The Gaming enviroment

[themaque]

What is your preferred gaming environment? What works or does not work for your group?

• How many distractions are allowed?
• Should you allow side conversations?
• How long is to long?
• How long is to short?
• Do you allow drinking?
• Do we break for food?
• Are kids to much of a distraction?

This is all general conversation and ideas that may or may not work for other people. There is no ultimate right or wrong answer.

[themaque]

I think the best gaming environment I ever had was in the Military. Lots of people from all walks of life getting together and often poor and bored. I had my longest campaigns and some of my best stories there. but for physical environment...

In the Dorms at Barksdale AFB there was a meeting room for the Airmen's Council. It was open to people living in the dorms.

• Long Table
• Comfortable chairs
• Good lighting
• close to shopette for snack runs
• couches along the walls in case you wanted to get more laid back
• convenient for deliveries
• Limited distractions for the long games we played at the time
• Plenty of sockets for people to plug in laptops.
• open window allowed passerby's to see us gaming

That last item allowed us to occasionally increase the size of our group. (And how the GM met his future wife.)

[ComaVision]

Distractions: I don't really disallow anything (I am the DM currently, and the host always). Texting/dinking around on your phone is at a minimum, though we use this medium for the traditional "note-passing". We had a player that was playing on her phone for entire sessions and she doesn't play with us now.

Side conversations: It's understood that we're there to play so off-topic conversations don't typically exceed a few minutes.

Length: I think this is referring to sessions length? We're scheduled for a minimum of 3 hours, and have played up to 6. If someone is unable to stay for 3 hours, the game will likely go on without them.

Drinking: Allowed, doesn't happen often.

Food: We don't break for food, sometimes we break to grab coffee or tea from upstairs (less than 5 minutes). People often bring snacks.

Kids: Disallowed. I don't have kids and my house is not a good environment. My D&D room has various weapons strewn about (daggers, maces, knives, machetes etc).

Little bit extra: I have a large house (approx 3100 sq ft) so there is a large, dedicated D&D room. It's covered in posters, figurines, and weapons, with the center of the room being a large table. We don't use the room for anything but D&D, so when we're in there it's game time.

[Maglubiyet]

It's hard to say what works best for me. I've been in the full range from very tight, intimate, focused groups that sit around a table for hours without break, to wild, all-over-the-place, free-for-alls where people come and go and start side conversations and games. Nowadays, with so many conflicting priorities, time is at a premium so I prefer to get right to it with fewer distractions.

But overall, gaming is a social event. I enjoy just hanging out with the few friends I have left in the area and meeting new people, so it doesn't always have to be go go go.

I CAN say that roleplaying in a game shop almost never works for me. Too public, too noisy, too many distractions, and usually a mix of people with wildly diverging ideas on how the game should go.

[cobaltstarfire]

Things I need

• Anyone who smokes stay a reasonable distance away from the location when they need to smoke
• A safe, secure environment
• A reasonable noise level
• Chairs and a properly sized table.

The top one is not because I just hate the smell of smoke but because I have IBS. Which is already pretty painful and at times inconvenient to deal with. But cigarette smoke will make whatever state my digestive system is in worse. This isn't even anything I considered till I played at a game store, cause my friends who smoke hate the idea of their smoke smelling up their homes, while folks at the store just stand right outside the door and smoke. (and all the smoke comes inside)

The middle is a given. Part of it is that the other people in the space don't make me feel uncomfortable (again thinking about the game store).

And noise level is something I can live with as long as I'm allowed to sit next to the gm, otherwise I simply can't understand what is being said.

Anything else I don't think would bother me too much.

Like temperature can be important, but I tend to dress in layers for everything now.

I'm not too terribly bothered by children, even if they are very young, or at that age where they're just little hellions. Most of the annoying habits small children have are a part of self discovery and exploration, so it's real hard for me to get angry with them.

[BWR]

• How many distractions are allowed?

