Very similar to some of those posted already.
1. Don't be a jerk
2. If you powergame, don't cry if the DM also powergames an enemy to face you, but that same enemy has a weakness for some abilities other players may have. (though this is almost NEVER a problem...EVER).
3. Play as a team/group
4. Don't be a jerk (because it's important enough to say it twice).
Luckily, with my current group, this doesn't seem to be a problem.
However, we do have some which are ALWAYS late. I actually tell them the time as a half hour before I'd want to meet these days simply so we can start on time.
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Don't be a Jerk
No smoking or drinking. In fact no smokers. Our group has just been that way for 20+ years without it being said outright. But if someone wanted to join and was a smoker, they would never be invited back (2 core people with severe Asthma) and if someone showed up drunk or with alcohol, they would be invited to the world.
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No unspoken rules whatsoever.
I find it best to speak them all, so everyone knows where they stand.
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Accommodate your players.
So, when I had a game where all of my players rolled up fighters, I created a combat-heavy campaign that centered on the characters being part of the same mercenary company.
When I had a Fey-blooded sorcerer who wanted to cause some chaos, my DM took some breaks from the epic slay-the-dragon plot to facilitate role-play. (Without taking too long, of course. There was also a Pirate building a smuggling ring.)
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Rules I wish we had:
Get on with the round
Don't tell us how powerful your character is
Work out your modifiers ahead of the roll
Don't read the moduleYes, I break some of these occasionally as well!
QFT
Lee: <roll> 15! plus....mmm
Me: Hit
Lee: No, let me work it out...
Me: Hit
Lee: I think I broke 40, but what did I actually get?
Me: Hit
Lee: 45, but did I get a +2 from your blessing...?
Me: Hit
Lee: What bonus type was it? Does it stack or not, with what I cast?
Me: Hit
Lee: You know, I think I might have actually broken 50 with that roll...
Freyja: ****in ell! Are you not listenin'? YOU. HIT.
Me: <eyeroll>
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No unspoken rules whatsoever.
I find it best to speak them all, so everyone knows where they stand.
I think the thing with "unspoken rules" is, it's generally things no one feels they have to say, and if they HAVE to be said, something is wrong for another reason.
I don't want to, and should never have to, say "I'm not going to let you have your character commit rape." If I have to then the person is not being invited back (I have the luxury of playing only with people I like) and I'm probably not going to talk to them anymore either.
I don't think that's ever appropriate in a TRPG situation—ESPECIALLY when you don't know everyone at the table intimately—and I'm doubtful I will find a friend in someone that thinks it is.
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Lee: <roll> 15! plus....mmm
Me: Hit
Lee: No, let me work it out...
Me: Hit
Lee: I think I broke 40, but what did I actually get?
Me: Hit
Lee: 45, but did I get a +2 from your blessing...?
Me: Hit
Lee: What bonus type was it? Does it stack or not, with what I cast?
Me: Hit
Lee: You know, I think I might have actually broken 50 with that roll...
Freyja: ****in ell! Are you not listenin'? YOU. HIT.
Me: <eyeroll>
Years ago i had a player who did this nonsense all the time. Eventually I would, after he had totaled everything up (and being told right at the start that his nat 19 was a hit), declare it to be a miss as his PC was obviously so distracted that he couldn't possibly be swinging his sword right.
The best part the first few times the player believed me and just looked sad. The rest of the table gave him a few 'damn that's too bad!'. Eventually he got with the program and combats sped up remarkably.
Rules I wish we had:
Get on with the round
Don't tell us how powerful your character is
Work out your modifiers ahead of the roll
Don't read the moduleYes, I break some of these occasionally as well!
QFT
Lee: <roll> 15! plus....mmm
Me: Hit
Lee: No, let me work it out...
Me: Hit
Lee: I think I broke 40, but what did I actually get?
Me: Hit
Lee: 45, but did I get a +2 from your blessing...?
Me: Hit
Lee: What bonus type was it? Does it stack or not, with what I cast?
Me: Hit
Lee: You know, I think I might have actually broken 50 with that roll...
Freyja: ****in ell! Are you not listenin'? YOU. HIT.
