How to Use the Social Contract in RPGs
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ก.ย. 2024
- What is the social contract in D&D and RPGs? And how do you use the social contract? Is the social contract unspoken rules the group of players and dungeon master abide by, or is it something written down and codified? In this video, I discuss the social contract in D&D, what it is, and how to use it.
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Your openings are really fun to watch. Do you enjoy acting, and have you ever done stand-up comedy?
Doing 15 mins on stage is one of my bucket list items. It seems so terrifying.
Oh I totally love acting. I've done a tiny bit on stage in front of an audience and I really get into it. Lots of fun. It's actually a lot less intimidating and frightening to be acting and playing the role of someone else than it is to just be yourself. If I'm being myself then for some reason that's more intimidating than if I were to be acting and playing a role. I don't understand why but I've just felt that that's the way it goes for me at least.
Something you missed was discussing what rules, house rules, ban lists, and homebrew will be in effect in the campaign so that both the players and DM know what to expect. There is nothing worse than playing in someone's game where they suddenly renege on something or nerf your character that they approved for play. This gives the players clear definition of what is possible and brings some consistency to the game when it comes to deviations from homebrew and house rules as they are now in writing for all to see.
Gary the Intern how you dare ? You finally get back in the skits and you start already to touch dice ! And i thought we could trust Gary the Intern...
I would never trust an intern.:-)
Common Sense? That doesn't allow me to fireball my problems!!
"As the size of an explosion increases, the number of social situations it is incapable of solving approaches zero." - Vaarsuvius, Order of the Stick
Fireball really does solve all problems. It burns up anything and everything including the social contract. And with nothing codified there's nothing to be held against you.
Having problems with common sense? Fireball is your solution!!
You sure are worried about dice there Luke.... Did someone touch your dice Luke? Was it one of the cats? It's okay. We do worry about you.
I'm sorry I can't really talk about it. Trauma you know.
@@theDMLair we all are here for you if and when you are ready to talk about it
Maybe Will Wheaton touched his dice. That would do it for just about anyone.
I think I know why you made this video...
Dice theft is not a joke Gary, millions of families suffer every year!
Gary just doesn't have a heightened level of sensitivity like he should. Somebody should really take care of Gary... Permanently.
@@theDMLair Are you sure Gary isn't part of some Fireball cult? I'm talking to you, @OffbeatOutlaw !
Gary is a member of several Cults and I can't really keep them straight.
@@theDMLair As a Gary who is probably a member of a cult this makes me uncomfortable
Just another comment for the algorithm to let TH-cam know that Luke Hart doesn't suck.
Thank you!
You know Luke, before I started running D&D myself, I used to bingewatch big DnD channels on youtube, and that was ok to start learning and getting interested about the game. Now that I ran a few times myself, I realize that your advice is actually the most useful and down-to-earth on youtube. Your videos are condensed and to the point, not wasting any time going off on tangents, making them really useful as a resource. If I run into any problems during my game, I can be sure there is a video adressing it on your channel. Even the skits at the beginning always have the purpose of explicitely illustrating the different facets of the problems you are discussing.
Thank you so much!
Plus he has a great community that gets together twice a week, tuesday 5pm CST (q&a) and friday 5pm cst (community creations) on his twitch. So if you have a question that's not addressed in a video, or see a live creation (including being able to suggest things to include) its yet another way luke has made his mark in the the d&d world.
Right!
Thank you so much! I'm very happy to hear the videos are a great resource for you and the community.:-)
We will get off-topic now and then, but no politics at the gaming table. Also, while I may not take as hard a line on dice sharing, it's certainly inappropriate to use someone's dice (or any of their other things) without asking first.
Yeah, I fully agree with you. I run a campaign for my friends and even though I knew them already well when we started, it was a good thing to ask them beforehand about boundaries and expectations. That way I learned that two of them had a phobia against spiders and that even though they normally like tactics and combat-heavy video games, they said they like the social aspect of DnD the most.
So yeah, even if you are playing with friends you know for a long time, ask them about boundaries and expectations anyway. You might be surprised. ^^
I know everyone makes fun of touching other people's dice. I have been playing some version of D&D since the mid 80's. The sensitivity of dice touching springs from old school etiquette and superstition that someone else touching your dice will reduce your luck with rolls.
Make me glad I've played with the same people for years.
That makes the assumption that nothing in your social contract doesn't change, or that you didn't need to write one.
