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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Swedish Chef" data-source="post: 5859097" data-attributes="member: 27141">Our group is a mixed bag. We range in age from 17 to 45. The youngest 2 being the children of the oldest. My own 5 year old is becoming interested (he has his own dice now!).What this results in is a number of distractions at the table. When the current teens were children, they were allowed to learn with us. Children are naturally distracted and distracting. There was an unwritten rule for them - when they become too much of a distraction, they were sent on their way to play with other toys in another room. They were welcomed back when they felt they were ready.In addition, many of the group are in the IT field. We have to have our phones on and nearby in case something comes up from work. However, if it is something urgent, the person excuses themselves from the table and deals with it in another room. A few of us even use netbooks/laptops or tablets for our characters and rulebooks, so it is not uncommon to see someone looking things up. I'm playing a mage in PF now, so I am constantly referring to my excel spreadsheet of spells.As the teens became permanent members, they started to play with their phones when bored. It's part of the distracted generation. But, as the adults have all had a hand in helping raise them over the years, any one of us will tell them to turn it off and put it away if it becomes a problem.We've all stacked dice, or doodled or similar actions. It doesn't bother anyone (except when an exceptionally large stack of dice comes clattering down). We're all actively listening to what is happening, but are just fidgeting so that we don't reach for yet more chips or pretzels or whatever.Part of the issue is that some people are more perturbed by this behaviour than others. It's not a bad thing, just something that needs to be recognized. Again, as a social game, each participant must curb some of their habits to all the group as a whole to have an overall good experience. In my case, no one in the group is bothered by the distractions, but at the same time no one creates any "large" distractions either.</blockquote>

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