Hard to tell. We'll usually spend upwards of 30 minutes just chatting before we get to the game. Often times we'll get sidetracked with something we just remembered or with some obscure rules question that isn't directly relevant. We try to keep it brief but sometimes whoever the GM is at the time has to step in and stop us. Gaming is primarily hanging out with friends so we don't get bent out of shape over a bunch of OOC talk at regular intervals.

• Should you allow side conversations?

Yes. See above. It shouldn't distract other people too much and it shouldn't go on too long. While we are primarily there to see each other, we are also there to game, and if the conversations are exclusive it isn't nice to those not taking part.

• How long is to long?

Oh, it depends. Sometimes as little as 10 seconds. Sometimes several minutes.

• How long is to short?

Is there such a thing?

• Do you allow drinking?

Beverages in general? Of course. Alcohol: only if they aren't driving or plan on getting drunk. Neither of these have been a problem because my friends are sensible people. My weekly game generally sees everyone downing a couple of beers/glasses of wine. The other group generally doesn't drink because most have to drive to reach us.

• Do we break for food?

It depends. If everyone is eating at the same time, like getting a pizza, then yes. If, like another group often does, everyone brings their own frozen pizza or canned dish, then that would be very impractical given that there is a limited amount of space in the kitchen so people just make their food and eat when they are hungry and play at the same time. since they are all sensible and polite people this is never a problem.

• Are kids to much of a distraction?

Depends. One friend dropped out of games for a year or so when his first kid was born, then a similar amount of time when the second was born, but this was several years ago and he's gradually been getting more time to play. Another has dropped out of gaming altogether so in that respect I guess you can say "too much of a distraction".
Another was playing the week after his firstborn came along and has been a regular the the better part of the year since. Kids at the host's house haven't really been a problem on the few occasions we've done it that way. Sometimes they get a bit noisy, especially if they have friends over and bedtime has seen some longish breaks as he runs up and down trying to get them settled, but, in the immortal words of the Beatles, it's getting better all the time.
So for the most part, not really. Non-gaming spouses/SOs are respectful of the game and fun and don't pester us and gaming parents put their kids and family first and have so far never failed to let us know ahead of time if they can't make a session (which happens) or have to cancel on short notice (which has rarely happened).

[VincentTakeda]

We'll usually settle into the game session over the course of the first hour or two of a 6 hour session.
Side conversations do tend to break out all the time. Gaming is the only time we get to hang out, so we game, but we also hang out.
It would probably be better for us to knock out the settle in time and have 6 solid hours of gaming than crank it up to an 8 hour session.
Drinking is allowed, but nobody really drinks that much.
Some bring their food, others go pick stuff up mid session or order delivery. Its all good.
We havent had any trouble with kids in the gamespace.

[DigoDragon]

I prefer a well-lit area with a nice table in the middle to focus things like maps and combat. Food and drink are fine and i'm not picky with the selection (just please don't smudge my books if I let you use them). I'm very tolerant with children (I am a father) so I have patience when there are interruptions for kid shenanigans. I think the only thing that really bothers me (this would be for when I'm with a group physically) is when players are absorbed into their laptops/smart phones when they are part of a scene and should be interacting. If they're not in the scene or it's downtime/break, I'm okay with electronic do-dads. But if's your turn in the middle of combat against a boss and you're looking at cat videos instead of declaring actions...

...yeah. Uncool.

I can't think of much else. I'm pretty adaptable to most environments. I once gamed in a hospital (Shadowrun was probably not the best choice for that).

[themaque]

I prefer a well-lit area with a nice table in the middle to focus things like maps and combat. Food and drink are fine and i'm not picky with the selection (just please don't smudge my books if I let you use them). I'm very tolerant with children (I am a father) so I have patience when there are interruptions for kid shenanigans. I think the only thing that really bothers me (this would be for when I'm with a group physically) is when players are absorbed into their laptops/smart phones when they are part of a scene and should be interacting. If they're not in the scene or it's downtime/break, I'm okay with electronic do-dads. But if's your turn in the middle of combat against a boss and you're looking at cat videos instead of declaring actions...

...yeah. Uncool.

I can't think of much else. I'm pretty adaptable to most environments. I once gamed in a hospital (Shadowrun was probably not the best choice for that).