There will always be lines that aren't cross(Lines) or things that are mentioned but not gone into detail (Veils).
And those things do change, you as an irl person are going to change, and thus what can and can't be crossed are going to be changed.
The electronic devices drives me nuts. Half of the group I play with have their character sheets on an app and they won't print them because it's easier to keep up with. It's lead to the entire group playing on their phones when it's not their turn in combat.
My rules are pretty easy:
No Player interaction that robs one player of the controle over their own Character (that includes PvP, stealing or trapping) without constent of both players.
If something goes too far for you, say so and we stop and if the party overall agrees or I as the DM agree, the scene is skiped.
You play WITH the group, not against it. If you have no interest in playing with the rest, I suggest you go and play a single player RPG.
If you are one of those people who get offended when I assume your male Character is refered to with "he" or stuff like this, please leave my table and find a group of your own kind.
Worked well for me for almost 20 years now.
I missed fat cat, but gary still kept him! NICE!
How do we know it's not the druid disguised as Gary?
How do we know it’s not the Druid disguised as Fat Cat? 🐈⬛
@@andrewbarragan3520 how do we know it's not FatCat disguised as the druid, disguised as Gary?
@@andrewbarragan3520 That would actually be amazing in a future skit!
I believe D&D is a game meant to be played with your friends. Not just people you know and hang out, friends. When you run games with your friends you don't need a contract. When you play with random people, as is prevailent today via the internets, you absolutely need a talk, call it a session zero or social contract.
Your group of friends inherently have an unwritten social contract that you have developed over months or years. Because you already know what lines your friends would be uncomfortable crossing, you simply don't need to have awkward conversation/experience of working out an actual document with "strangers."
You know what "Lines" things you can't cross with you friends, like for each one, or do you have a general set of rules you made without going into deep, cuz I've seen both.
Neither of these need to be written, just talk about.
Also do you have "Veils" things that can be mentioned but not in detail.
Like these are things all D&D groups need to touch on, not just "strangers" and note that these things will change over time, like when people get married or have kids, having in detailed abuse of spouses or children become no.
Same is true if dies or is dying in your friend's life, you may not know what may trigger them, or hurt them at the table, your not evil if you do but those are things you talk about.
I think everyone in every dnd group need s to talk about the social contract, there's always things you look over and miss no matter how close you are.
Unfortunately, that's clearly not the case. Have you seen how many horror stories involve people who have been friends for years? Also, not everyone has the option of gaming with friends. A social contract is just as necessary with friends because being friends doesn't necessarily mean you can take for granted that you know everything about that person.
I've noticed people seem to keep loosening the meaning of the word "friend"... There have been plenty of people I could be plenty friendly with, but I'd never willingly invite them to a Game of D&D (or most RPG's for the matter)... Whether it's because I know too much about them or I simply don't know them well enough...
Unfortunately, within the experience of RPG's, it's too easy to turn what should be an expansive and engaging experience into a traumatic social deterioration. It sucks a little bit, but without a Social Contract of a more literal sort, we have to be careful who we regard highly enough to bring them into a Game with us. ;o)
I started DMing for a group a few months back with two friends and a bunch of people I never met before. We went over the social contract in session zero before making characters. One of my friends mentioned afterwards that it was weird that we needed to even mention how certain adult themes would not be allowed.
Then we had the first session, one player was drunk IRL and acting uncomfortably. I gave him a chance to apologize, which he didn't take, and then I removed him from the group.
Pretty much exactly this. Safety belts seem awkward and unnecessary until someone goes flying through the windshield.
Having put in the years... I've been at a wide enough variety of Gaming Tables and in enough very different groups that almost nothing surprises me much anymore... I've sat through gratuitously graphic descriptions of just about everything from sexual encounters to horribly disfiguring diseases to horrendous war crimes and torture scenes...
SO yeah, it doesn't always seem like it should be so important to include, yet, I ALWAYS make sure there's some kind of alternative answer as well, like an X-card for each Player... If something's getting to a descriptive degree of "uncool" (regardless of the reason or trigger) just raise and display your "X-card" and I call a halt, so we can hand-wave it and move on... give or take your need for a break to recover (as appropriate/necessary) of course.
I'm used to it. Been there, done that... shrugged it off. BUT I can understand others have more delicate sensitivities or sensibilities, so in case we've "missed something" in the Session-Zero or a Social Contract, there's a back-up plan to afford a "work around". ;o)
You didn’t need the contact to see this was unacceptable and do this anyway.
