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Message: <blockquote data-quote="+5 Keyboard!" data-source="post: 3823489" data-attributes="member: 48586">You really can't avoid it, only minimize it. Try to remove some of the things that would be distracting beforehand, but otherwise, all of that stuff is kind of a part of the game. You just have to try to keep things flowing and interesting enough that the players find the game itself the most interesting distraction in the room.Incidentally, myself and some other writers from the <a href="http://www.werecabbages.com/" target="_blank">WereCabbages</a> wrote a d% encounter list called "Short Encounters for Short Attention Spans" for exactly this kind of thing, which will be included in a 64 page book in the near future. Basically, if the group is fading on you or the game is devolving into out of game conversations and jokes, you roll on this table and announce that this encounter is happening. It doesn't really matter if it doesn't make sense. It often gets the group's attention by virtue that it doesn't.The point is to get the players back into the game, trying to figure out what the hell just happened. laughing about it afterwards, and basically ready to get back to the regular flow of the game again.Here's a few from the list to whet your appetite.17    A stubborn innkeeper demands the adventurers dance for their supper.18    An ashen faced witchdoctor throws powder at the party and vanishes.19    One of the adventurers is on a MISSING poster.20    A goblin runs up to a male character jabbering, “Daddy! Daddy!”21    A mob of young commoners rushes the heroes demanding autographs.</blockquote>

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