I have this little problem, my group plays once a week in a gamestore now the owner has asked us if we could turn down the volume of our playing, so my question is if anybody has any ideas on how to do this?

A little info on our group we are largely a 20+ group (four of us) and two players of around 15, 16 the two youngsters are the most loud and stay so even after we ask them to quiet down. Looking for a new place to play is hard because we're from all over the country so it's hard to find a central place to play.

I'd appreciate any help I could get since it would be the death of our group if we get kicked out of the store.

Karate chop the owner in the throat!

Or, better yet, create a noise level rule, and deduct karma for breaking it too much. Or karate chop the players in the throat, whichever.

If they dont behave, take away Karma. Thats about all the power the GM has. Either they want to play and abide by the rules or not. I understand it can be a pain in the ass when having to go a long ways to Shadowrun, but I seriously doubt you live far enough away to prevent you from meeting up at one of your houses if you really want to play. My group comes from all corners of Portland and even southern Washington to play. Cuz we love Shadowrun!

Consider looking into purchasing a muzzle.

Alternately, when one of them takes damage, his character gets shot in the mouth and can't speak. Mute characters are a great way to deepen role playing.

Keep apologising to the store owner and make sure he knows that you're on his side and working on it. Be persistant with the younger players and if necessary pause the game when it gets too noisy. Make sure everyone knows that if if too much noise is made you'll lose your venue.

Failing all that, see if you can borrow a couple of hearing aids from some old people and make the younger players wear them so that everything seems louder than it is. You know kids today with their rock and roll music. They're probably half-deaf without realising.

Speak very quietly, and try to get the other players to do it too. He'll probably adapt to the level, plus it's good for the atmosphere of the game.

Use a handsign to signal that someone is too loud. If you speak up, you are constantly disrupting whatever the other was saying, and one usual reaction to that is increasing the volume.

Speak silently and never repeat something that was overheard by outgame-talkers in full detail. I nearly got a player-kill in because two of my players found it necessary to talk very private business in the midst of combat, justifying their lack of attention with "it was not our turn". Too many people talking at once is a maior reason why gaming gets to loud. It is also a maior reason why nothing gets done in a session.

Show up early and chat with the store owner. Keep doing so. Buy donuts for yourself and the group, but show up early and ask innocently if the owner would like some. Keep doing so. Soon he will be putty in your hands, and you will be telling HIM to keep it down.

Buy something occationally.

Better: have the loud player buy you something each time he's too loud. If that doesn't teach him to be quiet, the manager won't care anyway.

Remote-control collars. What's remotely controlled, you ask? The tightness.

~J

Once you make them aware of the problem, then it comes down to common courtesy and decency.

Make sure they really know they are bothering people, though. A lot of the people I game around are _very_ excitable, and very clueless. They are decent people, just clueless.

If they really don't care that they are bothering people, don't tell them when the next game is. Life is too short to spend it around callous people.

I am all for the food incentives and friendly enforcement.

I have been a teacher at rowdy teenager classrooms and I had a rule that whoever was too loud or had his/her cellphone ringing in my class would have to bring candies or bizcochos -biscuits?- for everyone next class. Worked like a charm, and was delicious too.

Plus, the whole class felt motivated and hungy enough not to let anyone slip unnoticed. I even had to buy the candy myself once after some friend called me during class hours.

Cheers,

Max

clue by fours

timeouts - You can always just tell everyone the game is taking 5 minute break to "stretch legs" and quiet down.

Find a girl to play in your group.
Game store owners never get to meet girls, he wouldn't dare throw one out of his store.

Thanks everybody, I think I'll try the taking away of karma and maybe the buying of stuff for me yes... I could use both arsenal and augmentation <que evil music here>

I pretty much agree with what's already been said, but one note: consider a karma award for consistent quietness, as opposed to a karma penalty for loudness. You know your players better than we do, but some people respond much better to the carrot than the stick.

