What makes a game/group good?

[Shadowbit]

I've recently joined a new group for a game. Scheduling conflicts with my old group sort of eliminated any chance to play. Long story short, one of the players from that group had a Friday night game that switched to Saturdays and asked me if I'd like to join them.

I sat in for a session, and actually joined in with a character on Saturday night.

The differences between the two groups has had me thinking. The old games were fairly unfulfilling, feeling more like chess than any sort of collaborative effort to create a story. In the new group, all of the characters have a long history, have running jokes, and seem to care about each other and what's happening around them.

The difference between a group that cares about each other, their characters, and what happens to those characters and a group that really doesn't is fairly startling.

Sadly, I don't think there's any way to make the old group more like the new group. The players who don't seem to care will probably keep on not caring. But, thankfully, I've found a new group that cares, and from what I can tell that seems to make a huge difference in the quality of game.

I believe that a group that can connect emotionally with their characters, the world, and the situations their characters are in make for a much better, higher quality experience at the gaming table.

What do others think? And what else do you think makes a game or group good?

SB

 

[Crothian]

They all like each other and want the same thing. That cam be collaborative story telling or pure hack and slash; it doesn't matter as long as its the same. I have two good group's and it is the chemistry and the desi8re for not only themselves but for everyone to have fun that makes them good.

 

[Shadowbit]

Wanting the same thing is very true.

I think that was the biggest issue with the old group I was part of. There were three of us that seemed to want the same thing in the game, one that didn't really seem to care one way or the other, and one who was more interested in the mechanics and statistics involved in how his character interacted with the other game elements. That's a bit of an oversimplification, but there was a definite divide in what we all wanted out of the game.

SB

 

[sniffles]

What Crothian said is very true. Everybody has to want the same things out of the game.

It also helps if people are considerate of one another. Politeness goes a long way toward making a game group more fun to play with, even if you don't necessarily agree on play style.

 

[Shadowbit]

Not wanting the same thing was fairly evident in the last game we played. It was a mishmash of Fallout and X-Com using Mutants and Masterminds rules. A large portion of the time, one of the players would be buried in his laptop browing online messageboards and the other would be either cooking, assembling wargame miniatures, disassembling all of his old video tapes, or whatever else came to mind.

SB

 

[Wik]

God, our group is 90% of the fun. We kill ourselves laughing half the time, and everyone makes characters that are contrary to the other characters (but done in such a way that the conflict is enjoyable, not a pain). Every session I'm amazed at just how much fun the group is to play with.

 

[Black_Swan]

Compromise...the group must be able to compromise. That's what makes it enjoyable.

being able to recognize that you're not the only person who should have fun at the table is paramount to having a good group/game.

Even though my group is getting older we still seem to butt our heads against the old, What your character would do vs. What's best for the players in the group and the game.

It sucks when people choose their own fun over the fun of others.

That and the fact that sometimes people will rather leave the group rather than talk about what's bothering them. If you've got beef, bring it up. Conflict is not bad as long as you can work it out amicably and make sure that everyone is having fun.

 

[jdrakeh]

Willingness to try new things and work with others to have fun. I think that those two things are above and beyond the most important things, really. You can have human calculators, serious dramatic actors, old school grognards, and tons of other types of player who might have desireable qualities -- but if they're also bitter, closed-minded, and selfish they still make horrible players (and not such great people in general).

 

[Oryan77]

Knowing when to stop arguing and not arguing in the first place.

I don't know how many gamers I met that told me, "Oh, whatever the DM says is fine with me. I try not to argue".

It gotten to the point that I realized that whenever a player says that, he means, "I will nit pick ever aspect of the game and spend 30 minutes arguing with you until I'm proven wrong with a rule book".

Groups have so much more fun when they can settle a rules debate quickly and calmly.

 

[Umbran]

What do others think? And what else do you think makes a game or group good?

It'll strongloy depend on what you like in your game. What constitutes a 'good group" depends on what you like in the game yourself. F'rex, a group that's good for someone who likes the wargame aspects of D&D may not be so good for someone who is into deep immersion roleplay.

So, when you ask "What makes a group good?" I must ask in return, "Good for whom?"