Respect and Safety
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Safety First: Everyone has a right to feel comfortable. We will use “Lines & Veils” as safety tools to address uncomfortable content immediately. Lines are subjects that are off the table and veils are subjects that may come up, but happen off screen and aren’t described in detail. Anyone may add to the list, players and the GM will respect the list. This list may grow or be revisited throughout game-play.
Lines:
Veils:
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Zero Tolerance (very hard lines): Bigotry, racism, sexism, homophobia, and personal attacks (out-of-character) are not tolerated.
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Respect Time: Show up on time, prepared to play. If you cannot make a session, notify the group with as much notice as possible.
Playstyle and Table Etiquette
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Shared Spotlight: We all share responsibility for the fun. Avoid talking over others and allow everyone a moment to shine. Normalize role-playing with other party members and not just the GM/NPCs. Practice giving “the word” to your fellow adventurers; “What do you think about this, Boblin?”
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Character vs. Player: Keep in-character conflict separate from out-of-character relationships. “It’s what my character would do” is not an excuse for ruining the fun of others.
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Focus: Stay engaged between your turns. You never know when you might use a reaction or have “the word” gifted to you. Don’t miss these opportunities! Minimize distractions (phones, side-chatter) during the session.
Game Structure
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GM Authority: The GM is the final arbiter of the rules. If a rule is disputed, we will discuss it briefly and/or eventually, but the GM’s ruling may stand for the session to keep the game moving. (See “Preserving Immersion” for greater detail on this point)
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Party Cohesion: Characters are expected to act as a team and have a reason to adventure together.
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Open Communication: If you are not enjoying the game, or have concerns, talk to the group or GM privately about it.
Logistics
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Food/Drink: Is permitted at the table, providing it doesn’t become a distraction to game-play or interfere with start/end times.
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Materials: Players are responsible for their own character sheets, dice, and pencils.
Preserving Immersion
We’ve all been there. You’re watching a movie or reading a book when out of the blue somebody in the real world asks, “Where’s the Mountain Dew?” or “Did you know your socks are mismatched?” or “Would you like to hear about this really cool bird I saw yesterday?” It breaks immersion and if it happens too frequently it can spoil the overall experience of a story.
Although it’s a “social game,” D&D is also very much a collaborative (and often tenuous) story being woven simultaneously by several authors. Breaking immersion from this kind of story can be very difficult to recover from, so dialing it back or preventing it in the first place is a priority. The following rules are in the spirit of preserving the immersion for everybody:
1. Um, Actually… There are a lot of rules (SO MANY RULES) in D&D to keep track of, and then house rules on top of that. Mistakes happen, however, sometimes mistakes happen on purpose for a narrative cause. At any rate, in cases where you feel RAW have been disregarded or misinterpreted, please respect the DM’s ruling in the moment. Players are encouraged to make a note and bring up a ruling for discussion outside of gameplay (during a break or after session). These situations may result in redacting or redirecting a portion of the story after the fact, but that’s a small sacrifice to pay for preserving flow-state during game-play.
2. For the Sake of Brevity. There may be times during travel, exploration, or even combat, where an outcome becomes certain, and continuing to slog through would be tedious and dull: “for the sake of brevity” to the rescue! In these situations, things may resolve in a cut scene to better preserve flow, fun, and immersion.
3. Metagaming. It often comes up that the player will have information that the character does not. Perhaps you played in a different campaign last year where you encountered a troll and discovered their nuance in regard to taking fire damage (or perhaps you read through the Monster Manual, because why wouldn’t you?) You, the player, has that knowledge of Trolls, but your character may not. This is where a dice roll comes in handy to do a Nature or Arcana check to see if your character knows the thing or not. If you wish to take things a step further, you may ask the DM to roll any of these sorts of checks for you, simply revealing your reaction instead. This method of doing a check offers an ironclad willful suspension of disbelief since you literally don’t know if you’ve critically failed or succeeded (or anything in-between) until after a situation resolves.