I am so angry

[Silver Moon]

I have great respect for Piratecat and the members of his group, having played with most of them, but the "no out-of-game comments" would never work with our weekly group. The out of game comments often add to the overall humor and atmosphere of fun. While it is an occasional distraction, it also helps with the social aspect of a gaming group. My players are long-time friends, and we have been running a continuous game for 21 years now. Friends also sometimes need to talk to each other. Last December the father of a player died unexpectedly. After about 10 minutes of playing at the next game it became obvious that he needed to talk instead of game, which is how we spent the rest of the night. I consider that one of our finest moments.

 

[Buttercup]

A friend (and one of my players) invited me to go with her to the other game she plays in. The DM approved, of course. I played the character of someone who wasn't there for that session.

The session lasted 11 hours! It was horrible. There was only about 3 hours of actual game play, and the rest of the time, people wandered around the house, played with the dogs, chatted, and drank beer. I will never, ever go back there. I only get two days off each week, and I value them. I really don't want to spend nearly all my waking hours watching people drink beer and spend half an hour arguing about THAC0. (Yeah, it was a second edition game. That made the pain worse.) I'd rather play in a game like the one I run, which lasts 4 hours, but is pretty much solid gaming.

Anyway, my point (and I do have one) is that it's important for people who play together to have the same taste in game style. This applies to the rules set of course, but it also applies to stuff like how long the sessions run, and what signal to noise ratio is acceptable.

 

[Wormwood]

Forcing players to play in a style contrary to their own rarely works.

This bears repeating.

 

[Corlon]

sometimes I have problems with players just talking.

At one point my session was kind of dragging on the same, almost to the climactic point and my friend said

"I wonder how many skittles a chipmunk could eat before it exploded," and we all started cracking up for no reason.

After that it pretty much stopped and we wasted a couple hours laughing and playinng computer games, but we still had a lot of fun, and that's what dnd is all about

 

[Zappo]

When I proposed that to my group, one of them said "Can I just put 5 euros in advance and then forget about it?"

Somehow, I doubt they'd take it seriously.

 

[Hand of Evil]

How I hate that. I normally set a start time and an end time for my games, about four hours. I also set an agenda for what I would like to get done (I don't finish it).

I - Table talk - discuss characters and last sessions, rules and such - 30 minutes

II - Start gaming
..a Get to Level X or find Clue X or such - 1.5 hours

III - Break - 15 minutes

IV - Game - 1.5 hour

V - Wrap up & discuss

You as a DM have to run the game, if this means running like a meeting so be it.

 

[Piratecat]

Some good advice above. It's worth noting that the best way to implement the "less out-of-game talk" system is to say "Hey, we'll try it for three sessions and see if people like it." That's probably enough time to see if it improves gaming, and it's not a long-term commitment.

That's what we did; I would never have implemented it arbitrarily, but after a few sessions my player's insisted we keep it.

 

[Airwolf]

The problem here is that you have a whole bunch of casual gamers as players, and you're looking for a more intensive RPing campaign. Piratecat's system works because everyone (presumably) is already committed to spending as much time as possible on the game, and as little as possible on idle chit-chat. Your group is different. Their priority is simply to hang out and talk, and D&D is simply the excuse to get together.

You should either look for a completely new set of players, who are similarly committed to the game, or accept that your current players aren't interested in the same things as you are. In the latter case, you should give serious consideration to just giving them what they want. Forcing players to play in a style contrary to their own rarely works.

Hong, you impress me! Even after all those beatings with a stick you are one smart person.

I would have said nearly the same things but you read this thread before I did.

Our group is pretty laid back when it comes to OOC. We like to yack with each other and D&D is one of the few times we all can get together to see each other.

When I DM I know that attention spans for most adults is about 20 minutes or less. When the conversation goes awry, I just let it. I don't try to force the game on the players. I will give them 4-5 minutes to chat (sometimes I join in the yackfest too). Some other times I used the brief break to make adjustments to the adventure depending on what the players have done so far. Then I call them back to the situation at hand.

This is important thing; this style works for my group, the PCat style works for his group, now you have to find the style that works for your group. Good luck!

 

[JacktheRabbit]

Yeah... don't charge people for stuff like that. Piratecat is a groovy guy, I'm sure, and that trick might work for him, but that's him and his group

I bet he also didnt implement it on day one. It is probably something that evolved over time.

 

[megamania]

Everyone has their own groove and style of play. It sounds like your style currently dosen't fit the groups. This kind of thing can't be forced. Either everyone needs to come to a mutual agreement or locate a group with similiar interests/styles.

I play in two groups.

Group one meets weekly for 3 hours. Often we spend the first hour talking. This leads to slower moving campaigns but such is life. They are also extremely hack and slash. Role playing consists of ordering a beer.

Group two meets once a month and play for 6 hours. There is role playing and we accomplish a lot.

Flexibility is required. Compromise is required.