Well, before this turns into ANOTHER thread about women gamers vs. women non-gamers, let me just say this and then try to put us back on track. My friend's wife is from a very stuffy, snooty upper middle class family who are the types who throw expensive dinner parties and invite "only the best people". She's inherited that, and while he puts up with it out of love (I guess it's a trade off they have) he doesn't like it. She believes RPG's are childish and immature, and "adults" should find more "acceptable" hobbies.
But, he loves her and she loves him, and it's not my place or the place of anyone else to say one or the other is wrong. As long as their system works for them, I say live and let live. When the day comes he is no longer "allowed" to play with us, I'll miss him. He's been in my gaming group since 1987 (except for the times we lived in different cities; about 3 years total). But, it's his life and his wife, and it's not my place to deride or judge him for his decisions.
Now, back on track. I'm with Diaglo on this one. Life trumps gaming. Always. I'm not griping about my friends having real life issues and activities, I'm just griping about not getting to game. Before my accident, I had to cancel several games I'd planned to run, or bow out of games run by others because of illness, family plans, or other unexpected events. I'm just tired of NOT gaming. I had planned on taking a year or so off from behind the DM screen to be player and hopefully get rid of the DM Burnout I've had for over a year. Well, I've played almost none and DM'd less, and I'm still burned out and dying to play.
This was not meant to be a whiner thread, but just me yelling into the void and listening to the echo. I don't have the means to get out and look for another gaming group (still recovering and haven't been able to replace the car I lost in the accident).
I live in a large town (by Arkansas standards--about 44,000 people). There are 3 colleges and two high schools here, and there seems to be a pretty active gaming community from what I've heard. But every other gamer I've met here are the weird and unwashed types. Whenever I'm in the local chain store (the only outlet for gaming we have since the FLGS is a pit that only carries used games) I'm very uncomfortable talking with them. The last time I was in the bookstore, a couple guys came up to me and my son and began telling us all about their hyper-munchkin deity-like characters without even a "Hi, my name is---". When we excused ourselves and left, my son whispered to me that he'd lost his appetite because this one guy kept standing really close to him and he smelled like rotten meat. I could smell him, too, and he was right. His buddy actually had head lice that I could see crawling in his hair.
Now these two are extreme examples of the kinds of gamers I've met here, and I know in my heart 99% of gamers are not hygenically-challenged. But they seem to stay hidden away from sight...probably avoiding dinner parties and gaming on the sly.
**Note--this last part was in no way a comment on the hygene habits of gamers on ENWorld or gamers in general, only regarding the ones I've met locally. I now return you to your regularly scheduled posting**
