Would you play D&D in a public place?

[+5 Keyboard!]

I would, yes. But as someone else mentioned, there is a lot of "baggage" that comes with the game that makes taking the game beyond a designated home or apartment a pretty big operation. Am I embarassed to play the game in public? Not in the least. There are just realistic things to consider, though. Most restaurants aren't going to want you tying up a table for several hours to play what can be a pretty loud and boisterous game - something that would disrupt their business. I suppose you could bribe certain places by running up a big bill of drinks and food coming in waves, but mostly I think the majority of those kind of establishments are not going to be too keen on it.

A park would probably be a really good choice of public gaming. At least, that would be mine.

 

[was]

I have played in public places before.

 

[DarkDM]

When I was in London, my regular game was in a Pub. I confess I really enjoyed a quiet Pint or five of a Monday evening RPG session. I always found it funny that very few of my characters survived for very long, especially toward the end of the evening when they would seem to meet a particularly horrid demise, I never knew why. The pub location was not as public as one might imagine, as we generally played in a function room, nicely secreted away.

Now that I am in Oz, I play RPG’s in a gaming shop that has the facilities for regular gaming. That said, I am concerned about the slow down in gaming and RPG’s in particular, as with a slow down comes the pressure on the retailers and this may force some to close for good.

So I have played in public places and will do so as long as I am not recognised by work colleagues, and I am secreted away at all times while in public. Oh and even better if it is someone else’s shout.

Cheers

DDM

 

[Agamon]

As a kid, I played D&D both at the library and at school.

More recently, I've played in a gaming store, which is a public place, but I'm not sure if it counts.

 

[T. Foster]

I've played D&D in parks and on college quads. It wasn't too great -- wind blew papers around, there weren't any large flat surfaces to roll dice, and it was hard to hear everybody over the birds, traffic, kids, etc. The game club I was a member of back in the 80s (Evansville Gaming Guild) used to meet in restaurants -- at its height when there were 50+ people per meeting we had our own banquet room, but in later years we'd just have a section of 3 or 4 tables in the main room. I'd never play at a restaurant/bar that wasn't as part of a club that had cleared it in advance with the manager -- even as it was they weren't too happy with us because we were loud and disruptive, tied up tables, didn't order that much food or drinks, and didn't tip well. I've played in a college student-union public rec room (and also in a college cafeteria banquet room, which is sort of semi-public). I've never played in a library (and would think that rpg play would tend to be much too loud to be appropriate for a library). I think that's about it (hmm, I've played in more public places than I thought...).

 

[Crothian]

I have played in public but really perfer not to

 

[Woas]

I'd love to play on a banquet table at a Chinese restaurant, or something similar. Enough room for food and gaming materials both, and I'd be there.

Although we did not play D&D or any other table top RPG, several (like eight or nine of us) of my friends an I used to play Magic:tg at an Old Country Buffet. For those not in the know, an OCB is like an "American Buffet" instead of a "Chinese Buffet". We would go there and play for hours... show up for lunch and pay lunch prices and actually be around for dinner too and they wouldn't even ask us to repay or anything! It was great and the staff/management were kind enough to let us do that.

As for playing D&D, I probably would not want to play in any easily accesable public place. It is hard enough to get peoples attention in calm, private and controlled places than to add in "Joe Q. Public" staring at us over our shoulders and what-not.

 

[the Jester]

I have done so in the past, and would do so again in the future, provided the public place was the right sort of place; a quiet library, busy restaurant, etc. wouldn't work too well for us.

Really, though, playing at home we can get drunk, smoke, etc. Plus all the books are here! So there would have to be a pretty significant lure.

 

[Treebore]

Does playing in the RAM at GenCon count? I am pretty sure at least 50% of the clientelle were D&D gamers the whole time. Plus I think the other 50% were at the Con for the "other" stuff.

I also have to say I only played in public when the game was still low level and only the basic books were needed.

As for the wind, that is why I have my sheets in page protectors within a nice big 3 ring binder. I do it at the table for protection from spilled drinks. And spewed drinks when someone finds a joke funny while they were driniking their soda.

The only other problem I have had was with grass. When certain colored dice roll off the park table and into the grass you might never find it.

 

[Xyanthon]

I voted that I would play in a public place. I'm not sure I'd play in a restaraunt, but that is more because I don't necessarily want to tie up a table and hang around in a restaraunt for hours on end. I did when I was in highschool and college, but now that I'm married with children, I'd just a soon play at home. When I lived in Seattle, we'd play at Third Place Books on occasion (a fairly large used book store with a large commons/food court). Playing at a park or library would aslo be someplace I wouldn't mind playing at.