Dystopia Rising has a lot of rules. Most of these rules tell us how to play the game: everything from how to swing your boffer to how to make a Red Mist. But not all rules focus on game play - some rules help us come together as a group and play together. While the rules of the game are all written down (and most of them available for free), the rules of play are a bit more complex. In addition to community standards and common rules like the length of NPC shifts, each chapter has to create rules for how we’ll all gather together.
What Sorts of Rules Do We Have?
When we talk about rules of play, we’re not talking about game mechanics, but rather the rules we follow to make sure everyone has a fair and enjoyable experience at game. For example, most games don’t allow bunk saving, so that people who have to work on Friday still have places to sleep when they arrive. We have rules about when we do clean-ups and how you have to show up to NPC shift prepared to keep the game running smoothly. We’re not talking about safety rules, which are more like regulations we have to follow. Instead, we’re talking about policies, from both the network and our local chapter, designed to make the experience go smoothly.
Rules are important, particularly transparent and well-communicated rules. However, for a rule to be fair, it has to be followed all the time and apply equally to everyone. The difficulty with this is that exceptions exist to every rule. For example, we routinely give early clean-up to people who have to leave early… This is an exception to the normal rules, and a necessary one. Further, we have to enforce the rules. This sounds obvious, until we point out that almost every Dystopia Rising game has people saving bunks (and part of the reason we introduced the Early Bird bunk slip - so there was a way people could do this, without breaking the rules, in an organized manner). However, sometimes, hard-and-fast rules aren’t the answer, particularly if a problem is very specific or rare. Instead, we have to rely on developing a culture of play.
Culture of Play
A culture of play is the set of social norms we use to make our events fair and enjoyable. It serves the same role as a collection of rules, but instead of being regulatory, it provides examples and encouragement for proper behavior. For example, there isn’t actually a rule that says we introduce ourselves with our pronouns, or ask people if we’re not sure, but it has become part of our culture. Culture is an important part of Dystopia Rising, and many of the behaviors that make the game work are learned through our culture.
The problem with culture is that it’s usually not explicit, and people might not pick up on it. They might not realize the expectations of behavior, or might have difficulty picking up on it without instructions. It’s imperative that the staff recognize that they have to verbalize particular aspects of culture from time to time, and for players to listen without becoming defensive or hostile. Remember, doing something that goes against the culture of Dystopia Rising doesn’t make a person bad or even their behavior wrong, it just means that we just have different expectations of behavior. When that happens, the staff (or other players) should say something in a non-judgemental manner, and the player should listen and adjust.
What Does This Mean to Dystopia Rising New York?
We’re a growing chapter, and as we add people, we also need to adjust our culture. Sometimes, our urge as staff is to make up new rules, but this is sub-optimal. For example, we have a lot of people who sign up for early clean-up these days, relative to the size of the game. When we were smaller, these requests didn’t actually have much of an impact, but now, they can cause us significant problems. We could make new rules about early clean-up, putting limits in place or denying requests to do so. However, these rules would have unintended consequences and might lead to hardships on our players just for the sake of following the rules. Instead, we need to appeal to culture, and explain that clean-up is part of the experience of the game, and that everyone has to deal with traffic and potentially long drives home. One point of emphasis from the last game: if you have an early clean-up, it should involve 30 to 60 minutes of work, just as regular clean-up would take.
This example isn’t something we want to do in the future, it’s a success story from this past game. Over 25% of our players left early, and we knew we’d be in a bind for clean-up. Instead of denying it to people (and potentially removing their ability to attend the game), we managed to get most of ops and NPC packed up before closing announcements Sunday morning. Verbalizing this expectation helped us at the last game, and we’re sure to find similar situations as we grow.
Bottom line: our players are good people and adults, and we can treat them as such and find support for doing so. Some rules are good and necessary, but people will often rise to the positive expectations people have for them, if they only know what’s expected.