Having played Dungeons and Dragons on and off for the last 40 years, in every edition of the game and some offshoots as well, I can conclude that there are some timeless constants.
- No-one (else) is interested in your character’s backstory.
- There is always one player that takes up more time then the next three gamers put together on their turn.
- There is always one player who justifies anti-social behaviour by the player as being “in character”.
- Every young gamer creates a character as an orphan outcast from their society and thinks they are unique for doing so.
- Every young group of gamer’s characters will at some point have a drinking contest which will dissolve into a bar fight.
- Every group has a thief that will steal some large object from a stranger at the bar. This also usually descends into a bar fight.
- There is the player that rolls for everything, no matter what their skills are and the chances of success. This is especially annoying when they roll a 20 and they pick the lock without tools, that the thief (who rolled a 3) failed at.
- The players who are single or childless are the ones most often late or unavailable for a gaming session.
- There is always a player who distracts themselves with a phone/laptop/ book/walkman/iPod during turns who is then slow to catch up with the action when their turn comes around.