"If you want to destroy my sweater" Topic

Hold this thread as I walk away

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So, have you every just walked away from a game in progress? Not flipped the board and stormed out. Just called it day for … reasons.

Me? Once. I had a partner who really wanted to mix it up with the troops and not focus on the objective. Also, he was very vocal in advising me to change my decisions to ignore the objectives and mix it up. I did not leave until after the game hit an hour past schedule, as which point I did have to leave to take my meds, anyway. However, I probably could have delayed or come back in a few. Or something. But I did not. My partner got my troops.

I suppose I was also frustrated with the inability of our opponents (or my partner) to grasp the concept that for their "first blood" shot on one of my units, mathematically they couldn't have been in range yet, so the fact that they just barely were in position for the shot had to be measurement error.

I have no doubt that after the game, my partner lamented my poor strategy that lead to our side tanking.

Hmm. Never just up and walked out, but twice I can think of, I've handed my command to an under-employed fellow commander.

Both were convention games. Once the GM objected to players talking to one another as the turns dragged on and there was nothing to do. (Too many players for the rules, and most of them unfamiliar with the game. The GM took the position that it was a popular rules set, and they SHOULD be familiar with it, which didn't help.) The other was my first experience with Napoleon's Battles and with decimal dice. Looking back, my command was so small it really shouldn't have existed under those rules--one or was it two?--brigades. Nothing to do, and plenty of time to not do it.

I feel that if I'm not necessary and not having fun, a quiet disengagement may be the least bad option.

Once, at a convention. I sat at the table, my phone rang, and I foolishly answered it. Wife was having an emergency, so I walked away from the table and let someone else play. I came back to watch after the emergency was taken care of.

I've been called away and been grateful for it. But I avoid walking out if I can. But that's all convention play.
With my buddies, it's never come up, and wouldn't.

Yes. Two years ago before Covid, I was playing with a husband and wife. The husband kept verbally abusing his wife. I had enough and walked out. A fourth player, a guy, kept silent. The husband was pissed I ruined their game! Sadly, this behavior was standard for the abuser the rest of the weekend and probably at home.

I did walk out of a miniatures game once because I sat for 1 hour and never did a thing. I learned to avoid 12 player games! BTW no one was upset, and got to play games with some of those guys later. It never came up.

I think it's worse when guys sign up for a game but never show up, causing the game to be canceled. At a Cold Wars, a guy set up an awesome 1/72 ancients game. None of the players showed up. I was in a game next to him and wished I could help. We had a nice chat while he sadly packed it up. :-( Got me interested in ancients though.

Nope

Thought about it once or twice in the past but for the past six years I have had the good luck to have gamed with an amazing group – no games that were not a lot of fun

I do know of a classic case from my old group. A really good tactician whose gaming ethics were suspect. Game designer, host and commander in a big game. Should have been a walkover--British defending a ridge line in the Peninsula. Sadly for him, the French had practiced. After a few turns, he tossed his dice against a wall and went downstairs to watch TV. Technically, he was leaving his subordinates in the lurch, but everyone on both sides enjoyed his departure too much to complain.

Twice,

Once I had signed up for a Civil War game. The host started by asking who had played the rule set she was using. Everyone had but me. She said "Oh good" and started that game. She gave out no aids no guide to the rules. I didn't know how to move or do anything. So I left.

Second was in a game where I sat two hours without moving. I told the host the I appreciated the effort he had made but this type of game just isn't for me.

At Historicon a few years ago my youngest son really wanted to play in an impressive looking game. After a while I noticed that my son's opponents were friends with the GM. Movement, combat, and reinforcement rules were rather 'flexible' for them. I made an excuse and we left.

A couple decades ago, I had to leave a multiplayer convention game because I and my brother had to catch a train back home when the game took way longer than advertised. That's the only example that comes to mind, as far as miniatures games are concerned.

I never have but I've had a player walk out on a game I was running. One of his units got destroyed and he vigorously abused the rules set and stormed out.The other players didn't seem to miss him.

I was once in a big Johnny Reb 3 game about 25 minutes away from home when my wife called and said she thought she was going into labor. I made my rapid excuse and got home – took her to the hospital.

We went home without having our son (he came almost 3 weeks later)(that was 22 years ago).

The only regrets that I heard was from the other generals on my team who thought my deployment was crazy- but It was the last command standing after a debacle.

My son and I left an "Introduction to 40K" game. The GM and his buddies were playing down on one end and ignoring about half of the players. We weren't even told what to do, other than "hold here, defend this area". NO instruction on mechanics, no attention at all.

Eventually just declared to the other bored players on our end of the table "this is boring and it has caused me to NEVER want to play 40K" and left. Saw one of the players later on and he said the game just kind of petered out – our leaving inspired some of the others to bail out too. The GM never even seemed to notice.

I will NEVER play another game run by that "game group" again, needless to say.

I've had that experience, too. It has made me highly skeptical of "beginners welcome games". The eight from the group didn't really want to explain things to the four of us who had never played before. And, worse than your instance, when SWMBO and DOM asked a couple of questions, they got incorrect answers. One (DOM's) was contradicted by the answerer a few turns later. The other we found about later … we stuck the game out (for the sake of the other noob) and won a copy of the rules for participation. The action she asked about – running away with an opponent's objective – would have given her a big advantage – the opposing force had to pursue (her faster and more movile unit) with all units and recapture. She was told "the objective is just decoration". We were even less amused then.