Greetings Survivors!!!
Welcome to another addition of Pro-Tip Thursday!
Today, I am here to do something a little different than the normal shotgun approach at getting useful information into your hands. For the last two years of me doing pro-tip Thursday we have covered a lot of topics. Some fun, some serious and hopefully they have been helpful overall.
Today, I want to renew our Social Contract for the new season. To help you understand what I mean when I say this, let me introduce my friend Seth Skorkowsky and his Youtube channel. He has a brilliant video on the RPG Social Contract, I apologize for it being 20 minutes long. But it's a very helpful conversation to have.
The RPG Social Contract (Revisited) - RPG Philosophy
Ok yes that was a long video. And yes He is talking about Tabletop Gaming. But, a lot of what he says resonates with us as well. Now, I can say that I disagree with the statement that the DM is the most important person at the table. But the core issues remain the same for us.
Every season we make this social contract with each other. On one side of the contract we have The guides, writers, employees and director/owners who prepare everything so we can put together a great world to build stories from. On the other we have you as the player who buys a ticket and comes to the game to embrace the opportunity to tell stories together.
The guides, writers, employees and director/owners come together to bring a great game together for our players to enjoy. We have to come with an attitude that we are going to have fun helping everyone have an opportunity to work together to tell a great story and enjoy the game. That is what we are here for. We have been working during the off season to plan out the upcoming year. We believe that we have done our part of the contract. We are ready to bring a great game to you, the player.
As a person who started his career in DR as a player, I also understand how hard it is to come to the game with a positive attitude as well. It's easy to get sidetracked with personal issues, dating issues, medical issues, family issues, work issues, friend issues… We can be suffering from bleed that is affecting our real life from the game or have our real life issues bleed into what our characters are doing making it harder to tell good stories together. It's really hard sometimes to leave all that at the gate and come into a game with the right attitude. But the idea is to remember this is supposed to be fun. So as a player you want to remember your side of the social contract.
1. Come with the attitude I am going to have fun.
2. I am not going to hog the limelight. Let other players play.
3. Learn the rules that affect my character
4. Be receptive and Include others.
5.Remember that our guides are volunteers who are playing the game as well.
This is where we diverge from Seth’s view of the Social Contract of Gaming. We are a very large Larp that requires many people to make sure the game runs well and good stories are being told. Our guides are volunteers that have stepped up and taken on the extra responsibilities required to make the game run smoothly. It is important to remember that when they are not in their preferred guide role they are players. Be respectful of their time when they are in character. Now our guides are awesome people and will try their best to answer questions and help you. But be aware of what is happening for them. To engage them as a guide. Remember to signal towards their guide pin. That gives them time to disengage from what they are doing to help you. But again be respectful of their time. IF you see them trying to eat or going to bed, give them a break. You can always go to the post office to ask logistic questions or head down to the ops desk for a rules or story conversation.
Now there is a part of this contract that both sides have to agree to. That is the most important thing. Communication
Communication flows both ways, the game runners have to talk to the players and the players have to talk to the game runners. We need to know what's good and what's bad. You have often heard me say “If I don't know, I can't fix it” This is the key to making things better. We have a feedback link on our webpage that you can click on and fill out. It has a method of being completely anonymous. What is not communication is people complaining to a guide or each other about an issue. The guides have all been instructed to tell you. “You should fill out a feedback form” Because it's not fair to the guides to carry that burden to fix a problem. IF it's an immediate problem, come find me. That is my job. It never stops. I am always the final person who this gets to. It's my job to manage our community base. I am always available to help solve a problem the best I can. I promise I do not bite, and I will be as fair as possible. I will always err on the side of safety and protecting our players.
The hardest thing that I do is mediate between people who are in a disagreement with each other. We have a very specific process of escalation, and how we deal with these issues. However, before things get to my level. You have to have an ADULT conversation with Each other! That is the key. We are all agreeing we are going to play this game together and if there is an issue the first step is we will have an adult conversation between the people involved. Before it ever gets to my attention. We are all adults, and we should be able to solve most issues between ourselves by talking to each other.
However, there is one job I take most seriously. Protecting our players and our community. If there is a player exhibiting behaviors that threaten any of our players, I need to know immediately. That is my promise to everyone that this is going to be a safe place to be. You don't need to engage that person beforehand. That is an immediate “Talk to Curtis” or if you are scared to tell me personally, please use the anonymous feedback. But please let me reach back out to you for questions.
This has been a very long Pro-Tip and it's a pretty serious one. I promise fun and light hearted stuff for the rest of the year. But Tickets go on sale Tomorrow at 6pm for our opening game on March 15th-17th. So it's time we come together and renew our social contract as a community. I have already renewed it by working with our guides, writers and employees to prepare an awesome season for you. Now we wait for you to agree and join us at the game. Then we will tell great stories together.
One of the continuing mentalities that DR Arkansas has embraced during the entire life of the chapter is:
” We are because You are” This has not changed.
Till Next time my friends…
See you in the waste!