How Many Beers per Gaming Session?

[Jeff Wilder]

I answered "1," because "We don't drink and game" isn't a rule. We're just not a big bunch of drinkers. Generally the average would be something like 0.33 beers per person. But tonight, for example, seven players drank a six-pack of beers and a bottle of wine, so there are occasional exceptions.

 

[Lanefan]

I agree with Thasmodius: much more prohibition than I ever would have expected.

There's usually a beer or two flowing at our games; sometimes some brandy or scotch, whatever.

Once in a while we'll decide a particular session will be a "drunken dungeon"; those tend to get even more gonzo than our norm but unfortunately don't happen nearly as often as they once did.

Lane-"hic!"-fan

 

[exile]

Like so many others, this poll is difficult for me to answer because I consider myself as belonging to several gaming groups at the same time.

The group that I meet with in Louisville on an almost monthly basis drinks like fishes. I am probably the lightweight of the group, having between 4-6 beers (so I voted 5) over the course of a Saturday. Interestingly, even though this is my semi-regular group, we get less gaming done than some of teh sporadic groups I belong to.

I play periodically with friends back in Toledo (several times a year), and we do not drink at all during the game sessions.

Likewise, I don't drink while playing at OP events or during Con Games. That said, between and after con games, I certainly have some beer; it's like vacation.

Chad

 

[mhacdebhandia]

I've never considered gaming a drinking sort of atmosphere. Largely, I think, this is because of where I've played.

When I was at university and we played on campus, people usually wouldn't drink because they'd have class after the game, or at least have to drive home. Keep in mind, in Australia the drinking age is 18, and we had two bars on campus, so it's not like people couldn't have been drinking if they'd wanted to be. That said, more often than not we played in areas away from the bar, where you weren't allowed to have drinks, anyway.

During university and since, most of my gaming has taken place in the evenings, at someone's apartment or sharehouse. Obviously, then, the issue becomes one of having to drive home afterwards - the host(s) or anyone being given a ride home (many of my friends were not and are not drivers) could drink, but I can't remember it ever having happened.

I guess, in total, the people I game with have a culture that says one or two people drinking while the others aren't won't make for a good game, and maybe that anyone drinking won't make for a good game. I think that last depends on the kind of game you want to be playing, but I have to admit that the kind of games I like to play aren't very workable if people are getting even a little bit tipsy and silly.

 

[DeusExMachina]

We don't drink at our games. With 7 people there it's chaotic enough as it is.

When we have our occasional movie night with the d&d group though, it's alcohol and bad horror movies all the way...

 

[Morrus]

It varies. A couple each on average, I guess, if you count the people who are driving who stick to tea.

As for smoking - we have three smokers, two "one a night" smokers, and two who don't smoke.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

D&D is serious business! No drinking and gaming!

I heard this wasn't alway the case in my group (before I got part of it, too). A former player once DMed a game of Midgard or Warhammer "under the influence", and... It didn't turn out so well. He took the PCs taking down his monsters and NPCs personally. When a group of bandits with plate armor and similar over-expensive equipment attacked their rag-tag group of "heroes", things got bad.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Group A - No drinking whatsoever. (For the smoker count, none.) This group meets every other week.

Group B - Some teetotallers (2) and the rest drink on average 4 beers in a session. We meet at best once a month. The sessions usually last about 8 hours. This crew is a big dinner crew - we all take turns cooking - so wine or beer with dinner is a hit.

Group C - Friends that I used to game with all the time. No drinking except for myself since I liked a glass of wine with dinner, and we always made dinner.

I will note that when we held a Gary Gygax Memorial Game right after he passed on, everyone was drinking gin in his honor, but that was a special occasion.

 

[jdsivyer]

Wow, a much more prudish attitude towards alcohol than I expected. My group averages about 4 beers a man, but this is a bit lopsided. Myself (DM) and one other player usually split a 12-pack and my brother will generally have 1-3, the other player doesn't generally drink. However, I recently got a kegarator in my house and the number went up for a couple weeks while the quality of play went down... We're like our characters - impressed with the new shiny, in this case - the allure of free flowing, golden draft beer.

To be fair, I wouldn't say that these attitudes are prudish - they're just what people prefer. I like a drink as much as most people, but I prefer to game without booze...simple as that. My preference.

Your preference is to have a few beers, and that's cool too

But prudish? I don't think so.

 

[jdsivyer]

Just had another thought, too, one which I should have mentioned in my original posting, and that is that we have 6 players in our gaming group. 5 of them drive to my house to game, so drinking wouldn't be the best of ideas unless they want to lose their driver's lic...or worse, on their way home.