Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Punditry that is Spot-On

While I always enjoy reading The RPG Pundit (unless he's going on about Freemasonry), I don't often agree with him; at least not whole-heartedly.

However, I woke up this morning to find he's hit the proverbial nail on its clichéd head.

I think that one of the most idiotic statements ever uttered in the context of RPGs is "You should only game with your friends!!"; I have a ton of friends I would never want to game with, and there's nothing about the condition of close friendship that would make it particularly suitable for gaming with, or make the game better. Some of the people in my gaming group I consider close friends, but most of them are acquaintances (albeit close acquaintances based on seeing each other regularly).

And if "friend" is a prerequisite to joining someone's gaming group you've pretty much created a closed, incestuous, bound-to-die-out gaming group right there.

4 comments:

  1. Agreed ... though I might add that those you game with on a regular basis often become your friends.

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  2. I usually hear this tenet stated as "Don't game with people you wouldn't hang out with otherwise." Not an absolute, but generally wise advice because otherwise you get hooked into any of the 1000 hateful situations generated by trying to tolerate a big ol' freak and not enjoying yourself just "so you can game."

    Gaming with people you don't like just because they're gamers is like banging chicks you don't like just because they will have sex with you. Once you're past 15 years of age, you realize it's just not worth the hassle.

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  3. I agree with the above. You don't need to just game with your friends, but I can't easily game with people I'm not friendly with. I have a low tolerance for prattish behavior and I quickly lose interest if it becomes 3-4 hours of just tolerating someone's presence. My current Traveller campaign is suffering from just that situation.

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  4. Huh, I don't recall ever hearing that. It's utterly retarded to the point of I couldn't even think it up.

    Several of my friends I've met through gaming. I often play with complete strangers at game stores as DM and player. Even home games (mine and others) are mostly with people I did not know before the game.

    I can agree with "Don't game with people you wouldn't hang out with otherwise." But simplified that boils down to "Don't hang out with people you don't want to hang out with." Thank you Font of the Obvious!

    What about conventions? Make your friends go just so you have something to do?

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