RPG a Day - Day 5

Today's RPG a Day topic: What story does your group tell about your character? Unfortunately, I don't really have a good way to answer this. Like Larry, I haven't actually been a player much in the last few years, and even then, as I said previously, my characters haven't been terribly dynamic.

So I'm glad the BrigadeCon folks provided alternative questions for just such circumstances. The question I'll actually handle for today: What are good ways the group can support the host on game night?

The most visible example of this in our group was Mr. Jar.

Our host was kind enough to provide soda and snacks regularly for us when we would game. It probably doesn't surprise you to hear that six grown men can consume a lot of soda over the course of an evening, so Mr. Jar was the collection plate, with a regular friendly reminder that the jar provided the refreshments.

Sometimes Mr. Jar bought pizza or new games, but mainly it was to keep the expense of hosting us to a minimum.

Of course, none of us could agree on beer, so Mr. Jar tended towards teetotalism.

There's more, though. Our group changed over the course of my time with them: People got married and had kids, including our host. These life changes meant gaming changes as well, but we were flexible guests, which made a huge difference. This included:

• Tolerating breaks in the action for spousal/parental duties
• Attempting gaming efficiency since our schedule was necessarily limited
• Keeping our voices down after the children went to bed
• Helping to clean up after the session
• Helping to entertain the kids when the parents' attention is divided

I'm sure there are other ways RPG groups can make life easier on their host, but these were the best ways we helped ours.