I once had a game we ran at Denny's. The waitress had a character and as she would come by she would check up on things and give us an idea what she wanted to do. This was also Shadowrun.

Edit: Wouldn't repeat this experience.

[Kesnit]

How many distractions are allowed?

Depends on the distraction. One of my gaming groups plays at one guy's house. He lives with his parents, so obviously if his parents stick their heads in to ask something, game stops for that. That may happen 2-3 times in a session, or it may not happen at all. My other group plays at my house (which is actually my in-law's house). We usually have to take a break so either my wife or I can walk our dog.

Should you allow side conversations?

As long as they don't distract from the group. In a group my wife and I used to play with, every once in a while, game would stop while the whole group went off on a tangent. Then we'd get back to game. We lost a promising player once because of that, since he was the kind who wanted to show up, play, and be done.

How long is to long?

Depends on the group, the game, and the circumstances. RP-heavy games, I find, can go on a lot longer since everyone is involved. Combat-heavy games tend to bog down with rounds, and players get bored.

Do you allow drinking?

(I assume this means alcohol.) In moderation, unless everyone is drinking. One of the players in the group at my house brings vodka and mixes it in his soda. He never gets drunk.

Several years ago, my gaming group had a New Year's party, where we were all spending the night at a player's house. We were all rather drunk, and tried playing The World's Largest Dungeon, which didn't work very well. We switched to the card game, Munchkin, which did work.

Do we break for food?

In the group at my house, my mother-in-law cooks dinner, and the other players are welcome to eat if they want. We also provide chips and dips. The other players will also bring their own food, which is eaten prior to game starting.

In the group at my friend's house, everyone either brings food, or orders delivery. We wait until everyone has food, then start the game.

Are kids to much of a distraction?

Depends on the kids. In a group I used to play in, the host had a 7-year old daughter. She was old enough to entertain herself, which she did most of the time. Every once in a while, she'd pop in to talk to her parents. (Her dad was the DM and her mom was playing.) One of her parents would quickly deal with the issue (if it needed dealing with), or tell her that "mommy and daddy are busy" if it was something that could be dealt with later.

A child that is too young to entertain him/herself would be a distraction.

[veti]

1. "Allowed"? You mean there's a way of stopping them? Basically, if more than half the group is not attending to the game for more than a few minutes, it's time for a break.
2. Yes. We're friends, it's a social occasion.
3. Too long for what? When the DM starts to nod off/lose his voice, we've played too long. When one or more players is getting visibly bored, then the distraction has gone on too long.
4. A session that's less than about 6 hours is not really worth turning up for.
5. Yes, drinking is fine (see answer 2). Generally no-one will drink more than one or two beers, but if they do, the play will very likely turn quite silly. Which is also fine, provided we all have options that don't require driving.
6. Yes. It's just neater if everyone eats at the same time. People also stuff themselves with snacks during play, but breaking for a full meal is a good thing. It's also good for us to get some hot food...
7. Babies (too young for independent mobility) are fine. Kids old enough to entertain themselves are fine. Kids old enough to want to play? - haven't experienced that, but I imagine it could be a problem. The only group that I'd rule right out is "toddlers" - much, much too distracting.

[cobaltstarfire]

Depends on the toddler, they can be really distracting, but they may already be able to keep themselves largely occupied on their own anyway. Although I've never played a game where children were around where it wasn't near their bedtime. So most of the hold up was if they just didn't want to take their bath or go to bed. But since I game with friends that just means we'd socialize while waiting on those things.

If you ever end up with a group where there's may be a toddler around you should still give it a test run to see if it's going to really be a problem or not.

[oxybe]

What is your preferred gaming environment? What works or does not work for your group?

• How many distractions are allowed?
• Should you allow side conversations?
• How long is to long?
• How long is to short?
• Do you allow drinking?
• Do we break for food?
• Are kids to much of a distraction?

This is all general conversation and ideas that may or may not work for other people. There is no ultimate right or wrong answer.

First off, we game at the FLGS.

