adjusting your game on the fly
You’ve collected all your hot-buttons and one or more affect your game. Now what?! Below are some simple suggestions on how to adjust your game, make substitutions, and straight up flex your GMing muscle by making changes on the fly.
Sometimes you can just exchange one monster for another. Other times, you’ll have to leave a subject out altogether. It’s OK to ask your players for a minute to figure out the needed adjustment.
These suggestions are just that, suggestions. If you come up with something better, then go for it! Better yet, join our Discord community to tell people about the amazing ways you have adapted your game to accommodate player hot-buttons!
quick adjustments and substitutions
Alcohol - Substitute with any non-alcoholic beverage.
Bugs - Substitute with slimes and oozes, rats, stirges, bats, snakes, elementals, constructs.
Children in Distress - Substitute with adults, elderly, or animals.
Claustrophobia - Avoid claustrophobic descriptions.
Clowns or Dolls - Leave out clown descriptions and replace with a quirky NPC. Depending on context, replace Dolls with a pet, mephit, gnome, or other applicable creature.
Combat Against Wild Animals -Substitute with undead, aberrations, sentient plants/trees, or constructs.
Demons/Devils - Substitute with undead, aberrations, constructs, or dragons.
Drowning/Suffocating - Do not describe in detail any drowning or suffocation. These can be simplified to “you fell in the water and need to get out.” Or, “your allies see you need help.”
Drug/Substance Abuse or Addiction - Leave out or substitute with dark magic corruption or mind control.
Explosions - Avoid vivid descriptions of explosions and destruction. You can still say “your fireball finds its mark and goes off,” but don’t go much further than that.
Fantasy Prejudice and Discrimination - Avoid any negative interactions relating to race, species, ancestry, etc.
Fear of Heights - Downplay or avoid any detailed descriptions of being at height.
Fire - Substitute with mists, steam, crumbling buildings, or other forms of destruction, just not fire.
Flirting - Leave out flirting between PCs/NPCs, PCs/PCs, and between players at the table.
Graphic Gore Descriptions - Leave out detailed gore that is too visual/descriptive.
Harm to Domestic Animals - Replace the animal with a cherished, but inanimate object.
Human Trafficking - Substitute paid workers working in deplorable conditions.
Imprisonment - Avoid any kind of restraining or confining of PCs. Substitute an item or relic for an imprisoned NPC.
Kidnapping - Substitute with a stolen item, relic, or pet.
Law Enforcement - Substitute with helpful citizens.
Mental Illness - Avoid any reference to mental disabilities.
Mutilation of Corpses - Head off actions by PCs and detailed descriptions of gore.
Physical Disabilities - Leave out or substitute with positive character descriptions to make them memorable.
Player vs. Player - Leave out. No fighting with or stealing from other PCs.
Rats - Substitute for spiders, snakes, slimes and oozes, bugs, elementals, constructs
Sexual Innuendo - Leave out. Head off any players implying any sexual innuendo during play.
Snakes - Substitute with rats, spiders, slimes and oozes, bugs, elementals, constructs.
Spiders - Substitute with rats, snakes, slimes and oozes, bugs, elementals, constructs.
Swearing - Avoid swearing by all participants.
Terminal Illness - Substitute with a curse that is not terminal, but impactful.
Torture - Leave out. Substitute with imprisonment if possible.
Yelling/Shouting - State that the NPC is Yelling/Shouting, but don’t actually Yell/Shout the dialogue. Yelling during role-play can be uncomfortable for some.
