+Vincent Florio had a post yesterday at The Evil GM talking about booze at the gaming table. I had an answer. I was going to post over at Vince's blog, but then I went down to the local pub for dinner and my evening bartender took good care of my wife, my son and myself. As I type this, I remember why I don't drink and DM - I simply can't stay focused enough to herd my usual party of cats.
Back in my college days I refused to allow beer at the RPG table (board games and the such were enhanced by the drinking tho.) I always felt it was difficult to keep the party on track when they were three sheets to the wind.
These days, in the middle of my middle age years, I find myself imbibing liberally during gaming sessions I'm a player in, but I totally abstain when I run a game. I can have difficulty enough staying focused while sober ;)
So, were do you stand with drinking at the gaming table? Or do you say fuck standing up, and just fall off to the side? ;)
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Tenkar's Tavern is supported by various affiliate programs, including Amazon, RPGNow,
and Humble Bundle as well as Patreon. Your patronage is appreciated and helps keep the
lights on and the taps flowing. Your Humble Bartender, Tenkar
Blogs of Inspiration & Erudition
-
-
Potions are for cheaters! d12 Potion Side FX - Potions are drugs and if you used them in pro sport you'd probably be a cheat and fined. Do good people do potions? Various expansions for The Lost City...8 hours ago
-
D&D SRD 5.2 - I downloaded the D&D5e SRD v.5.2, but really only out of long-entrenched habit. I'm becoming less and less interested in that fantasy superhero game, th...9 hours ago
-
Update: Rock Johnson - Updated cover, courtesy of HuckSawyer'S excellent eye for editry.ALSO:I made my wife read it. I made her promise to tell the truth. She said it was actual...11 hours ago
-
Witchcraft Wednesday: Deborah "Elf Star" and Mistress Frost for the Left Hand Path Witch - Last week I re-introduced two NPC Witches from my Left Hand Path Witch & Warlock book; Rhiannon and Briana Highstar. Today I want to feature two more. ...18 hours ago
-
Peril at the Rock - By Chris GonnermanBasic Fantasy ProjectBasic FantasyLevels 3-5 Strange, frog-faced humanoids are raiding the Dardenway, the main trade road running south f...21 hours ago
-
Accommodation in Bastion - Electric Bastionland puts you in debt, with a failed career, and generally assumes you've left home in order to pursue your get-out-of-debt-quick scheme....1 day ago
-
Commentary On Free The Giants Stair Adventure For The Corum Rpg By Darsyde Productions - " Rising from the sea to a height of nearly one hundred feet, the Giant's Stairs lie several hundred yards out from the harbor. The massive collection of ...1 day ago
-
A Brief History on the Development and Design of the Planar Cosmology in AD&D - I was reading a good discussion a couple of months ago (in February 2025) about the nomenclature for the power levels of different types of demons over on ...1 day ago
-
These Cards Are Demonic: A quick little game of diabolical summoning - My recent obsession with the new *Pokémon TCG Pocket *app has me thinking about trading card games a lot, and obviously the Pokémon game in particular. So...2 days ago
-
[Fanzine Focus XXXVII] The Travellers’ Digest #4 - On the tail of the Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial public...2 days ago
-
Blogs on Tape season 6 has begun! - Hi everybody! Its been a minute. How are you? Everything is awful all the time? Horrors never cease? You’re being driven mad by the weight of the unfathoma...2 days ago
-
Felltower - Loot, Exploration, and Combat, in that order? - What is Felltower about? "Felltower is all about safety." - Ulf Well, that, and loot, exploration, and combat, in that order. The XP system rewards loot h...3 days ago
-
Some insight into FitD Action Roll difficulty - With Blades in the Dark and the other Forged in the Dark games being so much more straightforward and conventional looking than Apocalypse World, I often f...3 days ago
-
The Most Vile Spider-Man Villain Ever... - Based on the title of this post you might be expecting Green Goblin, Carnage, or even the Jackal. None of them compare to the despicable acts of the focus...4 days ago
-
