Does anyone else argue about agreeing... No, really

[sabrinathecat]

So, once again, there were some hurt feelings and a tantrum today, because we were too busy agreeing with each other to let each other talk. So we were talking over each other.
And the voice of reason (me for once) came up with "It's ____'s turn, let him explain it." And the argument continued.
99% of the time, everything goes fine, but every once in a while, one of these comes up. Because we care.
We get invested in the game.

Next week, we get together again and keep going as if nothing ever happened.
And sometimes that means we get into the same argument where we agree about the rules from 2 different perspectives, with the same math, and the same results, and... Yeah, we get to the same place. But we argue it out.
Half the time I just sit back and watch, waiting for it to be over.
Sometimes I have to wade it.
Doesn't matter whether I'm the DM or Player.
In a way it is funny.
Some times, it would be nice to skip the argument.
The funniest part is about 80% of the argument is someone trying to help another player understand his own power.

Does this happen to anyone else?

 

[delericho]

It's been known to happen. In a past gaming group, someone came up with a rule - if the group gets distracted for too long (on any subject), anyone present can intone "GAME!", and that puts an end to it - all arguments are to be dropped, and we move on.

It actually worked rather well.

 

[fba827]

If I understand your post correctly then, yes, it does occasionally happen with people I know as well.

What usually happens is we have someone saying "Okay, so it sounds like we are all saying the same end result - so let us work with that end result so that we can move on, and we can each individually visualize the rationalization for it however we need to individually in our own heads..."

 

[sabrinathecat]

I know. Really, does it matter whether I hit AC34 vs a creature with 28 or if I hit AC 36 vs creature with 30? I hit or I missed. Number here doesn't matter. But with combat advantage (shadow walk, flanking, dazed, etc), concealment, curse, Astral Seal, -2 ac save ends, +2 to hit with ___ power, and a whole stack of other conditions, people shouting out numbers phrased differently that mean the same thing... wow.

 

[sabrinathecat]

Anyone have any suggestions?
Some people have gotten really bent out of shape sometimes.
I prefer to avoid the 10-30 minutes of attitude.

 

[I'm A Banana]

The best thing to do is to try and convince people to frickin' relax about it.

Look, it doesn't matter. It's a game. This is all make-believe with magical gumdrop elves, and it's not worth anyone's time and effort in quibbling about rules minutiae. The only "right" answer is the one that makes the game more fun for everyone at your table.

So screw it. Drop it. Let it go. Calm down. Get some perspective. Get on with the important thing, here.

Which is pretending to be a magical gumdrop elf.

"Correct" doesn't matter. What matters is what's fun in the moment. Except for some distinctly odd groups, fun generally isn't "debating rules quibbles."

I get that we're all dorks about this, so it's sometimes hard to put that away, but really, what's at stake here? If you're right and the game moves on anyway, it's not the end of the world (especially if you're playing a game where one die roll can't kill you).

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Usually that indicates it's time for a snack break.

 

[Random Bystander]

I've seen people arguing about whether they're arguing.

DM needs to make a ruling, then everyone moves on. Look up rules afterwards.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

This is the responsibility of the DM. He needs to tell everyone else to shut up, make a ruling (and players should respect their DM enough to indeed shut up and accept his rulings) and the game moves on. If everyone continues to argue around the table when a question comes up it's the DM who should be re-establishing order. It is his job - or at least one of his jobs.

 

[pemerton]

In the session I GMed on the weekend I made a mistake: a monster was dazed, but I forgot and noone had put a marker on its token. So I took my full suite of actions, and this triggered the use of a daily interrupt by the invoker to get out of a sticky situation. Which was fairly awesome in itself (Uncanny Insight + Thunderwave to blow two demons of a bridge onto the rocks 100'+ feet below). And then, after it had all be resolved, the player of the invoker realised the monster was dazed and so could never have done what it did.

I ruled "too late" and the game moved on. Sometimes I allow takebacks, or will enforce takebacks against myself if I'm called on it. But not if a whole sequence has been resolved and we'd be undoing five minutes of play.

It helps if everyone at the table is reasonably good-humoured, and if the burdens of forgetfullness end up being reasonably fairly distributed.