Distractions: Don't be a jerk. We're a very connected group: I use my laptop, the store's owner and one other player use tablets. two others use their phones. Most of the time it's for looking stuff in PDFs or SRDs or other abbreviation-based sources, but the primary method of contacting me is via either skype or steam chat, so I try to keep those nearby.

Side conversations: Don't be a jerk. Put a group of people and get them talking, eventually there will be a side conversation. It happens. As long as you don't disrupt other people who are trying to do stuff, s'all good. Plus, as the FLGS owner is a player in the group and two of the players occasionally man the register when the owner isn't around, it's normal to have small interruptions by customers (regulars or just passerbys) to ask a few questions.

Long/Short: I don't really understand the question. Like, session length? we game once a week from ~7pm to ~10pm. Jobs, families, etc...

Drinking: If we're gaming at someone's house and they offer a beer or glass of rum, sure. But otherwise it's kind of bad manners to show up at someone's house for gaming getting sloshed mid-session. During the summer we tend to have at least one big "session" wherein we also have a pot-luck barbecue at someone's house and booze is passed around. We often also do a Halloween session where the liquor is passed around, but we skipped it this year because real life. We also can't do it at the FLGS for obvious reasons.

Food: beyond chips and pop, if we plan on ordering food we make sure to have this ironed out before the session as, again, we game at the FLGS. It's usually ordered before the start of the session while waiting for the GM to arrive (most of us live close to the store, so we're often a half-hour early to help clean and setup the table, chairs, ect... of the play area), everyone chips in $5-$10 and the call is made, It usually arrives while the GM is setting up or a little after he's done, so we get to eat pizza, garlic fingers, cake and whatnot while listening to a recap.

Kids: it's the FLGS so it comes with the territory, but we also play late where the kids are usually home for the evening, so the ones that do come into the store are often regulars (as are their parents) so they know well that you don't disturb people playing games. We've had a few disruptive ones over the years of play, people not from around here for the most part, but a more subtle form of "I am not a daycare, I am a customer." tends to get the parents to wrangle their unruly spawn.

[Kaun]

How many distractions are allowed?: Im not sure how to answer this. A few i guess. Were all human and it is a game, so occasional distractions are ok. I dont need all 400 funny imgur pics you found this week shown to me during the session though.

Should you allow side conversations? Within reason, as long as they don't cause to much distraction.

How long is to long? Session length? these days by 7 hrs is pushing it.

How long is to short? Preferably more then 4hrs

Do you allow drinking? Yes

Do we break for food? Yes

Are kids to much of a distraction? Depends on the kids. Depends on the day.

[Broken Twin]

Due to some of the comments in the parent thread, I think I want to try breaking down the 'ideal environment' a bit differently.

Obligations

Host
- Provide a safe, clean environment to play in.
- Minimize outside distractions, and inform guests of potential distractions that may arise.

Guests
- Respect the host's property and living situation.
- Be polite to other members of the residence/establishment.

Everyone
- Maintain reasonable standards of hygiene.
- Arrive on time and prepared to play.
- Inform everyone if there is any known situation in which you may need to leave early.
- If food is being eaten, contribute to the best of your circumstances.
- Respect each other. If you cannot respect each other, than you should not be playing together.


Now, to OP's list. My answers here reflect my personal preferences and situation, and are presented as such.

• How many distractions are allowed?
  - If you can meaningfully contribute to the game, go nuts. If I need to ask you give times to pay attention and take your turn, I'm going to ask you to put it away. If you persist, I'm removing you from the game. I won't have people wasting and disrespecting the time of everyone else at the table.
• Should you allow side conversations?
  - Short side conversations related to active topics I'm okay with, but you can discuss your favorite video games when we're not at the table, thanks.
• How long is to long?
  - Assuming you're referring to game time, my group tends to get brain fatigue if we exceed six hours, on the rare occasion that happens.
• How long is to short?
  - Anything under two hours is not enough time to get anywhere. Our time would be much better served playing Smash Bros.
• Do you allow drinking?
  - I don't drink at all, but I allow alcohol under the condition that you don't get sloshed. A couple of drinks isn't going to hurt anything.
• Do we break for food?
  - The available game time for us tends to hover around supper time, so we usually break for it. Whenever possible, we try to plan for a meal to start, followed by game time. Helps to get socialization out of the way as well, so we can be more focused on the game.
• Are kids to much of a distraction?
  - One of my groups has a single father of two. We play at his house, usually after the kids have gone to bed, or when they're at their mother's. It's accepted that the game may suspend at any moment if they need attention. Thankfully, they're both now at the age where they can mostly take care of themselves.

