Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > Roleplaying in General

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 05-30-2009, 12:37 PM   #21
trooper6
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Medford, MA
Default Re: Food and drink

Quote:
Originally Posted by moldymaltquaffer View Post
Gaming is a social environment where you're surrounded by friends, and moderate use of alcohol is perfectly appropriate for such enviornments. In many cases, even prefered.

As long as everyone is an adult (and acts like one) it's certainly not a problem.
<shrug> Then again, I don't have any of the horror stories others have related about nudity or violence during a game. Had I players that disfunctional, I would certainly try to disuade them from drinking.
There are different kinds of social environments, and alcohol is not appropriate in all of them. Even for the same activity.

Take for example, Swing Dancing. Swing Dancing is a social activity where you are surrounded by your friends. In some social circles, drinking your cocktails and dancing is the way to go. The circles I danced in, no one drank anything but lots and lots of water...well and maybe a soda here and there. We took our dancing very seriously, didn't want to add to dehydration, and didn't want any sort of impairment. The follow/lead relationship, especially if you are doing complicated steps/dips/aerials needs a clear head and a lot of concentration. No drinking. And we would not dance with those with those who had been drinking.

The people who were drinking were having fun.
We were having fun.
But we would not have fun dancing with each other.

Or beach volleyball. Some people want to drink, have a cookout, and play a bit of beach volleyball with their pals. Some people want to seriously play some beach volleyball with no distractions from the game, including alcohol.

I can very easily game with people who are not friends of mine...because I'm not at game to hang out with friends. I'm there for the game first and foremost. And I'm pretty serious about it. When I look for a new gaming group, I'm not looking for a new group of freinds. I'm looking for excellent gamers. People who have got a certain sort of RP skill, a certain level of commitment and seriousness about the hobby, and who share certain gaming aesthetics with me. If we become friends, cool. If not, that is also fine.

I would much rather game with a person I can't stand once we leave the table but who has a high level of professionalism at the table than a pal of mine who wants to drink and joke and chat and distract me and the rest of the group with social time while I'm at the table.
So for some people's version of game, it is appropriate to drink and joke and chat. In other people's version of game it is not.

Last edited by trooper6; 05-30-2009 at 12:43 PM.
trooper6 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-30-2009, 12:59 PM   #22
Ragitsu
Banned
 
Ragitsu's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Portland, Oregon
Default Re: Food and drink

Whew, i'm glad my group(s) don't insist anyone drinks :-).

---

But to steer somewhat back on topic: is cleanliness ever an issue, or do you guys manage well enough?
Ragitsu is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-30-2009, 01:03 PM   #23
whswhs
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
Default Re: Food and drink

Quote:
Originally Posted by trooper6 View Post
Take for example, Swing Dancing. Swing Dancing is a social activity where you are surrounded by your friends. In some social circles, drinking your cocktails and dancing is the way to go. The circles I danced in, no one drank anything but lots and lots of water...well and maybe a soda here and there. We took our dancing very seriously, didn't want to add to dehydration, and didn't want any sort of impairment. The follow/lead relationship, especially if you are doing complicated steps/dips/aerials needs a clear head and a lot of concentration. No drinking. And we would not dance with those with those who had been drinking.
I think that's a very good comparison. Thanks!

Quote:
I can very easily game with people who are not friends of mine...because I'm not at game to hang out with friends. I'm there for the game first and foremost. And I'm pretty serious about it. When I look for a new gaming group, I'm not looking for a new group of freinds. I'm looking for excellent gamers. People who have got a certain sort of RP skill, a certain level of commitment and seriousness about the hobby, and who share certain gaming aesthetics with me. If we become friends, cool. If not, that is also fine.
I must say, you made a lot of friends during your participation in my campaigns; but the fact that your roleplaying impressed us was not irrelevant to that! I did want to see that you had at least basic social compatibility with my players, but anything beyond that was a bonus.

I regularly invite in new players to see what they'll make of my campaigns. A lot of them keep coming back. Not all of them develop social ties outside of the campaign, and I don't think they need to.

I think what you're pointing at is a spectrum from people who game for the challenge and people who game for relaxation . . . the proverbial "beer and pretzels" game. I'm definitely looking for the former. Now, I wouldn't want to claim that you can't combine challenge with drinking . . . I have the impression Kromm manages to do so . . . but drinking often leads to the expectation of a fairly relaxed, casual atmosphere devoted mainly to the exchange of phatic communication. And that's specifically not what I'm looking for.

On the other hand, "challenge" may suggest an emphasis on combat and a competitive attitude toward fellow players, and neither of those is what I'm talking about. The challenge I have in mind is that of portraying a person other than yourself, in a setting where such a person would exist, and figuring out how that person would react to difficult situations. Challenge as drama. Or challenge as comedy . . . but good comedy takes a very high level of focus to bring off.

