Table seating arrangements...Issue or not?

Subject: Table seating arrangements...Issue or not? Tue Apr 22, 2008 1:38 am

Does it make a difference WHO sits WHERE - when you game ? Especially in a long term campaign?

Its what the guys at KenzerCo that make Knights of The Dinner Table call the "Table Dynamic".

The first year or two of my current group I noticed that the players got used to sitting in certain places in relation to me the GM and our rectangular/oval table. (OKAy, big 'ol rectangular table with half-circle table ends)

From my left to my right as I GM : 1. Anat (The Ship's Captain) , 2. Kilroy(ship's engineer) , at the end of the table facing me - 3. Akiri (Ships Commo officer, gunner & electronics) , then on my right - 4. Angel (Ship's Gunner, Accountant, Captain's body guard. )

Alright those are not their real names - but the names of their characters.

Whenever we have a "Guest" player that may or may not join the group - they tend to sit or join the table between players 3 and 4. (Between Akiri and Angel). That pattern held for a LONG time.

Heck - even when we did different characters for the BANESTORM/Fantasy thing I half-hoped the seating arrangement might change . NOPE. They all fell into their familiar spots.

About a year ago we started having games at the house of one of the players. This was a new thing for us , as we were now going to be switching off where we played and taking turns hosting.

Guess what happened??

YEP - even at an unfamiliar table and new chairs, lighting, fridge and resroom location - they all wound up sitting in basically the same places.

When we had another guest player for a session or two last year - she chose tpoo sit near me on my right. Thats Angel's usual spot. Angel seemed a bit uncomfortable with that or at least showed signs of feeling out of her usual groove.

Its sort of assumed now that the "newbie" or 'rookie' spot is supposed to be sitting between players 3 and 4.

This isn't a "big" deal - I just find it wildly amusing that they all have this comfort zone. If they ever complain abot it feeling 'sam-old-same-old' I could just point this out to them.

Any of you other GMs have similiar situations? or notice this phenomena?

- Ed C.

Subject: Re: Table seating arrangements...Issue or not? Tue Apr 22, 2008 2:00 am

I've seen the same thing happen at game nights. Everyone in the same spot is nice though, everyone knows where everyone is and so forth.

With table top games, I see more people gravitate to certain tables and terrain sets. As where you physically stand is often determined on a dice roll.
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Subject: Re: Table seating arrangements...Issue or not? Tue Apr 22, 2008 2:09 am

If any of you guys were there the Saturday night that I ran my usual RPG group - then you saw my players and this phenomena happened that night too - sort of.

Putting TWO tables together like that gave me a slightly larger gaming space than the one that I'm used to.

- Ed C.

(This was back on April 5th - I think)