#commission #commissionareopen #wakfu #iop #cra #elitrope #Eniripsa #Masqueraiders

Many tabletop games refer to the concept of an "X Card" - a literal or metaphorical flag a player can raise in the event that fictional events enter into intolerably uncomfortable territory. Players of Masqueraiders should always feel empowered to flag a proposed or ongoing narrative circumstance as incompatible with play. If one of your collaborators signals that they are not comfortable playing and collaborating with a narrative element, halt the scene. Respect the expressed needs of the player who invoked the X card. Those needs might range from "I don't like how this violence is being described, can we be less specific?" to "I am not having fun and we need to call it a day." Masqueraiders does not mandate the use of an "X Card". Nonetheless, respecting other players is a critical component of playing in good faith.

The X Card is a powerful tool for addressing discomfort as a performer, but may not always be suitable for resolving creative conflicts that do not emerge from personal discomfort or distress. Likewise, sitting down and hashing out a compromise in a script-doctoring session can be a great way to effectively resolve a conflict between creative sensibilities, but is not going to be appropriate for resolving a distressing real-life emotional situation that emerged from play. All players should be ready to deploy and respect multiple strategies for maintaining trust and safety. Participants in tabletop games are simultaneously writers, performers, and audience members. Strategies for addressing creative conflicts between writers aren't necessarily going to be effective or appropriate for addressing discomfort as a performer/audience member, and vice versa.

Any form of artistic collaboration can lead to raw feelings, desired or otherwise, and the same goes for any game with rules and stakes. Since Masqueraiders is both, we've included some emphatic but non-binding advice for managing any raw feelings, navigating raised tensions, and addressing substantitive "above the table" conflicts between collaborators. Masqueraiders does not prescribe or provide any specific mechanism for resolving out-of-game conflicts between players. The authors strongly discourage the use of Masqueraiders game mechanics to resolve real conflicts between players "above the table". By extension, none of the advice contained within this section should be treated as rules, errata, or enforcible instructions. The advice presented here is not a substitute for honest communication and kindness between artistic collaborators.

Working on the Trust and Safety material for #Masqueraiders. I have complicated feelings about "X Cards" and existing safety frameworks, and I'm trying to synthesize advice I can really stand behind.