Post/Author/DateTime	Post
docballen 04-28-07, 03:01 PM	Waaaaayyyyyyy back in the day when I first started doing the RPG thing I was introduced to the concept of "DM bribe"-- A "DM bribe" is where the players pitch in and buy food for everyone at the table-- Dew's and pizza, for example-- and somebody decided to give extra exp. for this. A joking name was given to this-- the DM bribe. ("Hey, if we buy the pizza this week do you think we'll get extra exp?") Okay, now, I'm not saying that there should be extra exp for this, but do people still go in together for snacks and things? I always try to bring something that is a free-will offering at our gaming table-- a couple bags of Doritos, cuppycakes, whatever-- and I'm the only one who can see fit to visit the grocery store ahead of time. Usually the DM (read; host) has to provide the snacks and that can be a big burden for him too. This has happened through two separate gaming groups now. One time I didn't bring anything, and that was when I had a serious "low blood sugar " episode. All the DM had were oyster crackers (no bread, no peanut butter, no jelly, nothing.) And it was my fault because I didn't have my "sugar losenges" in my purse... My hubby and I don't usually have a lot of cash to pitch in on pizza or chinese or whatever is the snack of choice but we try to still bring something besides our favorite drinks. (And even then I end up sharing my diet lemon-lime pop.) And as to say that our fellow players might be as "poor" as we are... well they can still afford Denny's afterwards.... So is the "DM bribe" gone by the wayside, or do I game with moochers???
CryoSilver 04-28-07, 03:06 PM	Much like the guys who never buy the weed and get indignant when you have none, you seem to be gaming with moochers. Make a point to ask "So, who's buying the snacks for the next session?" It both frees you from the obligation and places the burden on them. My group generally has a "snack fund." Everyone chips in 5 bucks for pizza and beer.
Cincinnati 04-28-07, 03:07 PM	So is the "DM bribe" gone by the wayside, or do I game with moochers??? Sounds like the latter to me. :)
Demon_Paladin 04-28-07, 03:14 PM	Sounds like the latter to me. :) Which is why every so often, I'll charge my players a "Stipend" for food and books. (Only one player owns his own PHB)
daggeroflath 04-28-07, 03:25 PM	Back when I was living in a very poor household the other players (well, the ones who didn't also live in the house) would call up before every session I ran and ask "what do you need/want me to bring?". That was awesome. I never give out bribe XP though, it's a matter of integrity. (However since our game was irregular it encouraged me to run it more often so that people would bring food around. Worked well for everyone).
Holy_Beholder 04-28-07, 03:38 PM	Everyone brings food to our games too. This DM Bribe thing isn't very rare, in one article on some RPG on the internet I found, it said that to start a stat at the highest level you should do the GMs laundry for about a year. That is a bribe.
KillerGM 04-28-07, 03:40 PM	In my current group, we rotate on who pays for dinner. It's a big hit for one night, but it basically boils down to once a month for each of us (some more, some less). We've actually considered writing down who pays when, because it takes us like 10 minutes every week to figure out 1) who's turn it is and 2) what we're ordering. In other groups, the players brought their own dinners (as did my husband and I). They also brought sodas and snacks to share - we hosted the game and usually pitched in some sodas, but we're not big on buying snacks, so the players just started bringing them. I don't do the whole "DM Bribe" thing because I think it's silly. I run the game because I like to run it, not because I get to eat stuff. I joke sometimes about giving me jewelery or chocolate for XP, but I'm not really serious... at least, no one has tried it... ;) I'd ask the other players to chip in on snacks and stuff, mentioning that you and your husband don't have a lot of cash to go around for snacks. Or, if you prefer to be passive-agressive about it, don't share what you bring. Just look at them and ask "When's the last time YOU brought something for everyone to share?" Also, does this: My hubby and I don't usually have a lot of cash to pitch in on pizza or chinese or whatever is the snack of choice but we try to still bring something besides our favorite drinks. (And even then I end up sharing my diet lemon-lime pop.) mean they are chipping in for a meal? If so, and you're not, then maybe they're seeing the snacks you bring as your contribution? If not, then just disregard. Hope it helps!! :D
Fallenangel359 04-28-07, 04:14 PM	my group I usually pay more than everyone else a tiny bit, as most of them are broke (even the ones with jobs), but everyone chips in some how one player might bring alcohol, another pays for the pizza one time, another time it'll be different Yes we drink while gaming... works pretty well for us... nobody gets hammered, but we might have 1 or 2.