Me: <eyeroll>
I'll admit I'm guilty of some of this in my RotRL game. I have my base modifiers on my sheet for my main weapon, but we usually have a bunch of buffs going, and I'm charging, etc. so it's like "Well I rolled a 2, so there's a 40, wait 42 from Charging, wait 43 from Haste" and so on. I usually factor in Greater Heroism by default so it speeds it up a smidge and I can rattle off the other stuff pretty quick so i like to think it doesn't slow down combat much.
Not as much as my other game where I'm on my Oracle and can't figure out what spell I want to cast anyway. =)
And no, I'm ashamed to say, that "I got a 43 on a 2" bit was not an exaggeration. My Barbarian is filthy and I feel dirty for playing him sometimes.
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If I am not going to go away for some personal time, because I made a commitment to my friends, neither shall they. Or they can not come that day.Gaming before sex Hama? Seriously? You must just be a joy to hang around with. :DI'm with Hama on this one.
The fact that I place everything before sex as an asexual person not-withstanding, I will take offense at someone leaving mid-game for anything other than an emergency or feeling too ill/tired to continue, sex included in that.
Gotta agree on this one, and I think this extends to the simple "don't be a jerk" rule. If I tell my friends that I am going to hang out with them for a set amount of time and then don't show or leave mid-way through, I feel like it's telling them that I don't value their time as much as I value my own. Moreover, since table top gaming tends to require a set number of people - having a single person missing can have drastic effects of the difficulty of any given encounter - leaving the group mid-session is quite a bit different than leaving a group of friends during some other activities, such as seeing a movie or bar hopping.
Conversely, if someone texted me, "Hey babe, we want to play Pathfinder tonight...everyone is free, just need you," while I was with my girlfriend, I would say no for the same reasons.
...Well, some of the same reasons. But the number one reason being out of respect for the time of the person(s) with whom I have made a prior commitment.
If I am not going to go away for some personal time, because I made a commitment to my friends, neither shall they. Or they can not come that day.Gaming before sex Hama? Seriously? You must just be a joy to hang around with. :DSo, we're in the middle of a session and my gf texts me something along the lines of "I'm horny, come home".
Not going home. We can have sex any other day of the week. After the session or before the session. Those several hours are devoted to my friends. If she doesn't like that, that's her problem.
Oh and I told her so.
Same here. My wife will sometimes text me things that are a bit distracting, and I just tell her "look, I'm the only one in the room holding a phone right now, and everybody is staring at me. Quit it." Game time is game time. Too much scheduling and social commitment goes into keeping game sessions running smoothly. My wife gets the other 95% of my free time during the week, so she can wait 3 measly hours.
No smoking.
No alcoholic beverages.
If you wake the baby, you incur the GM's wrath.
...and his wife's...
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Our unspoken rules have been on my mind lately because last year we added a new player to a group that has been together for nearly 20 years, and I don't think anyone told him what our unspoken rules are. Maybe sometimes they shouldn't be unspoken.
1. Keep the cursing to a minimum.
2. No racist/sexist/misogynistic jokes.
3. Keep the distractions to a minimum, i.e: phone calls/texts, social media, internet, tv, books, checking the score of the sporting event, and such.
4. Don't kill the PCs. I know some folks will think this is an awful rule, but we are usually heavily invested in our PCs and want them to survive to the end of the campaign. If someone gets bored or dissatisfied with their PC, that PC is usually called home or retires from adventuring instead of being killed off.
5. There will by Monty Python references. Lots of them.
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Our unspoken rules have been on my mind lately because last year we added a new player to a group that has been together for nearly 20 years, and I don't think anyone told him what our unspoken rules are. Maybe sometimes they shouldn't be unspoken.
1. Keep the cursing to a minimum.
2. No racist/sexist/misogynistic jokes.
3. Keep the distractions to a minimum, i.e: phone calls/texts, social media, internet, tv, books, checking the score of the sporting event, and such.
4. Don't kill the PCs. I know some folks will think this is an awful rule, but we are usually heavily invested in our PCs and want them to survive to the end of the campaign. If someone gets bored or dissatisfied with their PC, that PC is usually called home or retires from adventuring instead of being killed off.
5. There will by Monty Python references. Lots of them.
Those are very specific and should be spoken. I dont know anyone who would qualify for your table. Not saying thats a bad thing just a specific thing.