Gaming Environment: Smoking
A post from Newbie DM about less-than-ideal gaming environments made me think about where I game. Honestly, my problem actually has little to do with location because this problem sort’ve follows our group around. See, almost everyone in my D&D group smokes. Often heavily. So while I’m rolling sneak attack damage for my rogue, I’m also dealing with the fact that my body dislikes cigarette smoke. It’s like I develop an instant cold and congestion is never fun. It’s only exacerbated by the fact that we’re usually playing in a small apartment room with pathetic AC and just generally bad ventilation.
On the other hand, the other players are adults and it would definitely be more of a pain to smoke outside and it could potentially disrupt a game in progress. I don’t have a moral problem if they want to smoke and after all, it’s not my house. However, the secondhand smoke definitely affects me. Not only do I deal with my body’s physical reaction at the time, I have to shower and change all my clothes when I go home because otherwise, the reaction continues. Oh, and I also smell like smoke.
Essentially, I’m caught in a hard place because I’m not going to stop gaming but I’m uncertain as to how I could deal with this. I could suck it up and say nothing but it’s really started to bother me. Last time I started to feel rather ill because of the smoke.
Crafty Gamer Girl 
Cody replied:
I would probably try and talk to the other members of the group and tell them that you are having health problems because of the second hand smoke. If you explain it to them, that should solve your problem.
I actually had this problem with one of my players as well. While I’ve never really had any problems with people smoking around me, some of my other players did, especially one who go really ill and had to miss some games because of the smoke. We all sat down and talks about it, and the players understood our concerns and has decided to smoke during the snack break we have during each session and before we start to play.
So, the best thing you can do is talk to them. If they are your friends, they will understand your problems and will most likely wait until after or before the game to smoke.
September 7, 2010 at 5:23 am. Permalink.