Quote from: jeff37923;591387Yes.

You don't like it, find another GM.

Already have. Me.

By all reports I'm a damn good one.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;591394Worse might have been the wrong word. I am no pyschologist, but my understanding is people can be retraumatized by triggers or by things that cause them to "relive" a traumatic event. I would assume it is pretty unlikely but I have known people with trauma who would get into a very uncomfortable and even unsafe state if you ventured into certain topics (for example I knew a girl whose mother was murdered when she was in highschool and it was very easy to accidentally bring up triggers that made her physically ill).

I can see events in an RPG triggering a panic attack (well, I have seen it happen, actually), but I'd have a hard time seeing that being enough to re-traumatize a person. It's too easy to step back out of that imaginary creation, and the player still has control over how immersed they are in game events.Unless the GM or group was a real jerk about it and hounded the person while their having a panic attack, in which case I'd say you're dealing with a group that has problems WAY beyond just breaching someone's comfort zone.

Quote from: TristramEvans;591463I can see events in an RPG triggering a panic attack (well, I have seen it happen, actually), but I'd have a hard time seeing that being enough to re-traumatize a person. It's too easy to step back out of that imaginary creation, and the player still has control over how immersed they are in game events.Unless the GM or group was a real jerk about it and hounded the person while their having a panic attack, in which case I'd say you're dealing with a group that has problems WAY beyond just breaching someone's comfort zone.

I am no doctor. If we have any here who could shed some light on the issue would love to hear from them. So I very well could be wrong, but my understanding has always been people can be retraumatized by vivid triggers (incouding things like books or movies) so I would just be cautious about messing with that stuff in an rpg if I new it could be an issue.

Quote from: Doctor Jest;591350So the GM is the one person in the group who is solely fit to decide what is best for all the other participants?
 
Like I said.

patronizing
present participle of pa·tron·ize (Verb)
Verb:   
Treat with an apparent kindness that betrays a feeling of superiority.

Having a genuine concern for the feelings of others and showing consideration is not equal to being patronizing. Calling someone patronizing when they do show consideration is making a huge, overly hostile assumption about their motives for doing so.

I've had fucked up things done to me when I was a child that required years of threat to help deal with and accept. And when someone shows me some consideration on account of it, my first reaction isn't "stop patronizing me!", it's generally "oh cool, a decent human being". Then I tell them it's all good, I've dealt with it, no need for special consideration but thank you for caring. And that's always been the end of it.

Seems to me that making the automatic "patronizing" assumption as to a considerate persons motives is just way defensive and/or looking to pick a fight.

Quote from: One Horse Town;591390I'm not 100% sure that this belongs here any longer.

I agree that it should be considered for a move, however the core of this discussion is transgressive play in RPGs where a Player's past traumas are brought out to be poked and the conditions in which it should be allowed. So far, the concensus is that it should if all parties involved agree to it in open communication (although most would not find it appealing). Yet the chief advocates of this kind of play use as their primary example a situation in which agreement and open communication did not exist.

So, it is about RPG play and does still have a tenuous grip on the aspect of horror from the OP, even if it straying as forum conversations often do.