UltimateReality 04-28-07, 05:28 PM	Ugh, I know how the OP feels. It's gotten so bad that I can't even eat my own food -- the other players just assume we'll share. I tried being hostessy and leading by example...it just led them to mooch more, because then they expected us to provide food. (Husband and I are students; we can't afford to feed 6 hungry male geeks every week...) I've tried instituting group funds or potlucks, to no avail. Anyway, end rant.
Grizzled Gryphon 04-28-07, 06:09 PM	OHHHH, Bribe, got it. There is my confusion. my twisted brain saw "bride". It all makes sense, now.
KurenaiYami 04-28-07, 06:15 PM	Sadly, I play with a bunch of poor folks. I own all the books (though one person has his own copies of the Player's Handbook, Tome of Magic, and Book of Exalted Deeds), and I end up having to pay to feed all the moochers. This "bribe" is foreign to me.
Nom 04-28-07, 07:10 PM	Strange world. In every group I've played in, we just assume that everyone brings snacks to share. No-one would mind if DM and host chose not to - DM buys other stuff and lots of work, host needs to clean house, etc, and they usually end up providing coffee / tea. But they generally contribute too. We used to buy pizza during the game (now just start straight after dinner). My players would always have a brief argument over who had the privilege of paying ("I'll pay", "No, I'll pay", "Well, let me give you some money then", ...).
Sarella Starshine 04-28-07, 07:17 PM	Since we play D&D arround dinner time I usually cook dinner for everyone (we play at my place because I have two very small children, and takes forever to get them rounded up and ready to leave anywhere). We have occasionally gotten pizza because either lack of time or lack of food in large ammounts needed to feed my group. My players do pitch in to buy pizza and will occasionally bring sodas or other snacks for the group. Since I am no longer DMing, I consider the fact I cook dinner to be my 'DM Bribe'. When I was DMing, I considered it my bribe to the players to overlook my DM noobiness (was the second time I ever DM'ed) :)
Luis_Dragunov 04-28-07, 07:30 PM	"I feel new spells burrowing into my mind, new equations deliniating themselves before my very eyes! My patron has just given munchies to the overdeity!"
Noon 04-28-07, 07:50 PM	The flip side is, are people assuming because they bring food, you have to bring food. It's not like they have to ask whether your interested in that sort of thing, all they have to do is bring food and somehow that's an adequate replacement for your consent to the activity. UltimateReality not being able to eat her own food is sucky, though.
TheDarkLord 04-28-07, 08:12 PM	I always try to bring something that is a free-will offering at our gaming table-- a couple bags of Doritos, cuppycakes, whatever-- :D. Never heard them called that before. That said, I play host at my house and I don't want to have people bringing in a bunch of junk food. I can go to the grocery store and buy a plate of Ranch Dressing and a bunch of veggies relatively cheap whenever we get together. Then again I'm from the old school and since I host the game at my house, I well, play "Host". Sounds like you got moochers on your hands though. My players at least offer to bring something, and sometimes they do anyway. If they want any soda or caffinated product during the game session, they have to bring it, we don't keep products like that in house. I don't mind, I just ask the players not to overdo it and to keep things clean. Edit: I also can be bribed, now I'm going to refuse if what you want is game breaking and all, but there are things the players can do to earn a few XP here or there. It doesn't hurt the integrity of the game at all in my opinion.