I once had a GM play out the sexual assaults of two separate PCs in a single session. The second was particularly bad because the player had done enough damage to knock out the offending NPC twice over, but he kept coming.
Oh, this was a Pokemon (PTU) game by the way. We may not have specifically mentioned rape in our Session Zero, but I guess we all thought it a given that sexual assault was off limits.
I learned my lesson that day either way. It's now assumed among our friend group and explicitly stated that those scenarios are not welcome in games I run for others.
Saw a game master do something similar in a Shadowrun game. The game master was running a character with the party and went up to one of the woman characters and said "you're going to have sex with me," the PC turned the GM's character down. The GM then had their character rolled for seduction, and the PC resisted. The GM then has their character use mind control magic to make the PC sleep with their character. All the players disputed this, saying forcing someone into sex when no consent was given is rape, plus the player said that she didn't want it to happen. The GM made the excuse that using magic to get consent still means consent is given, so that it isn't rape. We argued that the answer was no twice. GM said it doesn't matter and starts describing how tge sex is playing out. We all just packed up and left
Am I a bad person for laughing more at the constant jabs Luke makes regarding the ... very specific ... "rapey" scene he mentions and the way he scolds the DM as well as the players that were there at the time? Anyways, as always fantastic content Luke, you're awesome. And subtle. ;-)
I don't understand why rape and explicit sex scenes are not allowed, surely if everyone is okay with it then why not. I mean most people are okay with going around killing every (bad) thing they meet and some like to wipeout whole towns, and yet they can't rape someone.
Yeah, there are people who would brutally toture npcs for information... but rape? :D Some people cant differentiate reality and fiction unfortunatly
I really need to know the barbarian's apprenticeship now.
He fell from the tower and became a barbarian
@@spyclipink2129 I know the tower bit but I need to know the context
He was going to be a wizard until he had his accident.
@@theDMLair "Accident"
I currently run games for my daughter, her friends and some of the parents. So I'm cool with foul language, drinking, random violence, but I'm not going to go into sex and romance.
Show me on the doll where someone touched your dice.
Never before have I heard so much about this issue. Seriously. Pro tip - Ask permission. Done. Next issue.
Excuse me, I as an adult feel offended by the fact that I can be killed, but some kid not.
We had a rules lawyer in our game group, constantly arguing about rules, trying to cheat and manipulate the wording.He really dragged the game down, he got pissed at another friend in our group and stormed out and now the group is better off!
I have run a very dark campaign around The Fall of Arthedain, one meant to make the player characters feel like Red Army soldiers in the summer, autumn and winter 1941; Rape, torture and murder- including of children- were parts of it, but I talked with the players before about their limits, and it worked well, they HATED the bad guy.
Isn't it normal to bring your own dice? I'd feel so disconnected from my character if I was playing them with unknown dice.
Did someone touch your dice? It's okay, you're safe to tell us here.
Sounds like he suffers from dice envy.
I’m surprised you didn’t mention dice touching 😂
Before the "Time of 'Rona", I ran games for my FLGS for Adventurers League.
Dice touching was never really a thing, but grabbing someone's self-painted miniature to check it out without asking was.
I made a document for new players to read before playing. but had no idea that it was a "social contract". I wrote it in a positive way, even calling it "How to be a great player".
The rule I boiled it all down to was "Have as much fun as you can while playing the game without taking away the fun from others at the table."
The whole dice touching thing has always perplexed me. I remember one gaming group years ago where one of my players would let you use his car to make a beer run if he was blocking you in the driveway. But use his dice, HOLY HELL on a stick. He would lose it. Use his $30,000 car, okay. Use one of his 30 cent die, shit hit the fan. Never made sense to me.
wait... so where do you land on dice sharing? I was right there with you, as far as the scumminess of dice-touchers is concerned, but then you indicated that maybe you were joking?... no, no, I'll take it seriously: all dice-touchers deserve anything you throw at them.
Why is murdering children something that has no place in rpgs? In most games it will probably be out of place in the setting, but if I have a evil player, in a morbid setting like Ravenloft and they wanna butcher a child, I don’t see why that act should inherently not be allowed. If it makes other players uncomfortable that’s another thing, but it’s dnd, killing doesn’t have inherent moral value in games.
