Social Contract and you!

[Charles Rampant]

Social Contracts

Hey all,

So I am going to be running 5e for a group of mostly unseen players this coming winter. The venue is a gaming society, so I have relatively low control over who plays, but I will have the opportunity to meet and engage with new players so that will be fun. However, my time reading forums and ragequitting gaming groups has taught me the benefits of a quick chat up front about social contract. Also someone mentioned it in the TPK thread.

What questions would you, personally, consider to be the important ones to cover? I mean, I don't want to get into a full Nobilis 2e style debate over tone and substance, but I do want to cover the issues that might arise, to prevent the totally tiresome issues like rogues stealing from the cleric, who then refuses to heal them, etc. I was thinking the usual suspects, so how the players will divide loot, whether rape and other nasty subjects will be a part of the game world (what Facebook now calls 'trigger topics'), pc morality, etc. But I thought that I'd ask those who had conducted this conversation in the past, and see what you thought of the process. Did you find it productive? Did it save time later on? Is there any questions that you'd recommend being included in such a discussion?

 

[Tony Vargas]

When running in a public venue, you have to tone a lot of things down. No, don't go throwing down hot-button issues or things that might trigger someone. You can't do the kind of intense campaign you might like to in a home game, so just focus on keeping it fun.

Not very specific advice, I'm afraid, a lot of it you have to wing, because you never know who you're gonna get.

 

[GMMichael]

Short answer:

- Make sure every character/background includes a reason for the PC to get along with the party,
- Give an indication of the game rating (like the movie rating system),
- assign player jobs (mapper, caller, treasurer, and...initiative wrangler?),
- as GM, make sure that every player gets a chance to talk to you, especially if one player is noisier than others.

If that doesn't keep PCs in line, you'll have to do the dreaded Pull-Player-Aside-And-Chat.

 

[Crothian]

When I run one shots at convention what I do is first introduce myself since most or all the people there won't know me. I ask the names of the players and then I ask who has had experience with the game before. Usually it is mix of experienced and people new to the system so I always ask the veterans to keep an eye on the new people to make sure they understand things. If there is confusion over something I let the players know I'm willing to stop or slow down the game to make sure that everyone understands.

Once that is done that I make sure everyone knows that we are all there to have fun and to help everyone else at the table have fun. I would make characters at the table or go around so that everyone can make sure they know and understand their own character. I would make sure allt he characters will work together and stress team work. Lastly make sure that everyone hopefully feels comfortable to talk to me about any thing and if there are problems to either write a note or bring it to my attention.

 

[Dungeoneer]

This is not a bad idea but I would keep your 'social contract' very short so you don't run off your players. This is doubly important since you are likely just meeting them for the first time! A long list of dos and don'ts is likely to cause more problems than it solves.

I would mention any absolute deal-breakers ("You can't attack your other party members. Sorry. This just isn't that kind of game.") and set an expectation of what style of game you intend to run. Is it high-fantasy roleplaying, a good old-fashioned dungeon crawl or something else?

Even if you had a twenty page 'rules' document that new players had to read and agree to, things would inevitably come up that you never would have thought of. Ultimately you just have to roll with the punches. In some way, that's what being a DM is all about!

 

[Shiroiken]

I'm not generally big on "Social Contracts," but that's because I demand a level of maturity from my players. I only game with reasonable adults who might disagree, but aren't <insert favorite expletive>. When I run public games, I let everyone know my style up front, and let them decide if it's worth playing (or coming back). I've had great success with this, and my Encounters table (when I ran one), was always packed.

I think it would be a good idea to lay out some ground rules at the outset (things that YOU need to have for the game to be fun for you). Make sure that everyone is aware of and agrees to these ground rules before they play. Otherwise, you'll probably be miserable or eventually quit.

If this is going to be a steady game, with little player turnover, have a session 0 where everyone discusses what they want out of the game. Find out what levels of inter-party conflict that everyone is comfortable with, and try and see how mature each player is. Generally better to play closer to mild than not, but make sure that the game might push some comfort zones (for example, if most players are comfortable with PvP, and one person isn't, you try to avoid it, but you don't stop it if it happens). Offer suggestions on treasure division, but don't force it.

If it's a rotating cast, keep it simple. Forbid inter-party conflict. No controversial topics. Treasure division is always tricky, but I suggest dividing up the treasure by shares (shares = PCs x2 - magic items), with a PC gaining 2 shares if they don't get a magic item.

 

[Charles Rampant]

Thanks for the replies guys, some good thoughts there.

 

[Li Shenron]

Important things to agree before starting a game:

1) Player Characters' lethality: do you want your PC to be normally mortal, or do you want to choose when it's appropriate or not to die?

2) Level of humour: do you want the story and situations to feel like Game of Thrones (serious, no laughs), Lord of the Rings (serious with light-hearted moments), cheap 80s fantasy movies (light-hearted with serious moments), or Monty Python (nuts)?

3) Sensitive issues: ask the players their level of tolerance for sexism, religion, violent/gory descriptions, and other similar topics.

These are in my opinion potential deal-breakers for a lot of gamers. Don't leave these unresolved before starting the game.

And my personal suggestions how to handle these:

1) Each PC on its own... if Joe wants the thrill of death and Mary hates the idea of losing her character, let Joe's PC die normally and allow Mary to veto her PC's death anytime. All players must respect everybody else's own choice.

2) Find a compromise, probably a middle way is not going to offend anyone. Ask the most comical players to refrain from extreme wackiness. When in doubt, as a DM be serious, facetious players are capable of turning anything serious into a laugh, but if you start by being facetious yourself (e.g. using Flumphs), there is no easy going back to serious.

3) Any player's sensitivity takes precedence. If someone has issues with topic X, ban topic X for everybody.

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As a final remark, I would also personally rule that inter-party hostility is BANNED by default: no attacking another PC no stealing from another PC, no shoving another PC into a harming situation.

This never works. Not even among very experienced players, unless they are looking for playing a short campaign.