How do you Play

[james bierly]

We meet about once a week on sundays from about 4:00-10:00 with a break for supper. I'm the GM. We meet at a friend of mine's house, in his basement. Comfortable chairs around a smallish table. It's a great place to do it, and I'm very thankful to my friend for letting us use it. The current campaign is low-level Eberron.

 

[Laurel]

We meet as often as possible for as long as possible and have the spoken rule of we don't play if more then one player short. This could be from twice a week to once a month, since it's coordinating seven schedules.
We meet at the DM's place, since he goes through piles of books and notebooks per session while we rifle through his or our one or two books. We each have a mini, and they at least make it to the table where a map is always laid out just in case.
For rules it's 3.5 in a homebrew, so lots of things have been adapted to the specific world. With this in mind house rules are common, and tend to make more sense flavor wise for us. None of us are the rules lawyers type, so breaking open the books mid-fight and game is common for all

 

[Salad Shooter]

At school: We run D&D 3e, strictly sticking to the books my DM has (mainly the 3e PHB, we just recently were allowed savage species). We use minis and meet as often as possible, usually once every two weeks or so

At home: We primarily run D&D 3.5, and you can play pretty much anything as long as you can justify it and it isn't disruptive. We also run Palladium Fantasy Games, Rifts games (SUPERB game), a number of the White Wolf WoD settings, various other d20 settings, some tabletop wargaming, this that and everyother thing.

 

[Psion]

We get together either Friday or Saturday, depending on what more people can make it to.

We play at my house, in my basement, at a table.

We use a battlemat, but I only end up positioning minis and drawing on the mat when I feel the situation is complicated enough to warrant it. Regardless of whether or not we use the matt, it is used as a portrayal of the situation like in 3.0 vice a driver of the rules as it 3.5.

I use 3.5 with some holdouts, house rules, and supplements. Frex, I use 3.0 concealment, retro some of the less rational spell and feat changes, use artificer's handbook, etc.

We gather around 4-5, have dinner, and usually play from 6-11 (which is an improvement; a while ago we often didn't get started until 7 or later.)

 

[Blue_Kryptonite]

There are between six and eight of us, depending on things. My wife and I are the oldest, both distressingly close to 40. Our two sons are teenagers (Well, one is an adult… 18). The rest of the group hovers between their mid 20s and 20s.

We used to play around our table in classic style once every two weeks, but time and tide have scattered us across the country. With one of our players visiting from Georgia for a week and vacations in force, we were still to busy to fit in even one game.

So we've moved to pure internet gaming, which is fun because I also run a MUX where we can chat, goof off, and play Superheroes in social-heavy consent-based-combat play just about every day, and focus on dice and linear adventures on message boards. Since we never used minis or battlemats, its a pretty quick process, and we actually get more game done than when we were all together.

 

[MerakSpielman]

We meet every Sunday at 4:00pm. 6 of us are married couples with small children/babies, and 2 of us are not. Gaming is a slow, stuttering process because of the kids, but that's why we started our own gaming group specifically for family people - we all expect it.

Usually we play until 8:00pm or so. Sometimes 3 of our members have to leave early to go to a book group at 6:00pm. When this happens we declare a "lack of quorum" (see below).

Quorum: if 2 or more people are missing, we play board games instead of D&D. We like complex strategy games like Settlers of Katan and Tikal. We also like anything by Cheap Ass Games.

We pick up 3 pizzas, some bread sticks, and four 2-liter sodas before each game and everybody puts a few bucks in an envelope in the kitchen.

We use D&D 3.5 rules, sit around a large dining room table, and have a nice, homemade battlemat in the middle (hard, transparent plastic with grid scored on with a razer blade, dry erase safe). I used to use a DM screen but then I couldn't see the battlemat, so I gave it up.

We have kids shows playing constantly in the adjoining room, hoping to distract the munchkins enough for us to get in some good, solid gaming. This has varying degrees of success, depending on how cranky the kids are.

After most people leave a couple friends usually stay and hang out until 11:30 or so.

Somehow we managed to find a group that is not only mostly parents of young kids, but also all Pagans or Wiccans (don't tell Jack Chick).

 

[Morpheus]

We have two games going on currently...

Game 1: Star Wars d20 that meets every other Friday from about 8 pm-11 pm. I play a (recent) Jedi Guardian and we have 2 other players and a GM.

Game 2: DnD3.5 that meets the same Saturday as the Star Wars game from 10 am-4 pm. I am the DM and we have between 3-5 players (3 most of the time). We just started an Eberron game after having played 3 unsuccessful sessions of the Fane of the Witch King.

 

[pogre]

We play every Wednesday at 7:00 PM and play to 10:30 PM. Occasionally, we play on a Saturday as well. The campaign breaks in the Fall September-October, and in the Spring April-May.

We play at a friends' house in their game room. Each character is represented with a miniature and almost every situation is laid out with scenery. I store my 30 sets of mastermaze and hirst arts projects in the game room along with a glass case full of miniatures. I feel fortunate to have such a great place to play.

Our group is older by most standards - ranging from late 20s to most of us in our late 30s and early 40s.

 

[GlassJaw]

Tues night group:

Meet from 7:00-10:30ish. 4 players + DM (me). Just started the Dungeon Adventure Path. Players are relatively new to 3.X. Mostly core material.

Sun night group:

Meet from 6:30-10:00ish. 5 players + DM. Currently finishing a 2+ year high-level, high-powered campaign. When it's done, we'll be alternating DM's (myself and another guy) running a Midnight and Grim Tales (me) campaign.

Both groups range in ages from 25 - mid 30's/40. Both use minis and battlemats.

 

[Talmun]

Every other Saturday:

7 players (including me)/1 DM, ranging in age from about 25 to low 40s

We start around 7pm and play till 1am

Playing through a 3.5 adaptation of Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth (sp?) at about 10th-11th party level.

There are a reasonable number of House/variant rules and various 3rd party stuff allowed.

XP is given out at the end of the session.

Every Sunday:

5 players/1 DM (me), ranging in age from 25 to mid 50s.

Start at about 6:30pm and end at 11pm

Playing through a homebrew adventure in Greyhawk, at 11th-12th party level.

Very few house-rules and no variant rules, no non-WotC stuff, no FR/Ebberon allowed either.

XP is given out after each combat and leveling during the session is allowed.

Both games use minis and mats