My Table Rules (feel free to critique!)

[Flynn]

Man...I can't imagine having a "code of conduct" codified so as to allow me to play a game with my friends.

Different strokes and all, but if I had to spell this kind of thing out to a group of people, they aren't folks I'd particularly want to hang around with.

"Respect Each Other" needs three separate iterations to ensure people understand?

I tend to start new games with mostly players that are new to me, and so they need the rules spelled out. At the beginning of the campaign, I have no idea what the new gamers are like, or what their past gaming experiences have been. Even among people I know, though, some of those things have to be spelled out. I wrote mine based on my own past gaming experiences and the inappropriate actions of people who I thought of as my friends, and I realized I needed to communicate my expectations up front, to stop that kind of thing from happening.

Some of us don't keep the same group year in and year out, sadly, and I like setting expectations early on.

YMMV,
Flynn

 

[ruleslawyer]

It doesn't.

Depends on what kind of gaming you're doing.

I was half considering a ban on mixology (rather than drinking per se) at our games, just because I spend too much time interrupting my DM narration and getting up to make cocktails for the players. OTOH, many of our sessions are half game, half bartending demo, so it's a win-win!

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

I don't have any "table rules" since I play with friends and don't generally need to tell them how to behave in my house. If I were to start gaming with new people I might write up some - just to be on the safe side.

I DO have a "manifesto" that I compiled. I spend a LOT more time thinking about and discussing D&D than all my friends combined, but there were a few incidents in one campaign that demonstrated to me that my long-time friends and players were completely misunderstanding certain things I'd explained to them, as well as disagreeing with other things that I thought had been settled long ago. I wanted to be sure that for all future campaigns the players would at least have no EXCUSE not to know how I wanted to run things and why even before we got into actual HOUSE rules. Any disagreements they had with any of it could then be brought out immediately and dealt with rather than popping up in mid game and causing arguments and difficulties.

http://home.earthlink.net/~duanevp/dnd/manifesto.htm

 

[Teflon Billy]

I tend to start new games with mostly players that are new to me, and so they need the rules spelled out. At the beginning of the campaign, I have no idea what the new gamers are like, or what their past gaming experiences have been. Even among people I know, though, some of those things have to be spelled out. I wrote mine based on my own past gaming experiences and the inappropriate actions of people who I thought of as my friends, and I realized I needed to communicate my expectations up front, to stop that kind of thing from happening.

Some of us don't keep the same group year in and year out, sadly, and I like setting expectations early on.

In that case it's a great policy

 

[Nyaricus]

Aha, some great responses in this thread! I'll go over each point now...

Personally, I would word the whole document a bit more business like in a friendly way. Sort of matter of fact like.

Anyhoo, just posting my first impression of the document.

Yeah, that kinda stems from the fact that some passages were lifted word for word from the other document which I compiled. The more fun passages are most definitely in my wording, as I compared the two docs (mine which I had started without referring to the ENW one and the ENW one when I got feedback from my buddy. I'll go over it with a bit of a fine-toothed comb and shape it up to my standards

As such, I'd put in something about who gets the call for a new player entering the group (DM's call / all players agree / majority of players agree / etc), and for removing a troublesome player.

That's actually a good point, and one which I thought I'd covered. I'll have to make an addendum for that.

I might also add something about being polite to the host - two things that I've had come up with games that could be a problem were leaving food-related garbage after the game (don't do it), and where smoking is allowed (outside only).

Indeed, I'll have to talk about recycling! . Living in Canada, however, means that smoking is generally done outside, because after the many anti-smoking campaigns in recent years it's just no longer polite to smoke indoors

EDIT: In retrospect, the title of the document containing my house rules may be taken as an insult. It's not intended as such and is so named because there are many iterations of these rules with similar file names on my hard drive. I needed one to stand out. Again, not an insult to ny or anybody.

No problem about the name of it - mine was called REDUX for a reason. I'll take a peek at it ASAP

Here are mine:

Hope They Help,
Flynn

You know, I really like the format of your document and how it explains respect to be the main aspect of it. I might take that and try to reconcile it with my set of Table Rules and try to get something EXCELLENT going on

They could also be under-age.

Cheers, -- N

Yes, half of my players are under-age and the other half above the legal age, so those would be the "obvious" reasons. I'll edit that to be a bit more explicit, however.

I tend to start new games with mostly players that are new to me, and so they need the rules spelled out. At the beginning of the campaign, I have no idea what the new gamers are like, or what their past gaming experiences have been. Even among people I know, though, some of those things have to be spelled out. I wrote mine based on my own past gaming experiences and the inappropriate actions of people who I thought of as my friends, and I realized I needed to communicate my expectations up front, to stop that kind of thing from happening.

Some of us don't keep the same group year in and year out, sadly, and I like setting expectations early on.

YMMV,
Flynn

And you nailed this issue on the head; I'm with a completely new set of gamers then I've ever played with before, and this is a social contract of sorts, where certain things need to be spelled out. And the same with you, I've had friends be completely the antithesis of what a "good gamer" is to me, and this helps spell out my expectations as a DM.

Also, one of my goals is to really amp up the role playing aspect of my games, and really get the players to interact with the various NPCs and creatures I present to them. I really want them to feel they're a part of something greater, and inspire them in that manner, and that's why i stole the whole section on role playing from one of those EN World posts - it was an excellent passage which conveyed my expectations in words likely better then which I could have chosen myself.

---

Thanks everyone for your great feedback, and I look forward to any more tidbits of advice or critiques of my Table Rules. I'll also try to post up a new version sometime soon

cheers,
--N