"Ungentlemanly conduct in a wargame?" Topic

Does such behaviour occur or do the rule sets these day cater for any such occurances or likely occurances and end them before they happen?

What, if any, are the big examples of such behaviour.

This is only asked in a light-hearted way.

Blues 4

I've seen tempers lost and dice/terrain tossed, cursing (I've been known to do this myself!) and walking away/giving up. I think there is a country & western song here, perhaps!

I don't see any real relationship to the rulesets in plat; it is a temperament thing that can can be enabled or dampened by what your gaming mates will put up with.

The cloacas don't come around any more.

I doubt that new rules would make any difference to them anyway.

My rules are all deliberately light-hearted and non-competitive. That didn't prevent the Nazi player who didn't really seem to 'get' that he was the villain in an Indiana Jones adventure asking if he could pump gas down into the underground, uh, chamber where the heroes were fighting mummies and skeletons.

No, no you can't. And watch the other players' faces to see what they think of your idea ---

cloacas

Cloacas left as they were punched in the weenus and told never to return

I have seen dice and minis stomped on, thrown, hammered, dropped in the trash can, armies given away, and once a whole table thrown over.

lucky for the guy all the minis and terrain were his, but I still banned him from the store for 4 weeks. Mostly I would just tell them to take a brake and go get some good food and come back.

Nearly had a fight break out between two players at our game club once. At cons I have seen people try to browbeat their opponents into submission.

When first starting out I was playing just German arty in a massive 6mm Kursk game.
One of the Russian players was not happy with the German Luftwaffes destructive results on a section of his armour.He picked up the dice almost immediately and threw them through the German ranks sending terrain,figures and die everywhere.
He was banned there and then and asked to sit it out while we finished as we all put our own models into the giant game.
We never see him again after that and the crazy thing is we where getting totally hammered by the Russians when he had the hissy-fit…Why? will never know.

I've had a player angrily stomp out in the middle of a con game because his troops were getting thrashed. He blamed the rules. The fault was a combination of his decisions and some bad dice. Another player on his side graciously took over his troops and, of course, they did much better.

I have seen that type of thing but never to the extent of overturning a table. I have had an opponent throw dice into my models, and when I told them to please roll a little more considerately he did it again. Then I told him that if he did it again I would break his arm. I meant it too. I have never seen this sort of thing in historical games – only in warhammer games.

Maybe I was the villain here threatening him but while my models may not be the greatest – I still reserve the right to protect my property.

I've never seen miniatures tossed but that would certainly cross every line possible. I have seen dice thrown without concern for their trajectory resulting in hitting a player at a different table. That person ended up getting tossed from the shop and as a result of continuing behavior, became essentially a pariah.

Luckily i've never experienced anything like this. Maybe a few "discussions", im not sure what i would do if a grown man started to throw a tantrum over a game of toy soldiers…

Sometimes "grown men" aren't so very grown up. Let them know you expect better and if they don't shape up don't game with them.

I've seen some nasty brawls over a game. One, in a W40K tournament, back when 3rd edition was being played. It happened in the 1st table, where the winner would be decided. One of the opponents was a 16 y.o kid and the other a 55 y.o man. Their discussion became so loud and angry, that the shop owner needed to intervene and stop the game. Oddly, it was the 55 y.o the worst offender… he threatened the kid with failing him in class (he was his Philosophy teacher!) if he didn't stop arguing with him!

The second was in my shop. Again, a W40K game. Supposedly, friendly. The two guys became so violent that we needed to call the police to stop the brawl. Luckily for us, our shop is located just in the other side of the street from a police precinct!

I think no matter how tightly written a set of wargames rules may be, if someone really wants to bend things to their advantage, they will find a way.

And of course, such people should be be treated with the scorn they deserve.

I walked into my local club one day just as a renowned bad tempered player ripped his Warhammer Orc Army Book in half down the spine and swept his army onto the floor. He picked up his bag, abandoned all his gaming stuff and left saying he would never play ever again. The bad tempered guy was never seen at the club again and the club scored its first painted army as a donation. Win-win situation, everyone got a positive outcome. :)

Our group had a fella cry once.

Really.

Over a game.

Personally, it's just a game. I did leave one convention game in the middle because the other player was being a pain in the neck and ruining the fun for the rest. The GM didn't do anything, so I did.

