What is the proper etiquette?

absolutlush · #1 04-22-2009, 05:14 PM

I'm about to go to my first DnD session where I know noone. I was invited through meetup and am excited about having a session within 3 hours (yeah my normal session is from DC to philly away) but I was wondering what the social etiquette is.

Do I bring my own mini(s) (i have a few hundred at this point)?
I plan on bringing my own dice but do i bring my spare dice (1lbs worth)?
I do not know much about the universe so I am not worried about accidental meta-gaming.
What about food items for our first meetup? Can I bring my own beverage or should i bring enough to share? What if I bring stuff to share but someone doesn't drink/eat any of it?
I will (hopefully) have a 3.5 manual arriving by this weekend. If not is it socially acceptable to bring prints of the Open Source version?
How do I know what character ideas to bring? Can I have non-stated characters figured out in advance?
Along the same lines how does it get decided who plays what character? I have played a fighter or pally in every PC game, and happen to have been assigned a L9 fighter in the philly sessions. I would be willing to try other classes but I'm not kidding when it requires me to break my mind to think as a wizard or bard.
Since this will be held at someone elses house what's general rules for that too? I nearly peed myself at my first Philly session because I was nervous about asking about the bathroom. Which probably made me need to pee more haha.
If the group goes out for a smoke break do i jsut go out with them anyways even tho I'm not really a smoker. (I admit to being addicted to 2nd hand smoke for some reason)

I am sure there are more questions buried somewhere in my head but those are the first ones to come out on "paper". I plan on printing a lot of character sheets off. And will bring a few 4.0 sheets because they are using some book for variations (I guess it's a common thing)

Thanks for the help everyone!

revlazaro · #2 04-25-2009, 05:47 PM

Hmm, seems a like a lot of unneeded worry.

Here's my suggestions (if not too late

Get in contact with the DM by phone prior to heading out, and say "Hey, need me to bring anything? Food? Extra dice? etc?"

If they have smoke breaks, go out with them. I quit smoking years ago but still I'm addicted to taking breathers and stretching legs between encounters.

If ya need to take the OGL printouts, so be it. It's just a game, not a job, if it looks "unprofessional" then they're missing the point of the get together anyway right?

Really, a lot of things you mentioned there are no "written rules" or proper etiquette for gaming aside: How the heck would you act amongst friends? If ya gotta piss, say "BRB BIO" in real words. We're all human, and considering the amount of Mountain Dew guzzled at the gaming table.....taking a whizz happens. Just don't do it in their potted plant in the corner in an attempt to keep describing your combat actions

Again, just call your DM ahead of time and ask what extra stuff could benefit everyone.

mykalgaidin · #3 04-25-2009, 06:15 PM

I've never gotten into D&D, something I hope to remedy soon, but I do have one bit of etiquette that I picked up from years of going to cons:

Please shower (or bath, your choice) and use deodorant. Just because you're roleplaying that you're adventuring in a deep, dank dungeon, doesn't mean that you should smell like one.

NotU · #4 04-25-2009, 06:18 PM

Do I bring my own mini(s) (i have a few hundred at this point)?

Check with your DM to see if you have any that he/she could use for that night's game. Other-wise, unless you have a specific one you plan to use for your character, you probably won't see much use of them.

I plan on bringing my own dice but do i bring my spare dice (1lbs worth)?

I always do. But then, I was a DM more often than a player towards the end of my run so it was a habit. Worst case scenario with this is that you have extra dice.

What about food items for our first meetup? Can I bring my own beverage or should i bring enough to share? What if I bring stuff to share but someone doesn't drink/eat any of it?

Again, this is something you will need to organize with your DM. We usually would split up the 'food' duties, with each person responsible for bringing something.

I will (hopefully) have a 3.5 manual arriving by this weekend. If not is it socially acceptable to bring prints of the Open Source version?

That depends. Is it the PG or DMG? If it is the PG, that would be fine, assuming that is the edition you will be using that night. If it is the DMG, and you're not the DM for the night, leave it at home. Unless, of course, the DM asks you to bring it.

How do I know what character ideas to bring? Can I have non-stated characters figured out in advance?

That depends on the DM. I usually make new members start with something relatively normal/basic. There is plenty of customization that can be done to the standard races and classes with-out getting into the non-standard stuff. I make my players earn the right to use non-standard characters.

Along the same lines how does it get decided who plays what character? I have played a fighter or pally in every PC game, and happen to have been assigned a L9 fighter in the philly sessions. I would be willing to try other classes but I'm not kidding when it requires me to break my mind to think as a wizard or bard.

Very few DM's will *force* a player to play a character that is that far out of their thought process. If you are joining at the beginning of the game, many DM's will ask what everybody wants to play and make assignments as close to what the players want as possible, or allow them to roll up their own characters. So long as the party balances out with what it is going to need, that is.

If you are joining a game-in-progress, new players get whatever is needed or availible.

Since this will be held at someone elses house what's general rules for that too? I nearly peed myself at my first Philly session because I was nervous about asking about the bathroom. Which probably made me need to pee more haha.

Just ask.

If the group goes out for a smoke break do i jsut go out with them anyways even tho I'm not really a smoker. (I admit to being addicted to 2nd hand smoke for some reason)

That's up to you. If everybody goes out, then you might want to as well. If nothing else, it will give everybody a chance to talk about what's going on in the game. Or, perhaps you will have a chance to get to know your fellow players a little better. Either way, unless it is really cold out, there is not really much of a reason to stay inside by yourself. Unless you are using the bathroom, of course...

