Running games at conventions - feedback on comments
I've had quite a few comments on the original blog, and I thought I'd write a follow-up. Firstly, safety tools. These are quite a new thing for me, as they have only been around for a few years, but they are absolutely essential. I would be absolutely mortified if something happened in a game I was running that made someone uncomfortable beyond acceptable limits. At Expo this year, I ran a game with two fairly young children as players. This was a game which featured some mild elements of body horror, and I was somewhat concerned. So I checked in with the parents present, made it clear what sort of thing we could expect and gave them a means of raising concerns. Then, I toned it down somewhat. If you're an old curmudgeon like me and you've been doing this for years, it's not acceptable to say "we did without them all that time." Who knows what effect you had on players that went unreported. Safety tools. Use them. No excuses. Secondly, playtesting. Don'