Interesting about the Warhammer mentions but no real surprise.

A really heated set too in my old club was defused by the rest of us falling about laughing, when one of the protagonists in a Warhammer 40K game yelled that he was steaming because his opponent had done something with his units that "would never have happened in real life!"

his opponent had done something with his units that "would never have happened in real life!"

Ha, ha. Very good.

Interesting about the Warhammer mentions but no real surprise.

I believe the reason is that the game is promoted in a competitive environment (tournaments). So far I have run three campaigns, and in none of them the gamers became angry or upset by the games, even when they were losing. Some of the gamers were known in the group for being very competitive in tournament games. In this case, though, as I organized the campaigns with fixed ORBATS and limited resources, they were less sanguine to taking chances and losing personnel for pulling a win in a single game. Maybe that newly discovered need for precaution was what lead to less competitive games, and therefore less arguments between the players.

My gaming experiences are at home with my friends and family (notice distinction) and the only real problem is playing with my wife who in every other aspect of life is a gentle and loving creature… UNTIL that is she plays any form of game…a John McEnroe (for those old enough to remember his tennis court exploits) of the gaming table…she would easily be banned from any respected gaming club…

I've never played Warhammer nor have I watched it played for any significant length of time but its amazing how many stories I've read about the level of poor sportsmanship experienced. But I guess its played by more young people? More tournament orientated…?

By the way great thread…love the stories

@basileus66 Regarding your first post: Philosophy will do that to a man…I know…believe me I know…

You gotta know when to roll them
Know when to bowl 'em
Know when to pack away,
Know when to cry.

we've had a player marking another player's tanks by platoon so that he could see where his enemy belonged.

In my experience its more the player than the rules.

I am very guilty of putting some units away rather "sharpish" when I have thrown crap dice! But only ever my own little chaps and of course I search around my floor after and administer first aid after the game.

And once when playing Dresden my (about 20 including Guard)French guns had two rounds of fire at the enemy guns who were all still limbered. Every shot a miss and when he unlimbered his guns and fired every single one was a hit, all my guns gone!

I kicked the (my) table!!

Tally Ho!

I once lent another guy one of my armies and later found that he had marked all the bases with a black Sharpie to show what units they belonged to. He "didn't think I'd mind". That was really uncool.

I generally won't play with someone who throws dice, yells, insults, slams things around, or generally acts like an ass-clown over something so trivial as a game.

But I've had my own transgressions as well. I once yelled at another player on my side because he wasn't supporting my troops and mine were getting killed. Instantly felt bad about it and apologized. It was unusual for me. The other members of my local club will likely vouch for me, that I'm usually an easygoing and agreeable player. I guess everyone gets to be the jerk once in a while.

I've seen more fisticuffs over Magic: The Gathering and other cardflopping games than all other gaming combined.

I personally got myself involved in a brawl at a Magic tourney in Butler, Pennsylvania back around '96 that I'd stumbled across while trying to find the bathroom. I've never encountered a more incompetent group of police officers in my entire life.

You have four high school kids pounding on a middle schooler, a senior citizen shows up and gets stomped. Two more adults come around the corner (including myself), and they get sucked into it. Everything is captured on video, the youngster and the older gentleman care carted off to the hospital, and the four thugs get taken home after being allowed to get their stuff (and steal the middle schooler's backpack in the process).

That ever happen at Historicon? I don't think so. That's just the worst incident… I've more flying fists in those card games than I saw while growing up in a bad neighborhood.

The worst i have seen was during a game of Blood Bowl(2ed) when Player A coaching a non player team (which consisted entirely of goblins)during our league beating player B's long established and very experienced chaos team. This resulted in Player B suddenly standing up (we were kids playing on my living room floor) and attempting to kick ten bells of **** out of player A, needless to say player B was ejected and we never saw him again

For me to encounter this is very rare, but then I keep away from tournaments and only play with gentleman, not 'the player.'

Only once in my memory has it happened and that was with a person who just showed up at one of our 'public games' to publicise the hobby and draw in new blood. He did was losing and did not like it.Put it this way he behaved worse than the nine year old Pokemon players on the next table.

"Maybe I was the villain here threatening him"

No, no you weren't.

@Grey Panda – Who makes the following dinner after the game when she is having a strop? You have my sincere sympathies.