Should meta-rules be a thing?

The short answer to the title question is: no, they should not be a thing. The long answer is: they shouldn't have to be a thing, but not every group is gonna grok the shared responsibility aspects of RPGs because some players will never really understand unless it is drilled into their damned skull.

The inspiration for this came from a post on r/rpg that asked how many other GMs felt like The Little Red Hen. If you had a shit childhood you may not know the story, but the long and short of it is this hen keeps trying to get the other barnyard animals to help her with the chores and they refuse then when it comes time to enjoy the bread that she made as a result of all her hard work they all want some and she doesn't give it to them. The line she keeps repeating is "then I'll do it myself"

The GM is usually the one that gets stuck with the logistics of organizing the game because no one else will; which means getting everyone's schedules to jive, picking and learning the game, arranging a play space, writing up any session notes, and a lot of the times snacks/beer as well. This can burn a GM out if they aren't getting much input from the players (see Things Got Salty post).

The Problem

I can think of at least one group of regulars I have that loses the ability to communicate until hours before the game session whenever I send an email with questions about the game. They don't ever seem to take responsibility for their part in the games we play. That same group often acts like I am some sort of grumpy high school teacher that keeps piling on homework by asking them to flesh out their characters to be more than whatever the default is state is for them. I try not to get salty about it, but it's hard not to feel a little salty when you are expected to put in a lot of work to make a game fun and entertaining and they show up expecting to be entertained without putting anything of their own into the set up. It's not like the GM has a life or other things they'd rather be doing than trying to entertain a bunch of philistines who can't be bothered to read the rules but will still manage to try to argue about them or being prepared and helping the GM will actually improve the overall quality of the game experience...oh wait, no, it is exactly like that.

The main problem is the GM has all this responsibility towards making the game happen and players don't understand how easily this can become frustrating to a GM.

So that got me thinking, how does one avoid that? Is there a way to get even the laziest most overthinking player on board with the game more fully? Probably not, but it's an interesting thought experiment I probably won't actually implement in any of my games. I just thought there should be a way to shift some of the responsibilities that end up defaulting to the GM to some of the other players of the game. It can be incredibly frustrating for a GM to be expected to handle all the logistics and the story and the rules and the players seem to think they just need to show up so they can be entertained.

A Solution?

What is a GM to do when faced with player's not taking responsibility? To me it doesn't seem unreasonable to explicitly tell a player what they are in charge of for a game/group. Obviously the responsibilities for any group are going to be different from any other group. To that end I don't think I could come up with a definitive list of meta-game rules that will work for all groups. Here are the first few that came to mind.

• Rules lawyers that likes to argue the rules should be put in charge of knowing the rules for the group. If they enjoy the rules and finding the ways they work or don't work, then don't fight them. Give them the chance to use their psychosis to help the group rather than hinder it. Make them remember all the ins and outs of the game rules to guide the other players through combat or any other situation where the rules come into play.
• People that tend to lose track of the game when it isn't their turn to talk or do something, could be put in charge of the session write ups. Tie their XP into their write up, so they won't gain any XP unless they finish the write up.
• A person that frequently needs to reschedule the games should be put in charge of the logistics for the group. Make them figure out the best time and place to actually play the game. The group doesn't get to play unless Johnny Come Lately has it scheduled.

These come off as sounding a bit like punishments, but it's really just the other side of the GM coin. This is just a few of the things a GM deals with on the reg and sharing the responsibility with the other players will help the GM stave off their burn out a lot longer.

tl;dr

It may have gotten lost between the top and the bottom of the page, but I don't think every group needs this. I do think some groups can benefit from giving the players explicit instructions on what parts of the group's overall success is their responsibility.