Why would the barbarian multiclass into wizard though? He already knows the most powerful spell: Axe.
So I will give my service as a non legal lawyer I will tell your players/DM where they are making you uncomfortable
All you have to do is pay £5 to the charity of your choice
You make fun of the touching of the dice, but you obviously never had younger siblings you tried to game with. Plus superstition is a thing.
One of the social contract things that ended up getting implemented in a table I played in long ago, in the before-times (pre-COVID) was not building dice stacks or rolling dice for no reason. We had a player with metal dice in a cushioned roller box who, when not fully immersed or even slightly bored, would start whipping d4s into it over and over again.
Did not think something so specific would need to be codified into "hey, no more of that" writing but man was it irritating and distracting.
"...explicit sex scenes..." My advice: if you feel like you need to wear a raincoat, find another table.
*I love the opening skit .*
*An yeah i hate the plague of dumb people and always offended people .*
Same!
Seth Skorkowsky?
I love his video on social contract.
I remember when I created my second char for the same campain. I knew the only player really touchy about sexual humoristic stuff left the group and my second char had quite the sexual amusing traits. I still asked the rest of the group (including gm ofc) if that's okay and that they can tell me at any time when I should tune that part down. After all, it is just an amusing sidepart of my char and can easily be moved to not discribed offtime activitys. They said they are cool with it. So far they celebrate the amusing bits these traits cause here and there.
I know other groups I have been in, who would not have been comfortable with that.
Communication is key.
I remember a vampires the masquerade group where I was really exited, because it is from the horror genre.
Though during round zero I noticed, that the entire rest of the players are highly against any detailed traumatic stuff, physical and mental.
It was wierd to me to cut that out of a rulebook that is from the horror genre, but you gotta find common ground with the rest of the group, or leave.
Yeah, there are groups where "Tentacle Tom" would work hilariously well (he fights with his fly unzipped)... AND there are groups where "that sort of thing" simply has no place and apparently nobody has a sense of humor about it...
Just experience speaking here, but so long as you can hand-wave largely or "gloss over" most of the details, most groups tend to be able to handle most subjects... It's getting too gratuitous with the graphic details and dragging the thing out that tends to "put people off"...
Of course, as you said it, "Communication is key"... AND should you stumble into "uncomfortable territory", it's best handled the way Luke recommends, "Own it and apologize"... and work toward a resolution that everyone can get along with. ;o)
Just noticed this, but at 0:12 the rogue is SO GOOD AT SNEAKING that his reflection doesn't show up. XD
This is a good video, but do you have any advice on how to deal with people who touch my dice without permission?
Do you want to play at 4:00pm? Tell Jim Bob the game starts at 2:00pm.
Don't touch my dice! I spent the last week charging up their luck.
How to use a social contract when someone violates it?
Roll it up, and bop them on the nose!
I feel lucky that I never had to physically write out a social contract. Still, my games have gotten better after I verbally discussed the expectations with the group in session zero, and we all agree to it.
If one talks back against the accepted social contract, don't let it go unwarned as a bad precedent can be used by said person.
Common sense: half the time not that common, the other half not that sensible!
I definitely agree that the stuff mentioned in 4:30 is generally avoided for most groups. But-
I do think, aside from the explicit scenes (unless your entire group is into that?????), that the other two have their place in specific situations.
For example, my group has agreed that those things can happen in the game I run, which is a life is cheap type of setting. However, their characters would never do such things (except maybe one player who has a tendency to kill at least one child per campaign somehow).
Instead, those acts serve to fuel hatred for villains, and for one player of mine who was actually a victim of rape, they REALLY enjoy killing rapist villains.
Of course, I still think most tables, especially public ones, should avoid that kinda stuff! But if everyone is on board with no malice intended, nearly anything can fit on a TTRPG table.
Fuel Acts for Villians- for some ppl, just the mention of that is a no.
And you may not know that,
It's okay but you may not know. And thus social contracts.
As I've mentioned in a couple times:
Lines - things that aren't crossed
Vs
Veil - things mentioned but not in detail.
For some having a Villian do something, that's a veil.
While a but for others that's a line.
@@Zarsla that's just the point, I would never add / allow it in my game unless I'm certain all my players are okay with it. And we also have a red card system so if something crosses a line, a player can call it, and we can retcon it out.
