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GameMastery Guide / Player Characters / Player Interactions

Multitask Master

Source GameMastery Guide pg. 75
Distractions come into the game room from a variety of sources: phone calls, family, the pizza guy—you name it. Once they start being generated by the gamers themselves, however, you may need to act quickly to keep your game under control and focused. The multitask master is the source of many such distractions around the table, as he e-mails friends from his laptop, sends text messages on his cell phones, and tells this week’s joke to those next to him between initiative rounds.

The first thing to do when confronted with multitaskers is to ask yourself why they’re doing it. Are your players falling asleep because you’re plotting out every possible location that a caltrop could land? Speed things up. Are you spending all your time on a diva’s personal subplot, or waiting for a slow player to find the correct damage dice? Move on to the next player. Evenly distributing your attention and keeping the game moving is crucial.

If you don’t think you’re fostering the distractions, then it’s time to talk to the player (or the group at large) and explain your concerns. If you’re having to reread encounters or explain to each player what the guy before him did, there’s clearly a problem. Part of the problem might stem from unavoidable slowdowns, such as in a group where several players don’t know the rules well yet, but there may be something else you can do to keep players’ attention during the game. Ask them for ideas.

Unless players are using laptops or cell phones to keep track of their characters, it’s fine to ban them from the gaming table. If a player gets a call he must respond to, he should leave the table and take care of it. If he wants to text friends, he should do it away from the table during breaks. Such rules shouldn’t feel draconian, but rather emphasize organization and respect for everyone around the table. Some groups even go so far as to specify what is allowed on the table (dice, character sheets, and pencils) instead of targeting what they don’t like.

Like most situations, this one is best handled in private at first. If you need to discuss the issue with the group, make sure not to single out a particular player. Instead, focus on the distractions that prevent the game from being fun and come up with a solution the entire group can accept. When possible, it’s generally best to start a gaming group with such rules in place than to try and add them later after a problem arises. But distraction is contagious, and the slower the game gets, the more temptation there is for players to multitask.