Can't game at your own house?

[Oryan77]

Could you play in the kitchen or dining area? Is your bedroom big enough to play in?
Maybe if you moved your bed?
Or should you find a new roommate? Maybe your girlfriend?
She is looking for a place anyway.

Our apartment isn't really big and playing in the dining room isn't any different than being in the living room...it's one of those combined living areas. We can't game when the TV is on and if he's watching tv it will still distract us in the dining area. I can't play in my room when all 4 of us play because there's not enough floor or bed space for everyone. I can't move the bed either :\

My gf and I aren't getting a place together because she wants to wait until we're married to "officially" be living together. She just graduated from college and is staying with me temporarily while she found a job & new home. Her parents don't know she is living with me & if they did, I wouldn't be typing this right now

do you have any libraries? Sometimes they allow people to use their rooms. Same thing for hobby stores.

Of course if you can find a local college, they may have room set up for that thing too. Some even have large areas or "study halls" where you can play regardless of going there or not as no one is really paying attention.

I've checked out the library in the past and the time is limited on how long you can use a study room. It's only like 2 hr limits. I work at Stanford University, maybe I can ask around about a place.

And I'd remind him of the above every time he opened his fat yap.

Yeah I agree. The problem though is that if he has friends over drinking, I have the choice to hang out with them and drink. He doesn't really have a choice to hang out with us because he has no interest in playing or watching.

 

[Imperialus]

I kinda have to second the oppinion put forward by a lot of the folks here and suggest that you and your GF get an apartment together. That's the only time my roomate problems stopped. As a stopgap solution does your apartment building have a common room of any kind? Even if you have to rent it out it would likely be cheeper than a hotel and you'd get fewer strange looks from the deskclerk when 4 or 5 guys and a single girl all troop into the same hotel room especially if you video tape your sessions and walk by the desk with a camcorder .

 

[kenobi65]

Please keep in mind also, this isn't about bashing my roommate. He's not the average prick; he's just a bit selfish sometimes which I think everyone is anyway.

I dunno, man...this attitude he's got about your game, and his right to dictate what goes on in the apartment, comes across, at least in your post, as a lot more than "just a bit selfish". Assuming you're both paying fairly equal shares of the rent, I think he's completely out of line.

That said, it sounds like you don't want to be confrontational about it. There's some good suggestions in this thread already. At least where I went to college, student organizations could get free rooms for meetings at the Student Union (that's what we used for a D&D game location for many years)...but the trick was that you needed to have at least 2 or 3 actual students to be a student organization.

 

[pntbllr]

... if he has friends over drinking, I have the choice to hang out with them and drink. He doesn't really have a choice to hang out with us because he has no interest in playing or watching.

The next time he has friends over tell him you don't feel like drinking and want to watch something really boring on tv. Complaign that they are being to loud or just turn up the tv to drown them out . If he can't take a hint or confronts you, just throw his own arguments back at him.

 

[Oryan77]

Give in for now, but make him decide when should when the game should be rescheduled.

And make him decide on, or at least specifically approve of, all the future game dates- as far in advance as you can schedule them.

That's not a bad idea. The way it stands now, even though he thinks he's compromising, he isn't. He's telling me to work around his schedule but if his schedule changes then I need to deal with it. So he's not sacrificing anything because he won't be around anyway...yet I will be sacrificing something. But maybe letting him set the dates and us both sticking to them no matter what is fair. So if we agree on a time he's gone and he doesn't leave, I still game. If we agree on a time and I can't play, I won't reschedule. I'll think about that.

 

[smootrk]

A comprimise could be that you do work around this room-mate's business trip schedule, and if he is away... then no problem, use your home. If he is going to be home, use a hotel room (which is a decent idea I never thought of except at convention time), or try some other options like the library idea.

If your group does not mind the stares and occasional question, you might try to use a local restaraunt or coffee shop. In my area there are a few buffet type restaraunts with quiet corners that would be ideal as long as the mgt. does not mind (and why would they, if everyone spent a little). A coffee shop could become a springboard to locating new interested people to gaming. I have thought of trying to get a couple of friends together to game a little in a coffee shop nearby just to see what happens with onlookers (are they interested?).

Good luck.

 

[Uder]

Schedule the game anyways, and see if he is able to be such a turd when he's not just pushing one person around.

I'd kick him out and get a new roommate.

 

[Old Fezziwig]

I have to admit that I kind of had an odd time with the options presented in the poll, but those were my choices. I'm the guy that suggested stopping, and I'll tell you why —

The thing is, I've lived with this roommate for over 3 years, he's a good guy regardless of this scenario, and if I kept playing now it will just create bad vibes between us and him and my friends.

If this is truly important to you and someone really is getting new housing soon, then maybe this isn't the worst option. I mean, it's your place, too, definitely, and I do think that you're in the right as far as I know things, but I think the question is whether this is the hill you want to die on. That said, hexgrid and smootrk's suggestions are good, too.

Nick

 

[DamionW]

Assuming a 30 day month and 24 hours a day, have you considered refunding him 18/720th s of his share of the rent? That buys off the time he feels deprived of... Just another option to throw out there, and it's still probably cheaper than a hotel.

 

[Old Fezziwig]

Assuming a 30 day month and 24 hours a day, have you considered refunding him 18/720th s of his share of the rent? That buys off the time he feels deprived of... Just another option to throw out there, and it's still probably cheaper than a hotel.

That's an interesting one and could work nicely — who doesn't like money? Of course, you might object to it on principle, but I think it's pretty fair and easier than a hotel room.