The social-contract tag has no wiki summary.
29
votes
8answers
801 views
What are the essential features of a successful evil campaign?
Until this point, I have demanded that my players not build characters with evil alignments, as I am familiar with how to design campaigns and adventures around "good" or "redemption" themes. ...
26
votes
6answers
656 views
How can I check whether an extremely adult/mature plot idea would be accepted by players without revealing any details of the idea itself?
I am running a post-apocalyptic zombie game with a dark and mature story, exploring a number of adult themes. I have complete buy-in from the players; some of them have stated it is their favourite ...
7
votes
5answers
309 views
Resolving confusion & conflict re: group's relationship with system rules
RPG groups have a unique relationship to rules: we have total control over them. Sure, we choose a ruleset and study it, but it's up to us how much of the rules we ignore or modify, and we can add ...
11
votes
6answers
505 views
How do I handle a player who plays his character far differently than the character was originally presented?
I'm not asking how to make every character be played as I would play them. I'm asking how to handle a situation in which the character that the player presents to me as a GM (with complete back-story, ...
23
votes
9answers
1k views
Is there a limit to Rule 0?
Rule Zero: All other rules can be changed by the GM.
I appreciate that there is a massive amount of work that goes into be a GM and the last thing that any GM wants or deserves is to have his ...
13
votes
5answers
350 views
Mind Control: What's a Dominate Person between allies?
In a recent game of 10th level characters, we had a small issue in the group. To set the scene, my character was a serpentfolk witch, specializing in enchantment and specifically mind-magic. We had a ...
18
votes
3answers
288 views
What is a social contract?
The concept of "social contract" comes up in discussions of group dynamics and RPG theory. We even have a tag for social-contract. But there is no good, easily-found definition online anywhere. Our ...
31
votes
4answers
344 views
What policies should be made at the start of a campaign, to define the desired game experience and avoid bad feelings later?
My group and I work on the assumption that a game system's default assumptions are its manifesto, and that by choosing a system we are choosing to let its assumptions stand except where we institute ...
5
votes
1answer
231 views
How do I handle a PC - NPC?
In my online game, it's often hard for me to handle NPCs with the loads of characters we have so sometimes I ask or a player volunteers to play some of them. The issue is though, that one player ...
36
votes
14answers
871 views
When and how should I get the players to cut back on their out of character chatter?
I like that my players have all become such good friends. But they're all louder than me. We end up just chatting and hanging out more than gaming because I can't get them to stop having out of ...
27
votes
15answers
620 views
Where's my share of the loot?
How do you handle loot disputes as a DM? Say we are doing a random loot drop from a felled enemy, and there happens to be one thing that two players really want. Do you make an initiative roll to see ...
39
votes
7answers
760 views
As an unreliable player, how can I lessen the burden on my group?
I'm often unreliable, in the sense that something always seems to turn up at the last minute that draws me away from our current regular game. (It's happened before as well.)
Given that the reasons ...
27
votes
7answers
5k views
Is my DM a killjoy, or am I just a whining player?
I've been playing D&D 4E with a group of colleagues from work for about a year or so now. Whilst some of us were seasoned role players, and others had never played before at all - none of us had ...
6
votes
4answers
426 views
Bringing a pre-made character to the table or not; pros and cons?
Sometimes a player will have a pre-made character and bring it along to the first gaming session. Other times they will make the character at the table. Sometimes you get a mixed bag. As both a player ...
13
votes
4answers
220 views
How can I encourage a style of play where enhancing others' fun is the most important goal?
Let's assume that we can break play styles into two categories: "selfish play," where you want to have fun, and "less-selfish play," where you want to have fun but you want everyone else at the table ...
14
votes
8answers
359 views
Can rules changes fix interpersonal problems at the table?
Can rules tweaks help deal with some of the common interpersonal problems at the gaming table?
For example:
Someone is not really interested in the game, and reads and ignores play until they ...
12
votes
8answers
288 views
How do you plan a character's actions when the player is absent?
How do you handle being absent a session when you have specific actions in mind for your character?
Leave notes for the person playing your character, even a script?
Describe the character's ...
18
votes
4answers
971 views
What about character death should be included in a social contract?
For a D&D (4e, primarily) game what about player-character death should be included in a group's social contract? What are some options for best reaching consensus about the possibility of death ...
15
votes
5answers
387 views
Specific Items In A Group Social Contract?
Some gaming groups actually do a formal social contract, wherein they explicitly set some of the expectations and rules for the gaming group. What items should a group considering doing a social ...