[Darth Ultron]

• How many distractions are allowed?
• Should you allow side conversations?
• How long is to long?
• How long is to short?
• Do you allow drinking?
• Do we break for food?
• Are kids to much of a distraction?

• 1.Zero
  2.No
  3.No Limit
  4.Less then an hour
  5.Yes
  6.Yes
  7.Yes

Kids, and non gamers, must be banned from the game area.

[Mastikator]

1. No playing games or updating facebook on your phone, you can do that later.
2. Yes, but you always stop when someone wants to get back to the game.
3. No such thing.
4. 3 hours minimum for me to show up, it typically takes 2-3 hours to plan, get ready leave and come back, I'm not spending that amount of time and effort if the game ends quickly.
5. Sure.
6. We preferably play long enough that a food pause is warranted.
7. Kids and other non-gamers are banned.

[Kol Korran]

[*]How many distractions are allowed?

As long as you can keep yourself in the game, and not stall it, you can do whatever you want. Most of our group is constantly in the game though. One player also checks forums and so on, but he also keeps an ear on the game. On occasions we play at a player's house who also have kids, and then he does things round the house, but we accept that.

[*]Should you allow side conversations?

We allow side conversations, as long as they do not derail the mood of the game too much. We didn't have problem so far.

[*]How long is to long?

Our group meets only about once month, so we come to play, we PLAY. Out sessions have lasted between 7 hours to 12 hours. We usually play till a good stopping point, or when people need to go home. We tend to get carried away a bit, which the wives of our plaayers don't appreciate too much.

[*]How long is to short?

This never came up. When we do meet, we have enough time.

[*]Do you allow drinking?

We allow it, but only one player drinks, and not often. He doesn't get drunk or such. He usually use it to play characters who drink.

[*]Do we break for food?

We have food around while we game, but we usually have a Humus break after an especially tense scene, also to give me (The DM) a little break.

[*]Are kids to much of a distraction?

We try to play without kids, but at times we play at a player's house who has kids. He helps around with them, and misses a bit on things, but that is quite acceptable for our group.

Other stuff:
- One player smokes. He is required to take some distance (usually outside of the place we play in) on his smoking breaks. Can be tense for him in battles...
- We all use laptops, and I sometime use it for sending them "hand outs" and the like.
- I use quite a lot of music to set the tone for scenes in the game. Works nicely most of the time.

[TheEmerged]

What is your preferred gaming environment? What works or does not work for your group?

• How many distractions are allowed?
• Should you allow side conversations?
• How long is to long?
• How long is to short?
• Do you allow drinking?
• Do we break for food?
• Are kids to much of a distraction?

This is all general conversation and ideas that may or may not work for other people. There is no ultimate right or wrong answer.

I'm with some of the other posters joking about the word "allowed" in the first item. It's life, distractions happen. Also, side conversations are inevitable (and arguably, half the point of the gathering to begin with).

In terms of length... we're generally pegged around 3 hours. We're typically at the home of the group member that is centrally located to the rest of us, and there's an unspoken rule about not staying long enough to torque off his wife - she's tolerant but the adults in the room are just that and don't want to press our luck. For some of us this is a 30-45 minute drive so anything less than 3hrs or so isn't worth the drive.

I'm going to jump to the "kids" question because they figure into the other questions. Our group has been together long enough (insert lawn related comments) that some of the players at the table are the kids of the original members, and are legitimate members themselves now (and the 14-year old is frighteningly good at Dominion to boot). So while they do affect the table, if you want to game with them when they're old enough you'd better accomodate them when they aren't.

