In much the same way that what you eat on gaming nights can have an impact on the game itself, caffeine can have obvious effects on your GMing.
If you need it and don’t get it, you’re tired (that’d be me — I’m a caffeine addict all the way). If you don’t need it but have some anyway, you could get jittery. If you have too much of it, it can make you feel weird.
It’s not a terribly profound question, but I’m curious about the caffeine habits of other GMs. When you GM, do you use caffeine to keep you going?
I rarely drink more than one soda a day but, for some reason, gaming night has always involved a lot of caffeinated beverages. In no other context will I drink tall, consecutive glasses of Mountain Dew, probably because my friends are the ones providing it. The weird thing is that, on any other day, I’d suffer from horrible insomnia from such a gluttonous caffeine intake. For some reason, though, gaming night caffeine has no effect on me. Heck, I usually end up falling asleep earlier.
As for drinking caffeine to maintain an appropriate energy level at the game, it’s rarely an issue, although I’ve been known to drink a little more caffeine than usual if I’m feeling run down. It’s more for social than energy reasons.
During rough work weeks, I can consume prodigious amounts of caffine. So much so that the delivery system in question (coffee) starts to have serious effects on my digestive system (ulcers in the mouth, constant nausea, and … increased regularity). I help resolve that problem by taking pills instead of drinking coffee, but they don’t have as immediate an effect as coffee.
So, on game nights, I want nothing to do with the stuff. Sometimes if I’m a little sluggish, I’ll grab a cup from the local Starbucks (Coffee which doesn’t taste like coffee is the best coffee IMO) or pop a pill, (which I try to hide from the wife because she doesn’t like my heavy use of the stuff) but that’s rare. Usually I’m either fine or too zonked out to tear myself out of bed without heavy artillery, and game night gets canned.
I generally don’t drink coffee at night (past 6) because I like my sleep at the end of the day. Instead I go for something like Arizona Tea with Ginsing which helps me be “up” but not feel so jittery.
I did miss having a hot cup of coffee last Saturday afternoon when I ran a short game at a local Borders. Their coffee shop was closed for renovation. 🙁
Years ago (8+), my gaming group (myself and 2 – 4 others) used to not even blink at the thought of polishing off a cube (24 cans) of Pepsi or Mountain Dew on game nights. Of course, at that time I drank nothing BUT soda, so I’d go through a couple of six packs every few days. It never made me jittery (which I consider to be unable to concentrate properly or having my hands tremble), which I suppose was a side effect of an extreme caffiene addiction (well, that and insomnia, but I never put two and two together at the time). But the morning after game nights I would suffer from an adrenaline crash, where I felt like my blood was replaced with a slurry mix of Mountain Dew & beach sand and all I wanted to do was sleep.
Now I’ve cut out most sugary and caffinated beverages, and I haven’t noticed any real difference in my ability to stay up when the game’s interesting. I’m just able to go to sleep much earlier and wake up without feeling sick.
Gah, I feel like an old man. If you’ll excuse me, I need to go put some slippers on with my black socks and tell a bunch of kids to get off my lawn.
is there any other way to do it? its hard to keep up with a fast-paced game if i have too much blood in my caffeine system. 🙂
I’m trying to kick my coke/caffeine addiction. Mostly I’m replacing soda caffeine with less frequent but bigger doses of other stuff. Come gaming night I usually have an energy drink, and it helps keep the sleepyness and the “you see a tree. What type of tree? It’s a standard tree.” moments to a minimum.
I avoid caffeine when possible nowadays. I also avoid soda. I get more energy from eating healthier and exercising regularly.
I don’t even drink Coke anymore unless I’m playing D&D late into the night. When I do game though, my buddies and I tend to go through several 2-liters.
To GM, I must have ….
