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Message: <blockquote data-quote="bwgwl" data-source="post: 227498" data-attributes="member: 3876">firstly, these answers are based solely on my own particular style of gaming.yes. as the Jester and BG said, it's the difference between watching an activity and performing it. you can't expect their full attention unless they are fully involved in the process.yes! firstly about not speaking in character, not everyone is good at talking in character. i know i'm horrible at it. if a player isn't all that eloquent, why not let him just sort of narrate what he wants his character to get across?i am a fairly socially-inept person -- i'm very shy and don't like speaking in public. i once played a character with the D&D equivalent of an 18 Charisma and maxed out social interaction skills. if the GM had forced me to speak in character all the time for this PC, he would have sucked at the very thing he was supposed to excel at. so normally, i'd just paraphrase what my character was trying to say, and then make a skill check. worked for us. we don't make people with characters in combat actually swing real weapons around and base their chance to hit on how well they do it. we don't make people with rogue characters actually try to pick a real lock, etc. why do so many people assume we have to do the same thing for the interaction skills?secondly, about not speaking out of turn: this isn't elementary school. gaming is a social activity. at least with the groups i've gamed with, we're there as much to hang out with each other as we are to play the game. conversation outside of the game has its place. also, if you really, really, have something you want to talk about, it's hard to stifle it for the four-to-eight hours that a typical game session lasts...i don't think you should, and i definitely don't. i don't mind a significantly high "signal-to-noise" ratio. in one group i played in, we would meet for about 10-12 hours every two weeks, and get maybe 3-4 hours of gaming in during that time. there was always something else cool or too important to talk about! no one really minded, and we all loved the campaign anyways.i don't think you should even try to make them stop. it may cause resentment, and i don't think it would necessarily improve your game overmuch.</blockquote>

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