Describe your "gaming area" please

[dreaded_beast]

I started another thread about preparing to DM a game and asking how a DM prevents themselves from feeling lethargic, sleepy, unenthusiastic, etc., before a game starts and how to mentally prepare themselves for the game.

You can find the thread here:
http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?p=1387464#post1387464

After reading some responses, I think another problem I face as a newbie DM is my "gaming area". I hold my games in my bedroom, which has VERY limited space. Basically, my player lies on the bed, I sit on a chair next to the bed, and we have a "battle grid" on the bed between us.

For the most part, my player is comfortable, but I am very cramped, I am between my bed and my desk, with my books on the floor on either side, and my laptop on top of the battle grid.

I would play on the table outside, but, I'm ashamed to say it, I would rather not play DND in front of my family, heh. Although my player and I are adults, my folks help me out by letting me live with them. That being the case, I would rather not have my family come around and wondering what we are doing and having to explain it to them. I know, this is a poor attitude to have, but that's just me, heh.

Anyways, I'm thinking about getting a small fold-out table to put in my room, although I don't know where it would fit since the bed takes up almost all the room and the only open space is the walking space to the door.

So what is your gaming area like? Pros and cons of your area and do you think the real-life "game environment" can have an impact on how "fun" your games are?

 

[Desdichado]

I don't know how useful this will be to you, but hey, you asked.

At my house, I prefer to play in the "family room." It's got a TV so I can put on some quiet background music (all ripped from movie soundtracks onto a single CD full of mp3s, and set to shuffle), it's got a couch, a loveseat, and a glider rocking chair, and I can bring in another chair for me to sit on in front of the stereo. There's a coffee table in the middle, which for d20 is nice, as it gives me a place to put the battlemap (for other games I played in the past, that wasn't an issue, but d20 seems much smoother with a battlemap.) It only works for smallish groups of about 4 players + me, but that's OK. Barring that, the kitchen table is OK, but I don't particularly like sitting on kitchen chairs for hours at a time...

 

[Gospog]

I find that having a table really helps focus the group. This may not be an issue with a one-player group.

My gaming area is a finished basement with a large dining room table, dominated by a dry-rease battle-grid.

The room itself is a library holding all of my RPG books, comics, and all of our other books besides.

 

[Gnarlo]

We play in the spare bedroom in my house, "my office" per my wife . It has a folding table, folding (cushioned) metal chairs, my computer for record keeping/illustration/music/sound fx, and lots of shelves for books, minis, terrain, etc.

 

[Ferox4]

Find some more space. Can you play at your player's place? Basement or attic? Ugh! The thought of that little room just freaks me out! No offense, I know we have to work with what we have.

 

[Shallown]

I game in my living room. I have a large Coffee table and use it for my battle maps and such. even with the large one I use there is still room for the players to put their stuff around the edge. I sit at one end of a couch with all my books/stuff at one table end. Two other people sit on the couch and two sit on the love seat that is at the other end of the table. Then 3 others sit opposite the couch in kitchen chairs. So we have a central focus on the table and when not using that everyone can lean backon the couch and chairs. the kitchen chairs are sometime suncoformtable becuase they sit above the coffe table so much, when this happens the players sually sit on the floor and use the chairs as tables for their stuff. Its a little cramped with 7 people but not too much so.

Sounds like you might need a better place to game. The bed maynot be conducive to gaming.

later

 

[Calico_Jack73]

Right now I hold my games on my dining room table which being adjacent to the living area I like to have fires in the fireplace and mood music on the stereo. It is a bit cramped though and with 6 players and myself a dining room table without a leaf is too small. When my wife and I quit renting and buy a house later this year I plan on having a finished basement and I'll buy a ping pong table. When I was stationed in South Korea my gaming group used a ping pong table and it was the greatest gaming table ever! They fold up and roll away when you are done with them and they are big enough that 12 people can comfortably sit around them with plenty of room for battlemats, books, drinks, etc.

 

[Henry]

I second the call about finding some more space if possible. How much trouble would it cause to invite some of the family to learn and play? Just a suggestion, and depends on whether some of the family have any moral objections to playing the game.

For myself, we are lucky in that two of the single players about two years ago acquired houses of their own. Prior to then, we switched venues a lot, we would play at my cramped house, or at some other players', even several times in a 10' x 30' beauty salon! (You haven't lived until you've played D&D perched in an adjustable barber's chair and used upright hair curlers for ogre minis. )

Now, at one friend's house, we have a large living room with a bare middle floor, and segmented by two small "bars/nook tables" in one third. I set up with the table in the middle, with the DM between the nooks, which make excellent flanking tables for drinks, minis, books, etc. Leaving the DM's screen clear of anything but notes and dice.

At the other house, we have a large dining room with full table which has enough space for at least 8 people.

For play space, we've got now better than we've had it in ten years.

 

[Wyn A'rienh]

We game in our living room. We have a super long couch (seats four people comfortably) and a loveseat with a big ol' trunk in the middle that gets used as the battlemat/snacks/rolling table. The DM has his own seperate little table where he does all his little, conniving DM things. There's a stereo for background music, nice lighting and comfy seats. I much prefer it to sitting around a table.

 

[Telperion]

Basement of an apartment building. Great ventilation, a cozy sofa, two sofa chairs, a billiard table for combat scenes and even a kitchen for the hungry. There's also a TV, but anyone who so much as touches the remote is dead meat. It's meant for use among those who live in the building, but no one seems to mind. And I do live there, so...

The whole thing is very spacious.