Group Glue - Top things that keep a gaming group together

[StalkingBlue]

Triggered by Emirikol's thread on gaming groups breaking apart.



Here are some bits of 'group glue' I've seen work:

- Life allowing for gaming. Obvious one, that: if you can't get together, there's no game.

- A DM who provides a fun and challenging game in a style that is authentic for him/her. No good trying to warp yourself into a different creature if your style and your group's preferred style don't fit, it's never going to work well.

- Players who contribute actively to the game, who like the DM's style ok and whose individual styles mesh with the DM's and with each other's.

- People (DM and players) who get on well with each other. Helps resolving conflicts, which will rear their ugly heads in the best and most mature groups (heck, it's a creative activity, vulnerable egos are going to get involved at times!), plus it makes game nights more fun. I can't say I enjoy gaming with people I wouldn't want to hang out with otherwise - I'll do it at a Con and have fun, but not in an ongoing campaign.


What's your group glue?

 

[Crothian]

We are friends outside of game
We trust and respect each other

 

[FireLance]

1. None of us are jerks.
2. Jerks quickly get booted from the group.
3. We have compatible playing styles: rules-stickler, combat-heavy, easy suspension of disbelief.
4. When things go wrong, e.g. the fighter rolls minimum damage after missing three times in a row, or the ranger's animal companion outshines him in combat, we don't make the player feel bad. It's all part of the fun of the game.
5. We play to have fun, and we recognise that if it isn't fun, something isn't right.

 

[pogre]

Players are decent human beings who are willing to cooperate to make the game work. Arguments are nearly non-existant and everyone likes each other. I have had to boot a couple of folks who were probably fine players, but did not fit in with our "chemistry."

 

[Steverooo]

Cyanoacrylate?

 

[Wombat]

Similarity in play-style really helps a lot! My gamers are rules-after-story, so-so on combat, and love acting in character, so as I group we are pretty compatible.

Also important is having FUN being together. We really look forward to the game, not only for the game itself, but also for seeing each other. It becomes a high-point for each of us away from the workaday world.

Making the game not MY game, but OUR game. I may be the GM, but everyone is involved in making the world (from adding bits of colour to fully mapping out cities). The sense of cooperation in the game is fantastic!

Admitting wrongs. When I put together a campaign and it is obviously not working, I apologize and retool. When one of the players realizes his character is disruptive, again apologies and creation of a new character or retooling of the older one to fit with the group.

In other words we don't just game together, we are friend.

 

[Belegbeth]

Blackmail.

It works for me.

 

[random user]

Being friends outside the game helps a lot.

All have the same style is of course key.

When I am DMing also something I try to do is to have something for them to think about in between sessions. We play once a week, and having them do that both gets them more involved as well as helps them remember what's happening. Of course, if your group is combat heavy and intrigue/politics light, then ignore that.

One other thing that I've done that the players seem to enjoy is I encourage them all to keep journals, and I award bonus story XP for a decent journal. We keep all the journals together on a website and it's actuallly kind of fun reading other peoples' journal and getting insight into each others characters.

 

[James Heard]

As long as I keep the Dark Gods appeased, my fellow gamers do not dare oppose me by leaving.

On a related note, if anyone has any unwanted kittens and puppies ...