In which I rediscover a truth

[tracker7]

I've read and heard many times that bad gaming is worse than no gaming.  I tend to agree, and tonight was an unfortunate reminder of that.

My buddy A runs a good game.  He's one of the best ambassadors this hobby has.  He's one of the better players I've ever had the pleasure of running games for.  About once a month, he throws an open game for his Meetup group, and for the first time in forever, I was able to go tonight.  Old Gaming Buddy Jim was there, and we talked about Origins and GenCon.

And the room kept filling up.  12 players, 2nd-level D&D characters.  2 couples, one of which was plenty cool, the other not.  Not-Cool Couple brought their kids - and a portable DVD player for the kids, which would have been wonderful, except they left the power cord at home.  In Richmond.  So, Not-Cool-Mom sets the kids up with her laptop, but the headphones from the DVD player won't work on the laptop, and OGBJim and I get the constant audio.  Now, these are pretty young kids, I'd guess 6 or younger.  And the game started at 7 p.m.  By 9:30, they were cranky and loud.  And Not-Cool response is to yell at the kids until they quiet down.  Oh, and this couple?  They were both Those Kind of Fans - every third comment is a (not-at-all) zany quote from a movie we've never seen at least twelve times before.

So, yeah.  Twice the number of players I'm comfortable with, plus loud kids and irritating parents (who named the boy, I swear to God, Rookwin.  Rookwin.  Jesus, people, give your kids real damn names, okay?).  Man.  I should have stayed home and wrote about Chicago or multidimensional empires originating in ancient Egypt.

Pizza was pretty good, though.

Comments

[tracker7.livejournal.com]

The Trinity game is, indeed, a ball. It's progressing very quickly, and we're taking occasional breaks to check out other games. Funny thing is, that was my plan when I started Mutants & Masterminds - 4-6 session short-run games.

My niece has an odd spelling of an odd name, but it's nothing ... stupid. She's also screamingly well-mannered, and is developing a real fondness for horror films. She's the only 10-year-old in her 4-H club who can name at least four kinds of undead and how best to dispatch them.

[cybogoblin.livejournal.com]

And she will also be the only one in her 4-H club to survive the zombie apocalypse when it comes.

Personally, my uncle raised me on war movies, which is partly how I know so much about WW2 compared to my peers. I have many plans to be that sort of uncle for any kids my brothers or karanina's sister end up having. Maybe not war movies, but a little bit of everything to make sure they get a 'full' education ;)