Hagan · #5 04-26-2009, 01:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by revlazaro

Hmm, seems a like a lot of unneeded worry.

Here's my suggestions (if not too late

Get in contact with the DM by phone prior to heading out, and say "Hey, need me to bring anything? Food? Extra dice? etc?"

If they have smoke breaks, go out with them. I quit smoking years ago but still I'm addicted to taking breathers and stretching legs between encounters.

If ya need to take the OGL printouts, so be it. It's just a game, not a job, if it looks "unprofessional" then they're missing the point of the get together anyway right?

Really, a lot of things you mentioned there are no "written rules" or proper etiquette for gaming aside: How the heck would you act amongst friends? If ya gotta piss, say "BRB BIO" in real words. We're all human, and considering the amount of Mountain Dew guzzled at the gaming table.....taking a whizz happens. Just don't do it in their potted plant in the corner in an attempt to keep describing your combat actions

Again, just call your DM ahead of time and ask what extra stuff could benefit everyone.

Everything Rev says is pretty much it.

I would however get familiar with the world you playing in though, its a failing in players who don't research them. Had a few Dragonlance games where I wished one or two people would have read up a little on the world in general. I played a Theiwar (Evil-Dwarf) Mage, with three personalities and a mad, convoluted and twisted plan that had been upset by the appearance of the Dragon Armies. I was an evil character, fighting evil characters, for evil purposes. I was running with a party of Order and Neutral characters, using them as my Cannon-Fodder. Was a great character, I would be arguing with a paladin, only to end up addig one of my personalities to the conversation at random intervals to confuse, annoy and derail conversatins, especially when I ended up arguing with myself.

Good times.

If you think you can pull off such a character, and your party and gm agree's, I whole heartedly recommend it.

Jezmyn · #6 04-26-2009, 01:23 AM

Just remember one rule: The DM is god. If you don't; they may make you write it down a thousand times before your next turn.

btw, this is a real story. Not to me, but a friend who was a DM and someone ticked her off.

absolutlush · #7 04-26-2009, 03:19 PM

Thanks Everyone for the advice. I brought a case of Mtn dew as a peace offering and my PG came in just in time so I didn't have to worry about the OGL stuff. Noone smoked so that went well. I brought the mini's but the DM had a weird setup going so they weren't needed.

So how do you tell your DM to stop being a player killer and to fix his broken world?

The first session went okay. I'm dissapointed in the DM and a few of the other PC's. The dm wrote his own delve (or campaign) and the world can be walked around in about a month (for my half-orc). There is strangely only one alchemist in the world form what we were able to gather. I found way too many loopholes in the story. If we are play testing the campaign a little warning would have been nice so i could have created a character a druid or palidan to compliment the one healer we have. Oh yeah and umm what's the policy on the DM using a calculator program to calculate hits and damage. I guess it's legal but it seems lame to us.

The DM sent literally a dozen and a half zombies at us in the first town. The other fighter and I started scoping out house by house. The second house had a zombie in it that did 7 points of damage and nearly killed the fighter. He killed it and i decapitated it for fun. During that process the rogue and cleric mved up the wizard and archer kinda moved up. Then the dm lays out 18more zombies. What upset me wasn't that he did that. It was that the wizard and archer ran away. The wizard withdrew off the map. The archer took some shots and then hid in the brush. The cleric stood outside and got walloped. Failed two turn undead instead of healing the fighter and I and got knocked out. The fighter got knocked out. The rogue would have got wrecked so he threw stones to distract the zombies from me for a bit. I broke free of the 8 zombies around my L1 character and ran into the brush. Then lit it on fire while the zombies burned to their death.

18 friggen zombies. I was worried about ettiquette and instead we have a DM trying to kill the L1 characters. We had to roll listen for a 30 foot yell. Unfortunately the roll failed so noone heard me yell get in the house. We could have bottlenecked them.

And the DM's apartment is the basement of a row house. I volunteered my apartment for the next session because i have room to sit at a table. (we litterally sat in a section of the room that was 5 feet wide.

We are going to have our gripe session over email for a bit I guess, maybe bring people together as a team more so the fighter and I aren't left in the dust. I escaped with 3hp. We almsot leveled in that one encounter though haha.

revlazaro · #8 04-26-2009, 04:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by absolutlush

So how do you tell your DM to stop being a player killer and to fix his broken world?

Quit showing up lol.
Or you could possibly offer to run a game yourself in the hopes of maybe having the other players go "Wow, I like his playstyle a lot better."

But hey, it was first session, and i have no clue the DM'ing experience of the guy.....it may pan out. Best of luck over the E-Mail bitch and moan and maybe things will go smoother.

Jezmyn · #9 04-26-2009, 08:58 PM

You could request to be the DM next time and do it better. Good luck with the current broken world and DM who wants to kill LV1s. That just takes the fun out of the game.

DeStructive · #10 04-26-2009, 10:14 PM

Ugh...
If I were in your situation, I'd have a calm talk with the GM about his style. It seems he's more into the hack'n'slash roll-playing instead of roleplaying a story with the players.

Find out if he ran it this way on purpose, and if he'll continue the storyline this way. If yes, find a different group. If he says no, try another session and see if it gets better.

If it doesn't, I'd just say the GM style doesn't suit your playing style, and that you wouldn't continue with them, and thank them for their time.

I wouldn't join a new group, tell the GM his style is bad and offer to GM myself. If I was a player or GM in an established group, and something like this happened, I'd just tell off the newbie. After all, it could be an established style for the group, and they might enjoy it.