Tabletop games are a fantastic medium for crafting stories, and those stories can and often do explore heavy and meaningful themes, but they should never be at the expense of anybody’s mental wellbeing – here’s a few ways to ensure that your table is a safe place and that players and the GM alike are comfortable asserting boundaries and prioritizing comfort.

The X – Card 

This one is great for in person games, and is super simple – it’s an index card with an X drawn on placed within everyone’s reach.  A player can touch at any point, acting as a skip button – the GM will change what is happening in the scene, and the player is not expected to explain (but is always welcome to do so if they’re comfortable).

Pre-Game Checklists and Surveys 

Linked are a couple of checklists to give to players to indicate their comfort with a range of heavy topics. It’s up to you and your group whether these get shared with everyone, or just the GM. There’s merit to both, but it depends on your group. If everyone consents to it,  sharing these checklists with the group can help prevent inadvertent unpleasantries arising during roleplay, but it can also be pretty vulnerable to share that list with a bunch of strangers.

Regardless, part of the GM’s responsibility is being cognizant of these boundaries and shutting down discussion that goes out of bounds. This includes the GM’s boundaries! Being the GM doesn’t mean sitting though things that make you uncomfortable just because all the players are OK with a certain topic that you’re not.

GMs can establish a Baseline Safety & Consent statement that lets players know what themes will not be present in their games, which allows them an opportunity to both set the tone of the game a little bit and protect their own wellbeing. (The Example Google Form in the resources folder does a nice job of this)

Also – this is essentially a standardized version of another technique called Lines and Veils – where players can freeform tell the GM what they don’t want included (lines) or what they want to be offscreen or fade-to-black (veils) if included.

I recommend a checklist for new groups, and if you have planned themes that are on the heavier side, don’t be afraid to add an addendum of game-specific topics. One of the things linked in here is a horror-specific list that I made for a Monster of the Week game where I intended to get relatively grisly with my monsters, but wanted to make sure I didn’t hit on anything that would take things from good and spooky to just unpleasant.

Anyways, the big goal of all of this is to have a game that’s as fun as it can possibly be. Knowing what has the potential to take a scene from very dramatic to very uncomfortable is an excellent tool in a GM’s arsenal for maximizing enjoyment of the game for all!

Further Reading & Links

Tabletop Club Safety Tool Resource Folder

Screenrant Blog Post – List of Safety Tools

Some neat LARP-inspired Safety Tools