Stardust 04-28-07, 08:38 PM	There's no such thing as a DM bribe in my group, never really been need for one. We're all students, so we all have a similar modest budget. I DM, own 90% of my group's books and we play in my room so that I don't have to carry my laptop and ton of books anywhere. I generally have diet sodas and tea/coffee to hand out and my players nearly always bring a bunch of snacks such as crisps, dips, biscuits etc. When we get pizza in (most sessions), we just all put a roughly even amount of money in. Sorted. It might seem like I'm doing a lot by DMing and providing drinks, books and hosting, but the fact is that I DM because I want to. I enjoy it. My group were perfectly happy to play core, but I bought a bunch of books because I wanted to, so it would be crazy to keep them to myself rather than let my players use them. Tea and coffee are things I always have in abundance, too. Generally most of the other players bring some kind of food to contribute and nobody really cares who eats what. I think the day when we actually even pay attention to who is providing what would be rather a sad one. We all contribute some food and some effort into the group and have fun.
UltimateReality 04-28-07, 10:20 PM	The flip side is, are people assuming because they bring food, you have to bring foodJust to clear up any misconception before it starts, I don't think people should bring food cuz I do. I think people should bring food because they always ask to eat mine, even when they (very rarely) bring their own. I don't even want whatever they'd bring to share most of the time -- I just want them to stop asking me for my food. And I'm too polite to look them in the eye and say "No, sod off" when they ask. The people in the group who are the chronic offenders I can chalk up to ignorance, to be honest. They're just-out-on-their-own and don't really entertain. The concept of, say, bringing a bottle of wine for the hostess is something they've never encountered. It's not part of their social repertoire yet. One of them still lives at home and gets her food free, so...yeah. Foreign concept. Thankfully they haven't asked us to share our booze yet. :P We seem to have settled into a BYO habit for that.
docballen 04-29-07, 03:37 PM	Thanks for so many responses. I do enjoy cooking but it gets to be a little bit of a burden at times, like when it's the end of the month and the cash is running low. I fixed two dozen cuppycakes (yes I invented a word!!) and they disappeared in a flash.. I used to always get aggravated when we'd have a pitch-in at work and three people would fix food and ten people would eat. But a lot of people think that's OK and were never taught any better. I kinda solved the "drinks" problem last night-- instead of taking a 2-litre bottle I just took a couple of cans in a lunchbox cooler. Nobody asked to share my drinks with me. (But they did drink the host's diet sodas...) I also know it is not rude to correct someone else's rudeness, but I don't want to be the food police and sit and guard the food. Sometimes I think they (the host) understand that our contribution is the bags of chips or cuppycakes, but then others don't contribute anything. I don't know why this bothers me so much. I enjoy gaming with all these guys and probably won't say anything. I guess I just needed to get it off my chest.
MHolland 04-29-07, 06:41 PM	My wife loves to cook for groups. She doesn't much get into playing role playing games but she does enjoy watching others play. So when we play at my house she often cooks for everyone while we play (and believe me, my wife is a damned fine cook). That seems to work out well for all. When we play elsewhere pizza and dew is always a popular choice.
dragonface72 04-29-07, 09:36 PM	At my games, everybody supplies their own drinks/snacks. Sometimes, somebody will buy food for everybody else, but it's usually BYO (except for the candy dish I provide). I do sometimes give minor bonus XP for stupid stuff, though: getting me a soda from the fridge, a really good pun (or a really bad one), making a run for food/drinks. I once had a player offer me $10 for a level. Unfortunately/fortunately, his wife talked him out of it.
SokenzanMarauder 04-29-07, 09:52 PM	Generally when I DM I ask everyone to bring five bucks for a pizza with them (we get Little Ceasers which are $5 a piece) if they don't bring any money they don't get any pizza. Though they are free to bring their own goodies (for themselves, unless they wish to share) with them if they'd like. Same goes for soda, though I usually get that on my own for everyone. -Gene
TheAnthroDM 04-30-07, 02:08 AM	At my table is an accepted rule that if there is one last piece of Pizza/Chicken/ect. and you let the DM have it the party get 100 Exp. I generally do this not because I want the last piece of food(and ussually end up given it to the players aswell as the extra EXP) but it makes the game more lighthearted when players are getting frustated.
