Pickup Games: When do you bow out?

Hey folks,

Ok, so you have all had this situation, or at least know some one who has.  You go to a LGS and end up in a pickup game against a guy you don't know. The game starts up, and usually fairly quick, you end up in a silly debatument over a basic rule. Not quite an argument, but a little more than a debate.

At that point you have to decide, spend the next three hours playing a game with a guy you don't know, who may turn the entire experience into one long rules debate... or bow out.

Rule number one of 40k is to Have Fun.  Both players are responsible for doing their part to make the game enjoyable.  I am certainly guilty of engaging in drag out arguments, but most of the time it is the argument that is more of the sport than the game, and always it is with guys I know and respect.

In tournaments, you have no choice who you play against so certain amounts of beardy behavior can be expected and tolerated. But need it be so in a pick up game in an LGS?

One big factor in this issue is that in tournaments you are being judged on sportsman by your opponent, so you are less likely to encounter issues. And also, most simple things are clearly defined, like how to play terrain. There is usually an accepted FAQ and rules are clearly defined.

 This is not so in a pick up game.  With no penalty for dodgy behavior, guys may go unchecked.

Well one of these situations ran into me tonight. I went out to the LGS in my area to play a game. I posted on the boards that I was looking for an opponent for my new 2k competitive GT Blood Angels list, some one replied, and there you go. We met at the LGS to play.  I have seen this guy there every time I have gone and he was always friendly, if a bit of a rules lawyer.

A good point of note is that I can't be sure if the guys playing against him were having a good time.  The three or four times I've seen him playing it looked like the opponent was just humoring him to get the game done.  At least that was my impression.

So any way, he sets up his army and pulls out his 1750 Necron list.  I guess he missed the details.  No big, he just added another monolith and wraith.  And we progress to table set up. He suggested we play no terrain... I thought he was joking. Then he suggested again. I laughed and shrugged, then went to the shelf to get an armload.  The WHFB piece with skulls, the sloping chaos piece with the sculpted rock.  Good LOS blocker for center field. The rest of the pieces were some standard LGS stepped stone foam pieces, and your usual ruined corner of building made of 1/2" foam with 1x2" windows cut in the walls on a board base.

Like this but much smaller, just two levels.

Game is Kill points and DoW. He wins roll and gives me 1st turn claiming he will seize initiative.  I declare no deployment cause my stuff is in pods, and he starts deploying.  At this point it occurs to me that we may want to discuss terrain...

So I say "ok lets talk terrain".  :)  "Lets keep it simple, every thing is 4+ cover save if you are on it area terrain. The buildings are ruins as per standard rules."  He agrees.

Then he says "Ok, you better hope you don't land on these." pointing at the ruined walls.

A little confused, I say "It wouldn't matter much, I would just be landing in terrain and not much bad would happen." (If I roll a 1 it gets immobilized which instead destroys the storm bolter.)

He looks at me coyly and wags his finger, "nope, Mishap table!"

Now even further confused, I ask why... those are ruins.  Then he says that you cant land on ruins, or pass through them if there are no doors.  Then he went on to quote deep strike rules, how I mishap if I land on ruins, or on models.

Uh oh.

"So you are saying that you want them to be impassable terrain?" (I didn't feel the need to get into inertial guidance systems yet.)  I then went on to explain that according the rule book it didn't matter if there were actual doors in the ruins. Models could move through it as difficult terrain as normal.

He insisted that they could not, then went on to say that bikes definitely could not. (Or something like that, I cannot remember.)

So I ask if this LGS played things differently from normal rules? He insisted again that the way he was saying it was the way it was supposed to be played. SO, I bust out the rule book and turn to page 14 and quote him the rules that say that models can push through walls and the like regardless of windows, doors etc. It is assumed that they are bashing their way through, or using weapons or explosives to blast a hole. It just took a second, in the early days of 5th ed that particular discussion was had many times at BFS.  At this point of 5th ed, this rule is pretty much the accepted norm, at least in tournaments.

After reading him the rule I paraphrase that what it is saying is that unless we both agree to something else, this is how it is played.  That since he wanted it a different way, and I wanted it by the rules,(We were in disagreement)  it should be played by the book.

He insisted again that my pods could not land on the ruins.  Honestly, I don't even disagree with him for the sake of game play. We have all seen the silly pictures of land raiders balanced on a skinny wall. This causes all sorts of issues. I agree that a pod should not be able to land on the wall if it cannot rest without help. In that case you would just move it a bit more or less to get it to rest. (not mishap) But it was his insistence that models could not move through the wall that bothered me.

At this point I am getting frustrated but keeping a cool smile on my face and a calm tone of voice.

So I explain that we were at a standoff. He wanted it one way, I wanted it another. But being a decent sport, I digress. The fair thing to do would be to roll it off. I offered a 123 my way 456 his and roll the die.

He exclaims... "But this is the house rule!"

My blood drop die rolled off the table and my interest in the game drops through the floor.

Impasse.  Time to decide! So what do you guys do in this situation?

I can just give in and let him have it the way he wants and play the game knowing that I was probably in for more of the same, continue to argue, or bow out of the game.  Plus it really didn't matter, my inertial guidance would have kept me from harm. But that's not the point.

I chose the latter.

As I am picking up my blood die, he says "It's just a game, you can have it your way."

True, it is just a game, I appreciated his admitting that, but I explained that I decided to take a pass on this particular game. I don't think he heard me as he continued deploying his army.  So I zipped up my transport and offered him my hand.  I thanked him for making the trip and apologized for bowing out and asked that there were no hard feelings that maybe we could play at a later time. I really did feel bad for bowing out, but frankly, I wanted to watch Idol with the wife and didn't want to pass it up to play a game and end up not enjoying it.

He said "So you are not going to play?"

Nah, I'm taking a pass, I'm sorry.

He finally got it, and said "Ok have fun!"

So I open this up to you guys. How many of you would have played that game? The guy really wasn't being a jerk. Believe me, there have been many times in tournaments that I wish I could have just walked away from much worse, but could not. But with that in mind, I knew I just didn't have to stay, and could not let myself.

Jawaballs