You Don't Talk Shop at the Dinner Table

[Moon-Lancer]

I made a mistake of TELLING another player that his political views were immature and ridiculous, instead of just thinking it. The guy is a black belt in Tae Kwon Do... but you don't play D&D as long as I have, and not learn a thing or two about bravery.

if he attacked you, i think leagaly its assult with a deadly weapon. Thats alot of time in jail.

in our group anything goes. So far no problems. This may change is problems arise

 

[WayneLigon]

We pretty much have to agree to disagree on politics. Everything else is wide open, though.

 

[Shieldhaven]

All of my players are coworkers, actually, so we really do have unspoken rules against talking shop at the table. I'm pretty sure we all have roughly similar political views, because we discuss politics at work all the time. Religion is off-limits more as a common courtesy than as any sort of stated rule.

In a related note, I love my job so, so much. In our department of 18 people, at least 12 of them are tabletop gamers. Aside from my D&D game, there's a Pendragon game and a Dark Ages: Vampire game that run regularly.

Haven
Luckiest guy in North Carolina

 

[Steel_Wind]

My gaming group is simply not a "gaming group" but most of us are friends. We go to movies with one another, drink together, been room-mates at times...hell 2 of the guys in my gaming circle and I go back 28 years. We played D&D together in high school, starting in 1979.

Ban talking about politics and religion with your friends? Who the hell then *should* you talk about it with?

o_0

 

[+5 Keyboard!]

Yep, you're not alone. I instituted this rule years ago and everyone has benefited from it. I actually started it because of my crazed, paladin-in-real-life player (but that's another thread) and the rule just kinda stuck. I'm not as strict in enforcing the politics side of the rule since my players don't really get into that very much.

 

[Mercule]

No such rule, though there is probably at least one player who wished there was (due to boredom). While I'm not exactly a centrist, I'm perfectly fine with a debate one minute and happy-happy the next. It sure seems like everyone else at the table is, too.

Now, if it got personal, it might be different, but dealing with general principles and current news are fine.

 

[MonkeyDragon]

Heh, I was so used to talk about removed intestines and whether they were sufficiently flushed or not during lunch break that I had to be reminded that not everyone likes that as conversation at the table .

I've had this problem. My parents both work in hospitals, so topics like surgery, various illnesses, wounds, etc are dinner-table conversation for us. I've had my dad examine friends' arms to see how easy it would be to find veins for IVs or blood drawing. I sometimes get into this awesome whatever I saw on discovery health and then be stopped because people are turning green.

 

[Ant]

My group would rather just talk crap than debate the meaning of life. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing I don't know!

Olaf, have you been hi-jacking my group on our off-weeks?

 

[mhacdebhandia]

So my question is this: Does anyone else have problems like this? Or, once again, is it just me?

I play with people I'm already friends with outside of the game. I don't use roleplaying as a way to meet new friends.

That said, not all of my friends agree when it comes to politics, religion, or just about anything else. Religion is not a hot-button issue with any of us - though several people tend towards the evangelical end of the atheism spectrum - nor is politics - though my social group as a whole trends left of centre. I can't remember any occasion when any "real world" issue caused trouble during a game . . . far more likely that normal social crap would be the issue.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

In my group the players come from verying "social classes" and not every one gets along.

That's no group, it's an argument waiting to happen

We all get along with each other in our gaming group. We wouldn't let anyone join if he didn't get along with all of us. No point in it.

Politics hardly ever comes up, I don't even know where the others stand - but we wouldn't get in each other's hair over it, anyway.

We also share about the same general view about real-world religion, so there would be no "holy wars" at our table even if we bothered to talk about it during our sessions.


Mostly, we're there to have fun, not to spread propaganda