Are you a “guest player” or a “host player” in your gaming?

[Rob Dean]

23 hours ago, Rob Dean said:

 

In my case, the answer to that is “no”.  As noted above, I do recognize that my club situation is somewhat unusual…

 

We have a club meeting tonight, though, so I’ll throw the topic out for conversation and see what the others think.

 

I did do that, and the general consensus was that nobody cared if anyone else brought terrain. (Probably for the reasons noted above.) There is an ethic of sharing what you have, but the host is generally considered to be responsible for making the arrangements for the game they wish to stage that evening. There’s also a standing snack-sharing ethic in the club, but that feels pretty far afield from the original question of whether someone should feel obliged to bring unsolicited terrain.

 

[CaptainPete]

Hmm. After reading over this, I think the terms aren't quite right but I don't have any alternatives. I'll think about it.

I tend to be somewhere in the middle of the two groups. I don't have space to really host or keep a lot of things. However, I do have quite the collection of figures, terrain, and etc. When it comes to miniature games, I usually pick up two forces (sometimes way more) as I like putting things together and having options. I've also picked up a fair amount of terrain for the same reason. Back when I had a regular group, no one else was willing to invest time/effort in terrain, so I kind of stepped up. These days, I don't have a regular group to play anything with but I have a friend who plays (and a few others who are willing to try it sounds like), and my friend also likes to put together terrain, plus he's picked up several gaming mats. One thing I learned early on when picking up miniature games is that: If you want to get someone else into the game you want to play, you have to provide them with a group to play. Not every store has an army/force/whatever to loan out for every game, so it's good to have your own to have. And, again, I sometimes like to try something different. For games I really like, I'll buy a second rule book to loan out for friends to read, to see if they want to pick up a force. When it comes to stuff like this, I tend to just ask that they pick up a force of their own if they really like it, then the book(s) if they want to play it regularly.

When it comes to RPGs, I am a "host" as you've defined it, but don't actually host the games. I've have two different groups I was playing with in the Before Times. One was a family and some friends, so we had a literal Mom Friend who would host. She always provided food and stuff, almost forcefully. Of course, her husband and older son were playing, too... The other group would meet in a rented common room in an apartment complex. This was my Deadlands posse of legend, by the way. We had several times where we bought food (and adult beverages) together and would cook before/during games.

When it comes to figures, books, and etc for RPGs, I almost always run games, so I tend to bring everything for a game. For Deadlands, I have three Player's Guides and a printed out copy of the various player's sections of books for east reference. When I played and ran D&D 3.5, I picked up a second PHB to have to loan out for people. I tend to pick up a "loaner copy" of core rule books (or player books), usually a used copy that's been around the block a few times. I can let someone borrow it and it doesn't really matter if it gets a little more beat up. For figures, well... I like putting them together and I bought in on the first Bones KS, which has provided me with just about as many minis I could really need for most games.

When it comes to provisions, in general, I have a policy of "if you visit me, I will feed you." Sometimes, I make a big meal or I'll have someone pick up a take-n-bake pizza I can pop into the oven when they get here. When I go to someone else's place for a game, I usually try to provide my own caffeine plus some food, if we're not meeting somewhere with a kitchen. If we have a kitchen, I'll try to bring something to share or something. Often times, I try to set up potluck type things, or assign people to things to bring, that way no one has the burden of making food for the group. Splitting the cost of delivery is another thing. I think there's two ways of dealing with food; either you make it known that you bring your own or you bring stuff to share. Each group finds the way that works best for them. Since I'm usually bringing the books, figures, and everything else on public transit, I tend to just pay someone back for buying my share.

 

Boy. That was a lot longer than I thought it was going to be.

I think I'm going to write up an even longer novel of this for my gaming blog, thanks for the idea.

[Grumpy Gnome]

The topic shifted a bit from, “are you a player who brings spare terrain in addition to your minis” to “are you a player who focuses on your own stuff or a player who splits focus between their own stuff and stuff for others”.

 

I know the terms host and guest are imperfect, several people have gotten confused by them. The host aspect is not supposed to be about location but about providing for others.

[CaptainPete]

40 minutes ago, Grumpy Gnome said:

I know the terms host and guest are imperfect, several people have gotten confused by them. The host aspect is not supposed to be about location but about providing for others.

Perhaps the classic "Giver" and "Taker" dynamic? Hmm. It reminds me of the Law/Chaos thing from the D&D alignment chart. What I mean is, are you about the Individual (looking after yourself) or the Community (providing for the group as a whole), if that makes sense? I think it's not really based on the person but the group, as I've seen with many of the folks posting here. And those rules/guidelines are usually based on the person (or people) in charge or are physically hosting. Does that make sense? For example, if you have a GM/DM that has plenty of room to host and paint minis (and enjoys cooking), you're going to probably be a "guest" player by the metrics given. The GM/DM would then be a "Host" player. However, if you play in a game store, you've got way more limits on what you can and cannot do/bring.

I can see what you're going for but I think there's too many outside influences to gather real data. Okay, that might not be what you're looking for, it's just a casual survey but I don't know what you're really trying to ask. Are you trying to figure out if people, gamers, are selfish? Because this forum is going to skew your results, as we tend to play nice around here.

[strawhat]

I haven't had an RPG going for years, and what little gaming I've done recently (pre-pandemic) has usually been with with store copies of various games.  The exception to that was a regular Imperial Assault game.

 

When we started, we used the Imperial player's game and minis (for obvious reasons).  As I had just (re)started painting at that time I was able to paint up my copies of the party.  I kept adding more and more (focusing on the characters we were playing and then moving out to the Imperial forces that the IP liked to use) as the campaigns progressed.  I've now worked my way through almost all of Imperial Assault (with only a few left from an expansion that the IP doesn't have).

 

In general, though, I've usually shared what I have.  I have a "collector"/"Mr. Suitcase" personality, so I've usually filled out the library of splat-books, minis, other specialty items, etc.  I'd schlepp most things back and forth between home and play-spaces, but sometimes other players would borrow things (it was usually one designated play place, so books going walkabout wasn't a real concern).

[Grumpy Gnome]

I was not aiming for a giver and taken description. I do not think it is necessarily selfish to be a guest player. And I think a host player can still be selfish. Bearing in mind that whilst I am not a devotee of Ayn Rand I do not see selfishness as always immoral or malicious.

The survey is casual. It is in part to test my own belief that guest players are more common but between forums being filled with folks generally keen enough to be naturally be host players and guest players often being to casual in their gaming to frequent forums, the survey is probably inherently skewed.

 

The real seed that become this thread was the idea that it would be neat if people treated gaming terrain as important as their miniatures and helped build better gaming tables by working together rather than often relying on one person to build the table.

[Crowley]

On 6/18/2021 at 6:27 AM, Rob Dean said:

We have a club meeting tonight, though, so I’ll throw the topic out for conversation and see what the others think. @Chris Palmer is a club member, and @Crowley was with us for a Frostgrave campaign, which did have quite a bit of voluntary cooperation.

If I recall correctly our first get together for the Frostgrave was a group terrain making day. I know I made a fair number of terrain items, though @Chris Palmer provided the majority of the stuff.

 

I'm definitely in the "host" side of things, even when we're playing D&D and I'm not the DM. It got to the point when the DMs would message me and say "how many gargoyles do you have? How many more do you think you could get ready by next week?"