“A deal with the devil” is a classic for a reason. Your players know it will probably backfire. They know it sounds too good to be true. They even (usually) enjoy the evil grin that spreads across the DM’s face, as they ignore both of these things and agree to the deal. That’s all part of the fun.
The problem is that it’s also very easy to make devil deals boring. Very few people actually enjoy wading through fine print. Being outright tricked is no fun, because you feel like you’ve lost your agency.
The solution, I will try to persuade you, is threefold:
1) Devils should not be able to lie. Your players can trust them (even if they then trust them to be dishonest). Let them walk in with open eyes – surprisingly many players will very walk into a trap, and have a lovely time doing so, as long as they can see it coming.
2) Devils should approach PCs in their dreams. They are a safe, neutral ground, where nobody needs to worry about combat or traps. More importantly, they let you isolate the likely targets. You probably already know which of your players will want to play along, and which characters will hold out on general principles alone. Dream-based negotiations lets you divide the table into the willing victims and the peanut gallery – the people who sign up, and the people who watch on in gleeful terror.
3) Keep it simple and learn from the law. Real contracts have a clear set of requirements. They need a clear offer, a clear acceptance, a clear intention, and a clear exchange of something. Use this structure to make your players feel comfortable. Don’t try to make things unnecessarily complicated, or try to hide and obfuscate. Don’t try to use complex terms and conditions, or nonsense legalese. Sure, these are often in real contracts. But they aren’t fun. Keep what works – and, particularly, what helps to make your players feel comfortable in their bad decisions – and ditch what doesn’t.
This talk will move fairly gently through these points, using both real-world and totally-made-up examples to illustrate the various points made. While doing so, we will also look at some examples of real (and, usually, very stupid) contracts, to see what would or would not actually be fun in a TTRPG game.
Yes, I am a lawyer in real life. But I promise it’ll be interesting anyway.