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

[tragical-mirth.livejournal.com]

Imagine that times about 50,000 and that was what I dealt with working security at the con's Nichelle Nichols signing tonight. I wanted to murder.

[kinesys.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. That's...Oh man.



I think i may be ill.

[tracker7.livejournal.com]

You know what'll make it all better? In about 12 hours, I'll be playing in a certain Trinity game.

[tracker7.livejournal.com]

Big-time costumed and made-up Trek fans occupy a low rung on my fandom ladder.

[specieszero.livejournal.com]

I used to game just for the sake of gaming. It didn't matter what I was playing, or how well it was run, or anything as long as I was gaming. But then I realized I wasn't having fun. It's like I was draining the fun out of the hobby, just so I could partake of it. Now, if it's not fun, I'll walk. Or I'll make it fun. But there are some GMs who won't allow that, if you don't go with their plan then they make it worse for you. I've found this mostly with games run at con's, but it's been getting better over the years.

I want to have fun, and I want the people I'm playing with to have fun. If we're not having fun, then what's the point? Case in point-I was running a Deadlands game. One of the PCs had just been busted out of jail by the others, and they were on the run through the city. Wendigos start busting through the city walls. This PC, after they're halfway across town and away from the Wendigos, wants to go back and get his guns that were left at the sheriff's station. The other characters offer him spare guns they have, but he won't take them. These guns he had were nothing special. He didn't pay points for relic guns or hand-me-downs from his father or anything, they were just regular Colt Army Pistols. And he insisted on wasting this time and putting himself in danger to get them. So I flat-out said to him 'No. This is pointless. You're wasting everyone's time, you're going to get killed. You're not going back there.' I haven't had to do it since.

[cybogoblin.livejournal.com]

This is why I'm so very glad I'm at the point in my life where the only friend I have who has spawned did so only months ago*.

At least you're getting a good game in tonight (well, last night now).

*And, despite popping on May 4th, they didn't give the kid a Jedi name. They did name her Annike (hubby is Dutch)... then we pointed out that it was the female form of Anakin (or close to it) :p

[tracker7.livejournal.com]

With half the players and 100% fewer yowling kids, this could have been a lot of fun. And I really can't fault A; he had to wrangle a dozen players, and that's not easy. We talked on YIM after the game, and he wasn't too pleased with how the night went.

The most recent example of player cluelessness/dickishness I've had to deal with was in my M&M game. The heroes (5 of them) were facing down a squad of big honkin' killer cyborgs. Initiative is rolled, and the results are scattered; the magician rolls a 20. Clueless Battlesuit immediately announces that he's going to spend a hero point to move to the top of the initiative order ... where he proceeds to hold his action through the entire combat. Thankfully, he dropped out before I had the chance to boot him.

[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.

[tegyrius]

I'll try to get the taste out of your brain for you.

Man, that sounds nightmarish. A deserves better players than that.

[tracker7.livejournal.com]

I have no fears about today's game.

[maxsilver.livejournal.com]

Rookwin? Really? What does that even mean? And an amusing note: doing a google search on Rookwin has this post as the fourth entry.

[tracker7.livejournal.com]

It means "My moron parents wanted me to have a distinctive name, and soon as I'm 18, I'm changing the hell out of it."

Fourth entry, huh? Go, me!

Ha! The alternate search suggestion is "Rockin," which this sure ain't.

[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 ;)