Is your game/group a "good" example for D&D?

[Torm]

Fun? Usually, unless someone gets a little pissy about rules-lawyering or dividing party treasure.

Evil\Occult? Depends on their level of sensitivity, I guess - some people might be offended by guys who wears shirts that say things like "Your Mom Is Hot" or "Jesus Saves (All Others Take Full Damage)" or "Cthlulu Tequila - This Time, The Worm Eats YOU!" And several of us know a lot about the occult, and it sometimes comes up in games involving demons or glyphs or such. But we don't wear black robes, burn candles, or chant anything. Well, not unless its a special occasion, anyway.

Geekiness\Nerdiness? This test is for them, not us, and they'd better be at least a little geeky, or they never made it through the door.

 

[Stormborn]

Our Group:

1 human male: Ex-Missionary now Baptist Preacher/College Proffesor/Writer, married, BA, MDiv, only swears >mostly< In Character (great fun the first time I did that for an Unknown Armies game), can be geeky about any number of things, but can also "pass"(That's me.)

1 human female: Preacher's Wife, Publications Manager for major private university, BA, published author/editor, can be geeky about food and knitting, but probablly passes better than the rest of us. (Mrs. Stormborn)

1 human male: Head of Computer Serivces for small state unviersity, married, BA and MA, son of an Episcopal Priest, can be geeky about history, music, and obscure TV shows but looks utterly mundane.

1 human female: Ex-Librarian now Web Designer for major private universtiy, married, how many degrees?, sings in the choir, IS a GEEK and can't help it.

So, are we a good example, probablly for any one in the 30-40 age range who might be interested, or might be worried about their kids getting into it. Geeks? yeah, kinda, all in our own ways that have nothing to do with gaming. Our convesations can be "adult" but not usually horribly innappropriate, and certainly never in public. We do have fun, although we still have some different play styles that occasionally don't gel, but I would be willing to use us as an example of a good group anytime...just warn us before you come over OK...we might need to get our stories straight.

Edit: About the Occult: I probablly know more about the occult than the average self labled occultist, but thats a proffesional interest. I certainly know enough to tell anyone that the vast majority of RPGs have NOTHING to do with any real world occultism, and most likely scare them doing it.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

Let's see:

I work for Heifer International, a major not-for Profit
Another of my players works for the same organization
One works as a staffing specialist for an employment service for visiting nurses
One works at a video rental place (former newspaper reporter with a college degree but fell on hard times and this is all he could find)
One is a change management specialist for a major casino chain
Two work in collections for credit card companies.

Most of us are married, 3 of us have kids, and we're all nerdy in our own fields of interest. For one it's comic books, for me it's paleontology and Star Trek. A pretty varied lot, I'd say.

 

[painandgreed]

No. Between the tattoo covered billy boy and the artist who likes to use animal parts in her Cthulhu inspired artwork, I doubt if our homes are even suitable for showing to somebody who was worried about such things. The mere amount of vodka and bourbon drank during our games would also probably exclude us as good candidates.

My Sunday game would probably be ok except for geek factor considering half the game is spent on talking about other games, the industry, and movies.

 

[Argent Silvermage]

The Savage Sword of Meepo

Oh Yeah! We are a perfect example of Gaming gone right. while we come from very different backgrounds we all blend well and have fun no matter what is going on. I don't remember ever drinking at one of our games.

The only time Satan reared his horny head was when I accidentily opened that portal to the nether-realms with a quick spell to enchant my dice. (and if you follow the Story hour you will see just how well that turned out. )

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

Player: "If we assassinate the prime minister and blame it on Duke Barinten, we'll soon have all Your Magesty's enemies more at each others' throats than ours."
DM (as the king): "Although an admirably enterprising suggestion, gentlemen, I'm not ready to sacrifice Lord Merril (the PM in question) over such a minor difficulty. Better, I think, if you were to assassinate the duke and blame it on the church."

