So I've never been to GenCon, but Smelly Gamers???

[reveal]

we could gather them all up and take through a car wash........

I'll bring the quarters.

 

[ForceUser]

The first time I ever ran a public game at a local store, two guys plopped down at my table who were apparently homeless. They lived in a beat-up Toyota and smelled pretty badly, thanks in part to the multiple layers of clothes they wore and never washed. I could have lived with that, since it was a big table and they always sat at the opposite end from me. What I couldn't tolerate was that both of them insisted on playing hot elven chicks that were lesbian lovers.

I booted them from the group after two sessions. The funk left with them.

 

[Psychic Warrior]

You know, I always just thought that was a gag about stinky gamers, I've never met any. Seriously, I thought that my hygeine would have been at the low end of the scale because I tend to only shave every two or three days. Guess I'm not that bad!


I'm afraid if I ever ran into someone truly schtanky I'd have to say something.

Uh-oh if you never notice stinky gamers that can only mean one thing...... YOU are the stinky gamer!

 

[BOZ]

he who smelt it...?

 

[Muaythaidaddy]

The back of my custom GM screen reads "It's called soap, fellas, and the rest of society uses it for a reason".

 

[Templetroll]

As a DM I once took a person aside and had a hygiene discussion with them. I had had complaints from the other players and really had no choice. I don't tell people they aren't allowed to stink but I did, that time, have to tell someone they were not allowed to stink to the point that it would drive other players away from the gaming table. If this happened at a convention where the others players had the additional clout of having paid for their right to play in a reasonable environment, I feel I would also, as DM, have no real choice but to take someone aside as necessary, the same as I would with a player displaying any other type of disruptive behavior. It took for a few months and then that particular group split up. I have no idea if that one player continued to wash regularly.

I was once a shift supervisor in a communications center for DLA and it was an enclosed space; airconditioning but not great airflow. I once had a guy that had told me early on '...if you have a problem with me, just tell me.." so I did. That day he was training another fellow so they had to be at the same workspace; people at the other end of a long room complained to me quietly about the odor.

When he went to get a soda I met him in the hallway and told him what the problem was out of sight of everyone else. I offered that he could fill out a leave slip, if he got back within two hours I would tear it up. He appreciated the way I handled it but just took the day off. Nothing was ever mentioned by anyone after that and it never occurred again. Other folks on my shift were impressed with my boldness since he was at least a foot taller and 200 lbs heavier than me.

 

[sniffles]

Stinkiness is not exclusive to gamers. If anyone has ever seen the show "Airline" on A&E, there have been several episodes where the airline staff have had to address stinky passengers.

I attend other cons, and have seen plenty of stinky people (or should I say smelled?). I recall once getting in an elevator with a group of friends and finding ourselves in the presence of a shirtless young man proudly displaying his new nipple rings, and accompanied by an odor that made our eyes water. At the cons I attend there are a lot of people who either don't have a room, or have packed a room so tight that there's no way they could all shower and still attend the con.

Some stinky people can't help it, either. Their hygeine is as good as anyone's, they just suffer from odd body chemistry. Showering too often can be as bad for you as not showering at all. That said, though, there's a guy I see every year at a con whom I really wish I could advise to wash his hair more often. He's not stinky, but looking at all that grease and dandruff is just gross.

 

[Silver Moon]

Back when I was in High School and College my buddies and I would go into Boston for comic book and science fiction conventions. We never got a room because back then the nicer hotels where the conventions were held wouldn't rent you a room unless one of you looked like a responsible adult and had a credit card, which didn't apply to any of us. So we'd sack out in the Movie room, which usually ran films until sometime between 4 and 5 AM.

We'd then hit the hotel public rest rooms (which were deserted at that hour) where we'd take off our shirts, socks and shoes, wash up and apply deoderant, then put on new shirts and socks that we brought with us. Some of us even shampooed our hair in the sinks. We'd then drop the grubby clothes off in the car and go find us a nice place for an early breakfast. There is no excuse for being smelly at a con.

 

[Wolf72]

I don't have any con experiences ... just some Army FTX's ... and lets just say it's bad when everyone realizes that they (except the DS's ... who somehow managed to have their cars nearby so they could head back) smelled worse than the portopotties.

completely different environent though.

 

[Darth K'Trava]

I know that Buttercup was emphatic in the thread about manning the EN World booth that those who volunteered had to bathe. And didn't Peter Adkison put something about soap in a GenCon flyer? I thought I read a post that said something like that. I'm sure it was done tongue-in-cheek, but only partly.

I've seen, in the program book for Animazement (a local large Anime con) in the rules section that "Thou Shalt Bathe". Sad. Really that a con has to put that into their con rules.....