How Many Beers per Gaming Session?

[S'mon]

Hey...just to go off-topic for a second, but...I will be living in London and am looking to join a second gaming group (as player) sometime Jan or Feb 2009. What's the chances of joining?

You might like to check out the London D&D meetup I mentioned above, new players always welcome.

 

[S'mon]

Whenever these threads come up, I'm always struck by how many people equate having a few drinks with playing drunk. Some people may lack elements of self control but in nearly 20 years of having drinks while gaming, I've only encountered drunk gaming 3 or 4 times.

It's a culture thing - eg drinking without getting drunk is a lot more common where I live now (London) than where I was born and grew up (Scotland and Northern Ireland). It likely varies across the US too - I'm familiar with Tennessee which has the same Scots-Irish culture as Northern Ireland, conversely I'd expect somewhere more Germanic like Minnesota (edit: or Wisconsin) would be different.

 

[Prism]

Our normal evening sessions we don't drink mainly due to us driving. However our occasional weekend all day sessions we drink as much as possible - easily 10+ over the day. In fact thats usually when we make our worst or sometimes best decisions in game

 

[JackSmithIV]

I don't think that you can offer up personal anecdote as the standard for all people. For example, when I lived in Topeka and Lawrence — both college towns — drunk gaming (and 'after parties' following the games) were the norm. Finding groups where people were actually more focused on gaming than getting drunk (or otherwise intoxicated) could be difficult.

Personally, when you cite an experience based on what happened in college, I believe that's offering up a personal anecdote as the norm. It is kinda odd how many people view drinking and gaming with drunk gaming. I too have had tons of experience with drinking and gaming but have only had one person ever get slightly tipsy at the table.

That one person happened to be the DM of course

 

[Jack99]

Funnily enough, while I seem to GM fine on up to 2 pints, as a player if I go over 1 pint I get, er, not so good (like, arguing with another player); so when playing I stick to 1 beer.

You need more practise. Stop drinking like an American!

 

[S'mon]

You need more practise. Stop drinking like an American!

It's not that I get drunk on 2 pints. Problem is that when as a player I have the second beer, I get aggressive and adversarial vs any other players I think are being idiots. Whereas as GM I'm in a different mindset and it doesn't crop up.

 

[Vegepygmy]

Wow, a much more prudish attitude towards alcohol than I expected.

It's not "prudish" in my case; I just find that alcohol interferes with my clear thinking, and most of my enjoyment of the game comes from thinking about things.

That having been said, I had a vodka martini while running my online game last night. So, you know, nothing's "Absolut."

 

[Dragonblade]

We don't usually drink while gaming. Occasionally a couple of us might toss back a Corona or a Hefeweizen, but not a lot of drinking and usually none.

However, when the game is called off and we have boardgame night, then usually everybody but two people drink. They abstain for personal reasons but don't have a problem with everyone else drinking. Lots of beer, and hard alcohol flows on boardgame night. And the boardgames get pretty crazy.

No smokers in the group.

 

[Thasmodious]

Prudish? Dude, don't be insulting.

There's a bunch of good reasons folks can choose to not drink at game, and prudishness is only one of them. So far, the stated reasons are practical.
Nobody here has stated that for them, it is about moral uprightness or the like.

It wasn't intended to be insulting, at all. Maybe poor word choice? But I don't find 'prudish' very insulting myself, chiding perhaps. It was a response to the rather staunch no alcohol policies of several of the posters. My apologies if that offended anyone.

 

[Jack99]

It's not that I get drunk on 2 pints. Problem is that when as a player I have the second beer, I get aggressive and adversarial vs any other players I think are being idiots. Whereas as GM I'm in a different mindset and it doesn't crop up.

Okay, at least you do not get drunk. You have restored a small part of the faith lost. However, if it makes you aggressive and adversarial, one could still argue that you are quite affected by the rather modest amount of alcohol.