I have been lucky through my decade plus of DMing that none of my groups have really needed this, but I have deffinitely met people in the hobby who either need this as a defense against the inappropriate or need this as a guard rail to not start table confrontation. I agree with your opening after the skit on this one wholly. I think there can be types of games [such as like a 3.5 Exemplars of Evil theme game] where it is best to dive into these points more fully with your players, but I dread the day where I have to start doing this for every table. Not because of the work, a little extra time at session 0 is no big deal, but because I feel like some of what a new-model social contract is for really should still be common sense.
Rules at my table that stem from what I have seen can break up groups or cause problems: The DM is not in charge of managing social dynamics, if you have a problem with another player, discuss it with that player.
The DM will try to cater to individual wants, but everyone enjoys a variety of things in D&D. If yo I want to see more or less of something, talk to the DM, those changes like more combat or more social encounters are generally easy to change.
When creating a character, keep in mind that D&D is primarily a team game and that characters have to be functional in the party.
Players have freedom to choose what they do in the game as long as they do it together.
Players who are separated from the group should rejoin with the group by the end of the session.
If an action would cause a negative effect on another player’s character or the party as a whole, the affected individuals can choose for that action to automatically fail or not happen.
this topic today is also great in general Groups.
It's a shame that social contracts are needed, still, better to have one and not need it than not have noe and tolerate an arsehole until things explode.
Regarding rapey, murdery, torturery play the rule I say to my players is that anything they do to an npc is something npc's can do to their characters. The last things pcs want to hear if they've been captured by orcs is "Y'all got a purty mouth..." the players generally get the idea and don't play that way.
I think some people have made a strong point that there's a huge difference between playing with friends you know vs moving to many new tables
And here I was thinking I was the only one who knew someone that hated people touching their dice. 😂
Oh I don't care if people touch my dice. This whole thing in the video that was an ongoing joke I have with the bit in Tasha's were a talks about putting dice touching in the social contract. I really couldn't care less if people touched my Dice and for folks who get upset when people touch their dice I think I'll probably just never understand that.
@@theDMLair roger that. I picked up on the sarcasm in the video. I enjoyed it thoroughly. Made me think of my friend. 😂
Holy molé. Nearly a thousand views after dropping - at this hour???
Timezones exist.
SOCIAL CONTRACT? I'M FREAKING OUT, MAN!!!
You're freaking out?
@@theDMLair gonna have nightmares about people touchin my dice now! XD
I mean besides the nightmares you really should take preventative measures. Get some lock boxes for your dice. You might want to get some pepper spray just in case somebody tries to break in to your dice box. It's never a bad idea to take precautions and play it safe.
@@theDMLair I prefer a mouse trap. set it, stick it in the dice bag and then when they go to reach in BAM...mouse trap...
I haaaaaate my dice being messed with. But I dislike anyone messing with my things without my ok.
Not touching other's people's stuff without permission is a matter of basic respect and there's nothing weird about it.
You would think but it does happen.
At the time of me watching this, there's 390 views, 39 likes, and 0 dislikes... thought it was interesting...
Crazy enough I’m the 880 watching 88 likes and 0 dislikes...
Magic wants always be broken.
Well right now, there's 2660 views, 263 likes and 3 dislikes. Add likes & dislikes together, and the magic remains intact!
Druid leaves behind a beloved Fat Cat. He will be missed
Comment to appease the algorithm!
Good video, I'm running 2 groups through one adventure, I'm friends with anyone of my players, and we still discussed smaller things (eg. electronic devices, rules discussions) at session 0 as our "social contract". Never sent it out but talking about it is a good start.
☝️Oi! Off the dice!
I don't know if you emphasized the dice touching. I mean... Dude it is so serious you know 😉
I have an idea, during an adventure, have the barbarian obtain a headband of intellect, and start multiclassing as a wizard in future skits. :)
I've never had someone at a table freak out about touching dice. Is this a common problem? I mean as long as it's not Will Wheaton touching my dice, I'm fine as long as I get them back.
Ah, yes. The "Barbarian Wizzard Monk" aka "The Sith Lord" or "Anakin "Borderline" Shitetalker. Best Multiclass ever.
I'm a co-admin in a text game project, and I feel we need something like this even more. We have a "no real politics" rule (it's a serious reason for it), but other stuff is... Complicated. Some sexual scenes are OK in such a type of game, including nonconsensual or with questionable consensus *from a PC's perspective*; but only if it's OK for all players. We also often have no dedicated GM. We try to implement it as a "what you can do to my character" line in a character sheet, but in some cases, it's not enough.
