Lines and Veils is a way for a table to agree, before play, what stays out of the game and what stays in the background. A Line never comes up in our game. A Veil can happen in the background, never in an active scene. Everything else is Ok. Do it at session zero, before the first game, and come back to it as the campaign goes. Anyone can change their own Lines and Veils at any time.
Where it comes from
Ron Edwards designed Lines and Veils (Sex & Sorcery, 2003). His 2023 Adept Play post says Lines and Veils weren't proposed as safety tools, a term others defined later. It also says they never called for a formal contract before play. For your table, a short talk and a shared list is enough.
Lines, Veils and Ok
Each topic is a Line, a Veil or Ok. Ok means the topic is fine to play. A Veil still happens in the story, but only in the background.
Mike Shea of Sly Flourish gives examples. A table might make sexual violence or harm to children a Line, he writes, and keep torture or slavery in the background as Veils.
Roll20's session zero guide describes a similar split. A Line never appears in the game. A Veil may be part of the story, but the game does not go into detail.
Say your table marks torture a Veil. A villain can have tortured someone last week, and a character can find the captive afterwards. The game never plays out the torture itself.
Making your list
- List the themes. Write down what your game might include before the first session. Shea did this for a published adventure before he ran it, and wrote a long list.
- Let everyone mark it. Ask each person to mark every theme Ok, Veil or Line on their own, then add your own as GM. Roll20 says GMs have limits too.
- Ask the open question. Roll20 suggests "Is there anything you'd rather not have come up in the game?" and says it covers most of what you need.
- Write it down and send it. Shea suggests keeping the list in writing: after the talk, record what players added and send everyone the new version. Keep one copy where the whole table can read it, such as your group chat. When someone changes their own, update that copy and tell the table.
- Review it again. Add to the list as the campaign goes on and when someone new joins the table. Anyone can change their own at any time. The guide to making your table a safe place covers checking in during a campaign.
At the table
Treat a Line as final: it stays out for the whole game. When a Veil comes up, summarize it in a sentence and move on.
A list can't catch everything. Shea notes that some people only find a limit once it comes up in play. So he pairs the list with a phrase anyone can say to pause the game. The guide to making your table a safe place covers a way to stop a scene. It also covers what to do when a Line comes up in play.
Lines and Veils in Roll Call
Roll Call has a free Lines & Veils deck that collects the answers for you, with no account needed. You name a deck and share its link. Everyone who opens it marks the same 73 cards Ok, Veil or Line. They can add up to 5 cards of their own, each a Veil or a Line.
The deck's page lists the Lines, then the Veils. It never shows who marked what, or how many people marked a card. It does show how many people have answered. Anyone who has answered can change their answers at any time with Change your answers on the deck page, from the browser they used. Each person also gets a private link for doing it from another device or browser. A deck is deleted after a year with no visits.
If your group plays its campaign on Roll Call, Lines & Veils is built in. Each player fills in their own Lines and Veils once, on their Roll Call profile, and every campaign they join uses that set. The GM turns it on when creating the campaign or on the campaign's Lines & Veils page. That page then shows how many players have answered and, once two have, the table's combined Lines and Veils, never who chose what. When someone changes theirs, joins or leaves, the list updates. It's free on every plan. See My Lines & Veils.
Lines and Veils was designed by Ron Edwards (Sex & Sorcery, 2003). For the questionnaire, sharing and the private link, see Public Lines & Veils.