The Civilized Guide to Tabletop Gaming, page 13
A few pens and a small stash of index cards. Whether you’re passing secret information during a role-playing game to another player, or you’re just giving contact information to someone whose cell phone is dead (that unprepared lout), a pen and index cards are universally useful. Don’t forget to bring several pens—someone will inevitably ask to borrow yours and fail to return it. It’s the lifecycle of pens at gaming conventions.
Follow the Rules of Convention Attendance and Gaming
The basics of gaming previously covered apply to gaming at conventions as well. But there are a few other basics to help make the most of the convention experience so you can meet people, build friendships, and enjoy the gaming. Here are the conventions of conventions so your games and experiences go smoothly.
Be Cool about Names
When you sit around a table for a game with people you don’t know, take the time to introduce yourself and learn the names of the people you’ll be gaming with. Make a mental note to refer to people by their names. Heck, if you’re bad with names, use one of your index cards to write them down so you can remember them. It’s a basic social nicety that is often forgotten, but having that level of familiarity helps create a gaming atmosphere of both respect and fellowship. And people appreciate the effort. There’s something truly warm when someone you just met makes the effort to learn and use your name.
On that note, making it easier for people to remember your name is an excellent idea. Many larger conventions give you a badge with your name on it, so wearing it in a way so that others can see your name is a fantastic idea.
Choose Appropriate Events
Your familiarity with the game (and its rules) is intrinsic to determining what kinds of events you play in. A gaming event that advertises itself as “fun and casual” will have vastly different expectations for your rules knowledge and approach to the game than one that describes itself as “competitive.”
If you’re playing in any sort of tournament, have a solid grasp of the rules and their nuances. You can expect your tablemates to be unforgiving concerning the interpretation of those rules, and they’ll expect you to take actions decisively and expediently. “Competitive” means the fun is in the challenge, so your fellow players will expect you to be a challenge to your opponents and for you to be challenged by them.
If you’re playing in pickup games, which are unranked but are a great way to get more of your favorite games in, you should be familiar with the structure of the game, its basic mechanics, and its victory conditions. Needing primers or clarifications and being forgiving of unfamiliarity with nuances in the game’s rules is expected, so a casual and fun-focused approach is the right one.
If you’re playing in demos or learning events, you don’t need much—sometimes any—knowledge of the game, and the focus is on learning. All the players will probably make mistakes, and there’ll be some forgiveness for less decisive actions and an incomplete understanding of the game’s fundamentals.
Be on Time for Events
You learned about the importance of punctuality in Chapter 3: Essential Gamer Social Skills in the Be a Gracious Guest section, but being on time is even more important at gaming events. Of course, there is the possibility of distractions in the form of the vendors’ hall, demo games, and meeting and connecting with new people. But you need to withstand all temptation to dawdle.
By being late and possibly preventing an event from starting at its scheduled start time, you not only impact the players of that game but possibly gamers for the rest of the day. If you’re the reason a schedule at an event gets delayed, don’t be surprised if people are unenthusiastic about playing with you.
Ultimately you want to be the kind of person people seek out to play games with in the future. Thoughtfulness toward the strangers you will be playing with gives you the potential to turn those people into friends in the future. You may just find yourself gaming after-hours or excitedly playing games with these people again in a later convention because you put the effort in to be a good convention gamer.
Beware of Con Crud
Con crud is the expression for the illness that most people inevitably end up getting after attending a convention. It sucks.
Avoiding con crud serves two purposes. First, it keeps you from feeling like a complete butt, which is always a good thing, and second, it keeps those you love and regularly spend time with from also getting an unwanted sickness. After all, they didn’t even have the fun of attending the convention where you picked up the disease. You want to bring back toys, not bugs. Believe me when I say that your RPG group won’t appreciate that kind of souvenir.
The basics of avoiding con crud are ultimately self-care and thoughtful hygiene practices.
Here are the ways you can shield yourself from this enemy:
Get Enough Rest
Lack of sleep wears down your body, which in turn wears down your natural resistances to sickness. As exciting as it is to pull gaming all-nighters, let’s be real: You’re asking your body to hate you. And more often than not, it will do just that.
Be Mindful of Food and Hydration
Hydrating serves several purposes. Water is essential to a lot of your immune system functions, particularly the mucous membranes in your mouth and nose. These catch and filter out illness-causing infiltrators of your body. Dehydration is bad, since drying yourself out keeps these natural barriers from protecting you.
Similarly, good-quality food is typically fresh. That means it’s not preserved with salt and other additives that dehydrate and undermine your immune system. Fruits, nuts, and vegetables are great snacks to keep you both hydrated and energized throughout the day.
