During the conversation, the player said to me ‘you know, looking back, I realise I wasn’t really comfortable with some stuff in the game’. Even though most of it was related to a single players actions, that was hard to hear.

So what can we conclude about safety tools? They are a necessary element, but they need to come as part of a more holistic approach that involves making the table a safe space for all to play.

This time we’re going to look at a mechanic that changed the way I look at the process of character creation: the playbook.

The process of character creation is a framing device. It shows us as players what the game cares about, how we are supposed to navigate it and what is likely to be important going forward.

I’d posit that while social interaction is often the most thrilling or engaging part most RPG games, it’s maybe a difficult master to serve.