Dungeons and Dragons’ Dungeon Master Guide finally features safety tools. These additional rules help ensure everyone at the table is having fun, and other RPGs made them a staple of play long before D&D joined the crowd. After such tools were featured in less essential 5e supplements, I’m glad to see the 2024 DM’s Guide follow this industry trend and add safety tools to its core rules. However, it disappoints me that D&D hasn’t given due credit to the creators of these consent tools.
The new D&D DM’s Guide introduces two core tools for consent and safety. The first of these is a ‘Game Expectations’ sheet where players can list topics that are hard limits (never to be brought up in play) and soft limits (can be mentioned, but with minimal description). The second is a gesture that signals that a boundary has been crossed – Wizards of the Coast recommends making an X symbol with your arms as an example.
These two suggestions bear a striking resemblance to two famous safety tools in the tabletop RPG community. The first of these is Lines and Veils, a concept developed by Ron Edwards in a supplement for his RPG, Sorcerer. Lines are hard limits placed on topics that can’t be approached in a campaign, while veils are topics that can be lightly touched on but not explored in detail. Sound familiar?
D&D’s safety tools also echo the X Card, a tool developed by John Stavropoulos in 2013. The X card is a physical piece of paper that players can tap if they want to edit or remove an upsetting bit of content from a game. Stavropoulos released the X card under a Creative Commons license, and it has freely appeared in many tabletop RPG books.
One such product is Monte Cook Games’ Consent in Gaming, a 2019 sourcebook which compiles a large number of safety resources for tabletop RPG players. Co-creator Shanna Germain once told me that there was pushback against Consent in Gaming when it was first released. However, it’s proved to be a popular and necessary addition to many games.
This brief history lesson on consent in TTRPGs paints a clear, communal picture, where a community has come together to make roleplaying a more enjoyable experience for all. That’s why it leaves such a sour taste in my mouth that D&D has neglected (or refused) to acknowledge the contributions of creators outside of Wizards of the Coast.
Make no mistake: I don’t believe Wizards of the Coast is under any legal obligation to credit any of the designers I’ve mentioned. The X card is free for anyone to use, and many other safety tools are name-dropped in RPG books under a system of goodwill.
Wizards of the Coast also tells me that it has credited the consultants who “helped us refine the material” when adding safety tools to the Dungeon Master’s Guide. The listed consultants include Jennifer Kretchmer and Alyssa Visscher.
However, I also asked Wizards of the Coast if it was aware of the tools I’ve already listed – and if it was, why did it refrain from referencing these resources. To these questions, I did not receive a direct answer.
Many other RPG publishers will specifically name the safety tools they recommend – or at least signpost to other helpful resources on consent in gaming. To give you some examples, I’ve pulled two RPGs from a nearby shelf as I write this.
Eat the Reich, published in 2024 by Rowan, Rook and Decard, directly credits Stavropoulos when recommending the X card as a safety tool. Meanwhile, Free League Publishing’s Blade Runner RPG offers the bare minimum in its core rulebook – advising the player that “more information about safety tools in tabletop roleplaying can be found online”.
The 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide mentions no specific tools by name, and it gives no indication that another source could better inform players. These two facts combined lead me to feel like Dungeons and Dragons is deliberately trying to distance itself from contributions other RPG creators have made to the industry.
Since the OGL scandal, Wizards of the Coast has been regularly accused of pulling the ladder up behind it. This lack of acknowledgement feels like a missed opportunity to prove that D&D, in fact, does want to foster a healthy creative community and celebrate wins for the RPG industry – even if those ideas don’t have a D&D logo slapped on them.
For more on the new book, here’s my full 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide review. And for more tabletop updates, be sure to follow Wargamer on Google News.
Source: Wargamer
