The Evil GM – Gaming and Drink, Bad idea?

So you sit down to gaming, after the entire week of working and in comes a buddy or two with a bottle of his or her favorite drink. The person brings enough to share with the entire group, regardless of the fact if anyone wanted it.
Maybe you enjoy having a libation or two.
Maybe you aren’t interested.
The point being its at the table a few of your friends are par-taking.
What’s the right thing to do here?
I’ve been in a bunch of games where everyone was drinking including myself and we all had a great time.
I’ve also been at games where a few people were not drinking and everyone else was. The ones not drinking seemed to not be having a good time, rolling their eyes a lot.
What wound up happening was that if the entire group didn’t drink then no one would drink. This annoyed a few people and they stopped coming if they were players.
I’ve also seen:
When one of the people drinking was the one running the games, he seemed to “forget to invite” those he considered “party poopers”.
Hmm..

3 thoughts on “The Evil GM – Gaming and Drink, Bad idea?

  1. When playing with the kid, no. When playing with adults, yes. Can't say I've ever been at a table where some were drinking and some were not. That sounds like a social problem unrelated to gaming.

  2. I've played both groups as well, some even with players who partook of other substances. Generally, if the drinking had kept to a 1-2 drink limit, we all were able to have fun (even the abstaining.) It loosened up our players who were stressed from work and sometimes led to a couple of off the wall encounters, but it worked out fine. It didn't happen every night, it happened maybe every 4th session or once every month or two.

    As for the players who used other substances and came over high (and usually tried to couple this with drinking as well), it really bogged down the game in regards to decision making and tomfoolery. I've got nothing against the stuff personally, but we came to game, not to see your character try to make a bong out of everything in his pack or make the worst, most out of character decisions to date.

    After that, a rule was instilled that there would be no playing if players were high or drunk, as it derailed the gameplay too much and basically spit at all the DM's hard work. We lost a couple of players for it, but even our loosey goosey nights where everyone kicked back with a beer or two were not that detrimental and aggravating.

    Buzzed is fine, tipsy even, but stoned or drunk players were just a pain in the bum.

  3. I am something of a drinking GM, and I run many, many games for ppl that don't drink with only one or two that do. I even, on the 5th beer of a six-pack, had a non-drinker prod me to keep things from getting too slurry, to get the climax and closing sequence. But if, I ever experienced "… where a few people were not drinking and everyone else was. The ones not drinking seemed to not be having a good time, rolling their eyes a lot…" I'd expect those folks to find a new GM.

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