The X-Card and compilations are the TTRPG Safety Toolkit are vital tools for play in tabletop RPGs.

But sometimes you don’t just want to signal that things are going wrong, but that they’re going well.

In a recent conversation, I only half-jokingly suggested the idea of a “Z-Card”, a sort of X-Card analogue that you tap when you want more of what just happened, rather than less or none. But since it was well received as an idea, I want to expand a little bit on it.

I wrote about ritualizing social interactions in What If?, where I talked about why you might want a formal procedure for signaling interest (or lack of it). This post talks more about how to do it.

Let’s put some things on the table I’ll call gear shifts. These are ways you signal how you feel about what’s going on in play. It’s explicitly always okay to signal a desire for a gear shift, provided you don’t do it to harass other players or otherwise cross social boundaries. The goal of gear shifts is to give feedback without derailing a speaker from what they’re saying.

You can communicate gear shifts verbally, either through ritual phrases (“Let’s Reverse”) or colloquial language (“hey can we have less of that please?”).

In environments where participants can see each other, gestures can be powerful signals, as they can signal something without interrupting the current speaker. Each gear shift has sample suggested gestures.

Finally, there might be cards, tokens, or other props to indicate a gear shift. These function similarly to gesture, but might be usable in Virtual Tabletops or other places where you can’t see the players.

If the intent of a gear shift isn’t immediately clear to whoever is speaking, they can turn to the group and ask, “do you mean…?” In this case, people should repeat the gear shift signaling, or clarify what they actually mean.

High Gear

This shift indicates you want more of the sort of thing you just heard. This could be an awesome move in play, a fun interaction between characters, or whatever.

• You’re enthusiastic about some element of what’s happening and want more of it
• You want to recognize the player for their contribution to the game
• Possible gestures: fist pumping or raised hands

Left/Right Turn

This shift is when you’re unhappy with how things are going, but maybe something similar would be good.

• You’ve heard enough about a topic or detail and would like to move on to something else
• The player has talked too long and maybe someone else should get a turn
• Possible gestures: tilting arms to the left or right

Reverse

This shift means you want to back up, re-evaluate what’s going on, then move forward once the concerns are settled.

• You think what’s going on is going to end up in a dead end
• You’d like to get clarification on some important detail
• You think revising what’s going on would be more fun for everyone
• Possible gestures: hands beckoning backward, toward yourself

U-Turn

This shift means you want to not only stop what’s happening, but undo or edit it and go in the opposite direction.

• The player is getting into territory you don’t think adds any value
• The player is saying something out-of-character that involves your investments in the game (e.g. saying something about your PC you know is wrong)
• Possible gestures: a finger making a swirling motion, indicating turning around

Gear shifts are not intended as a replacement for safety tools. They should be used to express personal preferences or make editorial commentary on play. The safety tools the group has agreed to use always take precedence.

This post doesn’t solidify any kind of final version of this concept. It’s just a starting point for discussion.