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1. Everyone who can afford it brings snacks.
2. Moochers are forbidden from eating snacks if they don't contribute. (moochers are those who can afford snacks but don't bring them)
3. No alcohol. Ever.
4. Nothing too greasy or sticky so no cheetos unless that player also brings a lot of wet hankies with him/her.
5. A home cooked meal is lovely and everyone chips in. (we made barbecue a few days ago in a friend's yard. It was glorious.
6. If enough people are hungry, we order takeout mid session. (anywhere from 6 to 8 hour affairs), again, we know who can't afford it financially so we buy them food. They can make something at home and bring it once in a while.
7. Soda is awesome and the nectar of the gods. Bring plenty. And then some.
As we play online, everybody brings their own snacks. ;)
However, I'm a staunch believer that the host of the evening should have some kind of refreshment if it's agreed that refreshments are a group responsibility. That's just how I was raised, it's part of the host's job.
So generally if I'm the host of any kind of event I generally at the very least have some chips/dip, cookies (those lovely little off-brand sandwich cookies that somehow manage to taste even BETTER when they get a little stale.), and 2 or 3 kinds of 2-Liter sodas and some plastic cups/paper plates and such.
Now, donations/potluck are appreciated and encouraged. Especially if it's going to be the same host every week. While it may be part of the host's job to make everyone comfortable, providing space week after week kinda adds up to a point where everyone should either volunteer to host in a rotation or start bringing stuff for themselves/others.
Though I do say if you have a special preference that the other 4-5 people don't share, it's kinda your job to provide. If everyone else hates diet sodas and that's all you drink for example...buying a big thing for you that'll probably go flat by the next session just ain't cost effective.
I'm with Rynjin.
If I'm hosting, I usually provide some sort of light refreshments (pretzels/chips/cookies) and I look after the soft drinks (tea/water/soda) and either have everybody bring potluck or kick in for takeaway. If it's part of a long campaign, I ask that everybody choose a week that they're responsible for taking care of the food.
If I'm a guest, I bring drinks and some potluck or contribute to the food fund. If it's part of a long campaign, I choose a week that I'm responsible for taking care of the food (either takeaway or something my wife makes for me to bring since nobody has a high enough fort save for my cooking, or a good enough reflex to avoid everybody's reaction to it).
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As host I supply the coffee, and occasionally Mrs 8th Dwarf will try a new recipe out on the guys. Some times I see something cool or different at the various international supermarkets and buy that for the guys to try.
The guys bring snacks even the GM will bring a block of chocolate.
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Well...depends on the group...
Former Friday group, I usually cooked a full meal for the group. Sometimes the ex would. Depended. No one was expected to contribute, as we would run AND host. One of the girls brought very healthy baked goods pretty often.
Former Saturday group, I often brought baked goods. 'Cause I can bake. (Everyone who wants to save money and have great food should know how to bake at least one really good thing.)
Of course, in the new group, the GM is providing snacks and drinks and sometimes meals. Most of us drink ice water and those of us who want soda bring it. I've brought some less "soft" drinks recently to get more in character with the cleric of Cayden Cailean, but as soon as they run out I don't think I'll buy any more. Some of the guys regularly bring beer. (We all share. Sometimes a guy just wants carrots, dammit; sometimes all of us do.)
Every once in a while, we order a pizza or six and everyone chips in for at least half a pizza each.
Though we game at one guy's house, it doesn't mean he HAS to supply food. Nor does anyone have to supply food. There is one guy in the group that brings munchies most game sessions. Some people bring 2L bottles of pop. Sometimes I will bring something. We don't have an issue if someone brings their dinner to the game.
My group worked very differently with food as opposed to drinks, for some reason. For food, everyone brings something (with enough for however many will be there that evening), and everyone gets into everything. For drinks, we all have very different preferences, so if you want something other than water, you bring it yourself; if you want to share, great, but there's no expectation.
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I try to never turn up empty handed to a session and always expect that whatever I will bring will be shared with the group. I see it as basic manners when turning up to someone's house to play with mates and have something to contribute.
No one seems to be a big fan of the virginal bear stuffing however!
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Well, I am in 2 current regular PF games, and a semi-regular DCC game (About once every 2 months).
