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

[Maldur]

We have a no booze during game rule.
It came into being for two reasons:
1) People have to drive home, and I wont anyone leave my house if they have drunk alcohol, ad need to drive.
2) we had a player who could not control himself and have only one or two beers. He would get rowdy and ruin the game.

 

[Sammael]

Even though I enjoy a good drink every once in a while myself, I disapprove of alcohol at the gaming table. A beer or two is the absolute maximum that I'll allow my players.

None of my current players are on any kind of drugs (that I am aware of), so that's not an issue.

 

[Nifft]

The rule at my table is: if anyone's uncomfortable with it, no-one indulges. If everyone's comfortable, first round's on me!

We live in NYC, so no-one will drive home -- it's trains or walking, which are both easily accomplished when buzzed.

We had some great times when under various influences in the past. Now we have a slightly different group, and have a great time without those influences. (I'm even drinking decaf. Adulthood is sucktastic.)

-- N

 

[DiFier]

I enjoy drinking but D&D and drinking are two different things. We don't drink at our games. I don't see why I need to drink to enjoy something. Perhaps it is just how I learned to roleplay but I like to be in control fo my gaming and not to have alchol control my game. I don't think that drinking duriong D&D would be fun I use D&D to escape from reality I also use beer to escape from reality . I don't combine my escapes from reality.

 

[johnsemlak]

In Russia gaming (my group excluded--It's mostly non-Russians anyway) is often an EXCUSE to gather and drink, and drink excessively. The Tolkien reinactment LARPers are especially known for this, so I hear. Could be dangerous if people use any dangerous props...

I don't bring alchohol to my games, though I don't mind if others do.

 

[K'Plah Q'Houme]

We live in copenhagen denmark, the land of beer, offcourse we have a few occasionally, but it's not a habit for us to bring alcohol to the game. As for drugs... no way.

 

[Telperion]

I have had one player in my group who occasionally brough beer to the sessions. Well, one bottle anyway, and it never bothered anyone. Personally I don't enjoy losing control of the game by hindering my own thinking with alcohol.

I don't drink that much to start with so anything I consume would go straigth to my head...not fun...

 

[Belegbeth]

I love beer (Canadian, eh!), but too much can get in the way of a good gaming session. Still, some can help people relax a bit, and get into the roleplaying (especially if they're stressed about work, or outside concerns).

In my last campaign, we typically gamed in the evening (6-midnight), and almost always had a few (1-3) beers during that time, typically after 9 pm. It was a nice compliment to the game, and a small number of beers only improved the mood.

After particularly exciting sessions, we would go to the local pub and celebrate! Good times, those ...

And there's nothing like a good mircro-brew to go with a good home-brew campaign setting.

 

[dontpunkme]

Yeah my group follows a rule of it depends on who. Some guys can drink and still focus, others become useless piles of flesh that take up room and disturb the game. It really depends on the person in question and also the responsibility of said person.

As per drugs, in one game I DM'ed for a while, every player in the game was a stoner (just smoked pot nothing serious like heroin or coke) and me the DM wasn't. I had known most the guys for years and had been around them several times when they had been high before. Most of them didn't really pose a problem. I use most because 2 did. One tore up his character sheet when another player said take whatever you want from the "treasure" of a goblin hunting party out for whatever game they could find. Apparently he didn't like writing when high. The other player completely ed up directions given to his player the cleric and somehow led the party to the mountains for no apparent reason. Given that the party was still 2nd level and was ill-equipped for mountaineering it lead to a TPK. After that experience I pretty much banned smoking illicit substances during games that I GM'ed.

As per calling the police on a player who uses drugs, don't. Drugs are often a temporary phase for most people and legal troubles will not help solve the problem. Talk to the person, their parents (if they're still a kid), or someone else who can help them quit without making a mark on their permanent record that could haunt them for life.

 

[the Jester]

Interesting responses so far...

My group parties pretty hard when we game, and if things get too 'loose' we call it a night early. One of my rules is that your state of intoxication is no excuse for your character being stupid- if you canna handle your intoxicants, save 'em for later!

We generally drink a few twelve-packs (large group) in a typical 6-8 hour game session, and there is much smoking of that ol' devil weed. Not everyone in the group drinks and smokes, but the style is ingrained enough in our group that I'd think it would take a lot of work to change to a sober style.

We live in a town that is small enough to walk everywhere; so usually there will be one or two folks driving, and so far they've been pretty responsible about not drinking too much to get home; besides, if they ever did, they know they could have some couch or floor.