Java … Java …. Java … Java … Java … Java … Java … Java … Java …
Java … Java …. Java … Java … Java … Java … Java … Java … Java …
Java … Java …. Java … Java … Java … Java … Java … Java … Java …
Java … Java …. Java … Java … Java … Java … Java … Java … Java …
Java … Java …. Java … Java … Java … Java … Java … Java … Java …
[PSA] For anyone trying to kick a caffiene addiction, it’s going to hurt a lot for the first couple of days. You’ll be tired and have one massive headache morning, noon, and night. I found it helpful to switch from soda to Crystal Light (mixed at double strength) for awhile so that I could feed my sweet tooth while weaning my body off of caffiene. From there it was a short jump to water. All told, it took me a couple of years to get to the point of preferring water over anything else available, with the occasional lemonade or root beer as a treat.
Mmmm…root beer…
[/PSA]
I actually avoid caffeine drinks when GMing. This has nothing to do with energy levels, but rather the fact that they generally do nothing to help keep my throat in good working order.
I am, in general, not much of a talker. But put me in the GM chair, and I’ll talk as long as people will listen to me. Because of this, my mouth and throat dry out pretty quickly. To keep my voice I generally stick to plain water, with juice and milk as good alternatives.
Another negative on caffeine is that it is a diuretic. Bathroom breaks are disruptive to the game in general. GM bathroom breaks completely halt the game, and thus I tend to try to avoid unnecessary ones.
I’m a terrible caffine addict. On an average day at work I’ll drink 3-4 beer mugs of fresh-brewed coffee. Over the weekends its seldom more than 2.
My GM and another of the players also both drink lots of coffee, so there’s usually a coffee and snacks break about 3 hours into the game. Has the bonus of giving us time to chat about non-game stuff, watch movie trailers and the like.
There is a trick to caffeine consumption that applies to most people outside the complete bingers and complete abstainers: It’s not how much caffeine you have; it’s how much you vary your caffeine compared to the previous day and other intake.
If you routinely drink, say, 20 ounces of caffeinated tea every day at lunch, and otherwise get no caffeine, then a modest 6-8 additional ounces in the afternoon will have some effect. OTOH, if you exercise a lot that afternoon and drink a lot of water, you’ll get practically no effect.
I try really hard to get a small amount of caffeine every day to keep my minimum threshold managable. When gaming (or doing anything else where it matters), I’ll up my caffeine intake slightly. If I really have to go for broke, I’ll up it more, but then expect to crash somewhat later. *AND*, the surest way to avoid an after binge caffeine headache is to drink a small amount of caffeine the next morning. For some people, three ounces of a soda will do.
I’m sorry, we’re you talking to me?
My friends and I are completly in the opposite direction: one glass of whyskey and a bottle of a good Bordeaux at the begining of the game… but we review this every time we notice that we don’t game as much as we would like… unfortunately we tend to forget why every few months and we go back to alcool like lowlife mezcals.
The lesson here is that we game with Real Friends in their 30s and social drinking and gaming are tangled in a so delicate (and delicious) balance…
🙂
I don’t use caffein but alcool definitely keeps you from playing a looong time.
maybe I should use hardcore drugs ?
or maybe I should get younger ?
:))
I typically don’t drink much of anything while I’m GMing. I’ll open a can of soda at the start of the session, but it usually is still half full by then end of the night. I think as a GM, I’m so preoccupied with running everything, that I forget about the drink sitting right next to me.
When I’m playing, I’ll go through a can or two.
I tend to stay pretty caffeinated during games, even when I know it’s not the best idea (when I’m really tired, for example, and know the crash is coming). I actually sort of wish I could kick this habit while gaming, because I suspect I’d be better off overall, but…it’s caffeine. Must. Have. Caffeine.
I’ve never been a big soda drinker, and I cut caffeine out of my diet entirely about 3.5 yrs ago.
Game night is all about beer, wine and scotch. One of our players is really good about bringing growlers from Russian River Brewing and other NorCal breweries…gorgeous brews like Pliny the Elder, which you can’t go buy in a store.
We have a couple of players that turn into pumpkins at 11:00 PM, so we don’t really need to stay up that late.