Out of the dice bag? (secrecy and D&D)

[Joseph Elric Smith]

If asked to do something that conflicts with your D&D game, do you tell people you are playing D&D, that you are just busy or does it depend on who it is?

Oh I tell them I have a game and can't make it. Me and the wife are very open about the fact that we game every Saturday night.
Ken

 

[Mark Chance]

I admit it, unless it's for work.

I work for an airline, and I was suprised to find how
arch-conservative they can be at times.

Doesn't track. I'm quite conservative by most accounts. So are most of the people in my gaming group. A couple make Pat Buchanan look a tad moderate. Yet all of us still game.

To second Joshua, IIRC: I don't give out personal details to just anyone. To most people, including a sizable hunk of family, the response is: "Sorry. Can't. I have other plans."

This isn't because I'm ashamed of gaming. How silly would that be? Nor do I particularly care what the overwhelming majority of the six or so billion people on the planet think. "Sorry. Can't. I have other plans" works for me because my private time is just that: mine and private.

 

[just__al]

I haven't gamed regularly until about a year ago. I had a few isolated attempts of getting a game going since we stopped playing after high-school.

But now, I do infact have a regular game. It's saturday afternoon with all the people I used to do RockyHorror with.

When the subject of why I didn't want to reconfigure the on a saturday came up at my new job, I just said that I had a weekly commitment on saturdays and I'd rather do it on sunday. Then shortly after I found out that one of my coworkers was a gamer. He now plays in our game.

But neither one of us mentions why we don't want to do things like reconfigure the office on Saturday.

 

[Welverin]

(Note: Weezer has been very open about gaming, especially Rivers Cuomo.)

Same thing, Rivers is Weezer after all.

"Oooh, which superhero is your favorite? The one in tights? Wait a minute, don't they all wear tights?"

NO! Captain America wears chainmail! allegedly

 

[Davelozzi]

I'll tell them that I'm playing D&D or sometimes say "gaming" but pretty much interchangeably. In other words, people don't get "gaming" because I'm ashamed to tell them about D&D, I just use them more or less as synonyms, regardless of whom I'm talking too. My friends, familes, and co-workers all know that I play D&D and are cool with it.

This situation came up the other day when I was a softball game witha bunch of friends and my sister-in-law (who had wanted us to go camping with her on a weekend I had a game scheduled) asked me to remind her what the conflict was that weekend. I said "We're playing D&D on Saturday." Another friend who was there (but is fairly clueless about D&D, I guess) asked "what's going on?", to which I replied "the party's going to fighting some demons." She was really just asking me to repeat myself, but nonetheless, it was kind of funny if you were there. Probably not as funny to read about online, unfortunatley.

I won't reschedule or skip a game unless it's an emergency or something like a wedding, vacation or other such thing where I'd have plenty of notice. I think it's just common courtesy.

Yeah, that's pretty much how I feel too.

 

[Arnwyn]

But neither one of us mentions why we don't want to do things like reconfigure the office on Saturday.

I wouldn't want to reconfigure the office on a Saturday even if I *didn't* game...

 

[Rand]

I simply reply that I'm otherwise occupied that day, just as I would about anything else.
If someone asks for more details I'll reply that I have a weekly roleplaying session with a small group of friends and cannot change those plans without messing up a lot of other peoples schedules.

Stating roleplaying is not an attempt to hide what I'm doing- I merely state roleplaying as that's what D&D is in essence.

If they ask for more details, I'll tell them D&D... describing what it is if their not aware of it.

 

[Rel]

Anybody ever do a murder mystery night. They are not as cool as described above. I received one for a gift and never used it Because of it lameness. You listened to a tape and then asked each other questions. Snoozeville.

I find that it's much easier to maintain everyone's level of interest if we're all naked.

On the matter of gaming and what I tell others, I mostly just say, "Tuesday's Game Night". If they ask for more, I'll elaborate, otherwise they can draw their own conclusions.

 

[Desdichado]

I find that it's much easier to maintain everyone's level of interest if we're all naked.

That's true for most activities. Of course, we played Murder nights with sets of four married couples every time we've done it, and frankly, our marriages aren't that open!

 

[billd91]

I usually just tell people it's game night and I can't reschedule a bunch of other people. If someone asks, I'll tell them what game but usually I leave that up to them to figure out. It's not like I don't carry along D&D books to read during lunch and wear game-oriented tshirts.
But actually outing yourself can be pretty challenging, especially if you're not at all certain how the other person will react. For gaming, that's usually not a big problem. It was more of a problem when I outed myself as Irish-American when I was studying at the University of Exeter in 1989. It seems that British students generally know that Irish-Americans are one of the hard cores of support for the provisional IRA...