My last game was destroyed by social conflict among players I'm really looking to hammer down some rules to let players know they're expected to respect each other and their stories and something to avoid serious pvp.
Are there any established social rules to help keep the barbarians in check?
you have to play with them to see if they are.... worth your effort .... have a few one shots.... play with them in games... whatever you can ..... its a witches brew of human chemistry... written rules are good but.....
There are really no rules outside AL or house ruling no PvP. You can have them work in a better bond back story wise to keep them more cohesive. You can disallow certain alignments, have an NPC that is hiring them accompany them that is lawful good, have goals for the campaign be deed based (the god you are working for will not allow you to gain access to your reward if you have acted selfishly).
Definitely sit down with the group and see why they think it went wrong and see which route they would like to take to make it more fun for everyone.
To some extent, your players need to come to the table understanding that they're all in it to have a collaborative experience, and you as the DM need to lay down that expectation from day one and make it explicit.
In a game that I'm playing right now, I'm playing a particularly selfish rogue who likes to dash ahead, swipe treasure before people can see, and keep shiny things for himself (not money, just cool things). It's gotten the party into trouble once or twice, and we've had some in-game conversations about it where the party tries to reign my character in and get him to share more. He's slowly learning to trust the party and share, and this is both a function of my character learning to work in a team, but also a function of me wanting to help create a positive experience for everyone. Importantly, I've also spoken to the players outside of the game and told them that if it ever becomes a problem for them as players, not just irksome for their characters, then they should talk to me and I'd be more than happy to change the way I play the character because the communal experience of the game is way more important than honoring my selfish character's instincts simply because "that's what my character would do."
There are also ways that you as the DM can step up and take control of the situation. For example: We added a new PC to the campaign who had a lot of similar abilities to my character, and my character got very jealous. Spitefully, I decided to rummage through the new PC's coin purse on the first night he was with us, and decided to take 10gp from him. The DM stopped the game to check in and say to the player "I don't allow PvP hostility or stealing from one another unless there's consent. Are you cool with letting this happen?" The player was okay with it and he appreciated the RP moment, but if he had said no it would've been up to the DM to tell me to cut it out, maybe he would've decided that the PC woke up while I was taking his purse and we'd have to have a conversation about it in character. But it would also have been up to me to accept that what I was doing was uncool and would've caused problems with another player, and forgo my RP desires for the sake of the communal experience.
Social contract ..... wow TLDNR. Find good people, some times its hard Less folk is better than 5 and one bad person. see if your game is for them. They might be bored with your STYLE of DMing and opposite that, people can be *****.
Social contract ..... wow TLDNR. Find good people, some times its hard Less folk is better than 5 and one bad person. see if your game is for them. They might be bored with your STYLE of DMing and opposite that, people can be *****.
Well, yeah. It is a teensy bit long. I have never used that pdf myself, but some people just need to have the dead equine pummeled.
Not everyone is compatible and some are solely self interested... seen it enough times....sometimes the DM's are the pain other times a player, humans...... whatchagonna do!!!!
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My last game was destroyed by social conflict among players I'm really looking to hammer down some rules to let players know they're expected to respect each other and their stories and something to avoid serious pvp.
Are there any established social rules to help keep the barbarians in check?
Get good folk at the table, its hard to correct character flaws
Very true just trying to properly formulate what is expected of people before I start invites.
you have to play with them to see if they are.... worth your effort .... have a few one shots.... play with them in games... whatever you can ..... its a witches brew of human chemistry... written rules are good but.....
Hey, sorry your last game had such a rocky start. This might be what you are looking for:
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5512e30de4b018f9300e3a55/t/57802bb3bebafbf78186bc68/1468017592481/Downloadable+Social+Contract.pdf
Hawk
There are really no rules outside AL or house ruling no PvP. You can have them work in a better bond back story wise to keep them more cohesive. You can disallow certain alignments, have an NPC that is hiring them accompany them that is lawful good, have goals for the campaign be deed based (the god you are working for will not allow you to gain access to your reward if you have acted selfishly).
Definitely sit down with the group and see why they think it went wrong and see which route they would like to take to make it more fun for everyone.
To some extent, your players need to come to the table understanding that they're all in it to have a collaborative experience, and you as the DM need to lay down that expectation from day one and make it explicit.
In a game that I'm playing right now, I'm playing a particularly selfish rogue who likes to dash ahead, swipe treasure before people can see, and keep shiny things for himself (not money, just cool things). It's gotten the party into trouble once or twice, and we've had some in-game conversations about it where the party tries to reign my character in and get him to share more. He's slowly learning to trust the party and share, and this is both a function of my character learning to work in a team, but also a function of me wanting to help create a positive experience for everyone. Importantly, I've also spoken to the players outside of the game and told them that if it ever becomes a problem for them as players, not just irksome for their characters, then they should talk to me and I'd be more than happy to change the way I play the character because the communal experience of the game is way more important than honoring my selfish character's instincts simply because "that's what my character would do."
There are also ways that you as the DM can step up and take control of the situation. For example: We added a new PC to the campaign who had a lot of similar abilities to my character, and my character got very jealous. Spitefully, I decided to rummage through the new PC's coin purse on the first night he was with us, and decided to take 10gp from him. The DM stopped the game to check in and say to the player "I don't allow PvP hostility or stealing from one another unless there's consent. Are you cool with letting this happen?" The player was okay with it and he appreciated the RP moment, but if he had said no it would've been up to the DM to tell me to cut it out, maybe he would've decided that the PC woke up while I was taking his purse and we'd have to have a conversation about it in character. But it would also have been up to me to accept that what I was doing was uncool and would've caused problems with another player, and forgo my RP desires for the sake of the communal experience.
"To die would be an awfully big adventure"
Social contract ..... wow TLDNR. Find good people, some times its hard Less folk is better than 5 and one bad person. see if your game is for them. They might be bored with your STYLE of DMing and opposite that, people can be *****.
Well, yeah. It is a teensy bit long. I have never used that pdf myself, but some people just need to have the dead equine pummeled.
Not everyone is compatible and some are solely self interested... seen it enough times....sometimes the DM's are the pain other times a player, humans...... whatchagonna do!!!!