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<blockquote data-quote="robconley" data-source="post: 8245695" data-attributes="member: 5636">My problem with social contract mechanics is that they are cast as mechanics. At least in western civilization it is heavily drilled into folks from a young age that you play a game by its rules or you are cheating. Transferring what should be part of Human Relationship 101 into game mechanics now has different dynamic as a set of game rules. Game mechanics are too rigid of a form to be successful as a guide for human relationship.Hence my advice to folks that have problem with their gaming group is take a look at the some of the excellent sources on small group dynamics that are out there. Particularly those that focus on motivating and coordinating amateur sports organization (if the campaign has a competitive aspect) and volunteer groups.For example a player making other uncomfortable (or worse offended OOG) by their roleplaying is no different than a volunteer making their group uncomfortable or offended by how they conduct themselves. There a bunch of nuances that has to be considered and dealt with it if they come up. I been involved long enough and with different type of groups (both gaming and non-gaming) to see the parallels. Enough that whatever Wizards, myself or other gaming authors publish on the topic is going to be inadequate compared to going to a good source by an author who knows the topic of how to deal with small group dynamics.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="robconley, post: 8245695, member: 5636"] My problem with social contract mechanics is that they are cast as mechanics. At least in western civilization it is heavily drilled into folks from a young age that you play a game by its rules or you are cheating. Transferring what should be part of Human Relationship 101 into game mechanics now has different dynamic as a set of game rules. Game mechanics are too rigid of a form to be successful as a guide for human relationship. Hence my advice to folks that have problem with their gaming group is take a look at the some of the excellent sources on small group dynamics that are out there. Particularly those that focus on motivating and coordinating amateur sports organization (if the campaign has a competitive aspect) and volunteer groups. For example a player making other uncomfortable (or worse offended OOG) by their roleplaying is no different than a volunteer making their group uncomfortable or offended by how they conduct themselves. There a bunch of nuances that has to be considered and dealt with it if they come up. I been involved long enough and with different type of groups (both gaming and non-gaming) to see the parallels. Enough that whatever Wizards, myself or other gaming authors publish on the topic is going to be inadequate compared to going to a good source by an author who knows the topic of how to deal with small group dynamics. [/QUOTE]

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