What makes a game/group good?

[Argent Silvermage]

I have been blessed with being in the best group on earth for well over a decade now.
The main thing is just like everyone has said. Cooperation and a want to be a part of a troupe.
If you want to read 2 great story hours check out Zad/WSizardu's story hour or our old game Wizardru's Savage Sword of Meepo.

 

[Peni Griffin]

The most important thing in any group of people is to have compatible faults.

I'm serious. Think of the most annoying traits your friends have had through the years, and you'll find you keep picking people with the same faults over and over again - because those are the faults you can deal with. The drama queen, the guy who wants to get on his horse and ride off in all directions, the rules lawyer, the person who can't quite grasp 'em, the one who's easily distracted - depending on whose around them, they can all be great players or they can all be agony.

I've been reflecting lately on the composition of our group, because about a year ago we lost a long-standing player and suddenly we're ideal. There's me - major drama queen, can't shut up - my husband the rules lawyer and game mechanic, Ben the other rules lawyer and game mechanic (honestly, you can see the tactical displays come up on the lenses of their glasses - they don't even have to talk, just pass the books back and forth), Wendy who'd rather be LARPing if her health allowed and can't quite track all the rules, Dan who hadn't played since 1E and is shy enough that he wouldn't be here if he weren't married to Wendy and keeps trying to bring realism to the game like that's ever gonna happen (I do that too), Ryan with his complete lack of any sense of proportion. We're all, in our own ways, difficult to get along with. We've all churned through long chains of incompatible people before making this group. We're all dilatory and take forever to play one combat and talk about nongame things and forget to update our character sheets till the last minute and riff off of eachother's ideas and mesh into this astonishing having-a-good-time machine that, btw, blows the monsters away.

We used to have one more player. He'd been with us longer than Dan and Wendy have, and I couldn't describe his flaws as any worse than ours - he couldn't pay attention, he wasn't flexible, and none of us could tell exactly what he wanted from the game. He made quirky characters who seemed to be deliberately ineffective. He claimed to be all about roleplaying but got bored outside combat and never played out character arcs no matter how hard we tried to riff off of him. When he DMed he railroaded, and when he tried to run us in Hero system he wouldn't help Wendy, who didn't even own the books, to understand how he was interpreting the rules. He kept showing up so he must have been having a good time, and we'd all been rejected often enough that we didn't want to kick him out, but something about his faults and our faults just didn't work. Eventually he made us throw him out over nongame stuff that I'm not discussing in a public forum, and suddenly - we were the perfect group.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Keys to a good group:

1. Everyone is there to have fun
2. Nobody believes their way to have fun is the right, better, or only way
3. Nobody's idea of fun is to ruin somebody else's fun
4. A DM/GM who understands what each person enjoys and tries to provide elements for each
5. Patience during the times the game is more focused on somebody else's type of fun
6. Understanding when you are having fun that others may be less interested and be OK with it
7. Undertstanding that everyone has moods and things may be different from one night to another

If you have a group that all like the same style, it is easier on the DM, but mixed groups can do just fine as well.

 

[Elf Witch]

Keys to a good group:

1. Everyone is there to have fun
2. Nobody believes their way to have fun is the right, better, or only way
3. Nobody's idea of fun is to ruin somebody else's fun
4. A DM/GM who understands what each person enjoys and tries to provide elements for each
5. Patience during the times the game is more focused on somebody else's type of fun
6. Understanding when you are having fun that others may be less interested and be OK with it
7. Undertstanding that everyone has moods and things may be different from one night to another

If you have a group that all like the same style, it is easier on the DM, but mixed groups can do just fine as well.

Amen to this. My group used to be like this. Sure we sometimes had rough spots with some tempers flaring but we always talked out the issues and moved on.

But times change people move and new people come in and dynamics change. There have been some really good changes with some new players, but we have had some really bad changes as well.

Our Shadowrun game just self destructed a game that has been going on since second edition.

What killed it? Well we had one player who played the leader of the team move away that changed a lot of the dynamics. Two new players came in. One was great he really added to the game the other new player didn't. He brought a lot of anger into the game and in the end the DM instead of dealing with this guy (guy just happens to be life long friend of DM) he choose to cancel the game.

I am DMing for the first time and I have players who want different things out of the game. One for example is a powergamer who wants the game to move forward he likes a good combat and he likes tactics and role playing but hates when the game gets bogged dealing with what he sees as unimportant things like shopping or hunting for food.

I have another player who really gets into puzzles , hates combat, and likes to role play out thigs like shopping.