Clean Your Hands Often
Remember that hand sanitizer you packed in your survival kit? Use it often. Wash your hands often, and don’t touch your face or ingest anything before you have. You’re in a new environment with a host of new bugs your body may never have been exposed to before. Washing your hands and sterilizing them is key to keep from getting sick.
Being sick sucks, so taking care of yourself during the convention when you’re feeling great is far better than trying to care for yourself after the fact when you’re feeling terrible.
Volunteer at Conventions
Conventions run on the strength of countless volunteers who do virtually everything, from event setup and security to working at booths to running demos and gaming events.
Volunteering is an excellent way to get free admission to a convention, help a business or publisher you want to support, and meet new people. It’s also a great way for you to serve the gaming community as well as benefit yourself. But in order to do that, you have to be excellent at it. So here are the rules for volunteering at gaming conventions.
Own your role. It’s not enough just to show up. You need to kill whatever job you’re doing with your best effort and attitude. Whomever you’re working with and for will remember that and may invite you back in the future.
Treat your volunteer shifts like you would a proper job. Just because you’re not getting paid doesn’t mean you’re free to act like an entitled goober. This means being respectful of the people who are giving you direction, being on time, and recognizing you are representing a company, organization, or event, not just yourself.
Play to your strengths. Pick volunteer roles that you know you’re capable of doing and not hating. If you consider yourself shy, don’t fill in the volunteer application saying you’re willing to run demo games. Event setup might be more to your liking. You want to be helpful—that means being upfront about your own strengths and how they can contribute.
Volunteering at conventions is an excellent way to get into the gaming community, build connections and relationships within it, and get into a convention without forking out a ton of money (which means more money for toys!). It also means being responsible. Remember: It is a volunteer role. You don’t have to do it, but if you choose to do it, be excellent.
Competitive Play: The Dos and Don’ts of Winning for Fun
Competitive gaming—that is, played in an organized tournament structure—is a natural extension of the hobby. After all, many of us gamers feel the urge for competition beyond just a single game. Attending events that facilitate play beyond a single pickup game and reward players for consistently outstanding play is a fantastic way to soak up the feeling of achievement.
That said, there’s a lot about competition play that is significantly different than casual play, and for that reason, etiquette at the gaming table becomes even more important. Competition play tends to generate higher expectations with regards to game mastery. The social contract for competition play is also different. Casual play tends to facilitate fun, sometimes (or usually) at the expense of strict adherence to the rules or a more competitive approach to the game. Competition play, on the other hand, means you’re out to win. You understand that winning and trying to win is the path to fun. Playing challenging opponents who make you sweat . well, that’s part of that fun.
So here are the basics for making sure you make the most of your competitive play experience:
Don’t Let Any Single Game Paint Your Experience at the Event
Depending on how the event is set up, the player makeup of the first round may be randomly drawn rather than based on skill. That may mean your first game or two may not be as fun since you haven’t yet settled into your bracket, where the most challenging and enjoyable games happen. Unless there’s some sort of ranking system that’s used prior to the event, you may end up at a table where you’re either outclassed or outclassing your opponents.
In those cases you want to remember to remain engaged with the game and the event. I’ve heard horror stories of people rage-quitting events after their first games because things didn’t go their way. They felt as though a single loss had put them out of the running for top awards. This is not only terribly childish, but it sets up a nightmare for organizers of the event, who scheduled based on a specific number of players.
Don’t be a rage-quitter; focus on being engaged in the event. You may end up learning new things, growing as a player, or overcoming a loss to take a top spot.
Read the Rules As Written (All of Them)
Organized play relies on a clear set of rules that all players adhere to. That includes all ancillary information about the game and the structure of the event. That may also include rules that are available online in the form of clarifications, errata, FAQs, and bans of certain cards or pieces. Before you go into any competitive event, it is of utmost importance you gather all the available information and rules, read them, and understand them. You will be expected to know them and adhere to them. Moreover, you should keep a copy of all pertinent rules (including those ancillary ones just mentioned) on hand should you need to reference them or show them to your opponent(s).
Since everyone is expected to strictly follow the rules as written, sometimes interpretations of those rules conflict; some players may develop very slanted interpretations. In those cases, the disagreements will be resolved by an event organizer or judge rather than the players.
I once encountered a player who would cheat over distances in a game that involved precise measurement. He’d continuously question the distances of his opponent. The organizers eventually got so fed up with him constantly calling for rulings on measurement that they started uniformly ruling in the favor of his opponents. He established a reputation as a douchebag not only to other players but to event organizers in the region. Eventually he became unwelcome at the events in the region. Don’t be that guy.
