The unwholesome chips + soft drinks combo in one party, slightly larger percentage of wholesome stuff (local organic food etc.) in the other. Alas, neither of these parties are like our old one, which featured prodigious amounts of fine wine and politics.

But really, I think Benoist wins the thread.

Quote from: Benoist;547801Welcome to the RPG Site, man!

Thanks.  I've had a falling out with RPGs recently, but reading through here has started getting me back into it.

We play in a bar, so not-crap bar food (Burritos, burgers, chilli, fajitas, lasagne, etc) and drinks (For those not driving, natch). Some of us have a beer when we play; when we played Houses of the Blooded, I worked my way through the wine list. The bar gives us a discount as we're regular customers, but as far as they're concerned, it's still a couple of hundred pounds going through the tills they wouldn't get otherwise, Tuesdays otherwise being a slow night.

If I'm in town late enough tomorrow evening, I'll try and take a picture.

Our Saturday group meets up at a guy's flat; we bring snacks, coke, and usually order pizza for dinner, although we have sometimes cooked. Generally no beer on Saturdays.

It seems like a lot of people are gaming in restaurants, coffee houses and bars these days. We did this with Planet Algol playing Red Box Vancouver. I think it's a terrific idea, personally, because you got all the facilities and the social aspects of the RPG that are like right there in front of your face, right, and also because complete strangers to RPGs can watch you play and maybe get intrigued or amused by the whole thing? Dispells some myths, makes people look at gamers like real people having a good time together bathing in their enthusiastic nerdom full on... it's great, really.

Back in the day for special events I woul;d get someone in to cook for everyone and even do a themed meal. One time we had an in character roast suckling pig in the predicted feast scene.

Usually though its just beer and wine and as we all now have proper jobs beer and wine gives way to just a bottle of wine or a couple of beers and then tea. You can;t forget good old tea. 1 pot an hour usually covers us with biscuits (that's cookies to you yanks).

One group cooks--whatever they feel like and shares it with the group usually. Sometimes they ask money to be kicked in for the meal ingredients sometimes they don't. Depending on their own finances.

The other group usually cooks as well, and asks much the same thing. Although a preponderance of past is usually served for the rather large group and rather large appetites of many of the gamers in the second group. (I eat little compared to that group.)

My wife volunteers to cook for the latter group fairly often as she enjoys cooking, and she feels a need to be busy. (I try and hold off starting the game until after food is dispersed so she doesn't lose any game time.)

I've a strict policy (at least here in the  U.S) of no alcohol at games. I've found people imbibing tend to not be interested in gaming. and lacking the focus necessary.

When I was in Vancouver, the group I gamed with drank when we played at one friends house. I might have allowed it as well, if they'd asked since the Canadians were all generally drinking to enjoy the drink, not to be drunk. Not a case I find locally. Fortunately most of the gamers I game with prefer to drink other times than game night.

Quote from: Silverlion;547853I've a strict policy (at least here in the  U.S) of no alcohol at games. I've found people imbibing tend to not be interested in gaming. and lacking the focus necessary..

Me too.  I've gamed with a lot of people with alcohol at the table before (just about every group while I was in the military), and for most folks, it works OK if they have the self discipline.  But there's always one or two who take it overboard and it's a huge distraction.

Thus it's just easier to say no alcohol.

With some groups, I sometimes made nachos.  For longer games, I'll sometimes cook some lasagna or pizza for them.

Quote from: Sacrosanct;547855Me too.  I've gamed with a lot of people with alcohol at the table before (just about every group while I was in the military), and for most folks, it works OK if they have the self discipline.  But there's always one or two who take it overboard and it's a huge distraction.

Thus it's just easier to say no alcohol.

I definitely agree, but we once had a session with a kid hyperred-up on energy drinks. Beer isn't the problem as such; excess is.

Maybe there's a national culture difference here, though. For reference, on a normal game night, I'll probably have two bottles of beer or two glasses of wine over the course of about four hours, which is well within social drinking levels (ie, drinking because I happen to be in a bar with friends, and the first one would be with my dinner anyway). At that level of drinking, you don't let someone drive, but they're probably not showing any obviously alcohol-related impairment.

If I'm driving that evening, of course, I'd have two cokes instead; I'd still need to drink, it just wouldn't be beer.

If we were playing in the evenings in a bar, and the GM said "no beer!", I'd think that was a bit odd because it's not really the done thing over here, but certainly wouldn't turn down a game I was enjoying... a morning or afternoon game in a bar would be different, though (That would be cokes). If we were playing at someone's house, of course, their rules would apply regardless of time of day.

We have a pot-luck dinner @ around 6 PM and then coffee/dessert @ 9 PM. Everyone brings something according to the role (main dish, side dish, dessert, drinks); we often drink during the game but usually you bring your own booze.

Then there is karaoke and drinking @ midnight at the local dive bar ;-)

We generally have soda, nachos, and maybe pizza. Beer at times, depending on the group (our Shadowrun group almost always had beer, the D&D group rarely did).

That's the type of food you get at Lord Vreeg's table:

When I was in college, I used to spring for cookies for our game group:  Nutter Butters and Oreos, primarily.

Nowadays, I've got a son with a peanut allergy, so the Nutter Butters have gone the way of the dodo.

Quote from: Benoist;547901That's the type of food you get at Lord Vreeg's table:

That was hand rolled by someone who puts the best sushi in NYC and Boston to shame, btw.

We used to do a lot of similar spreads,  but inevitably every group found that most finger food also gets crumbs, grease or detritus all over the game materials, which wasn't cool for a lot of people.  These days we rarely eat while we're gaming; the food comes before, after, or during the break.

There's a local chain steak/roadhouse that has a seasonal program: every time your sports team of 5+ comes in after a game, you get a stamp on a card, and after 8+ stamps, the restaurant will throw you an "end of season" party for free for your team.  This has worked out well for my gaming groups.  We use "end of season" to mark the end of the campaign or plot arc.