My Wed night Kingmaker game:
We play at the FLGS, btw...the manager is a player in my game.
One player (Matt) is a Vegan, so he always brings his own food.He only drinks water as well.
Dave (Manager of the store) usually brings his own food these days. He had recently acquired a GF (Go Dave!), and he has toned back his 'extra' spending in order to have more fun cash with her, a wise move. He drinks water usually.
The final 2 players are both bartenders with me at the club where I work.
Kit brings his own food usually, almost always these stinky eggs and pickles from some market that has the Aberrant Bloodline (Joking).He usually also brings chips of some sort & dip, which he shares out.
Kit drinks coffee...lots of it.
Jared usually picks up something from the nearby market, chips, etc, and he drinks coffee or tea (Usually both, coffee early, hot tea from a cafe later).
I bring iced tea,and/or lemonade. Usually either get Mexican from an amazing taqueria up the road a bit or order pizza or Chinese with Jared.
We are really lucky here in SF. Within a block of our FLGS is pizza, thai, 3 mexican (My place is a bus ride away...but worth it), 3 burger joints, Popeye's, a vegan place...you get the drift.
Our Tuesday game is myself, Jared (DMing Legacy of Fire ), Kit, his GF Patricia and another pair of friends Ryan and Barry.
We play at Jared's, and food options are a little less awesome in that part of town. Jared usually makes something for himself at home, unless I mention burritos from the place above, in which case it's chili Colarado deliciousness for him.
Barry and Ryan bring their own food. Barry is Vegetarian as well, so he is less used to 'throwing in'. Ryan brings lots of coffee (He owns a cafe around the corner), Barry totally raids my tea/lemonade/Arnold Palmers, but that's fine...he's the GM of our club, and he also generously throws in cash towards the drinks.
Kit & Patricia usually bring a truly silly amount of snacks. Like...for 8 people. Chips, coffee, dips, veggie trays, chicken wings etc...
The more casual DCC game is more insane. It is 8-10 players usually. We order Chinese (It's also at the FLGS), and a few of the players are younger and have less disposable cash. A couple of us just throw in enough to make sure that there is a ton of food, so that nobody has to feel embarrassed/ or go without. I remember being that broke kid, and it sucked (Pulling out my tuna-fish sandwich when everyone else was getting pizza/wings is one of my less awesome gaming memories. But, that was a long time ago). This game has a couple of beer enthusiasts, and they sometimes get a bit disruptive. Odd, 4 of the players are bartenders, but none of us drink when we game. Regardless, it is a 'beer&pretzels' vibe, so we endure.
When I hosted games at my place, back in the 3.0/3.5 days, I would have lots of snacks on hand, sodas, coffee, tea,etc... chips and dip. As well, I would cook something for all, either chili dogs, or lasagna, with a small veggie/vegan version for Matt. I live 2 blocks from the FLGS, so the same food order out/delivery options were there, as well.
How about a tall glass of fresh milk?? ;-P
Do. Not. Touch. The. Milk.
:P
You just have to pick the right group. My DM works at Whole Foods and always has a ton of snacks while his brother works for a beverage company and always brings different micro-brews each week. The rest of us just show up and occasionally game!
1. If you want something to eat, then you'd better bring something to eat.
Sure, we share, but unless one of us decides to cook for the group or spring for pizza, best fend for yourself rather than rely on charity.
It took years to get our mooching players into the habit of bringing much of anything. Not only did they expect me to make each session more grandiose than the last, they also expected treats, snacks, drinks, to be laid-out waiting. As you can imagine, after I got married, this pissed my wife off.
Yes, on occasion, everybody would chip in for a pizza (though in typical gamer fashion, the one guy who chipped in the least ate the most slices, and to make matters worse, he was the only guy at the table with any real money in the bank; we don't play with him anymore because he also cheated all the time). Most of the time, they just mooched until they got real hungry, then everybody took a break to go buy their own food. Sometimes they would bring snacks just for themselves.
One time, one of the players thought he was being helpful by bringing some kind of bratwurst-type paste. Everybody was grossed out by it, so he ate it himself and ended up farting all night.