dErO - VotE: Re Development - the mysterious Stephan Poag did a comic about them! The dErO Do Not Exist You do not believe in dErO. The Player Characters *cannot* believe in dErO. ...5 days ago
-
More Beautiful Development Sketches for The Great North - Tom Kilian continues to excel himself with the artwork for *The Great North*, now heading towards completion. As an Easter present, here is a work-in-pro...6 days ago
-
Tariffs, CanCon, and You - In 1972 the CBC asked listeners to complete the saying "As Canadian as...", to match "As American as apple pie." The winner was "As Canadian as possible ...1 week ago
-
Should you PAY your GM? - Let's start with the conclusion: GM-for-pay is okay. In other words: there is nothing wrong with paying someone to run a game for you, or charging people f...1 week ago
-
Noodle Bar & Industrial Scatter Terrain - This past weekend I got a couple of solid hours to paint when I wasn’t dead tired, and decided to spend it on the 3D printed Flatline City Noodle Bar tha...2 weeks ago
-
A Surprising Look at Murderhobos... - So I asked a question on Facebook this week. What did people do with the humanoid women and children in the Caves of Chaos, among similar adventures, persu...3 weeks ago
-
36 units sold on day one - Not big Kickstarter-type numbers or anything but still pretty personally gratifying to me, because 1) it'a more copies than the first book sold on its fi...3 weeks ago
-
Praise for Songs of the Dying Earth - Among my favourite works of fantasy fiction are the *Dying Earth* stories and the *Lyonesse *trilogy by Jack Vance. I’ve read the *Lyonesse *trilogy three ...3 weeks ago
-
Best OSR Cartographers - A video about some my favorite cartographers in the game. This is not an exhaustive list, but the ones I go to the most and ones that have influenced my st...3 weeks ago
-
Gary Con XVII - I attended Gary Con this year. Last year, I was supposed to go, but something came up and I had to cancel. This year, I ran a scenario I created called The...4 weeks ago
-
[BLOG] News on the March! Episode VI. - This post continues the series of brief play reports I have been posting on Discord. This does not cover every single session (sometimes, recon and setup...4 weeks ago
-
On the Success of the VOTE - You voted for it, and it's here! All the prices on the books I sell on DTRPG will be rising in price, 40-50% so I can maintain the same margin as now! ...4 weeks ago
-
Lexicon of Klarkash-Ton, Hierophant of Atlantis: Lupanar - This time, we follow the good High Priest to the far future, to the final continent of Earth, Zothique, for a a tale of ennui and love: Morthylla. Witho...5 weeks ago
-
Fight On! number 16 is out. - The new issue of *Fight On!* has been out for a bit. You can get copies via drivethru or lulu. I haven't finished reading my copy, but I'd like to reco...1 month ago
-
Wandering through the Majestic Fantasy Realms - It's time for another Bat in the Attic update! I am halfway through the first draft of my upcoming project, Into the Majestic Fantasy Realms, the Northe...1 month ago
-
The Hungering Dark - Go into the earth, and reality will walk alongside you. Walk further, and you will eventually be walking alone. The world is plastic down there. Tar Lat...1 month ago
-
Hobby Bingo 2025: January Progress - Welcome back to the Vault! I've painted a few bits and pieces in January and made a dent into my Hobby Bingo card! First up is a Chaplain in Terminator ...2 months ago
-
NTRPG Gaming Weekend - [image: NTRPG Gaming Weekend] This weekend was a "game day" for North Texas RPG Con, held at the same hotel the con is held at. I haven't slung dice since...2 months ago
-
The Stats of a Dave Arneson Player Character. - If you want to find the details for one of the characters that Gary Gygax made and played as a PC, perhaps to use as an NPC in your own game, it isn't t...2 months ago
-
Into the Wild Blue Yonder: A Journey Through Blackmoor's Dark Realm - *We have been thinking about you.* *We know what you want from Rob Kuntz.* You want more than another brand-new RPG module. It has to be a *First Edition ...3 months ago
-
Articulations - Creating house rules, custom rules specific to a local group or campaign, has been common throughout the history of D&D. What makes an effective house rule...3 months ago
-
A Fiftieth Anniversary Year - The 50th anniversary year of *Dungeons & Dragons *is drawing to a close. A number of projects I'd been planning for this year finally came out, and I ...3 months ago
