yes it was sometimes difficult to find a balanced playing group. that particular group had one guy who was the worst, and i was actually worried about him because he spoke as if he was his character, i mean all the time, not just role playing a particular encounter. and one of the other guys had a full set of chain that he wore for the local renaissance festival but was pretty cool and had a nice dragon tankard he drank out of whilst playing, and the third guy tried to outdo the first guy in being witty. i lasted two months there, from superhuman effort. then there was the college group i played with, about 10 guys, which was a mistake right there, and they had constant pi----- contests with each other and the dm, and that lasted one month because they seriously argued with the dm about 2 hours out of 4 that we played.
finally found a really great group, just 5 of us, sometimes six, and that one lasted for 4 to 5 years. helps to have a guy like to be a dm, and another guy who liked being a psychotic halfling thief to get us in trouble, and another couple who just liked killing stuff. and the dm was nice enough to use my "lets kill something" against me many times. the good ol days.
