Rules' Effects on Play #1 - Writing Down the Social Contract

[quozl]

Going forth from the threads Why not freeform? and Why have no rules?, I thought we might examine specific rules beginning with rules that extend the social contract.

What rules exist only to enforce or extend the social contract and what specific effect do they have on play?

[lumpley]

What do you mean by "extend the social contract"?

-Vincent

[Valamir]

Good question.

I think pretty much any rule that determines turn order, and who gets to say what when is a Social Contract related rule.

In a normal social situation its usually charisma, applied rules of ettiquette,  and other inter relation factors that determines which member of the group speaks, and which listens, whose ideas get acted on, etc.

So any rule that attempts to add structure to this normally ad hoc process (like say 90% of the rules of Universalis), I would say are primarily Social Contract level rules.

Is that what you meant?

[Christopher Weeks]

at rules exist only to enforce or extend the social contract and what specific effect do they have on play?

I played in a homebrew game eightish years ago in which there were several options at character creation for extra goodies in exchange for social-contract level obligations.  If I recall correctly, I accepted the burden of writing up the events of each week in a narrative journal from the perspective of my character in exchange for access to magic.  There were a bunch of options along those lines, most of which were passed over by most of the players.

Is that the kind if thing you're looking for?

Chris

[quozl]

What do you mean by "extend the social contract"?

-Vincent

I mean "rules of behavior" when interacting with other players.  Ralph and Chris have both provided good examples.

[quozl]

Also, please remember to discuss how the rule effects play.

Ralph, how does specifying turn order in the rules effect play?

Chris, how did accepting the burden of writing down events in exchange for magic power effect play?

[Christopher Weeks]

Chris, how did accepting the burden of writing down events in exchange for magic power effect play?

In this case, I think it was the only avenue to a magic-using character, so it really had tremendous impact on how the game would be played.  On the other hand, most of the players chose not to take on any of the possible burdens, so that says something too.  A side effect is that because I have a poor memory, I was sometimes busy scratching out notes that would feed my writeup when I should have been playing.  This was rarely a problem, but worth mentioning.  I originally thought that the logs were going to be shared among the players, but only the GM ever actually looked at it, so it might have had more potential effect with a group that was more inter-player-involved.

Chris

[Lance D. Allen]

Are we referring to explicit game rules, or devices used by the gaming group as part of social contract?

[quozl]

Are we referring to explicit game rules, or devices used by the gaming group as part of social contract?

explicit game rules written down in the rulebook

[Jason Lee]

Good question.

I think pretty much any rule that determines turn order, and who gets to say what when is a Social Contract related rule.

In a normal social situation its usually charisma, applied rules of ettiquette,  and other inter relation factors that determines which member of the group speaks, and which listens, whose ideas get acted on, etc.

So any rule that attempts to add structure to this normally ad hoc process (like say 90% of the rules of Universalis), I would say are primarily Social Contract level rules.

Is that what you meant?

Hmmm... in so much as all interaction in an RPG is under the social contract layer.  I consider such rules to be Proposal phase system (Conception -> Proposal -> Validation -> Integration).

*****

I guess I'm a little confused about this topic, and exactly which layer we are dealing with here.  Are we talking about recommendations for social contract in a game text (how to schedule around work/social life, how to be nice to other people, etc), are we talking about Techniques with social rewards, are we conflating Techniques and Social Contract, or are we talking about something else?

[timfire]

I think pretty much any rule that determines ... who gets to say what when is a Social Contract related rule.

Would the idea of a GM (and thus any rules regarding the power/authority of the GM) qualify as social contract level rule?

If so I think the effect on play is obvious.