-
A Quick Look at The Wizard’s Scroll II - October of this year saw the release of The Wizard’s Scroll II, the second issue of a White Box Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game (FMAG) zine whose first ...3 months ago
-
Writing playlists for all occasions - Hello again! Going off the idea of inspiration elaborated on by the prior post, I also have music playing while I write my various games and fiction pieces...4 months ago
-
The Tarot of Pips - Somewhere in your dice collection is a die like this one, the humblest of dice. Although you don't know it, this small white die carries with it a secr...4 months ago
-
Pirates and Necromancers, a Play Report - Over the Thanksgiving weekend we did a lot of gaming ranging from “off-table” domain level stuff to some solo adventures to spell and magic item rese...4 months ago
-
Welcome new Greyhawk Fans! - With the publication of the new Dungeon Master’s Guide, there are doubtless going to be a lot of new D&D players interested in my favorite setting, the Wor...6 months ago
-
It's been a bit - Hey everyone, I hope you are doing well! I've had a lot going on and haven't had much time to blog lately. Heres a recap of gaming events and other st...11 months ago
-
*'s in SpaaaaaAaaaace - A lot of SF (including a certain 2D6 RPG grandaddy) deal with ancient aliens taking humans from Earth and dropping them, fleas and all, on one or more w...1 year ago
-
Last move - to self-hosting! - As my vote regarding Substack in the “marketplace of ideas”, I’m moving to self-hosting. I’m now at (and hopefully staying for a long time at) Blog: ht...1 year ago
-
Osamu Tezuka (1928 - 1989) - [image: Osamu Tezuka - Shonen Magazine Cover, 1970]Shonen Magazine Cover, 1970 [image: Osamu Tezuka - Shonen Magazine Cover Illustration 1970]Shonen Maga...2 years ago
-
This is an Important Game Mechanic - *"That's the GM's Regional Map from my AOWG. And it's a damned good regional map. It's not a good map for a Simple Homebrew Campaign. It does some s$&...2 years ago
-
Clean Your Room - Looking back at my little blog here. That last post… wow, I was having fun playing WOW Classic! That was August of 1999 and I was having a blast… it was ...3 years ago
-
-
Steve Jackson Interview - James Maliszewski recently did an interview with Steve Jackson over on his Grognardia blog. Steve chats about the beginnings of The Fantasy Trip and upcomi...4 years ago
-
The Hero’s Journey 2nd Edition, Campbellian roleplaying at its best! - (this review done using the reviewers own purchased copy) I have been a James Michael Spahn fan since he wrote his Swords & Wizardry Companion. His writing...4 years ago
-
ToAD Monster of the Week: Crocoman - Now that I'm back doing the blog thing I thought I would use Tome of Adventure Design to create monsters for The Black Hack. Using the monster tables in th...5 years ago
-
More Arden Vul Art - Another great piece from Del, this one's the Forum of Set: a place that the PCs may spend quite a bit of time within.5 years ago
-
OCHRE SAND - Init +0 Ranged Atk • fire burst +3 (1d14+1, 20') AC 17 HD 3d6 MV 60 Act 1d24 SP 'breath' weapon, sideslip, perfect silence, morphing Fort +5 Ref +8 Will...5 years ago
-
Strange, Dangerous, and Inhuman: The Fey and Fairie - When I was a boy I loved fairy tales. Jack and the Beanstalk, Puss in Boots, Rumpelstiltskin - I devoured all of it. My fascination that there was a strang...5 years ago
-
New Map of the Elf Empire and Southern Isles - I’ve been having fun developing a new map-drawing style that I think is finally reaching a certain level of maturity. And yeah, it owes a lot to Matthew Ad...5 years ago
-
The Faithful - An Optional Archetype for Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells Revised Edition - Work on the revised edition of Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells is moving along. This will be a hefty tome, with a LOT of tools and new options to customiz...5 years ago
-
Dungeons & Dragonmead Fall Schedule - *As you know, I run public classic Dungeons & Dragons games at **The Loaded Die**/Metro Detroit Game Night's Board Game Nigh at **Dragonmead**, in Warren...5 years ago
-
Fiction in Airhde - On a whim this weekend, I picked up some fiction off the TLG store. *A Houseless God & Other Tales* and *The Mirrored Soul & Other Tales*, both by the T...5 years ago
