in more depth or that hasn’t come up so far. When everyone
feels ready to get started, it’s time to wrap up session zero and
start playing! Remind your group that you can come back to
safety tools and add to or change them as they fit throughout
the campaign.
MCDM Tabletop Safety Toolkit
Recommended Safety Tools
Using any safety tool is better than none, but having multi-
ple in place provides the most robust safety for your table
because they all work hand-in-hand with one another. Of
course, you and your table are the best people to decide what
you want to use and how to use them. Maybe you’ll want to
use certain tools and not others or parts of some and not parts
of others. Don’t feel like you have to make all of these deci-
sions at once—you can discuss as a table and you can even
add safety tools (or take them away) as your campaign goes
on.
Once you’ve introduced the tools, explain exactly how
they’re used; folks at your table might have differing levels of
familiarity and comfort with them. It might also help for the
GM (or whoever is facilitating the table’s safety) to give some
examples of how they’re used in play to model and normalize
their use.
If you’re not sure how you’d introduce safety tools—may-
be because you’ve been playing with a group of friends for
a long time and haven’t used them before or because you’re
playing with totally new people and aren’t sure how to broach
the topic—remember that these tools are there to be used in
whatever ways are best for you and your table. That might
mean choosing a tool you like and introducing it to the group,
or sharing a safety checklist or Google form where people can
fill in the things they do and don’t want to see in the game
(their Lines and Veils). You can adapt any of the tools below to
feel right for your group and still get a lot out of them.
Lines and Veils
Created by Ron Edwards, Lines and Veils allows everyone to
state what topics and themes they’d like to exclude or limit in
play. Lines are any topics or themes that should be excluded
entirely from the game. Veils are topics or themes that can ex-
ist in the game but are not explored during roleplay and only
happen “off-screen.” Lines and Veils are typically established
during session zero but can be added to at any time. For ex-
ample, if the table has decided that there is a Line for torture,
this means that torture doesn’t exist in the game’s story and
should never come up. On the other hand, if there is a Veil
for torture, it means that torture may exist in the story but
that it will never be described by the GM or players. It may be
referenced, but that’s it.
Safety Checklist
One way to approach Lines and Veils is to use a checklist
pre-loaded with topics and themes that are things people com-
monly limit or eliminate from a game. Although the checklist
has a bunch of stuff already listed, the GM and players should
add items as necessary. You can use MCDM’s checklist provid-
ed at the end of this guide.
X-Card
The X-Card is a tool created by John Stavropoulos that allows
anyone at the table to remove content from the game that
makes them uncomfortable with no explanations needed.
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 The X-Card can be a physical object on the table—a piece
of paper with an “X” on it—that people can touch or hold
up when they want to invoke it. People can also verbally say
“X-Card,” type “X-Card” into an online chat, or cross their
fingers or arms to signal they are invoking the tool.
When the tool is invoked, play stops. The person who used
the X-Card can explain why they used it but doesn’t have to.
No one should be pressured to explain or debate their bound-
aries. After play stops, you can resume again at a future point
in the narrative, but if anyone wants a break or would like to
discuss the content in private with the GM or another player,
make time for it.
Script Change
Created by Beau Jágr Sheldon, Script Change allows in-depth,
real-time changes to the game. The first step with this tool
is to decide on a “rating” for your campaign. For example,
a G-rated campaign would be suitable for people of all ages
while an R-rated campaign might have drug use, excessive vi-
olence, or sexual content. (Giving your campaign a rating can
be useful to describe the general level of intense or explicit
content people are okay with, too!)
During play, the Script Change can be invoked by touching
physical cards or by speaking or typing one of the action
phrases from the list below. This tool is useful for groups that
want a system in place for pausing to talk above the table. It
can help normalize metagaming and retconning (retroactive-
ly changing something), two concepts that get a bad rap in
gaming but are helpful in establishing and maintaining safety
at the table. If it feels foreign or strange to make changes
to the story, you can weave script changes into the story by
framing them as dreams or predictions.
Fast-Forward: Invoke this if you want to skip over the
rest of the current scene. For instance, a player may want
a romantic moment to fade to black or skip past the de-
tails of a gory description.
Rewind: Invoke this if you want to change an action or
event that has occurred in the game. It can be anything
from, “Wait, I don’t think my character would say that,”
to, “Can we say the kid didn’t get hurt, and that he just got
scared and ran away?”
Instant Replay: Invoke this if you want to pause and go
over what just happened in play out of character. This
can be used after an intense interaction or even after a
long scene with complex details.
Frame by Frame: Invoke this if you want to take the
scene slowly, maybe because the topic or themes make
you uncomfortable, you’re nervous about roleplay, or you
anticipate the material could veer into territory you want
to handle carefully.
Resume: Invoke this after one of the other script change
tools once everyone is ready to resume play.
You can download Script Change cards here.
MCDM Tabletop Safety Toolkit
Stars and Wishes
Stars and Wishes by Lu Quade is a tool for collecting feed-
back from the table that also provides a fun way to wrap up a
session.
At the end of each session, ask each player to share one
Star—a moment from the game they really loved—and one
Wish—something they hope will happen next time. Ending a
session intentionally is particularly helpful after heavy games
that could result in a character’s emotions affecting the play-
er’s emotions once the game is over.
Some people also include a Sprinkle, something from the
session they feel might tie into their character’s backstory that
they’d like to call to the GM’s attention.
If Stars and Wishes doesn’t feel right for your table, end
heavy sessions by asking players to describe a brief epilogue
moment for their characters, something that puts a bow on
the session and creates a firm conclusion to this part of the
story. It can be as simple as asking each player, “What does
your character do after this?”
Safety Tool Tips
Simply having safety tools in place is the beginning, not the
end, of creating and maintaining a safer gaming space. There
are some best practices GMs should deploy throughout ses-
sions and campaigns to make sure everyone utilizes the tools.
Be Cool about Immersion
Be relaxed about immersion, metagaming, and retconning.
Safety and fun are more important than delicately tending
to the game’s narrative. Trust yourselves and one another to
tell great stories—including making changes and discussing
moments and beats as you go—and that’s what you’ll do. All
of the best stories have edits! If you notice someone getting
uncomfortable or a scene veering toward established Lines
or Veils, interrupt play to check in with the table or suggest
taking a break. If anyone feels that a scene has inadvertently
taken a strange turn towards a subject people feel uncom-
fortable with—even if nothing that violates a Line or Veil has
taken place—the GM and players should feel free to “retcon”
a scene, either by using Script Change or simply saying, “Wait,
I’d like to take that again and change some things.”
Frequent Check-Ins
Even with safety tools in place, a game can still wander into
territory that makes someone uncomfortable. Check in at the
beginning of each session to ask how everyone feels about the
game so far, and ask if people would like to add to the Lines
and Veils.
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