We always had our fair share of ladies at the table, but in time the single ladies were swapped out with dedicated girlfriends of the male players. Now, the ladies are awesome. Not only do I enjoy gaming with women (always have), they also tend to bring entire meals with them! Better still, their presence makes the single guys act more generously.
So no problem anymore.
My wife and I host our home games. We provide awesome food and drinks. We like to host. Our game group contribute to the festivities, but we do not require them to do so. I GM, my wife plays. In our other home game, we both play and a good friend of ours is the GM. We like it.
We wouldn't have it any other way.
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I host and at one time ran the game. Taking a break while a younger player is testing his wings as a GM.
I used to provide a meal and drinks, but that got very expensive. It started eating my whole paycheck at times. Finally as I needed the money to pay bills I proposed a new rule that was accepted by group vote.
1) If you want to eat here that is fine, but either bring the snack/meal or bring money to chip in for the food. If I happen to have extra money I will provide snacks as well.
2) Beverages provided by me will consist of tea, water or kool-aid. Anything else must be provided.
For the most part my players like the new rule and sometimes they bring snacks to share with everyone. They also enjoy the fact that it is very easy to simply go along with the rules and make sure they get what they want.
When we are all chipping in money to purchase a meal we take a vote on what we want to eat and then go get it.
best fend for yourself rather than rely on charity.Especially in America! Get a job and buy your own snacks! No handouts!
But I want my snacktime Stimulus Package.
I think it varies by group, and as long as everyone is comfortable with it then it works.
When I bring something I try to bring enough for everyone.
But I want my snacktime Stimulus Package.best fend for yourself rather than rely on charity.Especially in America! Get a job and buy your own snacks! No handouts!
And if you're a bank or a corporation, you'll get one.
Its varied greatly with my groups. I've been playing these games for about half my life, so as I've grown up its changed with the age groups. At the stage I'm at now its usually every man for himself but bribery is welcomed. Sometimes someone is nice enough to bring snacks, and those are quickly devoured by the hungry bachelor 20 year olds regardless of what its made of. Its usually fast food or some type of snack made at home for entertainment. Of course it also is a great way to get rid of any sort of snackage you don't really want yourself.
Different time frames change the expected food deals. Two hour games you don't even need to care. Maybe bring some soda or something if you really want. On the other hand, my last group ran 12 hour games and those require several breaks, and usually require a very large meal to happen at some point. They handled it by having one break where everyone left to go eat and do their own thing for around 15 minutes to a half hour. Depending on luck, this could be a quick trip to get a pizza with one friend or most of the group going to a relatively cheap restaurant of some sort. I liked sitting down and eating with friends, but that got expensive and 12 hour games with few breaks took a toll on your health.
My favorite way to handle it(that I've been a part of) by far has been everyone is free to bring their own, if they feel your mooching they can refuse to give you food, and the GM is very open to bribery and will happily accept cake and soda. Of course, the bribery was a ploy for free soda and cake.
The host does food and drinks. The others use petrol and have a later night, so we figure it balances out.
Host does not have to, but often does, have snacks and beverages on hand. Everyone else brings whatever they want and its generally viewed that anything anyone brings, unless its a single-serving item (one candy bar or one jerky stick etc.) is community access. We've all got decent jobs and decent income and are close personal friends so there's not really ever an issue.
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Most of the time most of the players (including me as the GM) bring something. Most of the stuff is put on the table for general consumption - if there is something you have brought only for yourself for some reason (haven't eaten yet) you keep it for yourself, no grudges there. Most weeks there is plenty of snacks of various sorts (chips, chocolate, candy, fruit) left at the end of the evening, quite a bit of that stays with the host (if he/she is OK with that).
If you crave something that isn't on the table, you ask your host he/she rarely denies.
We have no hard and fast rule, except usually GM is not expected to bring snacks.
Hosts are not expected to provide snacks, but a few of the people who are hosts really enjoy the whole hospitality thing and tend to provide food even if they are explicitly told they don't need to. We have one GM who is also host and he still makes breakfast for us (our games start at 10 AM) sometimes.