As to eating and drinking - yes of course. We take reasonable precautions of course - the adults are as accident prone as the kids - and about half of us are non-alcohol types anyway so the kids aren't the real reason alcohol isn't at the table. Food tends toward the finger-food level of stuff.

[Kiero]

The only distraction when we play is the host's daughter. We don't have people messing about with their phones, tablets or laptops during the game, doodling or drawing we all focus on what's going on. Sometimes one of the players is knitting, but that's it.

Side conversations are also stopped pretty quickly, because we record our sessions, and it would rapidly become inaudible, making the podcasting pointless.

Too long for me is more than six hours; too short is less than three. We usually go around 3.5 to 4.5 hours on a weekday evening. We have a "half time" break of a few minutes for people to use the toilet, get a hot drink, walk around and so on.

Alcohol is allowed, though no one drinks to excess, and often no one is drinking. I don't, because I drive and I don't drink anyway.

We don't break for food, it's an evening game after dinner, but there might be snacks.

Kids are a manageable distraction. I'm used to it having two of my own (though they're back at home and usually in bed when we play).

[Phoenixguard09]

I'll give my 2 cents...

How many distractions are allowed?
- I insist upon everyone putting their phones aside at the beginning of the session. If there's a phone call or a message that comes through during the session that's one thing, and I'm happy to hand it back, but I won't have players sitting on Facebook while I'm trying to run a game. You don't go to the pictures and sit on your phone and you certainly shouldn't while conversing with your friends face to face.

Should you allow side conversations?
- You can't really stop them can you? My group are all friends and view the game sessions as a social event. So I really can't begrudge them the off-topic.

How long is too long?
- I don't know about this one. I record and write-up the sessions later, so sessions around the 4 hour mark tend to be a bit difficult to get through in a decent amount of time. As far as the session itself goes, it depends, but you can usually tell once you start to lose the players. I have three with short attention spans, one in particular who has trouble staying up for games at night, so that's a pretty good indicator.

How long is too short?
- As a general rule, I think you need to have around a half hour per player at the session for it to be worth trying to get everyone together. I'm happy to run a session of less than an hour for one player, but I wouldn't even bother with three players in the same time frame.

Do you allow drinking?
- We have two players underage now, but when we started we only had two of alcohol drinking age. The fact that I said at the beginning that there would be no drinking during the game itself probably cost us two players, but that's turned out pretty handily.

Do you break for food?
- We certainly do break for food. I always schedule the session on either side of a main meal and organise the food for everyone. We clear the gaming stuff away and have a 30-60 minute break before starting again. Inevitably everyone comes back more focussed after food.

Are kids too much of a distraction?
- Well LD was twelve when we started the 3 Coins group, and our newest member, Opal, is of an age with her. We've had mixed success with implementing them into the group. Scotticus, LD and my brother, is younger, and has proved to be a moderate distraction in the past but he is well aware now that he either stays out of the room while we play or sits quietly to watch. His behaviour regarding the game has improved markedly since I took him aside for a solo-game, which I have also recorded. In hindsight, that has been an excellent move because the kid can be a pain, but is really good gaming wise.

Cheers,

[themaque]

I'm with some of the other posters joking about the word "allowed" in the first item. It's life, distractions happen. Also, side conversations are inevitable (and arguably, half the point of the gathering to begin with).

I was flip flopping on my wording, but as you can see from some posters, Distractions are flat out banned in some cases. Turning in phone, no computers, no books are all rules I have seen.

[Lacco]

Preferred gaming environment:
We prefer weekend houses. My favourite is my grandparents' house - it's quite large, dark and old, so it has very good atmosphere. No wifi, no internet - that helps a lot if you want to really play.
Otherwise - if possible, we usually rent a weekend house somewhere in the countryside. Solitary houses are preferred, because we can then be as loud as we need.