Bill Stoddard
whswhs is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-30-2009, 01:04 PM   #24
whswhs
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
Default Re: Food and drink

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ragitsu View Post
But to steer somewhat back on topic: is cleanliness ever an issue, or do you guys manage well enough?
As in spilling on the furniture, or as in picking up after yourself? We occasionally have mild complaints about players who aren't as good about the latter as they should be; I've never seen it become a big deal.

Bill Stoddard
whswhs is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-30-2009, 01:43 PM   #25
mearrin69
 
mearrin69's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Vancouver, WA
Default Re: Food and drink

I discourage folks that have been eating nacho cheese Doritos or Cheetos from leafing through *my* rulebooks. They can put their grubby fingers on their own books but I'm quite anal about not getting food stains on mine :)

None of my groups have ever had too much problem with cleanliness (related to food, I have met a couple of gamers that needed better hygene).
M
mearrin69 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-30-2009, 01:49 PM   #26
Turhan's Bey Company
Aluminated
 
Turhan's Bey Company's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: East of the moon, west of the stars, close to buses and shopping
Default Re: Food and drink

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ragitsu View Post
But to steer somewhat back on topic: is cleanliness ever an issue, or do you guys manage well enough?
The people I game with are well-adjusted adults. If they weren't, I wouldn't be spending my very sparse leisure time with them. We conduct ourselves accordingly. So, no, it isn't an issue. There are dirty dishes and such, but it's no different from any other social gathering where food and drinks are present.
__________________
I've been making pointlessly shiny things, and I've got some gaming-related stuff as well as 3d printing designs.

Buy my Warehouse 23 stuff, dammit!
Turhan's Bey Company is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-30-2009, 01:51 PM   #27
Ragitsu
Banned
 
Ragitsu's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Portland, Oregon
Default Re: Food and drink

Quote:
Originally Posted by mearrin69 View Post
I discourage folks that have been eating nacho cheese Doritos or Cheetos from leafing through *my* rulebooks.
As strange as it seems, i've seen players eat chips, then touch their papers/books, and LICK THEIR FINGERS before once again touching aforementioned papers/books.

Thankfully those days are long behind me.
Ragitsu is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-30-2009, 02:31 PM   #28
robkelk
Untitled
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: between keyboard and chair
Default Re: Food and drink

Quote:
Originally Posted by Turhan's Bey Company View Post
The functional rule with the people I play with is that the host (that is, the person who lives at the physical location) provides most of the food, but others are certainly welcome to bring stuff. Exactly what shows up on the table varies considerably, from delivery pizza to, at my house, stuff like this (yes, those Twinkies are hand-made).
I want to game with you. <wipes drool>

My group seems to think "Rob'll bring something, so we don't need to." I've taken to bringing things that only I like, but nobody else has caught the hint yet...
__________________
Rob Kelk
“Every man has a right to his own opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts.”
– Bernard Baruch,
Deming (New Mexico) Headlight, 6 January 1950
No longer reading these forums regularly.
robkelk is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-30-2009, 03:39 PM   #29
whswhs
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
Default Re: Food and drink

Quote:
Originally Posted by robkelk View Post
My group seems to think "Rob'll bring something, so we don't need to." I've taken to bringing things that only I like, but nobody else has caught the hint yet...
We don't hint. We tell people explicitly what the custom is. If necessary, we negotiate over it, as when one of my players asked if the group she was in could change to everyone bringing their own snacks, so that she wouldn't have to struggle with the urge to eat things she wanted to avoid.

I would urge you to bring just enough for yourself, and say, up front, "No one else brings snacks to share with me, so I'm just bringing a snack for myself, and not one to share."

Bill Stoddard
whswhs is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-30-2009, 03:52 PM   #30
Sydney
 
Sydney's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Janesville, WI
Default Re: Food and drink

my group theoretically meets about once a month (lately it's been less, even), there might be a beer or two, but no heavy drinking. As for food, the game is a weekend affair because we're not able to game more then once a month (the group is quite literally scattered half-way across Wisconsin, with many people having to drive 2-3 hours to get to the game site, which rotates among the players), so the hosts will supply food like breakfast and maybe a dinner on Saturday, lunch tends to be frozen pizzas with everyone bringing one or two, and then there's quite the collection of chips, soda, Little Debbie snack cakes, and dippin' vegetables, once in a while I might make a cheeseball to bring as it's very popular.

Breakfast is usually scrambled eggs, bacon/sausage, and hash browns, or pancakes and some variation of above...or an egg strata.
__________________
My Gaming Blog
Sydney is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
at the table, drink, food, sustenance

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 01:18 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.