Somebody said:
But a GM who insists that I use printed or (shudder) handwritten sheets and physical dice will see me leave the group. I am no longer willing to lug around A4 ringbinders or remember to bring a sheet, dive after dice that left the table etc. If a GM wants a printed version of my charsheet for his reference he can get the PDF Emailed and print it out himself, no problem. If my printer works I even print it out for him(1). But I won't lug one around.
That's your call, but again what you have said is you are intractable. You have no respect for how another GM games. It's "Your Way or You WON'T Play". Not everyone is you physically, mentally, OR has your budget to keep buying the latest toys.
Let me sum what you've said up as it comes across to me, from someone who has dealt with just about everything...
GM/LOOKING AT CHAR SHEETS:
If I as GM want to see your character sheet. You as player have ZERO right to refuse me that (you lost it when you agreed to play) NOR do you have the right to demand I maintain a separate copy. So what happens?
- you refuse to pass your electronic toy down to the GM?
- You insist/demand the GM come to where you sit to look?
- You insist that you carry the device to the GM and stand there while he looks (hence you see what he's doing).
- Some how you let the GM touch your precious device, and they get to fumble around trying to find what they want, maybe having to ask you questions, all when they don't want you know what they are looking for because they are trying to maintain a reasonable FoW keeping knowledge of the player closer to the knowledge of the character.
PHYSICAL DICE:
Unless you have some kind of physical impairment, what's the problem with real dice? Are you too lazy to do more than "click-n-roll"? You so lazy you can't move out of your seat? Oh wait, maybe it is actually you can't be bothered rolling dice in a way that doesn't send them sailing off the table.
CHARACTER SHEETS:
BINDERS of character sheets? (oh, not 3-ring? A4 not Letter?) What do you carry around every sheet from the last 30+ years? Are you that crazy you can't even separate out the ones for games long dead in systems/settings not gone near for years?
***HOW I SEE/DO THINGS***
I'm the Player/GM who tires to make everyone else's life easier at the table (even as a player I'll provide the CharSheets as I said above). Regular games, convention sessions, these are my rules and I have folks at ever convention I work who come (in part) looking for my games.
I just don't "get" your point of view. To all my games I have my own food/snacks/drink, my HP Tablet PC (use to be my 17.3" wide screen multimedia with Blu-Ray player), an HP Deskjet 1000 printer (was a Cannon iP3600 but the HP is smaller), a box with 1-ream of regular paper, the books I want to be able to just grab and look at (sometimes faster when things are packed up), power strip, some spare character sheets for the different games the group players etc. Hell for our current systems I have Hero Lab and the data files (where available) and let everyone input their characters, maintain them, I email the the PDF right then in there (oh yeah, I pay for my phone to not just have unlimited Internet/data but to be a Wifi hub for up to 8 computers and without charging anyone to use it).
I have to carry it all myself.. with bad knees (arthritis) legs (peripheral neuropathy) and problems with my right hip/lower back.
If I have to I have a collapsible file box that everything goes it, I extend the hande and let it roll on the built in wheels.
I also
- Print out blank character sheets and provide them to players for free.
- If you honestly have handwriting that sucks/physical impairment or just want it I provide a fillable PDF (use to be Excel Spreadsheet) which you can email back to me I'll print it out for you.
- I use to bring small boxes/felt lined bowls for you to roll in to OR have everyone declare at the session start a 'dice rolling zone' the size/shape of the PHB for our game (you can roll ON the book, or just somehow show the boundaries... most use the book). Nothing else goes on it, and if the die goes off re-roll. Goes off on the re-roll critical failure.
- I collect all paper character sheets and bring them back next week. If someone doesn't comes back *I* pay for the stamp to mail it to them (this has happened twice).
- Only the GM (me) gets an electronic device for the game, characters, etc. Everyone else puts anything not for use in the game away, cell phones face down on the table (you can look at the time but turn it back over). But otherwise these distractions along with other books, excess dice, cards etc. get put away.
*MY* INTRACTABLE VIEWS:
Guess what, all of those are A)Selfish, B)Self-Centered, C)You being intractable and D) going out of your way to ensure YOU control at least some of the info the GM should have as well as controlling the nature of the game.
Make the GM print it out himself: Again back to "screw you I am lazy and don't' care about others, do it yourself waste your resources not mine".
Sombody, I have gamed RL face-to-face gamed with all of the people your words describe (and I listed above). They try to control the game by making the GM jump through hoops while they sit on their ass, and they waste game time doing it. I personally, as a GM have gone out of my way to make things easy on my players... although what I am about to list clearly violates your demands that you control everything (developed over the last 30+ years I've been playing RPGs) yet I have never met anyone as demanding, controlling, intractable, self-centered, and rude as you make yourself out to sound.
I've played under GMs with some strange requirements, stranger than mine at times but as long as they don't come across as unreasonable to the group I don't sweat it I adapt and play even if it's not "my way".
But, that's how you choose to be and I choose to be how I am. To each their own and I think the games you play in are better for you walking away.