What works for my group:
- mood lighting (candles, chandeliers... and my favourite - fireplaces),
- ambience sounds & music,
- mood food (we once did a soy-only menu for Shadowrun game, some medieval-like foods for medieval games); we usually cook, not order,
- props (usually weapons - and some clothes - for Shadowrun we had one guy who spent the whole game in shades,
- no internet acces and only laptop allowed in gaming room is the GM's,
- cellphones on vibrate/silent mode; emergency calls can be accepted. We usually

What does not work for my group:
- playing in public; we did it for some time, but currently we enjoy the privacy,
- laptops all around the gaming table, any "ooh, shiny" stuff,
- one day games - we live in different part of the country so when we meet, first day is usually spent by socializing and no gaming is possible for first 2-3 hours.

Side conversations: Usually are not a problem, we have steady pauses so these can happen during them. If the players who are not engaged want to talk, they usually leave the table - so no problem there also. We usually have a rule, that if someone is not paying attention OOC, he is also not paying attention IC - so if it is your turn in combat and you are not responding within 5 seconds, you hesitate and don't do anything (which is kinda dangerous if someone is currently attacking you...). Luckily, I don't have to do that much - my players try to stick to IC side conversations and generally try to pay attention.

Length of session: anything under 3 hours is too short. We usually play for 5-10 hours per session. Once started to game at 5 PM and ended at 7 AM... oh, the headache next morning... :D
Ideally - this would be a prolonged weekend (Thursday - Sunday), 4-5 hours of playing on first evening, socializing during the day, playing in the evening for 3 days.

Drinking: A beer or two, or glass of wine is not a problem. Never had a drunk player.

Food supply: We usually cook one meal per day together - we decide for the weekend menu, part of players goes shopping for groceries and everyone brings something for breakfast and we share. And have full table of snacks. Recently we try to go with the more healthy ones (carrots, apples...).

Kids as distraction: My players don't have kids. I do, but only for short time - so no info from me to this topic.

[Geddy2112]

Lots of good stuff above.

I live in a College Town, so almost everybody in our group is a student, or was and ended up staying around. We game at my friend's apartment, he and his roommate turned their living room into our game room with a large poker table, 2 whiteboards and chairs. We buy chairs off craigslist for about 5 bucks when the others wear out. Various shelving and a lot of us being former 40k players means we have terrain and models out the wazoo. 2 bathrooms, lots of chairs, space, and a full kitchen/fridge and it has worked well. I don't think we would change up or do anything different. We often have music as a backdrop for settings, and if anybody is a bard or performer they are free to add in music when appropriate.

Distractions
Our group has the attention span of a 5 year old on espresso, so distractions happen. We don't really mind, so long as they are on topic. A "that's what she said" out of character or a funny anecdote about a similar incident when things are not serious is encouraged. The only time we don't allow them is if they are super off topic/out of the blue and/or during an important roleplay or combat. Side conversations follow the same rules-nobody is expected to sit quiet while you roleplay haggling with a trader or chatting up NPC #47 in a bar, but you better shut it when we are 2 failed diplomacy rolls away from a bloodbath. If we are in a lull and you want to text, fine. If you are looking at pictures on your phone in the middle of combat and are not ready to do something, not okay. Texting is a great way to pass secret notes to the DM and players, but we try to keep this to a minimum.

Length
2 hours is the absolute minimum or I feel that I have been jipped. After about 4-5 people start to lose interest and combat gets grindy. We normally play from 8pm-12am and sometimes end early but never past 12:15.

Booze and food
I can't think of a time we did not have alcohol at the table. Being a group of mostly college students and people in the 20-25 age group most everybody will have a couple beers or a glass of wine etc. So long as you control yourself, it is fine. If it becomes a problem, you are banned from drinking at the table. So long as you can play and drink, you can play and eat. Some of our players have night classes and have just enough time to pick up food on the way to the game. Never been a problem.

Kids
Only 1 person in our group has kids, but they are older and he leaves them at home with the wife when he comes to play. Our host did have to start locking the cats up after they became a distraction/jumped on the table and knocked over everything.

[DigoDragon]

Our host did have to start locking the cats up after they became a distraction/jumped on the table and knocked over everything.