-
-
Ravensburg Reboot: Streamlined City Map - I mentioned in my last post how I was tweaking and reworking parts of my Ravensburg setting. Today I streamlined the city map. The old map had lots of redu...5 years ago
-
And Now the News Draft Download on Patreon - It's self-styled Throwback Thursday and *having just released the 34-page draft booklet of Hill Cantons news to my Patreon backers* I am going to indulge m...5 years ago
-
The Withered Crag available now - I just enabled the sale of the PDF version of The Withered Crag at DriveThruRPG a few minutes ago, and the custom print version will be available startin...5 years ago
-
Annihilation Rising Goes live - The latest in Fail Squad Games’ Quick Kick projects has gone live and needs your support!! This project is only running 11 days and ends on 5/28/2019! ...5 years ago
-
James's Celebration of Life - We could not have asked for a prettier day for James's service. It was a bit chilly and windy but gorgeous. A heartfelt thank you to all that joined us tod...6 years ago
-
Trap Tuesday: A step back - I will get back to Tomb of Horrors soon. I found a topic that was interesting enough to take a break. While interacting in a 5E group on Facebook I talked ...6 years ago
-
Let's Talk About Pacing! - The idea, I think, is that the RPG is ultimately about the long game. Even rolling back to the early days of Basic & Expert, the goal of the player was...6 years ago
-
Profane and Profound Prep Part 2 - This is part 2 of my work to edit my magic items for a DMsGuild release, along with adding cursed items along the way. Here is part 1. Bone of a Saint 8000...6 years ago
-
MIDDLE DUNGEONS LEVEL FIVE 158 STAIRS. - 158 STAIRS. These stairs descend thirty feet to Area 79 on Level 6.6 years ago
-
Please, I don't do paid advertisements - don't ask. - A little note since people have asked me about this. My video channel's *not* an advertising platform, so I'm not available for hire if you want to promote...6 years ago
-
New website! - Slowly but surely, all the content here will make its way — in updated form! — to my new website: timbannock.com. For fairly obvious reasons, that site wil...6 years ago
-
Please Update Your Link! - If you're seeing this, it means your link to the Greyhawk Grognard blog is out of date. Please update your link to www.greyhawkgrognard.com (RSS feed is h...6 years ago
-
Total Sales for WB:FMAG - Hi Folks, It's been a long time since I provided an update for the sales of White Box: Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game. *LULU* Print: 396 PDF: 433 *OBS*...6 years ago
-
How can We Destroy this Campaign World? - d12 1. You must trick a bard into strumming the *Chords of Fate* on the *Lute of Annihilation* 2. Legends tell of thermonuclear weapons beneath megadunge...6 years ago
-
Mord Mar - Session 5 - We had another successful delve into the dungeon yesterday. The delvers: Moira, the Magic-User Radovan - Human Cleric (of Odin?) Khazgar Stonehand - Dwarf ...6 years ago
-
Yodeling For Yokels or The Further Misa(d&)dventures - This is the one of those posts that points out the lack of current posts. Over the last week or three, there has been postponed Labyrinth Lord (twice, one...7 years ago
-
Bundle of Fantasy Age - Bundle of Holding: Dragon Age/Fantasy Age: Available until March 12. PA Presents: Fantasy AGE Freeport live play Green Ronin in 2018 The Fantasy Age RPG ma...7 years ago
-
New Free PDF Module: The Hyqueous Vaults - A new dungeon module—written in celebration of OSRIC's 10th Birthday—by Rebecca Dettmann, Allan T. Grohe, Jr., Jimm Johnson, Matthew Riedel, Alex Zisch, a...7 years ago
-
Session XCIII: One Pissed Off Dragon! - Our ongoing Swords and Wizardry sandbox campaign... *Current Player Characters:* *Thenus* (Ranger) *Wang Du* (Monk) *Wolfheir* (Viking) *Arg* (Half-orc) ...7 years ago
-
Swords & Wizardry Light: Session # 6 - Two months after our last session (thanks to things like 8th grade finals, a 4 year-old's birthday and party, Father's Day, etc.), we finally had our next ...7 years ago
Nay for me. But I don't drink so it's very easy.
ReplyDeleteThe players can do what they want. I've tread lightly since 'the incident' in 1997. Other players have heard of that legendary session over the years and occasionally try and ply me with liquor in an effort to recreate it.