ajb47 04-30-07, 11:33 AM	My wife and I have hosted our gaming group once a week (for gaming -- they are also our friends, so we see them several other times a week, too) for about ten years now. We bought the pizza ourselves for about 5 of those, with someone else bringing a cooler-full of canned soda and others bringing other snack-type items (chips, etc). Currently, the pizza cost is split, and the same guy still brings the sodas. Once in awhile, mostly in spring and summer, I'll grill some hamburgers and hot dogs instead of pizza. There is no mention of a bribe and no extra XP are given out. However, it can get us free drinks when we go out with the others because we host and buy. AJ
TheYeti1775 04-30-07, 01:09 PM	mmmm bananna pudding mmmm...... :D Not saying it works or anything, but I do have a weakness for it. It's pretty unspoken in my group, if low bring something. If you like something 'off-brand' (i.e. everyone drinks Dew and you drink Mello Yellow) bring it. Generally since we are Weekday evening gamers, we order food. And everyone buys their own and by 'unspoken agreement' tip is $1-2 bucks depending on your want of contribution. Yeti
SlanderPanic 04-30-07, 03:47 PM	My group used to have a pretty rigidly-defined system of DM bribery, a concept we inherited from my experiences with Hackmaster. It was cute at first, but, after a little while, I ended it because of some balance issues (i.e., the players with jobs getting more bribery XP, etc.) and because I felt I was taking advantage of my players - not my finest moment as a DM. These days, everyone's responsible for their own snacks and whatnot, though often people bring something to share. If two or more people want to go in together on pizza or whatnot, they're welcome to work it out amongst themselves. I like to bring snacks and such on occasion, and I always give our host a beer or two. It's a goal for me to give back what I've been given ten times over. Seems like a good principle for life in general.
Ebonyte 04-30-07, 04:34 PM	I've been with a bunch of different groups, and we always end up doing it differently. But I never deal with moochers. I used to just game with anybody would would play, but I found that one can afford to be picky. We play for fun, after all, so why play with people who ruin it for everyone? With one group, we'd all get together and start the session with a food run. This usually involved a lot of sugar and soda, and after a while, vodka and pasta. Another group, we'd chip in for ingredients and would cook together while we gamed. Most times, I'd say we just bring a bunch of food and then share it amongst ourselves. I try not to play with mooches. The best thing is when someone falls behind and says "I'll bring extra next week" or something, and they actually do. You want those kinds of people, as players and as friends. As for a book fund, I try for that sometimes. Sometimes it works.
Oblivion_Herald 04-30-07, 06:09 PM	I used to provide drinks for my players, when I DM'd some time ago. I like to more or less be constantly drinking when I DM, so I tend to bring a lot of my own drinks and figuring that since I have a lot, I could share it. Unfortunatly the mooching became a little too intolerable. The drinks dissapeared pretty quickly, and no one brought their own. While I could technically afford it, I couldn't justify it, so I stopped bringing them.
Evil DM Mk3 04-30-07, 06:12 PM	We all gernaly bring somthing along. I once (JUST ONCE) played with a DM who used the phrase "1000xp to the guy who gets me a sandwich." and ment it.
Darth_Khan 04-30-07, 06:44 PM	In most groups I have been in we change things up from session to session. Generally, we either go in together as a group and get a meal (pizza, chinese what have you) or the players will stop and get something for themselves. we all usually bring drinks and snacky time stuff to share tho. We dont do a book fund tho that was brought up so we might give that a go, but we are all collectors and suffer from the curse of completists so who knows.