Know that the ruling of the judge when interpreting the rules or settling a dispute is final. Be as prudent as you can with your requests for a ruling. If you find that you’re constantly calling over an organizer or judge, someone at your table has a problematic interpretation of the rules. It’s also quite disruptive to constantly be calling for a rule settlement—organizers and judges usually have other duties to make sure the event runs smoothly. Be considerate of them as well.
It’s Okay to Want to Win
Do your best. Bring your best game. But also bring your best self. Just because you’re playing competitively doesn’t mean you can treat your opponents poorly. Be fair and play within the rules, and keep the etiquette of how games should be played (like rolling dice fairly and announcing your actions) in mind. But try to win, and try to challenge your opponent. Competitive environments give you permission to game at a higher level.
That also means that your opponents have that same permission, so don’t begrudge them for wanting to win. either. Further, don’t judge your opponent’s character based on her desire to win. Competitive players are often very genial and friendly people, but at a table where competition is expected, they may close up to focus on the game. Sometimes they come off as standoffish, cutthroat, or otherwise negative. Don’t let that color your view of them.
Moreover, don’t trash-talk players who are playing within the rules to win—winning’s the point; that’s what competitive and pinnacle gaming is about. It’s very much like criticizing rain for being wet. It’s both futile and petty.
Remember All the Etiquette from Earlier in This Book
If the rules of the game you’re playing contradict social etiquette, follow the game’s rules, but in all other situations, normal etiquette rules still apply to competitive play. Be a good winner, be a gracious loser, be decisive with your actions, be clear about your actions, and be transparent with your dice rolls, special in-game effects, and other things that you should announce. Clarity in gameplay allays perceptions of being a cheater. Competitive play does not give you permission to be the kinds of dicks you learned about in Chapter 3 (see the section on How to Deal with Different Kinds of Dicks).
Yes, sometimes someone will not follow the rules and guidelines detailed in this book. Suggest (politely) he buy a copy or twelve for himself and comfort yourself with the knowledge (and smugness) of being a better gamer and probably a better person.
Manage Your Expectations
In most games there can only be one top winner. There’s only one Miss Universe and a bunch of runners-up sorted by numerical order. Not everyone can be the pageant queen, and not everyone can win the day.
And chances are that won’t be you. That doesn’t mean you can’t have fun, learn as a player, grow as a strategist, and have personal goals within the event itself. Learn to feel accomplished without associating it with the top prize and find gratification in playing and participating. Set smaller goals. That might mean having a certain win record you’re striving toward. It might mean aiming for a specific placing. Sometimes your goal is just not coming in dead last.
If you frame your own expectations for the event in a way that lets you have something to strive for while at the same time giving you a fair opportunity at it, you can walk away from any competitive event with your head held high. It will live in your memory as a positive experience. After all, games are supposed to be fun. It’d be a shame to see a day of fun turned to ash because you didn’t win the crown and the sash.
At the end of the day, competitive play gives you an outlet to strive to be the best you can be; at the same time it gives you an opportunity to measure yourself against others who are good at the things you’re good at. Those experiences can be very formative. They’re a great way to meet new people to regularly play with and an opportunity to grow as a gamer. So make the most of it and do your best to make it enjoyable for yourself while being fair to everyone else.
Play It Painted—Rules for Gaming with Miniatures
Miniature war games are growing in popularity due to the explosion in the variety of games with high-quality components, popular licenses (like Star Wars), and the accessibility of model-making technology (such as 3D printing) to publishers of all sizes.
But gaming with miniatures is a different beast than other types of gaming. There are additional conventions that you should adhere to. So here are the rules to mini war gaming at gaming nights, events, and tournaments.
Play It Painted
Many miniature games come in unassembled kits that are unpainted. Part of this hobby is building and painting your miniatures. While games and events may not specifically require painted miniatures, it helps to put in the effort. Not only does it aid the immersiveness of the game (giving you the ability to imagine two unique forces squaring off), but it is a great practical way to personalize your army in a way you can be proud of.
Don’t be dissuaded by the high-quality photos on the Internet or on the box—minis painted for such purposes are often painted to an incredibly high standard and their details are unrealistically painted to represent the model in photos that show the miniature many times larger than actual size. Tabletop quality is simply one where you apply paint to a model in a way that shows effort and pride.
The Clock Is Ticking, So Don’t Waste It
Most miniature games are played within a specific time allotment. Sometimes it’s a practical reason (a gaming store can only fit so many people in to game on their tables and thus limits the time it can have people at each table, or a gaming event has rounds and each round is allotted a certain amount of time).
Not only should you be mindful of the time you’re taking to play a game and be decisive about your actions (you’ve already learned why slow playing is a no-no), but it also means that you should be similarly mindful of the time it takes you to deploy your force and also put them away so that the next players can quickly get to playing their game.