ReplyDeleteI don't drink myself and frankly don't much approve of it. People can drink on their own time, rather than indulging their vice during shared game time.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I would ten times rather have players drinking at the gaming table than smoking.
Have a few, sure. But I think my DMing suffers a bit if I black out, so I try not to get more than a slight buzz. As a player, sobriety is less important but I'm generally the kind of drunk that seems sober until I fall over, and who wants to miss the end of the session when loot is divvied up?
ReplyDeleteLately I've been at 1D3 -1 hard ciders as a player. GMing, mostly not. More to keep track of.
ReplyDeleteIt seems ridiculous to have a 2 drink maximum at one's gaming table, but I found it necessary, unfortunately. There were a few drunken incidents over the last couple of years. One was really bad, the rest just distracting / annoying.
ReplyDeleteWe often have some light drinking at the table. Personally, I find it helps me get into the 'zone' for playing a halfling paladin.
ReplyDeletehttp://billygoes.blogspot.co.il/2014/08/one-hell-of-gaming-night.html
That said, our group is all in our 30's or 40's and I don't think anyone is interested in drinking to excess.
Actually, tonight, we have a couple teenagers joining us(a player's kid and the neighbor's daughter), so it's likely that snack food will have to suffice...
Game night is our guy night, we nearly always have a few drinks even when we're using a VTT. For us it is part and parcel of gaming. We're all in our 30s and 40s though and know how to handle a few drinks. Plus we've all known each other socially for years and are close friends who've been through a few real life adventures together. It might also be a UK thing as back in the day when every town had a games club they would often meet in in the function room of a pub and the deal usually was the landlord would let you have the room for free on the understanding you would buy a few drinks. Smoking at the table was ubiquitous back then too. Very rare now, it's illegal in pubs and heavily frowned upon to light up in someone's house without explicit permission
ReplyDeleteMy personal experience with drinking at the game table led to my only TPK when a very drunk player stormed the Great Hall in the Steading of the Hill Giant Chief and the other players just went along. After that I sought to limit drinking at my game table but we were teenagers then, these days I would hope that adult gamers would know how not to drink and delve, so if a player had a beer or two today I wouldn't object.
ReplyDeleteDon't drink and delve. Haha.
DeleteLeeroy ah-Jenkinnnns! At least I got bourbon...
Delete"Don't drink and delve." I'm going to use that.
DeleteOne or two is fine over that an quality of play degrades.
ReplyDeleteWell, my gaming group is, with one exception, 30+; therefore, we imbibe. My personal rule of thumb is a beer to three, depending on how long we're gaming. People who over-imbibe generally become obnoxious or pass out.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI've never been with a group that drink during gaming. I've had a drink on occasion when we go out to eat together (and with my college roommate, drank quite a lot at times), but never had anything at the table.
ReplyDeleteThere was one roll20 game that was dragging on, and I had a scotch while waiting for things to happen. But that was just me and just that once.
"Yay." It's spelled "yay." As in "Yay, booze at the gaming table!"
ReplyDelete;)
Not anymore. Too many ruined games when a couple of drunk dudes decide to try a judo hold on the lich-king or kick in the king's face because he needed kicking or somesuch nonsense.
ReplyDeleteIt is all up to you and your players knowing their limits. You can weed out the "drunks" from the table. Our group have been drinking at our table for over 15+ years and we have never had a "total drunk" player or DM. When you have people acting like morons because they can not handle the drinks, then I would say no to at the gaming table.
ReplyDeleteIn the late 1980s I gamed with my university RPG society and drinking (before, during and after the game) was very much the norm. One session of MERP got so drunk and silly (I vaguely remember helicopters and hand grenades and Elrond being turned into a carrot) that the society's president came over and accused us of "debasing Tolkien's legacy". Huzzah!
ReplyDeleteNowadays, nah. People have to drive home. We drink tea and eat biscuits. Sometimes there is cake.
We are grown ups. It rarely is a problem nor a necessity. As a GM I wouldn't do it but as a player fine. Some GMs seem fine. In fact I am going to try it, maybe it'll calm the nerves
ReplyDeleteI have a group that meets at a game store (no on that one), another at a bar (so, we have to show our appreciation there). So depends. I tend to play with a younger crowd so at someone's home it would be normal for some craft beer to be there.
ReplyDelete