MUSING & MACHINATING
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SPALDING WARGAMING CLUB
This first post is on something that is essential to a healthy hobby: sportsmanship. I'm going to explore what I believe are the generally accepted conventions of sportsmanship, how these relate to tabletop gaming and moreover why they are integral to our avocation. Respect This is the foundation of sportsmanship, to bear in mind and action the feelings, wants and needs of others. In gaming terms this equates to how you conduct yourself in regard to yourself, your opponent (by extension their possessions) venue and authority. It is a vast topic to cover every eventuality, but consider are you treating your opponent(s), how you would like to be treated? Are you bending their cards? Are you fully prepared? Are you on time? Are you paying attention? Are you taking too long for your turn? Compassion We've all experienced handing out (and receiving) crushing and total defeats. Now picture yourself, how did you react? Did you whoop and cheers at the destruction, or gloat excessively about what a masterful stratagem you employed? We’re all guilty at one stage or another, and frankly it doesn't become a problem until it entrenches itself as habit. Compassion is taking a considerate approach, to temper your reaction and put yourself in their position. When dealing with new players compassion is incredibly important, if you have more experience then why not share a little? In a few games time you might be the one in need of a bit of compassion. Equity This is the most basic. Games come with rules, play by them. Indiscriminate and just application of rules is what makes a game possible, it creates the balance for competition to be possible. It is the framework of a ‘game' because without rules or restrictions there is no game, just a collection of armaments and art. Just because a ruling isn't in your favour at the time does not mean you should neglect it, otherwise go and play snap on your own. Honesty Going hand in hand with compassion is honesty. All players of most games have an unspoken agreement to be honest with not only each other but themselves. Honesty is also a tricky topic in a traditional sense, what I should say is honesty about the rules and outcome, because there are games about deception or that directly encourage deceitful play. Basically all players should be as honest as the spirit of the game intends at the point at which it is expected. Persistence Persistence at its core is about attitude. You are expected to doggedly pursue your goals to the best of your ability regardless of opposition or difficulty. Rolling over and accepting defeat or the odious “rage quit” are again examples of poor sportsmanship and teeter on the edge of not respecting your opponent(s). You entered into an agreement to attempt to achieve an objective willingly opposed, if you don't fulfil this then you’re not living up to expectation you personally promised. Now at the beginning of this piece I said that sportsmanship is integral to our avocation, but more importantly I said essential to a healthy hobby, and I mean it. A healthy table top hobby is something you relish spending your time and money doing with other people, the vast majority of gaming is a social activity. Social activity means dealing with other people, and if you fail to interact respectfully with other people then you will soon find your hobby grinding to a halt, because nobody wants to willingly spend time and money interacting with people who are rude, indifferent, unfair, dishonest or craven.
TL;DR - Don't be a dick
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