Gaming outside?

[garhkal]

How many of you have gamed outdoors.. Whether it be in a public park, on your patio, or out in the woods (like while camping)?

What were some of your solutions to things like rain, wind, bugs etc?
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Dredwulf60]

I used to game outdoors infrequently while camping.

Sometimes we would pitch tents side by side, with doors facing toward each other. I'd be in one tent and my players would be in the other.

On a couple other occasions, I set up as GM on the back of a pickup truck and the players were in folding lawn chairs arranged in a semi circle around the back of the truck.

Another time We played in a van. I was the GM in the front seat and the players were in the back of the van (while not technically outside, this was another camping trip game). That one was awkward to have to crane around to speak with the players...but adapt and overcome.

A couple times we gamed at an outdoor patio with a gazebo-like covering.

Rain: My examples kind of speak to rain...usually we had some kind of overhead covering. One memorable game was during a really bad thunderstorm...that was one where we had the inward facing tents. We even lay a big tarp over the tents that made a tunnel between them.

In the pickup truck example, there was a cap on the cargo box. But luckily it wasn't raining, because the players had no overhead.

Wind: We always tried for a wind-break of some kind, especially the GM. Otherwise there are rocks for paperweights.

Bugs: repellent and citronella candles.

Other: Light. Some of the games were played in the evening, sometimes well into the night. Patio lanterns are nice.
Glow sticks can be really handy.
Flashlights are essential. In the tent episodes, taking place in the late 80s and early 90s, flashlight batteries were expensive...so we only turned them on when we had to make a roll or read something.
I found this *really* helped the role-playing. Easy to visualize things in the darkness and a tendency to want to talk things out.

[Naaman]

Wind is a tough one. Need something to serve as a paperweight.

As for bugs, it depends what kind, but you can light citronella candles and or buy potted citronella plants. Many bugs are deterred by the scent of it (it actually smells kinda nice).

As for rain, we just used waterproof dice.
_________________
.
SpecForce Combat Elements
All About Lightsabers: Designing, Building, and Fighting

[Whill]

Every time we have started playing outdoors, like on a back patio table, the game eventually moved inside due to increasing wind, rain, bugs, or non-gamers.

Central Ohio is fairly flat so we can have a lot of wind. My game has a lot of paper and GM screens and such, so it is difficult for make everything wind proof and I don't like stopping the game to chase papers down that blow away. And another aspect of wind is if there is a fire nearby, the wind invariably blows smoke towards you which is annoying when you are sitting down and can't just easily shift.

The dice are about the only thing rainproof in my game and I do not want to risk anything getting ruined (especially my computer which has already had to be rebuilt for having tea spilling in it).

Citronella and some natural products are good for bugs, but I have skin/blood that is especially desirable to mosquitos so I am like a beacon for them to come have a feast.

And if there are other people not playing the game nearby, that can be distracting and annoying, just like it can be for indoor games too. Except for kid interruptions (which I became a lot more patient for after becoming a parent), non-gamers being present has been more of an issue for outdoor settings because you only fit so many people into a game room.

As you can easily see from all this, I prefer to be in more control of the game environment, so outdoors has just never worked well for me. Music is an important part of my game and that works better indoors. IIRC, I have only role-played when camping once, but I was a player and it was D&D 3.5.
_________________
*
Site Map
Forum Guidelines
Registration/Log-In Help
The Rancor Pit Library
Star Wars D6 Damage