You’re getting dragged, but I think I get your point: that it might seed suspicion and distrust among not only the characters but the players?
I think it should be Rule 0 that the DM and players all respect each other’s boundaries, so consent is always part of the equation IMHO. Likewise, if everyone at the table insists on playing a certain way that I’m uncomfortable with, then it’s time for me to find a new table.
No, it’s just trauma and not wanting that to come up at the game table. Simple as that. I had a group before the pandemic where just about everyone had some kind of trauma and this is 100000% not the kind of thing they or I would enjoy.
I still don’t understand why creating rumours about your character would be triggering for anyone.
How would a made up stories like “Borun caught a cheater at dice and string him up upside down hanging from the flag pole” or “Borun’s horse went lame, but instead of putting him down, he paid a farmer to take care of him for life” bring up trauma? Especially since you’re writing these yourself…
Or is the existence of rumours triggering somehow? In which case, maybe P&P RPGs aren’t an appropriate activity since a lot of adventures rely on piecing together rumours to identify what’s really going on.
The thing is, that it was, from my understanding, never about the actual players, but the fictional characters. Aka my high elf loves gambling a bit too much etc.
Oh agreed: I just thought the meta-nature of the players themselves being unsure of the veracity of character information might make things weird for folks uncomfortable with gossip. In any case I think it sounds like a fun idea!
You’re getting dragged, but I think I get your point: that it might seed suspicion and distrust among not only the characters but the players?
I think it should be Rule 0 that the DM and players all respect each other’s boundaries, so consent is always part of the equation IMHO. Likewise, if everyone at the table insists on playing a certain way that I’m uncomfortable with, then it’s time for me to find a new table.
No, it’s just trauma and not wanting that to come up at the game table. Simple as that. I had a group before the pandemic where just about everyone had some kind of trauma and this is 100000% not the kind of thing they or I would enjoy.
I still don’t understand why creating rumours about your character would be triggering for anyone.
How would a made up stories like “Borun caught a cheater at dice and string him up upside down hanging from the flag pole” or “Borun’s horse went lame, but instead of putting him down, he paid a farmer to take care of him for life” bring up trauma? Especially since you’re writing these yourself…
Or is the existence of rumours triggering somehow? In which case, maybe P&P RPGs aren’t an appropriate activity since a lot of adventures rely on piecing together rumours to identify what’s really going on.
The thing is, that it was, from my understanding, never about the actual players, but the fictional characters. Aka my high elf loves gambling a bit too much etc.
Oh agreed: I just thought the meta-nature of the players themselves being unsure of the veracity of character information might make things weird for folks uncomfortable with gossip. In any case I think it sounds like a fun idea!