Quote from: Bren;877287Sure.


Fair point. There's not a lot of pre-screening you can do in those cases. You can call the cops if they show up in a bloody T-shirt holding a butcher knife or kick their ass out of your game if they act like an asshole, but not much else.

What I meant to say was that I can't imagine wanting to sign up random people and then try to prep for them based on superficial knowledge like age, gender, education, or occupation. In those situations I've run a scenario that I thought was generally suitable rather than trying to tailor it in some way just because I knew there would (or would not) be women or grad students in attendance.

Well, I've run a game for people I simply didn't know. And it was tailored, since they weren't people I met at a convention and it wasn't planned as a one-shot - my sister simply dropped with two couples of her college buddies on the second session after I introduced her to RPGs:D! She's almost 10 years my junior, BTW.

No, I hadn't even seen any of them before:). I talked with them like 15 minutes before beginning, too.

Even more than "what they would like", going off "this kind of players tend to like X, to assume Y is in play, and to assume Z isn't in play" allowed me to both customize, to address the point that no, Y isn't in play (balanced fights and resurrections, if you're wondering) and that yes, Z is possible (achieving results fast without grinding, or even getting into fights).
I'd call the fact that they wanted to play a second session a success;).

Quote from: AsenRG;877413Even more than "what they would like", going off "this kind of players tend to like X, to assume Y is in play, and to assume Z isn't in play" allowed me to both customize, to address the point that no, Y isn't in play (balanced fights and resurrections, if you're wondering) and that yes, Z is possible (achieving results fast without grinding, or even getting into fights).

Knowing players' past play experience is definitely very useful - often more useful than asking players "do you expect balanced fights?" is knowing whether their sole previous experience was (eg) 3e D&D, and whether they liked it or not. I'm always amazed how radically differently Old School/pre-3e, 3e, and 4e D&D players approach 5e D&D, like it was 3+ different games.

Quote from: S'mon;877477Knowing players' past play experience is definitely very useful - often more useful than asking players "do you expect balanced fights?" is knowing whether their sole previous experience was (eg) 3e D&D, and whether they liked it or not. I'm always amazed how radically differently Old School/pre-3e, 3e, and 4e D&D players approach 5e D&D, like it was 3+ different games.

Yeah, the only problem was that I didn't know that:). What I did know was that they've read some fantasy that I'd never heard of*, obviously gender, which ones were couples, which ones were in Sofia University, what music they liked, and what they all thought about the then Prime Minister.
As I said, I had 15 minutes of casual conversation with them;).

And you're right about the different approaches, but in the same vein, there are also the different ways GURPS, Fate and other players would approach D&D5e.


*Turned out to be what I call "trash fantasy", due to my opinion on it:D. Thing is, I didn't know even that at the time, and found out after the session by checking it in Google.

Quote from: Bren;877165The material and the time elapsed before observation and cleaning matters. But I'm guessing you haven't had a cat spray your carpet.

On the plus side, the new wood floor looks really nice in the dining room turned library.

In Uruguay, houses don't usually have carpets. It's all hardwood or stone floors.

Quote from: RPGPundit;878254In Uruguay, houses don't usually have carpets. It's all hardwood or stone floors.

You're fortunate that both are less porous and absorbent than carpet.

Quote from: Bren;878272You're fortunate that both are less porous and absorbent than carpet.

Yup, I figure. And that my cats usually make use of the litterbox, which I clean daily.