One more house rule you forgot, and probably the most important one of all time.
1-NO SIGNIFICANT OTHERS AT THE TABLE.
I break this all the time. When we were married my ex-wife played alongside me and in my games (she played a dragon in D&D - no joke). I now run a game for my three kids and some of their friends. It's no biggee provided the SO wants to be there to game and not spend time with the object of their affection - in the latter case behaviour designed to get their attention is guaranteed.
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I've never found this to be necessary. I'm part of a group of 3 couples who all play together and it's fantastic. Now, having your spouse/ significant other as a player at your table during organized play can be a bad thing since you haven't established that level of trust with your players where they know you won't divert a raging monster towards them to spare your significant other, but other than that it's never been an issue in my experience.One more house rule you forgot, and probably the most important one of all time.
1-NO SIGNIFICANT OTHERS AT THE TABLE.
Quite. I've tried having couples where one GM'ed and I've never seen any favourizing of the one of them playing. I play with multiple other couples in the same game. I've seen couples run brilliant intrigues against each other. I've even seen couples accept in-game romance between one from one couple and one from another. An done from a couple being in a game, playing at the couples home, and still, the other one is not disturbing.
It's very much a matter of respect and which kind of people you play with. It can work. To some people it does, to some it doesn't.
Add another voice from the "couples at a table aren't a problem" camp. At one FLGS, with a loose group of perhaps 20 or so regular RPG players, there are at least five couples.
I've seen far more problems caused by groups of friends building walls between their "in" crowd and anyone else (both at conventions and at home games) than from couples. As for the "trust" issue - play up the positives, and you'll soon earn the trust of the rest of the players at the table. And there are things a couple can bring to the table that you don't usually find. One of the other players at the (different) FLGS where we most often play PFS will try and play at the table where my wife and I are playing one particular pair of characters; we've been able to take teamwork feats in the knowledge that we'll be able to use them, and built a pair of characters that work well together.
Yes, a GM playing favorites with an S.O. is a bad thing.
But a GM playing favorites with any player is a bad thing.
It's not couples that are the problem, it's GM favoritism.
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Thank you everyone for your terrific responses.
At this point I feel I should mention my 3rd player is my SO...and it's her first game ever. The trend of weirdness continues as she's playing a female gnome alchemist that's been gender-swapped into a male. Fortunately I can plot-relate this with the help of a cursed belt from the APG that swaps gender, and her goals are to find another one of these to swap her back. We don't have a name for her yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were Pat.
One more house rule you forgot, and probably the most important one of all time.
1-NO SIGNIFICANT OTHERS AT THE TABLE.
This has never been an issue in my experience. My wife regularly games with my group and she isn't a problem. When I'm the DM, her character takes her share of lumps just like everyone else.
In the Carrion Crown group I rejoined recently, one of the players' fiance has been an amazing asset to the group; always ready to help other players, helps keep our heads in the game, and even writes down and divides all the loot.
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Strife2002 you need to join your local PFS. It is a great way to meet and screen potential players. Life is too short for bad gaming. A gamer douche is a gamer douche regardless of how good a friend the person is to you. Sounds like you are set to ride this out though. I would recommend what others have suggested and save your good homebrew stuff for gamers who will appreciate it. Nothing worse than spending hours working on something and the players just tell dirty jokes while breaking down into PvP /meh.
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Actually I believe what he was originally saying (I think anyway, and agree with this at least) is no significant others at the table that aren't playing. In college we had huge issues with our group of players because all 4 of their girlfriends were there just hanging out with us. NOTHING GOT DONE.
Actually I believe what he was originally saying (I think anyway, and agree with this at least) is no significant others at the table that aren't playing. In college we had huge issues with our group of players because all 4 of their girlfriends were there just hanging out with us. NOTHING GOT DONE.
Ah, I see. This I agree with. To go a step further, people who aren't involved in the game, who do not currently live at the location of said game, or require the presence of someone at the table(kids, etc) should not be present unless for a specific reason(observing, trying it out, etc).
I have had a lot of problems with friends and GF's/BF's all wanting to hang out and play video games, watch TV, etc with people who were trying to game. It was a nightmare. For the first time ever, I had to actually tell close friends to leave and specifically NOT come over during game nights because is got so bad(turning up the TV so they could hear it over our game, for example). It was awkward.
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I've considered joining PFS, but there have been a couple of things that have slowed me down from looking into it further:
Namely I detest playing with powergaming, min-maxing, munchkin type players (if you're one of these, I mean no offense and hooray if it works in your group, I just usually don't enjoy playing with these types). I fear playing with a group of strangers would increase my chances of this occurring.
Still, though, the appeal of a rigid rule system that doesn't involve house rules is somewhat appealing (house rules being something I'm not fond of as not being a professional game designer myself, who am I to make changes to a game? Balance is important to me and I fear that changes I or anyone else would make may seem good at first, but may unbalance something else in the game we don't immediately notice).
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Actually I believe what he was originally saying (I think anyway, and agree with this at least) is no significant others at the table that aren't playing. In college we had huge issues with our group of players because all 4 of their girlfriends were there just hanging out with us. NOTHING GOT DONE.Ah, I see. This I agree with. To go a step further, people who aren't involved in the game, who do not currently live at the location of said game, or require the presence of someone at the table(kids, etc) should not be present unless for a specific reason(observing, trying it out, etc).
