The Line between Disruptive and RP

[Jessex]

Prop comedy isn't comedy. If you need props to RP your character then you aren't.

Unless you are lead vocalist in an award winning choir or the like don't sing at the table, and auditioning for a reality show never ever counts, and even then keep it to a minimum we are under time constraints.

As to offending someone:

Don't tell off color or racist jokes at the table! Do not rp a character that is designed to offend other people. This isn't about being PC. This is about the game being a social experience and needing to be welcoming to everyone.

Locally I know someone who immediately starts telling truly awful sexual jokes as soon as a woman sits down at the table. As a result we have very few women in our lodge. Someone else plays a truly OTT dominatrix whip specialist which he at least, as far as I know, has never played at a table with a woman. If this was a private game both these guys would have been told to cut this out but with this being PFS and the VA being clearly OK with it...

[Thrawn007]

Latest annoyance I've seen.

If someone wants your help playing their character, they will ask. Don't pick up their character sheet, unless they offer it up. Let them do the math for their attacks, unless they want help. Let them decide their tactics, unless they want help.

As the GM, I should have stepped in on this and stood up for the player being "offered help", but I was worried it would escalate, and we were already running over on time.

[nosig]

nosig wrote:

The is just thread discussing what I call table ETIQUETTE.... right? Or is there some activity that we are trying to ban?

We're all friends here at the table right? So, if your friend is doing something that bothers you - ask them nice to stop it.

...snipping a bunch of my first post to save space....

table ETIQUETTE.

Play nice. Let's be friends. Have fun....

Just an attempt to push this back into the original track... Feel free to ignore me if you want...

[Ms. Pleiades]

I pantomime at the game table a lot. I also tend to stand at various points during the game to see the map better while planning out my turn (and also because sitting for three hours straight gets uncomfortable). Both of these have earned me some comments and annoyed looks at the table, even though I've never knocked anything over.

My characters also tend to be flippant during briefings venture captains treat Pathfinders like latrine straw. Thankfully Aram Zey has only had to brief a character of mine once.

[Finlanderboy]

Ms. Pleiades wrote:

I pantomime at the game table a lot. I also tend to stand at various points during the game to see the map better while planning out my turn (and also because sitting for three hours straight gets uncomfortable). Both of these have earned me some comments and annoyed looks at the table, even though I've never knocked anything over.

My characters also tend to be flippant during briefings venture captains treat Pathfinders like latrine straw. Thankfully Aram Zey has only had to brief a character of mine once.

I think these are all good things. Everything you mentioned I think helps the game.

[mamaursula]

Askdal Aleheart wrote:

Before I give being a DM for PFS a try I'm curious about other people's opinion on this matter.

I'm the kind of person that if I were to run a scenario that involved Kreighton Shaine I would absolutely need to have a plastic rose before I would feel comfortable running the game.

However with all the 'Speed-Run', let's go, we can get This Evergreen done in less than three hours... I'm curious on this topic.

I'll throw in two examples to start things off.

The Bard who sings: You have a player with a Bard character and every round he is using Inspire Courage he sings two sentences from an altered IRL song.
"Smelly Scale-Man, lurking in the tower. Smelly-Scale-man the kind I'd like not to meet".
Might get a grin out of a few people but you know some others might not like this.

The Tobacco User: The player who brings a cigar to the game. It it is not bubblegum or chocolate and it is out of the cellophane wrapper. It is not lit and never has been. He chomps on it during the game because his character smokes cigars and will show you his sheet where he purchased the 5 silver one pound of tobacco trade good to justify it. This situation sounds simple enough but you know that you will get that one player. The one who sits next to someone with a pack of cigarettes obvious in their shirt pocket and not bothering them but the fact this player has a cigar in his mouth is the 'worst distraction' in the world.

These two examples from my experience from DnD 3.0/3.5 might sound silly but I'm still curious about other people's views.

Please feel free to add your own experiences and examples.

So back to the original post. If you find something distracting as a GM or it seems to be derailing the game (especially if you are on a tight time table) it falls to you as the GM to control the table. I don't mean with a chair and whip, but there are circumstances outside the GM's control that must be maintained. If someone brings a cigar to the table or other character affectation and it takes on a life of it's own, the GM can call a quick break and speak with the player in private. There are ways to lay things out for a player without making it personal. "Hey player, I really love that you are into your PC and you have brought the cigar, but for some reason it is really making it hard for me to focus on the game today. We only have 3 hours to get through this scenario. Can I get you to put the cigar down and get through this on time?"

For the bard - After the first couple of rounds, especially if the bard player can't sing, same deal - "It's great that you've got a bunch of songs prepared. We only have 3 hours to get this scenario run, so, let's get our actions prepared for each round and if you are going to continue singing, we know what that sounds like, we're going to have to go with 'I keep singing'."

This works best when you have a limited time slot and something is distracting and keeping you from moving through all the parts quickly. Get everyone on in the same out of game party - "We have a scenario, we all want to succeed at getting through this, right? This is what we need to do to get there." Buy in is key. Players sit down to play, let them know that their play is going to be negatively impacted over all if they "play around" at the table.

[Feral]

I have a question about etiquette and triggers based on my experience at this year's Paizocon.

At Paizocon I played in a PFS scenario that brought the party to a situation where we were considering killing some stabled horses in order to disrupt operations within the enemy base that we'd infiltrated. One of the players at the table immediately got upset and vetoed the idea. He didn't cite any real argument so we were confused - is your character opposed to this plan or are you as a player opposed? The player made it clear that harming animals was one of his triggers. We had a brief discussion, mostly based around the fact that in-character killing the animals would help with our mission but the triggered player's friend jumped in - you cannot violate someone's triggers without explicit consent.

The GM was puzzled. The rest of the players were puzzled. Not interested in forcing the issue we abandoned the plan and did other things. Fortunately, killing the hostile forces' horses wasn't necessary to achieve success in the scenario.

But what if it had been? What if the scenario specifically required us to kill those stabled horses to get our second prestige or unlock some boon? What's proper etiquette when the scenario's objectives directly conflict with a player's triggers? Are GMs in PFS scenarios empowered to reflavor things to avoid triggering players? Are they empowered to hand-wave scenario-crucial things that are offensive to people when it comes up?