Only play with people you'd be friends with...

[mhacdebhandia]

But I sure as hell wouldn't waste my time going to a weekly game with people who I don't know and don't particularly want to know, just so I can play something; I could be spending that time having fun with my actual friends instead, and that's always going to be the winning choice.

Hmm. To a certain extent, this applies to me; I decided to join Hong's game partly because he runs on the weekends, and the people in my own social circle to whom I am closest are usually unavailable on the weekends - my best friend spends the weekends with her partner who works rather long hours six days a week, and most of my other good friends are either busy for similar reasons, or work on the weekend because as full-time students they have no alternative.

So given that my weekends are a social wasteland except when someone's throwing a party, the chance to play in what sounded like a fun and interesting game with Hong's group was much-appreciated.

However, I have very few qualms about blowing off my acquaintances in favour of my friends. I wouldn't skip a session of Hong's game to go to an afternoon party on a Sunday, since I have an existing commitment to his campaign - but I would never agree to join a game running on Friday nights, because my university gaming & geek culture society runs a pizza & games night every second Friday.

(Every "first" Friday features a session of the freeform du jour; all through last semester it was a Legend of the Five Rings court intrigue game with over thirty players, the next few evenings will have a smaller drow political game, and we're having a few one-shots here and there, like a "Bastards of British Comedy" game throwing together characters from Blackadder, Red Dwarf and Father Ted. Just by the by.)

What I am (longwindedly) saying (with many parenthetical comments) is that if my social calendar were more crowded, or my free time less freely available, I'd probably stick to gaming with "sure things". To a certain extent, not playing at conventions is counter to the logic of all this; it's not like I don't have the time to go to them, in theory. When it comes to conventions my earlier comments in this thread hold; it's a question of money and definitely committing my time to playing with groups which are almost guaranteed to contain at least one person whose playing style (or personality) ruins the experience for me.

Had that happened in Hong's game, I could have just walked away. But I wouldn't have paid money for the privilege, so it would bother me less.

Plus, the format of most Australian convention games is live-action or systemless, which I'm not fond of overmuch.

 

[Piratecat]

But hasn't Hong banned player characters? I'm going to have to read his house rules again.

 

[arwink]

Plus, the format of most Australian convention games is live-action or systemless, which I'm not fond of overmuch.

Really? I've only clocked up four Australian conventions over the past year, but I've managed to avoid playing live-action games altogether (in Brisbane, they're actually non-existent at recent conventions) and only occasionally run into something that's systemless.

 

[diaglo]

Plus, the format of most Australian convention games is live-action or systemless, which I'm not fond of overmuch.

the conventions over here are based on games for particular systems or live-action or systemless free form...

you just have to wade thru all of that to find gamers wanting to play what you want to play.

Dragoncon, the big con in Atlanta, is known for its huge custome ball. but they still play D&D here too.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

Well, to be fair: having not attended any convention, I am forced to rely upon the secondhand reports of my fellow students and gamers who have done so.

However, the overwhelming majority of reports I have heard have been that the tabletop games tend to be boring, straightforward dungeoncrawls or unimaginative mysteries, and that the really creative GMs are running live-action or (near-)systemless games.

Since I play with fun and creative GMs anyway, I've still seen no reason to attend.

 

[diaglo]

But hasn't Hong banned player characters? I'm going to have to read his house rules again.

only Pirate based player characters.

he is a ninja lover.

IYKWIMAITYD

 

[hong]

only Pirate based player characters.

he is a ninja lover.

Hey! How did you guess?

 

[diaglo]

Hey! How did you guess?

i still have room at the table if you take that Phony Doctor job with the CDC.

i could even put you up in the basement for a little while.