How are people so mad about sharing dice tho. I am a top tear dice goblin and i love to just tell people whom didnt bring dice to 'PICK THEIR WEAPON WISELY' with a giant chest filled with dice opened up infront of them on the table
Play the game the DM presents? Really? So basically railroad to adventure? That is just lazy DMing and infringing on player agency...
Shouldn't that be more of a group discussion as to what this particular adventuring party wants to do? Perhaps they are not interested in some absurdly ridiculous plot to "save the world" or they do not care to intercede on some groups behalf. The DM needs to be more flexible and understand that the game isn't about the DM story, it is about the character's story in the world the DM runs.
If the players decide they do not want to go on a particular adventure, that is the players choice and the DM should never force that choice. Also, the DM should be aware that plot hooks are like fishing, just because you throw a lot out there, doesn't mean the players are going to bite, especially if you are a lazy DM who constantly use character backstories as a plot hook which can foster resentment. Create plot hooks and offer adventure options, but don't get fixated on what the players decide to actually do and what they pass up. It is best to discuss with the players what they are looking to do as adventurers and to keep in mind that not all adventurers are looking for some "epic" quest.
As a DM, this has never bothered me for I have always respected player agency in what the players decide to do. Their actions or lack thereof always has consequences, but I never force my players into doing something they don't want to, nor do I keep them trapped in the current plot. It also isn't a big deal to improv the game with such decisions, after all, this is what makes TTRPG with a DM worth the time and effort in that unlike a video game, the players can interact with other parts of the game world that there is no script/programming for. But if you, as a DM, only want your players to only go on certain specific quests and adventures, then your players might as well be playing a CRPG instead.
I know you meme on the dice thing and I think it's silly too but; if you're playing with strangers and someone showing up without dice and constantly reaching over the table to grab dice without asking is extremely obnoxious.
Edit: especially if you have some expensive gemstone dice you don't want chipped or damaged.
I may be wrong about this, but I would probably do things a little differently, although I've been fortunate not to have needed a social contract created.
I would write up the contract less like a rule book, and more like a framework for addressing issues at the table, with steps to resolve the issue.
1. A player or the DM brings up an issue, either at the table or privately.
2. The 2 players try to resolve the issue between themselves
3. If a resolution is not reached, one of 3 methods are used, depending on who is involved.
A. If a player has an issue with another player, then the DM is expected to give a ruling.
B. If a player has an issue with the DM, the ruling goes to a note and requires a 2/3 majority to pass.
C. If the DM has an issue with another player, their ruling must be supported by at least 1 other player at the table if there are 3 players or fewer, or 2 players if there are 4 or more players.
4. If either initial player finds the ruling unsatisfactory, the ruling can be brought up as it's own issue, directed at those who made the ruling, however this new ruling is final.
That said, you've also made a good point about setting expectations, so it would be fair to include this to some extent as well, or at least to discuss them at some point.
The idea here is that while it could require some trial and error before things start to flow, it should also help to prevent someone from lawyering their way into getting away with something they shouldn't. Plus, it can help to give a sense of whether someone is a good fit at the table or not, if that's an issue.
But anyhow, that's my take on the matter based on absolutely 0 experience, let me know what you think.
Can't tell if you are serious about your dice being touched or if you are joking about it.
Left out a good rule - don't look over the DM screen and don't pull out a monster manual to look up the monster you are currently fighting.
People afraid of kids (cough...babies) being killed don't play curse of straud.
For players ignoring hooks, not really had that problem. I put out a few, or they give me one. Either way we play a little bit on it until we hit the logical stopping point or the end of my prep / improv ability. I then say that I will have that adventure ready for them next time. I've never not had them go to what the adventure for the day was because they already told me last week that's what they wanted to do. At most they might take care of some minor side business first or on the way. I have nice players. Of course they know I'm a lot better at balancing pre-designed encounters than my on-the-fly ones, so maybe it's self preservation
I am definitely offended that you kept pronouncing it OFF-ence instead of of-FEN-ce. Unsubbed (oh god, I hadn't subbed yet. Gotta fix that)
1st session conversation should take care of this. You shouldnt game with people you dont want to game with. Who wants to put up with an emotiional cringefest every game? Or someone whos offended by everything. Bye bye!
