Who brings food? The GM or the Players?

[John Dallman]

I'm host most of the time, and provide snack food - chocolate, cookies, crisps, etc. Anyone is welcome to bring more.

For the weekly evening session, we order delivery, and people pay for their own meals. There isn't time for me to cook.

For the monthly afternoon sessions, I provide lunch - soup, sandwiches and desert.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

I make it clear that unless otherwise arranged, each player is responsible for their own snacks and food. That said, it rarely happens that we don't arrange to order pizza, subs, or somebody volunteers to cook something, or we just break for dinner and say, "everybody is on their own to go get food". I would expect everyone to contribute at least a couple nominal bucks to group efforts to obtain food. Nobody should be too proud to say they can't afford to be paying extra for food and snacks if they genuinely can't afford it, such as if the group decides to order pizza. Some people can't afford the books or their own dice either. No problem. We can work with that. Just don't be a freeloader, and unless somebody says they're going to provide food you have no reason to expect anyone to feed you.

 

[Legatus Legionis]

.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Who brings what is entirely unconnected to who is running the game that night, and there is no set system, but generally we just all pitch in on something or we all get dinner beforehand, or if we have the day to hang out and play, we will sometimes cook after a group grocery trip.

 

[Imaculata]

I make the coffee and deepfry snacks, and they bring chips, cookies, etc and further drinks.

 

[aramis erak]

I've seen it run both ways, with GMs sometimes taking on hosting duties ("Thank you so much for coming to my home! Have some pulled pork.") and other times expecting snacks to be heaped upon their GM throne ("If you're going to come to my house, you're going to contribute to the snack fund.") Those are two very different attitudes, and it can lead to etiquette confusion when you move between groups.

My question to the board: How does your group play it? And more importantly, how do you convey that information to the rest of the group? Do you make a formal point of it in Session Zero, or just assume that everyone will pick up on subtext?

Each person is responsible for their own snacks, but if they want to share...

 

[Plamodu978]

If you're not eating cheetos with chopsticks, you need to learn how to lifehack, or possibly learn how to use chopsticks.

Edit: pizza is a tough one for chopsticks though.

Pizza, tough to chopstick, easy to forks!

 

[Plamodu978]

Me.
the rest of group.
always bring some pack of tea for everyone!

 

[Ringtail]

If somebody is cooking, or stocking drinks like sodas, etc it falls to the host in my group. I.e. whoever's house it is. This is often, but not always, the person who is the GM.

If we order takeout as opposed to cooking, then we usually take turns on who pays. I do have a Bring Your Own Beer policy however. Buying beer every week can get expensive and I don't think its too much to ask everybody to bring a six-pack if they want it. (My players don't either.)

 

[BlackSeed_Vash]

Before life forced us to play online, everyone brought and shared food and drink. Typically, the host provided the loin's share of the "meal" that night. If an actual meal was going to be made, people would either bring ingredients or help pay for them. Everyone also would usually bring something small that was their personal snack.