Hello Knights,

This is my first blog post, so I figured I'd cover something along the lines of ethics, but of course not really. Ethics being in short the guiding compass of ones morals, however, in this case I figured I'd cover unofficial social contract between a dungeon master and his players. Now, what I mean by this is the symbiosis between these two roles that allow these sort of games to function, the two ends of the staff that each hold up. Without both ends holding up, the staff falls.

To delve deeper into this, lets say I call my friend John ask him and a couple others if they're up for a game of D&D this Saturday. The moment they say yes is when this metaphorical contract is forged. A contract that can be summed up as 1.) The Dungeon Master promises to build the game, flesh it out, and make it as good as he possibly can. 2.) The player(s) agree to take the game as serious as the game allows and to give in as much as the Dungeon Master puts in himself. The reasoning behind this contract can be applied to anything social really, hence the name, it's no different then lets say, same example as before except it's a party.  There is still going to be a gathering for a number of hours on a Saturday, with the host making all the necessary preparations, and on the other end, the guests being respectful and attempting to have a great time. Both examples rely on both parties giving it their all.  Really in such a niche hobby that is table-top gaming this is important because a Dungeon Master can create a kick-ass adventure, have the maps, monsters, and antagonist to back it, but this falls flat if the players just decide to rob the local shoppe, or start killing any NPCs without a regard for the world. This works two ways of course, if the Dungeon Master barely worked on his adventure, and didn't prepare the entire week before the game that Saturday. Well, simply put your players (more often then not, your friends) are gonna get bored and try to make the game fun on their own terms or even just leave. In short, both sides of the coin cleared their schedule in order to enjoy a game that, at least in my experience, they were looking forward to playing. 

In conclusion, I'd take the idea of this contract for your consideration if you decide to run or join a game, or even just planning a social outing in general. Both sides need to have fun and have their heart in whatever they're doing, because the other end of the staff can get heavy when being dragged along.

That's all for tonight, thank you for reading, and have a great day Knights!

I took heavy inspiration from one of my idols in the table top community, and he posts his own video about the social contract and elaborates more then I did, the link is below.