I remember debating the X card nonsense on the CoC FB page.  Now someone just posted a link to this bullshit on the Earthdawn FB group.  Buckle up.  

As an aside, GrimJim made a pretty good critique:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYFVNduyLMc

OK, I've played in a bunch of games with the X-card and haven't had any problems, but there are a bunch of things that bug me in this. I'm generally skeptical but agnostic about most of psychology. If it helps people live their lives, good for them - but I often don't buy into it for myself. If people want to play with an X-card, that's they're business. If they have fun using it, then more power to them. However, like with everything else in gaming, it's just a particular style -- not the One True Way of role-playing.

Some particular issues I have with this document:

1) This document purports to be general advice about consent in gaming, rather than an optional tool.

2) The text pretty regularly changes between consent, comfort, and safety. They are pretty regularly interchanged, but they are very different things. For example, the first bolded point is "You decide what's safe for you." That's clearly wrong. You decide what you consent to, and you decide what you're comfortable with, but safety is about objective harm. Further, you can consent to things that are uncomfortable for you - or even harmful.

Crunchy consent. Perfect for storygamers not wanting systems to limit their creativity.

I'll take my gaming without Struggle Sessions. All this Little Red Book does is tell me who needs to be shut out and who to let pass.

There is no X card at my table.

Quote from: tenbones;1103673The mountain dungeon they thought they were entering was secretly the rear-entrance of the sleeping Tarrasque!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]3835[/ATTACH]

When you know you entered the wrong dungeon.  The very wrong dungeon.

Quote from: Razor 007;1103735There is no X card at my table.

I only accept Grim Jim's M-Card at my table.

Within 5 years, d&d games will last 2 hours, but you'll only get 30 minutes worth of gaming.

The rest of the time people will be saying stuff like:

Point of privilege... Please stop celebrating when you score a critical hit, instead can we just wave our hands around like normal people?

Point of privilege... You called that naked ogre with his slong hanging out a he; STOP USING GENDERED LANGUAGE YOU FREAK!

I think that understanding this product treats RPGing as a form of BDSM interaction, with GM as the Dom and players as the subs, explains a lot of where they're coming from.

Of course normal RPGing is not a lot like BDSM, and so most of the advice here is highly inappropriate.

Quote from: S'mon;1103764I think that understanding this product treats RPGing as a form of BDSM interaction, with GM as the Dom and players as the subs, explains a lot of where they're coming from.

Of course normal RPGing is not a lot like BDSM, and so most of the advice here is highly inappropriate.

Conversely, most BDSM play is not like RPGing.

Quote from: Razor 007;1103735There is no X card at my table.

Mine neither not as long as the flawed implementation of the X-card requires the person using it to not mention what bothers them. Sorry but my session is not coming to a full stop because something bothers player XYZ and they refuse to talk about it.

Quote from: Graytung;1103752Within 5 years, d&d games will last 2 hours, but you'll only get 30 minutes worth of gaming.

The rest of the time people will be saying stuff like:

Point of privilege... Please stop celebrating when you score a critical hit, instead can we just wave our hands around like normal people?

Point of privilege... You called that naked ogre with his slong hanging out a he; STOP USING GENDERED LANGUAGE YOU FREAK!

Sad part is I can see that happen. Fortunately it will never happen at any tables I run or play. As such players will be asked to leave and never return. Or I leave the table as fast as I can.

Is it possible to virtue signal any harder? It's so hip, woke and on fucking trend, it hurts.

Watch this fucking thing scoop up every Ennie going at GenCon next year.

Quote from: Graytung;1103752Within 5 years, d&d games will last 2 hours, but you'll only get 30 minutes worth of gaming.

The rest of the time people will be saying stuff like:

Point of privilege... Please stop celebrating when you score a critical hit, instead can we just wave our hands around like normal people?

Point of privilege... You called that naked ogre with his slong hanging out a he; STOP USING GENDERED LANGUAGE YOU FREAK!

Accurate, if they win.

I suspect the groups who "use the X-card" and have had "no problems" aren't REALLY using it.  I think instead they are using it as a kind of magic feather for people to clutch and not actually use, or it is being used as something akin to a "raised hand".    

DM: "As you enter the room you see a naked corpse covered in rats..."

[Player throws the X-card.  Everyone stops and looks at her.]

Player: "I...uh... I have a thing about rats.  Can we just not describe them in great detail, please?"

DM: "Okay, sure, no problem.  They scurry away when the light from your torches hits them anyway.  Along the wall you see..."

The problem with this is that it means the X-card is nothing more than a substitute for normal human social interaction.  Its basically meaningless.  The player still has to interrupt the flow of the game.  They still have to explain what it is that they have a problem with, and they still have to negotiate with the group to find a suitable resolution.  All of this can be easily accomplished without anything as awkward and strange as throwing a card down on the table.

But the X-card isn't meant to just be a non-verbal "pause button".  It's supposed to be contract that allows player veto, WITHOUT negotiation or justification. These stupid "consent lists" are exactly the same thing, only specifying in advance rather than in situ.

I also don't see how this will solve any actual problems at the table.  Take the recent issue with convention game where the characters were drugged and "came to" without pants on, covered in poo and having "sore bottoms".  They were so triggered by this that they complained to the convention and the DM was banned for life.  Apparently he intended this scenario to convey that the characters had explosive diarrhea due to the drug that knocked them out.  Now, this is stupid, sophomoric and gross, IMO.  But the players were triggered because they thought their characters had been the victims of rape, not of severe indigestion.  Therefore a "consent form" with a check in the "rape" box would not have solved the problem.  The DM still would have done the stupid scene and the players still would have been "triggered" due to the, somewhat understandable, misinterpretation.  Moreover, no one paused the game or walked away from the table. An X-Card wouldn't have "saved them" from the social pressure of interrupting the game flow.  Someone still would have had to summon up the courage to stop the game and call attention to the issue.  

At some point you have to trust that your players have enough personal agency to speak up if something bothers them, and players have to trust that the DM isn't trying to psychically attack them.  I don't see how an X-Card of a consent list or any other such mechanism removes the need for basic social skills.

LOL X-card?

Seriously that's some funny infantile shit. These people need to back away from the gaming table - and maybe all tables. They need to turn off their TV's, get off of the internet, go play Outside(tm) the biggest MMO ever. And get some therapy to teach them how "Adulting" works.

Now all unreality aside - this is why in my campaigns when I advertise for spots in my game I do not allow minors or spectators. If I'm GMing for kids, I set my games accordingly. Why is this rocket-science to these infantilized imbeciles?

Or... its just power-dynamics meta-roleplaying. The real game is when to play the X-card and be offended for Virtue-al XP.