How Do You Curb Table Talk?

[kengar]

The two things I would suggest are:

1) Keep the screen and books down for the first 15-30 minutes of the night. Talk, chitchat, whatever. Then, once the conversation seems to be waning -or focussed on the game ("Did my character get the rest of his CON damage back yet?"), sit down, set up the screen and say -in a loud, clear voice- "Okay Gametime! When we last left off..." Setting up the screen and making a game-time "announcement" is a visual and verbal signal that chat-time is over and play is beginning.

2) Keep things moving. If the group isn't focussed enough on what's happening, FOCUS them. "When in doubt, have two armed men burst into the room" was Raymond Chandler's advice on writing a detective story. If table chatter gets too far afield for too long, hit them with a curve ball. A ghost walks right out of the dungeon wall and does a spectral attack on one of the party. There's an explosion from further down the hallway and a cloud of smoke fills the corridor.

It doesn't have to be a combat. For town adventures you can do all sorts of things: Tell the wizard he just noticed that his +3 Ring of Protection is missing from his finger (A nimble street urchin stole it a few minutes ago while he was deep in conversation with the paladin.). Have a young half-orc fall dead at one of their feet; a knife in the back. Don't "punish" them; the ring is recoverable and the half-orc isn't actually their problem. Maybe they pursue the "mystery", maybe not, but get their attention on the game where it belongs. This also has the side-benefit of discouraging meta-game thinking since not every encounter event is critical to the central plot.

Will these things matter in a week or so to the campaign? Not necessarily, but the players are thinking about the game again instead of last night's episode of Reality TV.

Anyway, that's my advice, feel free to use or ignore.

 

[Corinth]

There's no excuse for this disrespectful behavior. People have telephones, e-mail, snail-mail and other forms of communication. They ought to use them--and not time scheduled for gaming--to stay connected. Time scheduled for gaming is meant to be spent actually playing the game, not talking about the latest hot chick TV star or neat action movie; if you want to do that, then make time for it and do it away from the gaming table. Tolerating such behavior is counter-productive and detracts from actually playing the game.

 

[PowerWordDumb]

There's no excuse for this disrespectful behavior. People have telephones, e-mail, snail-mail and other forms of communication. They ought to use them--and not time scheduled for gaming--to stay connected. Time scheduled for gaming is meant to be spent actually playing the game, not talking about the latest hot chick TV star or neat action movie; if you want to do that, then make time for it and do it away from the gaming table. Tolerating such behavior is counter-productive and detracts from actually playing the game.

If that works for you, great. For many of us, however, gaming is quite fun but mainly an excuse to spend time together away from work, wives, and responsibilities. It's not something that requires or deserves olympic-training type dedication. Anyone who came across with a hardline attitude like that around our group would be deemed a pompous ass not worth spending any time with.

A more productive approach that won't drive away your friends might be to allow for some reasonable amount of chit-chat, but encourage it to happen before & after the game session - you can facilitate that by scheduling a larger block of time than you really need for each session.

What works best for us is that chitchat and ooc discussion typically falls naturally into the frequent smoke-breaks initiated by our DM and a couple of players. Those of us who don't smoke enjoy tagging along for the chitchat, but we can also stay inside and work on our characters if need be.

Problems among friends that you actually want to maintain as friends are better solved with a velvet glove than an iron fist.

 

[King_Stannis]

I curb it by generally allowing it to an extent. The only time I don't abide it is during the middle of a role-played conversation or something like that. But if it's during a lull in the action or even during combat (provided it isn't slowing things down), then I don't care too much. As long as they aren't talking while I'm saying something as an NPC, I'm okay with a little chatter. The key is to allow it a little and then shepherd the game back on course.

There are special times, however, when I might want to finish an adventure that night and it is going to be tight timewise. If that's the case, I'll generally make an announcement beforehand to keep the chatter to a minimun and then, if they follow through, I give them with a few extra reward chips. Generally speaking, my players are good in that respect. If they hear me say we need to finish something they'll help me out.

It is an excuse to have fun, so I'd be wary of being a total chatter-nazi.

 

[Desdichado]

We typically have a pretty bad table talk "problem" as well, especially when all the wives are playing. We don't worry too much about it, though. If it's burning you out as DM, just talk to the folks and say you're feeling DM burnout. Take a break, play some other games for a little while, but don't "quit" your campaign, just end the season, let them get their summer reruns out of their system and try again. You will find, probably, that either 1) they're interested enough in playing again that they have better focus after that, or 2) you don't care anymore about table talk.

 

[MarauderX]

Death.

I hate it too, but I like the friendliness that you seem to have. I would ask that they come earlier too, especially if you want to get anywhere. I like to DM fast moving sessions with less talk time than most, and I do this by limiting my group size.

A thought: Split it up into two groups for awhile if you can, having PCs go with them by separating them in some way. Then later on have them all meet up again once a month, plan a longer session, and muddle through it just once a month instead of every week.

 

[Ao the Overkitty]

Shoot one player every hour until they stop chit-chatting... LOL

Actually, this is kind of the method in the d20 Modern game I play in. We have a set arrival time, but not a set start gaming time. We're pretty lax about when we actualy start so far (latest starting time being 4& 1/2 hours after arrival time) but, once we start playing, the DM's sniper monkeys come out. If there is friendly insults or other useless banter at the table once he's got the game going, the sniper monkeys start shooting out characters.

A less lethal version of getting the group back on track comes from a game my girlfriend played in back at home. The DM had an Elf that would effectively Spring Attack in, whap the player with a stick (doing 1-3hp of subdual or the like), and then spring back out. Was apparently effective in getting the group back on track.

 

[Umbran]

Figure out who falls into your camp and keep them. Lose everyone else.

Yeah, right! And don't bother with any of that silly "talking to the players about the problem" nonsense. The whole idea of this being a cooperative effort is complete twaddle! How can you be a maniacal dictator if you waste time asking people's opinions on the matter? Actually giving these plebian fools a modicum of input will only serve to dilute your pure, unique vision, weakening your absolute monopoly and control! Bwahahaha!

 

[Kichwas]

I do nothing to curb it.

The way I see it it's a social gathering, and I want the people I've gathered to get along and bond - so I just go with the flow on table talk and when I feel the time is right I start talking as GM with something like "Ok, you've collected up all the vampiric teddy bears, but the Barbie zombies are still massing in the park where you left Zygo the Wonder Monkey earlier, what are you going to do next?"

 

[frankthedm]

I am by far the sickest of the group, so i tend to drive the conversation to a point where the rest of the group is left speachless [and without appitite] for short time. Thats when its back to game.