Spectators

As a whole, most spectators only come and go for only 1 session or so.

It's hard to be involved with a game where you have no stake in it.

>>50035827
I think your decision is reasonable. I've had some spectators that were fine and didn't disrupt anything, but I've had a couple that were distracting and detracted from the game. I'm fine if someone wants to sit in on a session to see whether or not they want to join, but otherwise I don't allow spectators.

>>50035827
I play a bunch of games on Skype, and we've accumulated a group of about 8 or so people who hang out in the various channels. Since there's no way everyone will be in any one game, it's just normal for us to have an open invitation to join the IC channel of a game and watch.

Generally the spectators are polite enough to shut the fuck up during game time, though, so we've never had problems with distractions.

>>50035827
I only game in-person, but I'm somewhat inclined to agree.

If you show up, you're playing, or you're leaving.

However, if it was an online thing? I'd be fine with it so long as they were in a separate char channel of their own, and our chat was limited to the people in the game.

I am however, inclined toward recording or taping the sessions, and my ideal gaming room would have a bunch of cameras and microphones built in.

And I would be fine with a prospective player watching the logs of our past sessions before building a character or deciding to join the group.

>>50035827
I only play online, so spectators aren't a big deal, we can have as many as we want.

>>50035827
I have a policy of "no audience". In my experience, there are two possible outcomes: either the spectator is a disruption to the game (I have some horror stories of games derailed to death by an external factor), or they are quiet observers but end up bored, because ultimately the fun part of the game is being in it. If someone is curious about the game, I'd rather invite them as "guest stars" for a session, and let them see the game from the inside.