Ok I suppose our handsome DM doesn't like other people touch his dice got it
Not really relevant, but all the dice on your shirt have numbers, except for the D6 which have bullets.
This really triggers me. :D
I guess you shared the D6 with someone else and you had to replace it, that's why you are so upset with dice sharing.
🐉 *Awesome topic .*
*In the the near future i will create my own social contract video .*
*I feel it is important for as many gaming TH-camrs should create a social contract video .*
*It would help spread the concept and reinforce it .*
Probably tied to cultural differences, but in none of the table I played and DM, the need of such written contract was never needed
heck, it was never brought out
should I consider myself lucky or not?
If you have to do the "social contract" in dnd to me your not playing dnd. That contract stuff is so pointless just play the darn game. Everyone is so sensitive nowadays.
Hands up who's signed the Social Contract.
If certain repeated issues are arising in your gaming group, perhaps a formal charter is required?
There's an awful lot of talk of dice touching, I was staring to think it might be some sort of euphemism.
No it's an ongoing joke based on Tasha's and what it says about social contracts.:-)
@@theDMLair Yeah, didnt read that part. Figured it was gonna be useless to me at best, complete bunk by default, harmful to the hobby at worst.
As far as player behaviour, also add, do not sexually harass other players. If you're at a table and ask someone out, respect when they say no. My presence at the table is not consent.
I've quit a few tables bc of this. Though I will add this doesnt generally happen with friend groups (aside from one guy who pined over me for years, but even I left that group bc it wasnt fair to either of us.)
If you are GMing kids who are playing kids, and you TPK, is that child murder? 😆
Characters that aren't present for the game(s) turns into a miniature for the session(s). The item becomes cursed and the players cannot discard it, ditch it, sell it, etc. The character also does not gain xp for the session(s).
I have My dice and share dice touch my share dice all you want but don't don't don't touch My dice
I have a bag of dice i make clear i will share, and that the mimic dice no one is allowed to touch, because they are my very first dice set.
You forgot to suggest one more thing contract creation. One should always make it clear, there is to be no Dice Sharing!
No wonder everyone I have met who plays has zero social skills with normal people. This is very very sad.
_I am thou, thou art I_
Wait wrong fictional universe, sorry.
I feel like we need something about passive agressive sarcasm about the serious business of dice sharing here.
You touched my dice?! STABBY TIME
Heck yeah stabby stabby time!
Hahahaha best catchphrase ever
HAHAHA, this is the century of special snowflakes. HAHAHA
"Every week on saturday on 4 PM"?!
What are we, not an adults?
I feel like you love sharing your dice
Would you like to borrow my dice? :-)
I'm offended that you're going to insist I sign a social contract.
I had no idea Luke was an 13/10 dice goblin.
I don't think the wizard has enough click clack rocks.
Special thanks to Adam Koebel who made this video possible?
So touching others dice is a good thing for Luke....😎
Back in the Bad Old Days of the early 80's before we ever heard of a Session Zero, we could sure have used a social contract. 1) Feuding couples will leave their problems AWAY from the game table, even if it's their house. If they can't do this, one or both need to leave the game until they cool down. 2) No sex scenes, especially in front of minor players. Picking up a tavern wench is fine so long as it is amusing/comical, and things fade to black the moment the bedroom door closes. 3) Absolutely no rape or s&m scenes EVER. 4) You are not a special snowflake and if the rest of the party is going on the adventure, you will either journey with, or you will leave the party and the gaming table. The DM is not obligated to give you your own special adventure.
Another aspect that you didn't mention was food. Who brings and/or cooks the food/drinks/whatever., and are you expected to eat dinner before you arrive? With one group I was in, the DM always cooked an amazing stew of some sort. The rest of us brought shacks and beer. In a group I'm gaming with online presently at least one or more players can't/don't bother eating until we're about to start the game, losing the rest of us a good half hour of game time while we wait on them. Also is alcohol (or other consumables) allowed? Is smoking allowed or does it need to happen outside during break?
Also break times and end times. How many hours do we play? Does anyone in the group have a curfew? (Especially important if a player is a minor, has a job that needs them to be up early next morning or has challenges over this with a sig other.) How often do we need to take breaks?
And those goddamn dice! Who cares if your rogue just leveled? Get your own d6 damnit! ;P
Snacks and beer even (typo).... Though probably someone SHOULD bring a Leomund's Tiny Hut if they can.