Social Rules is designed to help people be more aware of implicit rules in a group, see how changing the rules affect the social dynamics and to have fun while doing so.

The basic idea is:
1. Take a social situation
2. Discover implicit rules people follow
3. Apply modifiers to the rules and observe

So far I haven't tried the game in other social situations than discussion circles (chairs, sofas, bonfire), but the basic idea should work in any kind of situation. All you need is context specific modifiers.

The commercial ideapakka version of social rules is out now! Get it here!

Game Structure (discussion circle)

Round 0

• Set topic for discussion
• Discuss 2-5 min
• Observations?
• What implicit rules were you following?
• Write global rules to the wall

Rounds 1-n

• Deal new modifiers
• Discuss 2-3 min
• Observations?
• Remove and replace revealed rules

Example Game (discussion circle)

Setup

• Create modifier cards, mark them by level, here's some example cards
• Set context (discussion circle only thing I've tried, walking on corridors/streets would be an interesting experiment too)
• Form a circle of chairs where people can see each other
• Pick topic and lock for the game to have some focus
• Before starting the round, remind people that you are not in the discussion, you exist outside the reality of the rounds

Round 1:

• Have players discuss 2-3mins about the topic (natural discussion)
• Ask what kind of implicit rules people were following? Write down rules on the wall. Continue to ask what else/any other observations. (to try: ask people to pick 3 most important ones, remove rest)

Round 2:

• Shuffle subtle modifiers and some medium modifiers and have someone split the deck to make it clear that the rules are actually random (to avoid people feeling targeted)
• Deal modifiers to social rules to all players. Remind that the global rules still apply (but don't enforce them, them breaking down is a part of the learning process)
• Ask players to continue the discussion for 2-3 minutes.
• Any observations? Open discussion. Remove revealed modifiers.

Round 3:

• Deal modifiers to people who lost previous ones. Add more medium modifiers. Deal modifiers to everyone. Tell people to follow only the new one if the modifiers conflict.
• Ask players to continue the discussion for 2-3 minutes.
• Any observations? Open discussion. Remove revealed modifiers.

Round 4:

• Deal modifiers to people who lost previous ones. Add some extreme modifiers to the deck. Deal modifiers to everyone. Tell people to follow only the new one if the modifiers conflict.
• Ask players to continue the discussion for 2-3 minutes. Very likely to descend to chaos here already, it's ok to end a round early.
• Any observations? Open discussion. Remove revealed modifiers.

Round 5:

• Deal modifiers to people who lost previous ones. Deal extreme modifiers to everyone. Tell people to follow only the new one if the modifiers conflict.
• Ask players to continue the discussion for 2-3 minutes. Extremely likely to descend to chaos here, it's ok to end a round early.
• Any observations? Open discussion.

Closing:

• What did you learn?
• Feedback about the game? (great way to generate new ideas and tuning the modifier decks)

The Story So Far

The idea emerged in a discussion about games in a Hello Ruby workshop about teaching systems thinking to kids in April 2016. The spark to design the actual game was the need for content for the Agile Finland Coaching Circle when the booked speaker called in sick 17 hours before the circle. This game was initially just the Simplest Possible Thing That Might Work so I'd have something to present even if I failed to polish any of my other ideas. I decided to play the game again at the Agile Coaching Camp in Finland open space. The game generated a lot of interest in people who missed the first session so I hosted two more games during the camp. Many people encouraged me to publish the game and that's what I decided to do.

It ended up taking almost two years, but the commercial version of Social Rules is also now available from the ideapakka store. Get it here!

License

Social Rules by Jussi Hölttä is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.