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Archives of Nethys

Archives of Nethys

Pathfinder RPG (1st Edition) Pathfinder RPG (2nd Edition) Starfinder RPG

Rules Index | GM Screen | Player's Guide
Chapter 1: Running the Game

A Welcoming Environment

Source GM Core pg. 6
The role of Game Master comes with the responsibility of ensuring you and the rest of the players have a rewarding, fun time during the game. Games can deal with difficult subjects and have stressful moments, but fundamentally Pathfinder is a leisure activity. It can remain so only if the players follow a social contract and respect one another.

Players with physical or mental disabilities might find themselves more challenged than abled players. Work with your players to ensure they have the resources and support they need. Additionally, be on the lookout for inappropriate behavior, whether intentional or inadvertent, and pay careful attention to players' body language during the game. If you notice a player becoming uncomfortable, you are empowered to pause the game, take it in a new direction, privately check in with your players during or after the session, or take any other action you think is appropriate.

If a player tells you they're uncomfortable with something in the game, whether it's content you've presented as the GM or another player's or PC's actions, listen carefully to that player and take steps to ensure they can once again have fun during your game. If you're preparing prewritten material and you find a character or a situation inappropriate, you are fully empowered to change any details as you see fit. You also have the authority (and responsibility) to ask players to change their behavior—or even leave the table—if what they're doing is unacceptable or makes others feel uncomfortable. It's never appropriate to make the person who is uncomfortable responsible for resolving a problem. It's okay if mistakes happen. What's important is how you respond and move forward.

Gaming is for everyone. Never let those acting in bad faith undermine your game or exclude other players. Your efforts are part of the long-term process of making games and game culture welcoming to all. Working together, we can build a community where players of all identities and experiences feel safe.

Objectionable Content

Source GM Core pg. 7
Before a campaign begins, check in with your players—as a group or individually—to find out what types of content they want to allow in the game and which topics they would prefer to avoid. Because the story unfolds in real time, it's essential that you discuss these topics before the game starts, often in a session zero (see page 9). These discussions are intended to keep players safe, so it's not okay to ask why someone wants a type of content banned. If someone wants it banned, ban it—no questions asked.

It can help to start with a rating, like those used for movies or video games. Pathfinder games often include violence and cruelty. What's the limit on how graphically these concepts should be described? Can players swear at the table? Does anyone have phobias they don't want to appear in the game, such as spiders or body horror?

After you figure out the limits on objectionable content, you have four important tasks:
  • Clearly convey these limits to the other players.
  • Ensure you and the players abide by the boundaries.
  • Act immediately if someone becomes uncomfortable about content during a session, even if it wasn't already banned in a prior discussion. Once the issue is resolved, move on.
  • Resolve the issue if any player deliberately pushes these boundaries, tries to find loopholes, tries to renegotiate the limits, or belittles people for having a different tolerance to objectionable content.

The Pathfinder Baseline

Source GM Core pg. 7
You might find that your players don't have much to say on the topic of objectionable content and just assume that general societal mores will keep the most uncomfortable topics out of the game. That's not always enough, as that approach relies on shared assumptions that aren't always accurate. The following is a set of basic assumptions that works for many groups, which you can modify to fit your preferences and those of the other players.
  • Bloodshed, injuries, and even dismemberment might be described. However, excessive descriptions of gore and cruelty should be avoided.
  • Romantic and sexual relationships can happen in the game, but players should avoid being overly suggestive. Sex always happens “off-screen.” Because attempts at initiating a relationship between player characters can be uncomfortably similar to one player hitting on another, this should generally be avoided (and is entirely inappropriate when playing with strangers).
  • Avoid excessively gross or scatological descriptions. The following acts should never be performed by player characters:
  • Torture
  • Rape, nonconsensual sexual contact, or sexual threats
  • Harm to children, including sexual abuse
  • Owning slaves or profiting from the slave trade
  • Reprehensible uses of mind-control magic
Villains might engage in such acts, but they won't happen “on-screen” or won't be described in detail. Many groups choose to not have villains engage in these activities at all, keeping these reprehensible acts out of mind entirely.

Tools for Responsible Play

Consent and comfort are important topics for roleplaying games, and many designers have created techniques to facilitate responsible play. Some methods you can use are lines and veils, developed by Ron Edwards, and the X-Card, developed by John Stavropoulos.

Lines And Veils

The terms “line” and “veil” can give your table a common vocabulary for the concepts described in this section. A line is a hard limit to the actions players might take, such as “We're drawing a line at torture.” The group agrees not to cross a line and omits that content from the game. A veil indicates something that shouldn't be described in detail. The scene fades to black, or the group moves on to discuss a different topic, though whatever the veil is drawn across still happens. For example, you might say, “We'll draw a veil as those characters head into the bedroom.” Players might find they need to modify their lines and veils as play continues.

The X-Card

Draw an “X” on a card, and you've got an X-Card. Place it on the table at the start of the session. Any player can silently reject content they find upsetting by tapping the X-Card; whoever is speaking then rewinds a bit and continues on, excising the content. As with setting the basic campaign guidelines, there are no questions asked, no judgment, and no argument when someone taps the X-Card. You can, however, ask for clarification if you need it, such as “How far back should I rewind?” Some groups instead make an X with their hands, say “Let's X that out,” or use some other method. Either way, follow up with the player privately after the game to see if the guidelines need to be revised. You can find more details at tinyurl.com/x-card-rpg.

Collaboration During Play

As Game Master, you have the final say on how the world and rules function and how nonplayer characters act. This rule's purpose is to make the game run smoothly, with one guiding hand ensuring consistency. It's not intended to make one player into a dictator over the rest of the group. Collaboration is vital to roleplaying games!

How you implement collaboration in a game depends on what your players are interested in. In some groups, players enjoy adding details to the world and to the nonplayer characters. In others, players want to feel like the world is outside their control, and the only decisions they get to make are those made by their own characters. Both are fun and acceptable ways to play.

You are encouraged to collect input from your players before you start, asking what storytelling genres they'd like to emphasize, which areas of the world they want to play in, the types of enemies they'd like to face, or which published adventure they want to play. A good campaign includes some back-and-forth at the beginning as the players figure out what characters they want to play and you figure out what sort of adventure would be most enjoyable for the group. The results can range from building an adventure entirely to fit the characters to choosing a specific published adventure, having the players make their characters, and then adapting the beginning of that adventure so that all the player characters have a reason to be involved.

As you play, opportunities to collaborate will occur again and again. When players throw out suggestions or come up with specific theories about the events of the campaign, they're telling you what they'd like to see in the game. Try to find ways to incorporate their suggestions, but with enough of a twist that each still includes something unexpected. Remember that as the Game Master, you're a player too—don't forget to include content that you're excited to see as well!

Social Spillover

Source GM Core pg. 8
As important as it is to take care of yourself and the other players in your game, be mindful of your group’s impact on the other people around you. If you’re playing in a space that’s not your own, respect your hosts. If you’re playing in public, consider the comfort of the people around you, not just what your group is comfortable with. It’s easy to get caught up in a game, as we get sucked into the microcosm of an imagined world, but don’t ignore the real world around you. Be aware when you’re making too much noise, leaving a mess, alarming passersby with graphic descriptions of violence, or even just giving the cold shoulder to curious spectators witnessing RPG play for the first time.