I can’t recall anyone specifically saying that people should use safety tools in their home games…..so I will. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that it’s even more important to use them in a home game than in a con game (and to make no mistake, I think they’re very important for con games).

Here are my reasons: If I’m playing at some con with 3-5 randos whom I’ve never seen before and likely will never see again, then I have exceedingly few fucks to give for that game or those people. So if someone walks up to ny table wearing a swastika (which actually happened at a game I ran once), then I will gladly say, “either you take that off, or you leave, or I’ll leave and someone else can run the damn game”.

However, when I’m in my home game, even though I’m not running the risk of someone doing nazi-adjacent cosplay, if something comes up that I’d rather not have in the game, then I’m way less likely to want to stop everything mid-game to have a conversation about whatever it is I want taken out of the game. And I’m certainly not going to walk out on a home game like I might at a con.

So it’s not about any lack of trust among my friends, whom I see practically every day, but rather about acknowledging that there may be times when we’re not on the same page, despite the fact that we trust each other, and about wanting a simple and hassle-free method of handling those situations whenever they come up.

I recognize that I’m generally less conflict averse than others, and most people may not be as willing to tell a complete stranger to fuck off as I am. But even with that caveat, I find tools like the XCard to be incredibly useful, even among the people I trust the most.