Plain English Explanation of Social Contracts

[M. J. Young]

At the risk of continuing a dead thread, let me clarify this for myself. Gordon, you're not asking us to describe what a social contract is, or whether there is a good description of a social contract somewhere. You're asking whether someone has put a social contract in writing that you could use as an example or possibly a starting point on which you can write your own. Thus if I had written up a sort of "house rules" that explained things like what was expected of the players who come to my game, how we were going to play, who was responsible to chip in for pizza, under what circumstances players were allowed to leave my living room and visit other rooms in my house (whether the bathroom or the kitchen or the room with the video games), you would be interested in a copy of that, so you could show it to your players and use it as the inspiration for one of your own.

Is that the point?

I think that's a noble effort; but I think that one of the reasons the social contract is what it is is that you really can't put it all on paper like that. I expect as part of my social contract that no one will spit on my floor; that no one will remove all their clothes during the game; that the players will not suddenly assault my children. Those are so fundamental to my expectations of the social contract that it would not occur to me to mention them--and there are so many items in that level of the social contract that you would be writing a book (or perhaps incorporating a book by reference: everyone will follow the rules of courtesy dictated by Emily Post). At the same time, if I were to present a document to players that said I expect they will respect my property and not steal things from me while they're visiting, most players would be offended--yet I have had gamers steal things from my house during games, a fundamental violation of the social contract which ended gaming in my house for quite some time and resulted in several people still banned from our property on suspicion more than a decade later.

A social contract is a massive thing. Obviously you don't want the entire thing on paper--just a few points that people have used to facilitate games.

Am I on the right track here?

--M. J. Young

[Ben Morgan]

I have posted on my site a small essay regarding what I am looking for in my gaming experiences. It's not a social contract (as it's only my side of things), but it can (and is intended to) be used as a jumping off point for discussion of the formation of a social contract, as it addresses mainly game-specific issues (frex, I didn't feel it necessary to state that I expected people not to spit on my floor). You can find it  here.

-- Ben

[mindwanders]

At the risk of continuing a dead thread, let me clarify this for myself. Gordon, you're not asking us to describe what a social contract is, or whether there is a good description of a social contract somewhere. You're asking whether someone has put a social contract in writing that you could use as an example or possibly a starting point on which you can write your own.

No what I was looking for is basically an article that describes the concept of the social contract,explains the fact that it's generally not noticed by players, gives some examples, and shows some of the things that happen when it goes wrong.

I was only looking for an existing article or forum post that already contained this. I don't want anyone writing it for me, because I'd rather write it myself and tailor it to my group rather than anyone else wasting thier time writing one that I then decided to butcher before I gave it to the players.

I really appreciate everyone trying to help, but you have all been a bit too helpfull for what I was looking for :-)

[Christopher Kubasik]

Hi mindwanderer,

At the risk of seeming like I'm not paying any attention to your requests (I think I am), does not this thread offer each of the elements you asked for?

It's not an article. I know its not what you expected. But each of the posts total a discussion on the concept of the social contract, explains the fact it's generally not noticed by players, gives examples, and shows some of the things that happen when it goes wrong.

We might have just been offering up what we thought was the best answer at hand when there was no direct link to an article to offer up.

I'd offer up that the recent discussions on One True Wayism touch on this matter as wel.

Christopher

[ScottM]

I found an old article by Harlequin with extensive plain language social contract elements.  It's here.  I hope it proves useful to you.

Scott