Skip to main content

Safety and the X-Card

How the Incident Master sets up and uses the X-card, protects against stereotype-based play, and handles an uncomfortable moment.
ImportantIM only

Only the Incident Master reads this page before the session.

This game asks players to accuse, interview and offboard people, under time pressure, about hiring fraud. That can touch real experience: a layoff, a wrongly accused colleague, a bad hire, a past breach. Safety here is simple and mechanical. Anyone can stop anything, and nobody has to say why.

The X-card

Setup. Put one card on the table, marked with an X, within reach of every player. Say the rule in the opening script, every session, in the safety line: “If anything in this game is uncomfortable, tap the X card or say ‘X’. We skip it, no questions asked.”

Use.

  1. A player taps the card or says “X”. Nobody asks why. You do not ask why.
  2. You say: “Thank you. We skip it.” Then you move on.
  3. Offer a replacement: “We can skip this thread, change how we play it, or pick up at the next beat.” Take whichever the player accepts.
  4. If the player wants to talk, do it at a break, not in front of the table.
  5. Use it yourself when you feel a scene going wrong. Tap it and say “I am skipping that.”

The X-card is for content and scenes. It never costs a track, an action or a stop-the-line call. PROPOSED

A player may pass. Any player may decline an action, a question or a vote on any turn by saying “pass”. It is not a fold in the stop-the-line vote and it costs nothing. PROPOSED

What this game can bring up

Topic What you do
Hiring and dismissal Wrongful offboarding is a game cost, not a verdict on a player. Say it flat, then run the debrief. Offer the X-card early to anyone with a recent dismissal.
Stereotypes about origin, accent, language or face None is a tell here, and no hire card carries a portrait, accent or language field. If a player argues from them: “That is not evidence in this game. Name a control, or a behaviour, a process fact or a money fact.” Say it every time, calmly.
Appearance or video evidence Video or appearance can open a meeting. It never cuts.
Real incidents at their own company Players may know a real case. Let them keep it vague. They may pass.
Identity and impersonation A persona is a fiction of the operator cell. Use “persona”, never a nationality.
Coercion of workers Do not claim it. No source supports it, and it makes a persona a victim for the table to judge.

You, in voice

  • Play every hire, innocent or operator, in the same plain voice. Do not use an accent, a second language, a different register or any speech quirk to signal who is who. See persona answer pattern.
  • Do not mock any hire, any role, any player or any real country or group.
  • The Comrades’ register (satirical state media) lives only in kicker, headlines, section titles and stamps on cards. Do not perform it as speech about real people.

When someone looks uncomfortable

Do not ask in front of the table. Do one of these.

  • Slow the pace. “Let’s take a breath. Who wants a minute?”
  • Move the question. “Different thread. [Name], what would [role] look at next?”
  • Check privately at the next transition: “Everything alright to carry on? You can skip anything.”
  • Pause the game if it is more than a card. A break costs less than a player who leaves upset.

When the table turns on a person

If players argue about someone’s accusation, expertise or character:

  1. Name it: “We are judging the process, not the person.”
  2. Return to the control: “Which control would have stopped it?”
  3. Offer a reset: “Let’s resolve this call and move on. We’ll look at it in the debrief.”

If a player persistently pushes a stereotype after you have named it, speak to them at the next break. If it continues, end the round and use the slack time. You may stop the session.

After the session

A player may raise something after the close. Thank them, take it seriously, and do not promise changes in the room. Note it for your own review.

Quick reference

  • Say the X-card line every session, early, before the brief.
  • Tap or “X”. No questions. Skip it. Move on.
  • Anyone may pass. The IM may tap too.
  • Origin, accent, language and face are never tells.
  • Do not claim workers are coerced.
  • Same plain voice for every hire.

What next