How would YOU set up you're ultimate game table??

[garhkal]

As the Topic asks..

How would you set up your ultimate game table?
What # of chairs would be around the table.

Would you use terrain, map sheets, or go full tech and make the table top a Tv screen, to link to a laptop to show maps when needed?

What sort of mods would the table have for makin die rolls.. Holding everyone's character sheet(s). Drinks and the like?
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Grimace]

Hmmm....

I'd have a total of 7 chairs. One for me, and up to 6 players.

I would have a hex map, or maybe try out my new "dungeon" tiles that are linkable and writable, out on the table, and I'd probably go with some nicely printed standees for the players and NPCs.

I'd have my Master Screen for all of my stuff, and I'd have a personal set of D6, along with a notable Wild Die, at each player location. No electronics needed, but I may break out my bluetooth speaker and cue up the Star Wars soundtrack to play. That way I could start and stop the music when I needed it. I don't think I'd use it for sound effects, unless I could find a good site that I could just click on a sound effect and it would play that one at a moment's notice. So basically just "mood music" would be available when I needed it.

My table would have a raised edge, and felt top, so people could roll dice easily. Players are expected to verify other player's rolls, so making them visible by others is needed.

Drinks would be dependent on the crowd. Soda. Alcohol. It depends on the group.

Optimum group would probably be a pipe-dream:
2-4 of my old gaming group
Khairul Hisham
and a fellow named garhkal....

[Whill]

Grimace, that all sounds pretty wonderful! I'm with you on table size (7 people). 6 players is my max, but 5 players is better.

It sounds like you are describing a pool table. That may not make a bad game tabletop. The raised table edges would be great since I house rule that all dice on the floor don't count. It would save some re-rolls.

I am a bit confused about your dice roll view comment. As GM I would expect to see all rolls. An ideal set-up for me would be that everyone can see everyone else's dice rolls, except the players can't see mine behind the screen of course.

I would only add that everyone will have a different color set of d6s, and they would all trade one die with each other to get their wild die.

The only electronics for me would be my computer for musical scoring of the adventures, and for occasional resources for the adventure. I make music playlists for each adventures. I stop, start, change volume, set some songs on repeat, etc. I do not really need a horizontal screen for computer maps, etc. I do not mind if players have cell phones set on vibrate and check them when they vibrate to see if it is an important call or text, as long as it is a quick check and they put them back away.

I use maps behind my screen, but I'm really old school as far as not using hex maps, tiles, or minis much. There is definitely lot of blank paper for impromptu sketching, adding to it as things come into view to the PCs. Slapping completed overhead view maps down for everything is a bit unrealistic because the PCs do not have the bird's eye view of above the location looking down. Of course, if they are going to a place they have been before, or a one-room place like the cantina which you can see about everything from one view, then I do put those down sometimes. Some adventures only even have impromptu sketches for combat to get a tactical sense of things, but I try not to give the players too much more info than the PCs would have from their vantage points. It's worked for over 30 years now.

Most players drink water or soda (which we call pop in Ohio). I quit drinking alcohol 4.5 years ago but I've never outright forbade players from drinking it. However I do not like anyone having anything stronger than beer and drinking more than a few casually/socially. It's been pretty rare, but over the years I've had a few players who thought game night was party time where they could start hammering beers to the point of frequent restroom breaks, pip counting difficulties, and their PC's personality changing over the course of the session. Drunk people really annoy me and it is not a good idea to annoy the GM on game night, so I am very clear about my expectations up front. If you can't take a night off from your excessive drinking habit for the sake of the game, then you have a problem and need to get help. A couple beers never ruined a game night though.

In high school, when I guess we didn't need sleep, we would sometimes get together in the afternoon, play the game until midnight, and then start drinking. In my college campaign years (the 2e Blue Vader years 92-96) where my players were only fraternity brothers of mine, life was pretty 'Animal House' at times but miraculously we never drank for game nights.
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[CRMcNeill]

[Barbarossa41]

[garhkal]

[TauntaunScout]

A few comments before I start thinking about my ultimate game table.

We used to use my friends beat up old pool table to play SWMB in high school. It was already green, it had a lip to keep things (dice) from falling off, and the pockets made good cup holders so we didn't have to worry about spilling on the miniatures/terrain. The Squad Record Sheets, rulers, and so on could sit on top of the ledge around the table.

Drinking during games. Drinking during RPG's is bad unless maybe you are playing Toon, or The DCC RPG. But RISK is an awesome drinking game. Playing RISK sucks with a bunch of nerds who have already cracked RISK. Until you introduce alchohol. Everyone gets buzzed and it simulates the fog of war, and national/cultural irrational impulses. People do stupid things because they act too hasty when they have had a couple drinks and then the game doesn't drag on for 6 forevers. A bunch of players who each have a bottle of Boon's Farm will attack people out of principle, ignore huge threats because they don't see them, repeatedly invade a country because they are obsessed with how its name sounds, etc.

Course a cheaper way to "fix" RISK is to roll a D6, deal out that many RISK cards, and put a penny on those countries. No one can enter them for the entire game. Having a different map every time throws people off.