One time I gamed at a friend's place and he had a cat that liked jumping on the table to be the focus of the attention. Course he'd knock over all the ministures on it, but seemed to avoid the orcs. I came to find out with experimentation that the cat did not like the orc miniature axemen, so I set them up around the table like sentries. Cat stopped jumping on the table.

[veti]

I came to find out with experimentation that the cat did not like the orc miniature axemen, so I set them up around the table like sentries. Cat stopped jumping on the table.

Science, FTW!

I assume the cat then pretended that it had lost all interest in the table and the losers clustered around it.

[Phoenixguard09]

Science, FTW!

I assume the cat then pretended that it had lost all interest in the table and the losers clustered around it.

We have four cats and yes, this is fact. As soon as they realise they won't be getting food/attention, they just stare at you menacingly from across the room until you notice them, at which point they just look all innocent and walk away.

[cobaltstarfire]

One time I gamed at a friend's place and he had a cat that liked jumping on the table to be the focus of the attention. Course he'd knock over all the ministures on it, but seemed to avoid the orcs. I came to find out with experimentation that the cat did not like the orc miniature axemen, so I set them up around the table like sentries. Cat stopped jumping on the table.

That is quite interesting, I wonder why the cat didn't like the orcs...



That is something I hadn't considered while posting in here...pets. They could be a problem for people with fears or allergies, or with pets that are just really gregarious/noisy. The main reason I've never volunteered my apartment is cause we somehow ended up with 4 cats. (really even if we didn't, we don't have the furniture for it...but that didn't even come to mind when we were trying to decide where to play).

[GungHo]

Regarding distractions, I know people have busy lives and wouldn't ask them to stop them just because they came over to play. We're an older crowd and people have girlfriends, boyfriends, wives, kids, babysitters, jobs, and older parents, so hey, sometimes you really do gotta take that call or answer that text. However, if they're clearly more interested in Angry Birds than the game, they can go play Angry Birds elsewhere. We're here to play together, not watch you on your phone. If you want to play video games, we can go play Tekken or Virtua Fighter in the living room. We're basically doing male bonding anyway.

Alcohol is a given. We're adults and one of our bonding hobbies is trying a new brew or spirit, or enjoying our favorites, but we're doing it to enjoy it, not get wasted. We have one friend who occasionally visits and he has issues with alcohol, so if he's coming, we stow the taste test and instead eat fine foods. I am pretty sure he knows we do that, and at first he told us we didn't have to do that, but in the long run, I think he appreciates not having it thrown in his face.

Kids, if they come, go play with the dog/cats, watch TV, or play video games. My wife or one our guy's older daughter will baby sit. We like the dog/cats, and so if they come play, they get to be the guest monster.

[Loxagn]

My group primarily games over Skype. We used to do so in person, but then people moved which made things complicated... And all of us are in different time zones with jobs, so that has an effect as well.

How many distractions are allowed?

This one's difficult to properly gauge via Skype conversation. People often multitask when it's not 'their turn', but when things are happening our group's mature enough to stop faffing about and pay attention.

Should you allow side conversations?

We're all friends, socialization happens. General rule of thumb is to keep the chatter to the chat box, game talk to the call.

How long is to long?

We usually start off at about 7:30 PM (Again, several of us have work schedules that involve late hours), and typically pack it up around 10. This might seem short to some, but again there's very little setup time. Usually when 7:30 rolls around everybody's online and a call's already been going for 10-15 minutes. With so (comparatively) little time, the group tends to be very courteous with that regard.

How long is to short?

With our group, time is usually at a premium, but then, we usually actually have multiple games running at the same time. Presently, there are two 'time slots' occupied, one with a Final Fantasy game I am running, another with a Mutants & Masterminds game. So people feel shortchanged if the session runs shorter than about two hours.

Do you allow drinking?

This is really more of a courtesy thing. If you show up, it's generally assumed that you're going to be of sound mind to actually play.

Do we break for food?

This is generally not a problem either. Food happens before game. Nobody minds if you're eating during, so long as you're not getting up at random to go out for dinner.

Are kids too much of a distraction?

None of us are of the age where we'd have them, thank goodness. Sometimes there'll be a niece or nephew over, but they're usually unobtrusive.