Why the beer hate? (Forked Thread: What are the no-goes...)

[HailToTheThief]

Just my two cents:

Our group (which has been gaming together for 9 years) has always mixed drinking and gaming. Gaming is just another social event for us, so it's come naturally. This has always been the case whether it was playing CCGs, board gaming or roleplaying. We've never had any problems: we all know eachother, all of us can hold our liquor and no one gets crazy.

Granted, we occasionally over imbibe, but that is typically when we are playing the sillier games (typically while camping) and it works out well

That being said, it's really a different matter with a gamer group that you don't know as well. If I were to join a new group I would hold off unless I got the feeling that it was a group that was comfortable with it. If they had a problem with it, no worries, I'd rather everyone enjoy the game and it's not a dealbreaker or anything.

 

[Caliber]

I'm only part way through this thread, so I apologize if someone has asked this. But I'm struck wondering if this aversion to alcohol penetrates to within the game itself? Does in game drinking bother you? Curious (because the whole anti-drinking this is 100% bizarre to me)

 

[avin]

Heh... beer, wine, whisky... most of my groups is made by adult men who have zero problem with alcohol. Nobody goes drunk.

The only problem I have is smoke, cause I have a strong degree of alergy. If somebody need to smoke we insert small pauses on game and he goes outside.

I think we should try a tequila game next time \o/

 

[Barastrondo]

For not being much of a drinker myself, I feel I have some reasonable sense of the variables of alcohol tolerance because I've worked at White Wolf for over a decade. That'll teach you, particularly at the company functions.

People are just different. I really don't like being around disruptively drunk people at all. On the other hand, over the course of a game night I've watched two guys consume the better part of a twelve-pack of beer, or three people destroy two fairly large bottles of wind, and just not get drunk or disruptive. I know that for myself, a single glass of port isn't going to throw me off-key; some minor muscle relaxant, sure, but the inhibitions don't suddenly go away. My wife has a lower alcohol tolerance, but that means she starts to get silly after two drinks instead of one, and she almost always stops at one. (I say "almost" because my brother brought homemade mead to one game, and that stuff was good.)

Now, I understand the desire not to find out at the table who's obnoxious with a couple of drinks and who isn't, but I'm fairly lucky in that I pretty much game with friends and relatives. I already know what their attitude toward drinking is, and what their life stresses likely are. There are people who do the double-shot of drinking and gaming to escape as far and hard as they can, but that's not really why we're here. The game is meant to be fun in its own right, and drinking is just a relaxant like a comfy chair, a good meal or appropriate music.

 

[Grymar]

This is a good conversation and the rare 5 page thread that I've read word for word. I just want to say that I'm quite impressed at how this is being discussed intelligently and calmly. Drinking can touch on some pretty personal issues, so it is refreshing to see it being dealt with so well.

Anyway, I usually host our game and I DM 50-60% of the games and I rarely drink. Mainly it is for the sleepyness effects. We usually play at 8PM on Friday's after everyone have had a long week of work and we tend to need our coffee and pop to keep going. If I have a beer after 8PM, I'm going to want to go to bed. There have been exceptions when I've grabbed one when I've been a player, but not too often.

As far as others drinking, as long as they aren't too disruptive, I could care less. We are all adults, even if we rarely act like it.

 

[Morrus]

I think there are also some cultural issues present, too - certainly I feel that drinking is much more accepted as a social norm in the UK. I don't think I know anyone who doesn't drink.

 

[Jack99]

Sorry for all the questions, but I just find this really interesting. (FWIW, if someone lit a cigarette at the table, I'd politely explain that I can't be (and don't want to be) around it, and immediately gather my things and leave.)

Wouldn't it be less radical to ask him to turn it off and smoke outside?

Frankly, I still find the extent of the anti-alcohol stand a bit baffling. Personally eschewing alcohol, that I understand. Avoiding it because of a specific personal health issue (alcoholism), I understand. Refusing to associate around a gaming table because other people have a beer or wine in hand, aren't drinking to excess, aren't disrupting the game with it? That's just weird to me.

This

We're perfectly happy to have folks drinking during our game. I don't tend to, but that's because I'm often driving. Nobody gets drunk.

Then again, we also smoke around our gaming table.

I can see how it would bother some poeple; but we're all fine with it, and so that's how it is.

Thank god, I thought we were the only ones on this board that allowed smoking

 

[TwoSix]

Wouldn't it be less radical to ask him to turn it off and smoke outside?
This

Thank god, I thought we were the only ones on this board that allowed smoking

It might be an American vs. European thing...smoking has pretty much become a public taboo here in the U.S. (at least on the coasts).

 

[Flatus Maximus]

Three of the seven people in our group brew their own oh-so-delicious beer so we're comfortable with drinking at the table. I'd go so far as to say that game night would be diminished if drinking were banned. In any case, we are responsible adults and know when to say "when." Oh, and the lone smoker goes outside to smoke, even during the cooold Minnesota winter months, poor bastard....

 

[Crothian]

The only time I have a problem with it is when I go to gaming and other people go there to drink. They have a few and think they are acting normal but they aren't and it disrubts the game.

I am happy to get together with my friends and play a game that works better with drinking or just sit around and unwind watching a movie or something else. But when I game I like to actually game.