I have had a lot of problems with friends and GF's/BF's all wanting to hang out and play video games, watch TV, etc with people who were trying to game. It was a nightmare. For the first time ever, I had to actually tell close friends to leave and specifically NOT come over during game nights because is got so bad(turning up the TV so they could hear it over our game, for example). It was awkward.
Haha, on a related (and completely not serious) note, let's extend this to pets as well. Nothing more anticlimactic then the BBEG being smothered by a wandering felis domesticus.
OH HAI
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1) One player, a samurai, has named his horse Anthrax.
Actually, Anthrax is the Greek word for "Coal". Prior to the modern-day naming of said disease, it would be perfectly natural to name a black horse "Anthrax".
On a side note, oddly enough, I feel like I've actually heard of a horse called Anthrax somewhere. I just don't remember where.
1) One player, a samurai, has named his horse Anthrax.Actually, Anthrax is the Greek word for "Coal". Prior to the modern-day naming of said disease, it would be perfectly natural to name a black horse "Anthrax".
On a side note, oddly enough, I feel like I've actually heard of a horse called Anthrax somewhere. I just don't remember where.
Wasn't Atreyu's horse in The Never Ending Story called Artex, or somehting similar?
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1) One player, a samurai, has named his horse Anthrax.Actually, Anthrax is the Greek word for "Coal". Prior to the modern-day naming of said disease, it would be perfectly natural to name a black horse "Anthrax".
On a side note, oddly enough, I feel like I've actually heard of a horse called Anthrax somewhere. I just don't remember where.
Ok I just notified the player of this and he's beside himself with glee.
I have had this type of player in my group. We don't invite him to play anymore though but that is more due to his job though as he can't reliably show up for games. You give up inviting after a person says they are busy that many times.
I find humor oriented gaming styles work best for players like this. Keep thing light and off the hip. It's not a bad style of play just don't invite this guy to game where you are trying to set the mood for horror. At least not util they prove themselves.
The guy in my group always tried to Fantasy version of DC comic book heroes and they always had a name that some how tied to the name of the comic book hero. Stuff like an Acrobatic Bard name Dick of Grayson who has Robin familiar. This was in 2E when a familiar days so Bard could have them easier than PF.
Player 1: My familiar will be a monkey.
DM: What will it be called?
Players 2 & 3 (simultaneously): Spank
Believe me, Anthrax is not a problem.
Ok I just notified the player of this and he's beside himself with glee.1) One player, a samurai, has named his horse Anthrax.Actually, Anthrax is the Greek word for "Coal". Prior to the modern-day naming of said disease, it would be perfectly natural to name a black horse "Anthrax".
On a side note, oddly enough, I feel like I've actually heard of a horse called Anthrax somewhere. I just don't remember where.
Very cool outcome! So he was sincere all along.
NOT TO OFFEND ANYONE I'M JUST TELLING A STORY.
we have a person very similar in our group, except he's always so sexual. he's playing a cleric of POOTIS (sandwiches, look it up), is wearing nothing but knee high stilettos, a pink thong, and always cast light on his schlong.
if you don't show up to play, its almost a guarentee that your PC is going to be raped by this guy. We encounter a problem.....solution one is to burn the place down.
He isn't a bad player. he is realativly new at the game, less than a year. I personally do not like him playing with us as a player even though he is one of my best friends. However, the Gm and other fellow players have no issues with him that they will share with me.
How can I deal with him in game? I try to ignore these issues in game but its just becoming to much.
I would worry less about how offensive you fear you might be and start addressing how offensive somebody already is. If you're not having fun -- Share that with the GM, then the group at large, including Mr. maturity. Worst case scenario see if you can find another gaming group via your gamestore board or a local games meet up... BEFORE you burn your bridges with your own group. You may find that if you have another outlet or group of people to game with -- the stakes wont seem so high when you put your foot down, or you may not miss your current group (at least for Roleplaying) if indeed you need to make a lateral move.
But really -- if the guy is your friend, you should tell him flat out that he's giving you a rash. Ask him also if his fun and your fun need to be mutually exclusive.
I've considered joining PFS, but there have been a couple of things that have slowed me down from looking into it further:
Namely I detest playing with powergaming, min-maxing, munchkin type players (if you're one of these, I mean no offense and hooray if it works in your group, I just usually don't enjoy playing with these types). I fear playing with a group of strangers would increase my chances of this occurring.
There is a chance of this wherever you go and whoever you game with if you do not know them, that's why PFS is a great way to screen the new players, because you do not have to invite them back or play with them again...
Wasn't Atreyu's horse in The Never Ending Story called Artex, or somehting similar?
Isn't Artex that horrible seventies ceiling-covering stuff?
Wasn't Atreyu's horse in The Never Ending Story called Artex, or somehting similar?1) One player, a samurai, has named his horse Anthrax.Actually, Anthrax is the Greek word for "Coal". Prior to the modern-day naming of said disease, it would be perfectly natural to name a black horse "Anthrax".
On a side note, oddly enough, I feel like I've actually heard of a horse called Anthrax somewhere. I just don't remember where.
It's 'Artax'.