The Agenda Behind the Agenda

Games that identify themselves as Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) pretty much always have a list of agenda items and principles for the GM. Like, here's Dungeon World's discussion of GM agenda:

Your agenda makes up the things you aim to do at all times while GMing a game of Dungeon World:

• Portray a fantastic world
• Fill the characters’ lives with adventure
• Play to find out what happens

Everything you say and do at the table (and away from the table, too) exists to accomplish these three goals and no others. Things that aren’t on this list aren’t your goals.

And then you get a list of principles (Draw maps, leave blanks and Address the characters, not the players, etc.) that serve as guidelines for running that game.

Each PbtA game has its own list, and while there's a lot of similarity, there's a lot of subtle variation between them. These differences are where the author tries to communicate how to run this game in particular.

Thing is, even the stuff that's similar across all PbtA games—like address the characters, not the players and play to find out what happens—doesn't address a couple elephants in the room:

• There are personal and social motivations that bring your group together to play this game in the first place. 
• There are rules of human interaction that go above and beyond the principles specific to this game.

Like, I could adhere strictly to the principles listed on page 160 of the book, but if I'm like pressuring everyone to play Dungeon World when they'd rather be playing Mario Kart and I'm ignoring the personal boundaries of the people in the room with me, I'm still a shit GM (and probably a shit person).

"I'm just following my principles! Why are you so upset?"

I've been fortunate enough to never personally encounter any serious boundary-violating crap like I'm making fun of in that pic, but I know it happens. And there are all sorts of other, little ways that the GM and players can mess up at levels above and beyond those addressed by a game's text.

So, in the GM chapter for Stonetop, I added this box text:

The agenda and principles listed here are the ones specific and particular to running Stonetop, but there are more general agendas and principles that you hopefully follow whenever you get together with other people to play a game.

Your agenda, of course, includes...

• Have fun
• Enjoy each other’s company
• Play the game you want to play.

...because otherwise, why are you doing this?

Your principles, hopefully, include…

• Treat each other with respect
• Listen to each other and pay attention
• Laugh, joke, don’t take it too seriously
• Communicate wants, needs, and limitations
• Set and respect boundaries
• Talk about what you enjoy and what you don’t
• Make changes as needed
• Put each other above the game
• Don’t be a jerk
• Take breaks as needed
• Talk about real life stuff, too

…because if aren’t going to do those things, it’s hard to see how you’ll have fun, enjoy each other’s company, or play the game you want to play.

I don't know this will end up in the final cut (that chapter is long), and I certainly don't think that having it written down solves the problems. I don't know that I've got them all or even got them right. But I felt like it was worth saving this somewhere and putting it out into the world.

If you ever play a game with me: these are part of my agenda and my principles. I may not always live up to them, but I'm trying. And I expect you to try, too.