Otherwise people bring what they can if they can; the expectation is usually if there's something specifically you want to drink, bring that for yourself (and enough to share if you like) and if you like, bring a snack to share. Some players go crazy bringing snacks (one player I play with tends to bring grocery bags full of cookies, salty snacks, donuts, and the like; he is not asked or expected to); others don't bring anything or only do sometimes. It may also depend on group or time of day; a group I play with after dinner time, usually we have booze and maybe some cookies or popcorn and that's it. The "brunch group" usually has loads of food, for snacking and breakfast/lunch.
If we plan a meal together we usually volunteer who brings what and work it out via email.
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With my core group, the unwritten rules are:
1) DM's are providing the entertainment, therefore they don't have to bring any snacks.
2) The person hosting is providing the location, therefore they don't bring snacks, either.However, with my other group, everybody brings their own snacks with sharing rarely occurring.
What are your groups' "snack rules?"
We generally either order food or cook communally (cook out, etc...)
BYOB is generally the rule, but the host almost always has leftovers in a greater amount than anything they purchased because all my friends are awesome.
We also have a running "cake" joke for any major event (end of campaign, major BBEG fight, etc...) where after you complete "X" there will be cake, generally provided by the GM.
No one is expected to bring anything. Anyone wanting something specifically has to bring it oneself. Occasionally someone contact host about buying a specific thing and gives back money for that.
Anyone can ask hosts about water, tea or coffee (unless host is out of the supply, that happens sometimes) - with one of the groups I play with reached the point where anyone wanting tea or coffee goes to kitchen and make one oneself without asking, just informing the hosts about that and asking if anyone else wants tea/coffee too.
Sometimes people are in mood to bake, cook or prepare something and bring it to game.
Often someone will bring snacks, cookies, chocolate, soft drinks and share with others but they are not requested to nor expected to bring them. Two friends with best jobs and the most disposable income ten to do this at our D&D/PF group. Once they place the snacks on the table, the grub is fair game for anyone to grab, however ;).
Occasionally folks chip in for a pizza or oriental food but it happens rarely these times.
In the old Mage The Ascension group the host/GM cooked a meal almost every session because she fancied so. It could also allow here to experiment with cooking on us (not that we minded).
Depends on who's moving. If we play at my house, then the rest buys the snacks; if we're playing at someone else's house, we all buy the snacks. Unless we're cooking something specific, once dinner comes by we order pizza.
Then the total (snacks + pizza) spending is split between all those who assist, DMs and players alike, and we transfer the money online the next day to whomever carried out the purchases.
We are all in our mid 40s in our group, and we game on thursdays (4 to 9 or so). Everyone just grabs something from a fast foot place on the way to the game. I host, and the GM duties shift between just about everyone depending on month - every player in the game also GMs.
We don't have snacks as such - chips, drinks or whatnot.
Everyone contributes. Doesn't matter if you GM or host. We're a big group of friends so there's no issues as far as everyone occasionally bringing something. If someone has to skip a week or can't afford something a certain week, then everyone else picks up the slack knowing it'll be reciprocated in the future.
It really differs, sometimes someone found something cheap and bought a load to take to the table. If we don't have enough we just go to the nearest store.
I GM and provide soda for the group. My sister-in-law cooks (usually) and we chip in to help pay for the food. Otherwise we do fend for yourself for food or make a big order and pitch in for it.
We all bring our own snacks in the tables that I play in.
Having the local shops quite close to home makes this pretty easy.
If I am unable to finish the bag of chips* I bought, I share it with my group.
* = Same goes for any other edible thing I buy. There's always someone who appreciates free food.
Since almost all sessions are at my place, I wound up having to institute a new rule: Stop Bringing Soda.
My refrigerator got so overloaded that I wound up essentially being an auxiliary storage unit for cases and cases of soda that I never drink.
Just stack it up in the garage somewhere, soda keeps when it's warm.
Put a few in the fridge every week for your drinking pleasure. Probably a lot more cost effective than having a separate fridge for it all.
Since almost all sessions are at my place, I wound up having to institute a new rule: Stop Bringing Soda.
My refrigerator got so overloaded that I wound up essentially being an auxiliary storage unit for cases and cases of soda that I never drink.
I think I want your problem, and have a solution. Seriously, I have trouble not losing a case to some of the houseguest I have.