Hot take: The "perfect" game night setup ruined our D&D session

Last month at a friend's house in Austin, he spent an hour adjusting the lighting and putting out themed snacks for our D&D campaign. Then his cat knocked over a drink onto the character sheets and he lost it, yelling at everyone for 10 minutes. I just grabbed the wet sheets, wiped them on my jeans, and said "let's keep going with markers." We salvaged the session but nobody wants to host at his place anymore. Has anyone else had a host who cared more about the vibe than the actual game?

3 comments

3 Comments

jamesfox1mo agoTop Commenter

Oh man, I heard a podcast recently where the host spent like 40 minutes making custom dice trays and then got mad no one noticed. Some folks just can't read the room, you know?

cora_scott771mo ago

Hear me out though, maybe he was onto something. Those dice trays take real effort to make, sanding the edges and getting the felt to lie flat without bumps. If I spent 40 minutes handcrafting something for a shared hobby and nobody even said "hey, nice tray," I'd be a little salty too. It's not that he couldn't read the room, it's that the room didn't read his work. Sometimes you gotta toot your own horn a bit, show off the custom inlay or the magnetic lid, especially in a podcast where people are supposedly listening about tabletop stuff.

elizabethhayes1mo ago

Nah @cora_scott77 I get what you're saying but I disagree. It's a game night, not a gallery opening. If you make something cool, just say "hey check this out" instead of sulking about it. People are there to roll dice and kill goblins, not admire your woodworking.