The Social Contract

This page is part of the System Policies and Ethos and explains the social contract between the game organisers, crew and players.

The Social Contract(s)

We rely on our players to maintain a high-quality game – both as players and as crew. Having a large number of crew members is vital to give our players the best possible experience; therefore, our social contract with players involves a “play one, crew one” agreement between us and our players. We understand that it is not always possible to attend every event, either as a player or crew, and that in certain circumstances (like an event set up in a specific planet or location, when another certain PCs will be in attendance, etc.), players might want to skip crewing an event so they can play it. We understand that, but we also ask our players to fulfill their side of the contract as soon as possible.

Crewing is incentivised by the offer of priority booking (to an event of the individual’s choice) – in order to ensure fair treatment of those who engage in the social contract. Any player who has played two events in a row will be placed on a low-priority list until they crew an event.

As for the Social Contract between players, it is the expectation that all players will endeavour to show respect to each other out of game, no matter how heated IC politics get – this is, and will always remain, a game, and, while investment in character stakes are encouraged, please do not allow them to spill into out of character disrespect for other players.

It is the aim of the game rules and combat design to encourage cinematic and entertaining fights to look at, rather than encouraging players to fight competitively. Combat is intended to be cinematic, with big telegraphed blows, and the intent of things looking mildly choreographed. This applies as much in Player vs Player fights as it does in Player vs Crew fights – the aim of Death Unto Darkness combat is to serve as a visceral physical way of expressing the violent moments of the story, not to ‘win’ a fight.

While there is active encouragement of IC prejudice against certain IC optional traits (like being a mutant or an Abhuman), it is expected of all characters to treat each other free of other prejudices (like sexism, ableism, racism, etc.). Prejudiced language and discrimination that target real life traits of a player is not tolerated, IC or OOC, and may result in summary removal from events, and you being asked not to return to the system.