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| Trust no-one, keep your laser handy? |
Trust sits at the heart of what we do as tabletop role players. There's an implicit social contract between the am and the players, and also between the planes themselves. When it is built on shaky foundations, games go bad.
Ironically, PVP games often need a higher level of trust around the table than normal games. The conflict needs to be between characters, not between players.
Games that address sensitive topics also need trust. When playing with strangers, the ability to use safety tools such as 'lines and veils' helps to give a foundation to that trust. At Furnace, we've adopted the use of tags because it avoids nasty surprises for players. When you don't take a sensitive approach, you run the risk of a 'Things from the Flood' UK Games Expo style incident. And no-one wants that.
You could make an argument that the older style of gaming requires less trust, especially as early dungeons could put the GM in an antagonistic mode. However, I don't believe that this is the case. You still need to believe that the GM is impartial in such a situation. If you felt the GM will cheat, why bother playing?
Trust is a fundamental part of tabletop roleplaying, and always has been.
10 August 2021 (belatedly).
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