Re: (TFT) Developed logical settings, deadly risks, and motivation

[ErolB1@aol.com]

In a message dated 9/22/2007 2:58:58 AM Central Daylight Time, 
selfinflicted_wounds@boardermail.com writes:


> > but by game contract I shouldn't even have been trying.
> > #
> 
> WHAT contract is THAT?!?

"Game contract" is one of the useful bits of jargon on 
rec.games.frp.advocacy. The idea is that to have a good game, you need an agreement between the 
players & the GM about what "kind" of game it will be. Whether the GM is expected 
to let the dice fall where they may and is cheating if he fudges, vs the GM is 
expected to fudge for a better story & game and is an asshole if he doesn't. 
Whether the game will feature big "save the world" quests or consist entirely 
of low-key "personal" problems & adventures. Whether the GM is expected to be 
generous with the silver & gold and the players expected to be not-greedy and 
to take an easy-come easy-go attitude, vs the GM being stingy with wealth & 
the players scrambling for and clinging to every copper like a miser. And so on. 


Often - usually - the "game contract" is unwritten, unspoken, and even 
unconscious. The point is that you are more likely to get a good game if you are 
*aware* of having an unwritten game contract in place. 

For example, if the players create characters who are members of a goblin 
gypsy family, and expect to have fun little adventures high on trickery and low 
on combat, with lots of interaction with various villagers and townsfolk, but 
the GM decides to run them through a save-the-world quest, or puts them in a 
Great War with one side in the war attempting to exterminate all goblins. Or if 
the GM wants to run the fun little adventures but the players decide that they 
want to be bloody-handed bandits rather than relatively peaceful 
tricksters... Then having the concepts of "game contract" and "breaking the game contract" 
will at least let the players & GM understand why the game ended in angry 
arguments and bad feelings all around. With luck the players & GM may even 
realize that they have a problem and solve it ahead of time. 



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