...

...

No, I'll go out on a limb and say that my group probably wouldn't be a good ambassador for the hobby.

 

[The_Gunslinger658]

Hi ya-

I think the group I am in is the best damn group of D&D'ers in all of Chicago! There are 6 of us including our DM and we play D&D in the Forgotten Realms.

Eric is are DM, great guy, and really easy to work with as far as D&D rules are concerned. He a paramedic.

I play a Dirty Harry Callahan type and a Knight of Helm aspiring to be a Paladin from the Shaar. as for me, I'm a soldier for the united states Army.

Pat, plays a crazy Troll slayer type Dwarf Barbarian, he's some kind of exec with an orange juice corperation.

Josh, This guy plays Ariel, somekind of desert guy looking for water, I guess its a wheel of time type of class. He's like a computer graphic artist.

BJ, He playing a human Rogue who love magical trinkets. I think BJ is somekind of Pet Doctor.

Joe K. He is playing a wizard of Calimport who runs around with a great sword. Kinda reminds me of Oran from FFX.


There ya have it, the best D&D group in Chicago!


Scott

 

[Creamsteak]

I guess it depends on what you mean by a "good example."

Is it a positive example of the game? Yes, most definitely.

Is it a statistically accurate example of the game? No, I don't think so. My style (and in turn our style) of playing seems to "not click" with a lot of experienced gamers.

 

[WayneLigon]

We're mainly a bunch of computer geeks with a Pharm.D and a bookseller thrown in to take the curse off it. We'd probably be a good example, though not to the 'worried about the occult' crowd if we were in a magic-heavy game or playing something like Call of Cthulhu, Urban Arcana, etc.

We have gotten the occassional odd comment from observers. For many years we played at my kitchen table. My aunt Mag was living with us at the time; she and Mom would sit in the den and watch TV while we all gamed. There was just a dry bar dividing the areas, so they could hear and see everything.

One of the players had a character whose grandmother was one of the main campaign villains at the time. He tried to tell the rest of the party what a terrible person she was and cited several examples over the next few weeks.

After we wrapped up one night and I was cleaning the gaming area, Mom comes over to me and says,

"I thought Dan's grandmother was dead."

"She is, she died a long time ago."

"Oh, so he's talking about his character then, right?"

"Oh. Yeah."

"Oh, good. Aunt Mag was asking me about that. She turned to me at lunch and said 'My goodness, that Dan boy certainly doesn't like his grandmother, does he? Well, I don't blame him! Do you think she really killed his father?' "

 

[fusangite]

I'll describe my old gaming group(s) back in Vancouver because there is a pretty substantial personnel overhaul underway in the group I joined in Toronto. Back home, I think my group would function as the appropriate cautionary tale for the hobby. My group back in Vancouver epitomizes the values by which I have been, unintentionally, living my life:

Celibacy: Although coming perilously close to the 50% mark, the proportion of people in the group not living up to this ideal remains a minority in the group.
Humility: Again, the group has come perilously close to having a majority of professionally/financially successful people but has been held back from this by the narrowest of margins. Fortunately, for those who might wish to witness the ravages of RPGs, half the group remain professional failures (or consistently marry individuals who will squander all of what they earn and plunge them further into debt).
Effeminacy: It's not the 42% gay players who make this a reality. In fact, without one of the gay players, there would not be a soul in the group capable of drinking more than two pints of beer without running into severe digestive problems. No: my group lives up to the non-sexual colloquial definition of "gay."
Distinctiveness: Even a person who had never seen a gaming group, could identify us in a crowded restaurant, simply by virtue of having seen that the Simpsons or 70s Show episodes describing gamers.

So yes. I think I'm part of a representative group who could function quite adequately in anti-D&D education ads in high schools.

Announcer: "Yes. D&D may look fun now. But just look at what happens if you play it for twenty years... Wouldn't you rather take up smoking?"