Drinking While Gaming? Warning -- mature content (I hope)

[Arnwyn]

No drinking at my table. I don't particularly feel like dealing with the possible issues that might crop up.

And there's certainly no smoking or drugs on my property, much less at the table.

The above's all theoretical, though - in more than a decade, the issue has never come up.

 

[The Cardinal]

alcohol is allowed at my table - heavy drinking simply never occurs.

What we usually drink:

common:
beer (corona, various local (i.e. German) beers)
single malt (Laphroaig, Lagavulin)
cuban rum (7yrs+)
gin+tonic (bombay saphire)
wodka

uncommon:
champagne
wine
cocktails

rare:
Old Fashioned Hot Buttered Rum (Halloween, New Year's Eve, Unknown Armies)

Ingredients:
1 cup Sugar
1 cup Brown sugar, packed
1 cup Butter
2 cups vanilla Ice-cream
Rum
boiling Water
Nutmeg
Mixing instructions:
In 2-quart suacepan combine sugar, brown sugar and butter. Cook over low hear, stirring occasionally, until butter is melted (6-8 min). In large mixing bowl, combine cooked mixture with ice-cream, beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often until smooth (1-2 min). Store refrigerated up to 2 weeks or frozen up to one month. For each serving, fill mug with 1/4 cup mixture, 1 oz. rum and 3/4 cup boiling water, sprinkle with nutmeg.

 

[Belegbeth]

No drinking at my table. I don't particularly feel like dealing with the possible issues that might crop up...

Ummm... like people relaxing over a couple of beers?

How horrible!

 

[reveal]

rare:
Old Fashioned Hot Buttered Rum (Halloween, New Year's Eve, Unknown Armies)

Ingredients:
1 cup Sugar
1 cup Brown sugar, packed
1 cup Butter
2 cups vanilla Ice-cream
Rum
boiling Water
Nutmeg
Mixing instructions:
In 2-quart suacepan combine sugar, brown sugar and butter. Cook over low hear, stirring occasionally, until butter is melted (6-8 min). In large mixing bowl, combine cooked mixture with ice-cream, beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often until smooth (1-2 min). Store refrigerated up to 2 weeks or frozen up to one month. For each serving, fill mug with 1/4 cup mixture, 1 oz. rum and 3/4 cup boiling water, sprinkle with nutmeg.

Yum! Looks I'm going to have to stop by the store after work. I wonder if the cashier will think I'm weird for buying a bottle of rum and a tub of ice cream?

Edit: On second thought, his look will probably be no worse than when I bought that six-pack of Vaseline and the spatula.

 

[Piratecat]

Belegbeth, that's not necessary. Please don't let this thread devolve into finger-shaking from either side.

 

[Farganger]

Most (but not all) of the players in the weekly game I host and DM have a beer or two in the social hour when we first gather; the DM's wife at the weekly game I play in sometimes pours us a shot of Crown Royal before we order dinner. I haven't ever observed any problems with this, and I certainly hope a couple of drinks doesn't seriously impair my DMing ability.

It is interesting how our perceptions of these things change . . . and, indeed, we do seem *frailer* than our ancestors. Samuel Johnson was a celebrated scholar and wit, despite his heroic consumption of port. During my years in Oxford, most students had a few drinks at lunch and a few more of an evening without (much) effect on their studies or conversation.

Alas, for the era of the three martini lunch (not so long gone, in point of fact). Sic transit gloria mundi . . .

On a jollier note, I'm off to the annual meeting of the Somerset Club, and I expect we'll muddle through, even though blue ruin, the demon rum, and what have you will doubtless be in evidence.

In all seriousness, we've never had a problem, but then again, I've never had a player have more than three or four drinks over the course of a long evening. And, to admit my own frailty, as a DM I haven't considered exceeding four myself - fatigue sets in too easily at this age!

 

[LazerPointer]

I only game with friends; new people are welcome, they just usually turn into friends pretty quick. I've been gaming with a few guys I met six months ago that wouldn't smoke weed, and the other two friends and I do on occasion. Everybody drinks a few beers during a game now and then. Heck, most of the characters we make are bigger drunks than us, so there's no harm in playing them realistically.

Do the RP puritans on this board tend to play characters that turn their nose up to drinking as well? Do you come upon bands of filthy kobolds sitting in squalor around dirty kegs, slaying them in their drunken crapulence?

In the game I run, I wouldn't mind having a few of the players be stoned. It's something I've been meaning to suggest, actually. The sober ones would keep a good handle on logistics, and a good time would be had by all.

It seems like a lot of the "problems" people describe or fear only happen when people are inexperienced with what they're doing. Even in the above session, I'm confident that the stoned players would handle their characters well.

The guy who said most of you wouldn't recognize that he was on something was probably right, although I'd be suspicious if his pupils were the size of saucers.

 

[nerfherder]

About half the time someone will bring a bottle of wine or a few beers. The host and those not drinking will help themselves while the drivers might have one glass. We're all at work the next day, so there's never any thoughts of getting even vaguely drunk.

Noone smokes or indulges in any other drugs, so that issue has never come up.

Cheers,
Liam

 

[Grapeshot]

Great Topic. Here is my opinion, if you can drink and moderation, still participate as normal in the game, then it is not a problem. If your drinking is making others uncomfortable, or others not enjoy the game, then it needs to go.

Here are some other tips:

Drink the night before, alot, so much that you won't want to drink on game night.

Consider another night of the week, every so often, to get together and chat, drink, play board games.

Set a house rule: No drinking during the game.

Start 2 hours earlier, at the end of the game, pull out the beers! (Or whatever you like to drink).

I tried drinking during the games but I couldn't follow what was going on. I am a big drinker though, so it wasn't uncommon for me to drink 12-20 beers during a 7 hour game. Also, I over did it one time, passed out at the table, and scared off a possible new gamer/player.

I have been a sober gamer ever since. We play on Saturday from 5 - 12. I make sure to get all of my drinking out of my system on Friday.

Lastly I will say that you are partly to blame for your friends DUI. If you don't feel a little responsible, you should. If he would have hit somone, and hurt them, you could have been charged. From now on I suggest that you tell your players that if they drink during the game, then they must do it in moderation (1 to 2 beers an hour depending on weight). Or you will have to end the game earlier and make them sober up. Or you may suggest telling them no drinking at all. Not just for themselves, but for the consideration of others.

Just my opinions there . I'm usually under the assumption that, if you are drinking, you are an adult, and thus need to act so when it comes to driving. If you think you have had to much. Just wait a while or sleep over. I can remember many nights that my DM let me drive home (or other friend at other party) and I should not even have had the keys. Some people, like myself, just need parenting. Kinda sad really.

 

[MacMathan]

Beer and Wine are the most common alchohols at our tables. All in moderation 98% of the time so it is no problem. We all provide crash space on the rare occasion someone should not drive.

Smokers are relegated to the outdoor areas and are usually more than polite about the timing.

It seems like as we have gotten older the tendency for excess has faded, as has the use of illegal substances.

Now Poker nights are another story