The nice thing about writing a two-part column is it lets me off the hook for having to come up with this month's topic. Ha ha! So let's jump right into the continuation of last month's gaming etiquette chat; this month, as promised, I'm going to talk about good manners for hosts and GMs. Let's start with what I feel is the first rule of hosting, gaming or otherwise: your guests should be comfortable. That means that if the A/C is broken and it's 110 degrees out, maybe you should reconsider having D&D at your house. And if, as in a story I was told, it's so cold that your players are having to wear gloves, something's wrong. Another thing to consider is whether you have space to host a game. There should be room for everyone to sit. In my mind, it's OK to ask players to bring some extra folding chairs, as long as there's room to set them up... and as long as you actually ask, instead of waiting for them to show up and then saying "Oh, whoops, guess you'll have to sit on the floor." Politeness also demands that you provide a clean bathroom with ample TP and a hand towel or paper towels or whatever for hand-drying. If I am eating pizza for dinner, I would really like to do so with clean hands, thank you! Also, if you are going to allow your players to bring their kids to the game, you need to have a safe, child-friendly environment. You need to make clear to the parents just what you will and won't be providing, so the parents can know if they want to bring little Timmy or get a sitter. Hosts have their own rights, of course, but if they have rules that they wish to have followed, such as "Do not stand on the furniture," they should really express them politely instead of silently stewing about it. Believe it or not, most guests will considerately not mar your furniture, and if they are abusing it, they will stop with a gentle reminder. The key is to be nice, ie "Please don't sit on the arm of the couch" not "Get off there now, dammit!" Now, for the GMs. Please be considerate in assembling your group. Do your best to ensure that there will be few personality clashes, that everyone has a reasonably similar play style (ie, everyone likes to roleplay some character interaction), and that you can handle the size of the group. Do not be afraid to say "no" to a request to join your group. If your group is already as big as your space or brain can handle, you shouldn't feel obligated to let "just one more person in." If someone honestly does not fit with your group's personality, you probably also shouldn't let them in. Also, be consistent about letting people in. If you tell Fred that he can't bring his best friend to the game because you have too many people, but then you let one of your friends join in, that smacks of favoritism, and players don't like that. As the person in charge of the group, it unfortunately falls upon your shoulders to ask problem players to leave the group. The other players can try to tell someone they're not welcome, but only you have the authority to actually kick them out. It's important to realize when you have to. If a player is ruining everyone's enjoyment, or disrupting the game in unacceptable ways, you have to kick them to the curb. Now for that dreaded topic... favoritism. This usually comes up in reference to the Significant Other of the GM. God knows it does in my group. It is bad form to show favoritism to your SO, child, or best friend. Unless every player gets a story-arc based around their character, you shouldn't be running entire games around a single person's special abilities. Nor should that one special person get all the great loot, or tons of extra experience points. You have to treat them like just another player. Of course, there will always be jealous people who will see favoritism no matter what you did. If you randomly roll that the treasure contains a magic rapier, they'll say "Oh, sure, GM's wife uses a rapier. I see how it is!" You've just got to live with that, though, because if you try too hard, then your favorite person starts to feel like chopped liver. It's a hard line to walk. And now another hot topic, deus ex machina. If you want to run a game where your uber cool NPC always saves the day, maybe you should be writing a book instead. It's all very well and good to run an NPC, especially to fill a need in a small party, or as a minor part to the plot, but remember that the game is for the players. Let them solve the problems and take the glory. Railroading goes the same way. It's not much fun for the players if you force their every action. I used to play with a guy who liked to tell a story about how this happened to him. His character was walking down the street when he heard screaming in the alley. My friend said he would go check it out. The GM said "Ok, you wake up and these are the items you're missing." No combat, no chance to settle things, just boom, you get mugged. We used to jokingly start almost every session with "Ok, you wake up and these are the items you're missing." Either that or "Let's pick teams and fight to the death!" or "Ok, you're all dead, roll up new characters." Good times. Where was I? Oh yeah, that's right. Railroading is bad. Give the players a little wiggle room, don't tell them what they do, let them tell you. And don't be like the GM my husband used to play under, who would just kill your characters until you took the path he wanted you to take. A polite GM can take no for an answer. That means that if someone doesn't want to join your game, you don't keep nagging. This goes doubly true for people who don't roleplay. If they decide they want to try it, they'll come to you, but constantly bringing it up will generally push them away. Always run the game that you said you're going to run. It's not very nice, for instance, to say that you're going to run a Rifts game set in Mexico, have everyone make vampire-hunting characters, and then have them Rift to the Star Trek universe because you wanted to run a Star Trek game but no one wanted to play it. And if your players hate your game and want to leave, let them. Some of my friends were once in a campaign that they all hated and their characters all wanted to kill themselves. No matter what suicide they chose, they failed. They probably all should have just tossed their sheets and started doing out-of-character stuff, but still. If the players dislike your game that much, it's probably time to throw in the towel. As with player etiquette, respect is the big thing. Respect your guests or players, treat them how you'd like to be treated, and everything will be hunky-dory. See you all next month, when I'll have to actually think up a new topic!

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Copyright © 2006 By AJ Reardon E-mail AJ at: ErtheFae@aol.com Visit AJ at: www.erthefae.com