I generally frown on in-game penalties for out of game behaviour, so the idea of giving the players who behave well karma sits a lot better with me than penalizing the bad ones. Good idea, Moon-Hawk!

Three words:
BLACK BALL GAG

threaten them with the Black 8 Ball of Silence. Really put them behind the 8 Ball.

yeah we have a baby in our group
okay not really, but a couple in the group has a baby and he sleeps during the games so we tone it down some or try to. Maybe someone should teach those guys what a "stage whisper" is and more importantly its opposite (whatever it's called) the "appearing to yell w/o really yelling" voice

Is there a reason you have to play at the game store?

You say you're from all over the country so finding another central location is difficult, but...I don't understand how you're still able to get together once a week, if you're all that far apart. With so many of you being more-or-less adults (20+), surely someone's got their own place that isn't terribly far from the game shop?

If you guys could take over someone's apartment for one evening a week, it seems like you could stretch your legs a little more, make all the (reasonable) racket you want, and not have to worry about any game store owner getting grouchy and giving you the boot for it.

...that's what I read the first time, at least.
Could work, though.

I agree that in-game penalties are a very mixed bag. On the other hand, when talking to the guys (before the game begins) or the prospect of rewards for quieter gaming don't work, you might start to occasionally slip in some important info during one of their fits. When they don't get it, well tough luck.
I know that such GM-behaviour borders on the ass-hattish, but if asking nice and sensibly doesn't work, then you practically are in ass-hat territory anyways...

I'm already slipping info when others arnt paying attention or are to loud since I know that at least two of them are listening.
There is one option but I'm keeping that as last ditch effort, one of the guys has his own place but his room mate hates my guts (it's a long story I'm not going into).

I was also thinking at looking at the local pubs maybe check if we can play there and how it would be.

The rewarding and penalizing of players sounds like the best option and yes I was already planning on talking with the two younger players since I felt that there was some tension between the two of them, anywho I'm gonna try it in our next session which is this tuesday so I'm hoping for the best.

I don't know... I'm thinking about enforcing them to have one of my players keep his home clean.

I'd agree, except I'd also suggest against in-game rewards for out-of-game behaviour. It creates essentially a culture of bribery in the group, and also messes with the consistency of the gameworld.

For reference, when I was younger I engaged in the practice of giving in-game compensation for out-of-game actions, and have since observed the practice in several other groups. My dislike of the practice stems from observations of the effects of it on the group.

~J

One good hand signal: raise pointer finger for first warning, two fingers for second warning, three for "You are no longer welcome at this session because you're endangering the group's welcome. Try again next week. We like you; we'd be able to game with you if you could control your voice!"

*Immediate* feedback is the most useful when working with adolescents. I recommend flashing the warning sign right in the offender's face, combined with a stern look.

If the teenagers learn some self-control and voice control during RPG, that will serve them as well or better as most things they might learn in high school.

Thanking people who have done well is also good, especially at end of session.

Another angle, though: do people take turns on "center stage" and getting GM's attention? Do you keep track of who YOU are paying attention to? Do you stick to intiative order in action scenes, or do you let people interrupt? Do you look around the table to see if anyone wants to speak? If the most effective way to get the GM's attention is to raise one's voice, then players *will* do that.

Kill their character if they are doing it too much. Don't actually tell them you are planning this, but kill their character. It takes a loooong time make a good character in SR so it might at least keep them busy and hopefully silent.

I don't know leave it to your best judgement in the end, but there might be one point when you will ask yourself if you really want some really loud SR players mucking up the game? Have you thought of talking to the other players and how they feel about wanting to keep them around or not? If they are cool and contribute something to the game then I'm sure you will figure something out.

Seriously, adress this out of game.

Tell the loud players you will not be able to play at all when you are no longer allowed to meet in that store.
Basically, they have the choice to a) turn down the volume, b) find your group another location or c) leave the group.