CCS 04-30-07, 06:45 PM	You game with moochers. But then so do many of us...:) In a game I'm in on Sunday evening I'm surrounded by them. I like Danato's pizza. It's very convenient that there's a Danatos about 2 miles down the road from where we play. And of course they deliver.....:) So every week I order a large pizza. Wich is obviously more pizza than 1 person should eat in one sitting. When asked why I always get a large, I've had to point out that it's because too many "other" hands are helping themselves. Often times they ask, but sometimes not. At least with the large I GET my intended portion. I've also commented that I am keeping a record of who owes me how much pizza. And will call it due someday. Two of the group, who've known me for many years, realize that this isn't a joke. (I really am keeping a dated tally sheet with my character) They know they're all getting close to owing me a whole LG pizza each. But I think it'll come as quite a surprise to the other 3. :)
roninwolf109 05-01-07, 05:49 PM	Tho as far as "DM Bribes" go I think my friend has the ultimate: She's the DM's wife and bribes him with sex...but then the one time that she actually did this, I got three levels out of it too...yay?:confused:
docballen 05-01-07, 06:17 PM	I do sometimes give minor bonus XP for stupid stuff, though: getting me a soda from the fridge, a really good pun (or a really bad one), making a run for food/drinks. I got 500 xp for helping someone change a tire at a parking lot once... (I stood there and "supervised"...):D
Birmy 05-09-07, 12:39 AM	Luckily for our group, there's a general feeling of pervasive guilt if one person brings the snacks too many sessions in a row, so it somewhat organically gets passed around. Of course, we're all aware of our DM's fondness for Hostess (tm) cupcakes, and it's been known to put him in a noticably more charitable mood (Does it count as a "bribe" if the DM isn't even aware of it?). And yes, those guys are totally moochers.
Label 05-09-07, 02:40 AM	In my main gaming group, we usually are alrdeady together when comes the time to go to the host's house for a game so we just stop by a convenient store and we buy our own food and drinks there. And when we are all at the gaming table, the food is by default the owner's food, not a group food, but we are kindly share it if someone want it. Except drinks. Since we drink directly in the bottles... Sometimes the host offer some popcorn or a refill of Pepsi. One time a player brought a cake he made, since he's studying in pastries. It was delicious... There is one tradition among us. There is always that player who bring cookies, usually chips ahoys, that we call Peace Cookies. Because if you don't take at least one cookie, it means you don't want Peace. And when we start the game earlier, we usually order some pizza that we all pay equally. It's usually very cheaper that way. As for the bribing to get XP of levels... it never happened, and as a DM myself I'll never accept bribes.
Adamaro23 05-09-07, 06:52 AM	my players don't bribe me, instead they all bring something + my mom brings out things such as cookies, cake, and whatever else. There's me + 4 players + my mom, and we end up usually with: 6-10 two-liters of pop 15-40 small bags of chips 20 cookies 7 bags of gummie bears 10 candy bars 5 sandwiches 40 cans of soda the sad thing is it's all gone by the end of the session and i don't eat very much, i'm 17 and weigh 101 lbs. :) So if we ever were to bribe, it would not be with food.
WilwarinAndamar 05-09-07, 11:34 AM	My group almost always has to game with food. We don't bribe the DM, though. (I really wanted to play D&D one night, so I tried bribing the DM with pizza. I bought the pizza but we ended up watching movies instead.) :rolleyes: We've tried playing D&D without food ONCE. We were starving by the end of the night. Most of us usually buy our own food but every once in a while we will have "community" food like pizza or chips.
DraconsNighthawk 05-10-07, 11:37 PM	I got six people in my group (Including me). Everybody brings their own drinks, one will bring snacks in, one drives a few players to the game/home, I make a small snack (Pizza, rice, hot dogs etc) and during the game breaks we all take turns buying snacks for ourselves and others. (I live right next door to a convience store). Sometimes a player will buy real pizza or hamburgers or sandwiches for everyone.
Shadowhowler 05-11-07, 01:30 AM	In my old gaming group... which ranged from 5 -12 players at varrious differant times... only two of us ever DMed. My friend and I, the only DM's, got annoyed with this after awile... becuase we could never PLAY in a game together... so we created the 'Feed the DM' rule. We didn't give extra exp for it... but if you did not feed us, we would not run. We hoped that this would get our point across that we wanted someone eles to DM more forcfully... but it didn't work. The players fed us, and still never DMed. Very annoying. :) The guys I am gaming with now are very easy going about food... we all normaly bring something, everyone shares, there have been no problems.