Quote Originally Posted by Seerow View Post
My table used to have a really bad problem with some players playing flash games between their turns (curse you tower defense!).

After banning all electronics for a half dozen or so sessions, people got used to interacting normally, and we were able to ease the electronics back in for things like game reference, and haven't had a problem in the several years since (Though we also haven't had any new players in that time).
I'll be honest: I'm no saint when it comes to this area either.
Spoiler: Anecdote
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For reasons of ease and economy, I keep all my character sheets on my laptop. Since I am usually the group's DM, I double as their Rules Encyclopedia so it helps to be able to look up things on the fly (through legitimate sources I assure you!).

But when it comes to D&D, I have absolutely nothing to do between my turns. In 3.X it was worst because I played a mundane character (so at higher levels I was usually out of the fight for rounds at a time) but if I wasn't playing a character with Immediate Actions in 4e I would just zone out during battles.

And yet I was frequently the quickest Player at taking my turn. Why? Because I knew what my character could do and was capable of quickly analyzing the current battlefield. So when my turn came up I'd glance at the battlemat, maybe ask one or two questions (e.g. "hey, anyone need a heal?") and then take my action.

But that's me. Some people can be raptly fixed in the game and still take minutes to declare a single Action. That said, I never tolerate distracted people at my tables. If it's my fault (and it often is) I do my best to bring the bored people back into the game. But I have been known to be quite harsh to people who deliberately "check out" at my table for no reason.