What etiquette rules do we assume is common in the community?

[bloodtide]

This does cross a bit with my houserules:

1.Show up on time, with everything you need to play and WANT to play.

2.Be bathed and clean and smell nice.

3.You should bring a LOT of food, snacks and drinks for yourself.

4.Get rid of the phone. You came here to game. If you "can't" put the phone down, feel free to stay home and be on your phone.

5.No physical violence or bullying. No "saying words" or talkling about "things" .You can "not like" someone just fine and play a game with them.

6.No flirting, hitting on, or anything like that during the games and even on the breaks. Do it on your own time.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

This thread seems dominated by people who are much more openly opinionated and controlling over other people's odors and eating habits than me or anyone I've ever gamed with.

 

[Jd Smith1]

This thread seems dominated by people who are much more openly opinionated and controlling over other people's odors and eating habits than me or anyone I've ever gamed with.

Speaking for myself and the vast majority of gamers I have known since 1979, body odor is a deal breaker. It also indicates a unacceptable lack of respect for the social activity that is F2F gaming.

I wouldn't call it controlling, however. Its a simple management of expectations: if you stink, and can't be bothered to bathe, you won't be at my table. I won't bother to encourage or induce you to change, you'll simply be turned away at the door and never invited again.

 

[overgeeked]

Are there certain rules of etiquette that you not only assume but, if broken, would cause you leave the game if broken?

Have good hygenie. Don't power game or metagame. Don't read the module or the monster stats. No railroading. No quantum ogres. Don't exclude players. If a new player comes into the game, bring their character in ASAP. Don't wait for the "proper story moment". The proper moment is when they show up to play. A PC dies, bring their replacement in the next room or next scene.

Do you have any stories of joining a table that had very different rules of etiquette than you were used to? These can be horror stories or, perhaps more interesting, situations where it was a positive eye opener or refreshing change.

I was in a fairly long-running superheroes game. A new player showed up at the start of one session. The referee introduced him and we started playing. I kept waiting for the referee to bring his character into the game, but nope. We played for about 4-5 hours and at the very end the referee introduced the new player's character, had a moment of "and in flies this new person, describe your character...okay. End of session. Same time next month?" I was pissed for that guy. I asked him about it and he told me the referee said he's introduce his character at the right story beat. He wasn't expecting that to be the end of the night. Poor guy sat there for 4-5 hours watching us play. I dropped out of the group after that and never looked back.

Are there common rules of etiquette that chafe you? Expectations that you find to be common but annoying or overly constricting?

Not really. Most of them fall under variations of Wheaton's Law, the aforementioned "don't be a dick."

 

[DrunkonDuty]

If you're going to drone on about your character for an hour, do the decent thing and spend at least 5 minutes listening to the other person do the same thing.

Yes, I do have a specific friend in mind.

 

[Clint_L]

Hmmm...my session 0 rules at school are basically:

1. Treat everyone with respect.
2. No talking over another player or the DM - wait your turn.
3. Consent is never assumed.
4. No telling someone else how to play their character.
5. No stealing from the party.
6. Be engaged.
7. No meme names.
8. Be on time.
9. We run a PG game, meaning no gratuitous violence, sex, drugs, etc.
10. No cheating.

I probably add other stuff, too, but it's not like I have to go on about it - most of these things are obvious, but still must be said. Electronic devices are not only okay, they are required, because we play using DnDBeyond, but that doesn't mean texting with your friend while we are playing.

The most frequent problem I run into is with #4: No telling other people how to play their character. We sometimes will have a player who is very knowledgeable about the game playing with total rookies, and the experienced player often wants to be "helpful" by telling the newbies what the "optimal" strategy is, etc. If a player asks for advice, I will tolerate a brief suggestion, but in general, I shut this down right away: "Shush - let them do their thing." It's how people learn to play and feel ownership of their part in the game, and if they don't do the optimal thing...so what?

 

[GuyBoy]

A couple of posters mention choice of character names, which raises the question of players who choose “silly” names and whether this impacts on other players and their suspension of disbelief.
The reason I raise this is that my tabletop group tends to play quite serious and dark-ish fantasy, but we used to have a player who insisted on somewhat juvenile pun names for his character, which the rest of us found irritating in the role play sense.
Examples included Wassin Aname, Biggus Dickus, Reetard and similar. He left the group for other life reasons but I certainly found his name choices annoying.
Maybe I was wrong?

 

[S'mon]

5.No physical violence or bullying.

I do assume this etiquette is common in the community!

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

No cross, no crown. (Yes, that means T-shirts.)

Be sober. (Yes, that means weed too.)

Engage with the game on its own terms. You cannot be a Jedi because this is not Star Wars.

If it belongs to me and it costs more than $5, you may not touch it.

No smokers.

Don't make me say something three times. Twice is pushing it.

Drinks shall be in bottles and the caps shall be on and tight when not being drunk from. There will be no Pepsi Syndrome here.

 

[bloodtide]

A couple of posters mention choice of character names,

I'm fine with silly names. Any name can sound silly.

True Story: a couple year ago a Chinese fighter pilot clipped at USA spy plane, and crashed and was killed. The pilots name? Wong Wav. That's reality for you....

My bigger problem with names is the "clever" bad word slur. Take your word, and add some ' and think you are all clever. Or using the safe "common" word to refer to something.

I even have to draw the line at players wanting to name a character something like "Pea" or "But".