I have another who likes to play angst filled characters as way of dealing with his issues.

I have found away to make the game run smoothly for all of them. I plan things so everyone gets a chance to do what he likes best. There are sometimes I don't enjoy as a player or a DM but I don't let that influence me on providing those things for my players.

The players also help by giving each other time in the spotlight and by allowing each other to have fun. They also came into the game with the attidue that this group is a team and they would play their PCS with that in mind.

That is not to say that they don't disagree sometimes.

It is such a change from the group I played Shadowrun with the last year.

The problem player always has this attidue I don't trust anyone at first everybody has to earn my trust because this is more realistic. That maybe true. But it causes a lot of mistrust, miscommunication and a major lack of fun because it seems almost impossible to earn trust.

My new playes attidue is this, we are here to have fun it is a game and we are a team so I will play my character in having trust with my fellow PCs. Now in the course of play some might lose trust with another PC that is role playing but the game seems to run smoother and they work as a team better.

Also since the players want to bea team if one loses the trust of another they both work hard to regain it. Yes they may have fun role playing out for awhile the anger , hurt but the goal is always to keep the team intact.

In the Shadowrun game no matter what we did we could never get this guy to trust us for every step we took forward we ended up taking several back. To be very honest by the end I hated his character and my character didn't care if she ever earned his trust.

 

[Sigurd]

1: Weak of will and sinew, ready to have their game images moulded into servants for my glory.
2: Rich in tasty consumables, host gifts and bonuses to thank me and laud me for attention.
3: Content to hear me laugh as I listen to the enslavement of their families and the lamentation of their women.


oh...

And an open mind.



Sigurd

 

[Midknightsun]

I've known (and still know) players who were "good people", but a pain in the backside to play with-- and others who made good gamers but never really were the type of people you'd (read as I) hang out with outside of work. Along with this are the myriad of playing styles and needs each person brings to the table. I've found that it takes a good deal of tolerance of other people's quirks, on everyone's part, to make a good gaming group. You also have to know when not to be so open minded that your brain falls out, and let problem players poison your group. Most groups have to deal with one or two of them at one time or another.

 

[robberbaron]

I think I agree with pretty much everything you've said, but it is very difficult to DM for everyone all the time. I can't invest the time necessary to create adventures (let alone story arcs) that include bits tailored to each of the players and their desires, though I try to play to their characters' strengths. And I don't think I would try. I run my game for me as well as for them. If I am not enjoying preparing/running it then why should I do it at all?

My group has lost a few members and gained a few over the 25 years we've been going. We've still got the powergamers who want either the highest AC or the biggest damage or the newest feat substitution twinkout. We've still got the player who moans when he doesn't hit then moans when he only just hits (needing a 3) - he used to be called the Whinging Wanger (that's Ranger, buy the way) 'cos he couldn't help himself. We've got the player who always seems to create weirdsh*t characters and another who seems to create mostly ineffective ones or, at least, ones that don't do much. We've even got a couple of teenagers who bring a welcome new energy to the game.

But, we generally get along. We have a laugh (sometimes difficult to stop), occasionally have an argument (usually involving one of the powergamers) but we keep getting together to play and even not to play. We are still friends (yes, even the powergamers and the moaner) after all this time and, though it was the game that brought us together, it is not just the game that keeps us together. I think that is the important point - if you only have the game in common it won't last. Friends stay together.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

I think I agree with pretty much everything you've said, but it is very difficult to DM for everyone all the time. I can't invest the time necessary to create adventures (let alone story arcs) that include bits tailored to each of the players and their desires, though I try to play to their characters' strengths. And I don't think I would try. I run my game for me as well as for them. If I am not enjoying preparing/running it then why should I do it at all?

You cannot DM for everyone all the time. What I meant by that was to try and make sure that everyone gets a chance to do the things they enjoy on a regular basis. If your adventure is in a heavy combat portion, but you have players in your group who aren't as into tactical combat as others, try to make sure you don't just have fight after fight for several straight sessions. On the flip side, multiple straight sessions with dramatic roleplaying trying to undermine the political machinations of the corrupt Baron will have your combat focused players either snoring, playing X-Box, or causing trouble in the game hoping to intentionally start a fight.

And you are correct that if you don't enjoy preparing/running a game, you shouldn't do it. Personally while I enjoy planning and running a game, I find I do not get any pleasure in planning an adventure for a generic set of people. I get the most enjoyment when I know who my players are and plan things that I know they will really enjoy.

 

[robberbaron]

Pretty much what I was trying to say but, obviously, you said it better.