PDA

View Full Version : What makes roleplaying fun?



Zen Master
2010-10-27, 07:30 AM
I'm not - on the surface, at least - a very complicated person. I'm the kinda person who can watch The Expendables and like it. I can think to myself 'wow - that movie sure had a lot of exploding gasoline, and a lot of men armed with rifles and pistols and handgrenades ... but fighing hand-to-hand' .... and still like it.

So ... and this is purely personal: In roleplaying games, I take tremendous joy in killing stuff. It's not even really the combat I enjoy - no, it's setting the record straight. They lose - I win! Hooray =)

Don't get me wrong - I enjoy playing my character too. But at our table, we rarely get into deep, emotional stuff.

So this is my question: What is fun for you? Where do you focus the most? What was the funniest moment in-game for you?

dsmiles
2010-10-27, 07:38 AM
TBH, my group focuses alot on interpersonal and personal conflicts. Deep emotional/mental stuff, you know? Granted, there's a lot of killin', but it comes secondary to the plot, and individual character development.

Funniest in-game moment? Probably when the Were-Bearbarian, that I mentioned in another thread, said to me, "I want to take Vow of Poverty."
I did one of these:

:smalleek:
Wait.
What!?!
:eek:

...and then I let him do it.

Mastikator
2010-10-27, 07:40 AM
To me it's about the adventure and about creating things. I primarily like exploration and crafting/building things, I prefer characters that do primarily that. Actually other details I like to leave up to chance, I want it to make sense, but I think that playing a character that I didn't 100% design is a challenge.

bokodasu
2010-10-27, 07:55 AM
I'm with the OP - I get plenty of deep character development in real life, but I'm not allowed to shoot out the tires of that guy who's driving in two lanes 'cause he's too busy texting to look at that pesky "road" thing.

Give me a mountain of unambiguously evil monsters to slay, and I'm a happy camper.

(Which is not to say I don't like roleplaying; I just like playing the role of someone whose answer to everything is "set it on fire", except for when it's "douse it in gasoline, THEN set it on fire". Moody McDarkElf with the troubled past? Yeah, we call that "Tuesday" around here.)

panaikhan
2010-10-27, 07:57 AM
What makes roleplaying fun for me, is roleplaying characters wildly different from who or what I am.
Almost all of my character concepts (both builds and RP) are off-the-wall, and I revel in stretching my boundaries with every new PC.
In my 30 years or so, I have rarely repeated a character (except to rework some of my favorites when a new edition came out).

Our group is probably a little odd, when it comes to roleplaying - a lot of it is 'meta-roleplay', as in "I try to explain to the guard why i'm sneaking into town after midnight, in a way that suggests 'wild party', not 'rob the Duke'. Bluff roll?"
That said, I do tend to focus on mannerisms for my characters.

A recent funny was with my Drow Cleric. Only my characer and one other were standing after the fight with the BBEG, and the other player jokingly said "Look at all this loot, to split 50-50". I replied "What do you mean, 50-50? I still have two Inflict Serious Wounds left".

Galdor Miriel
2010-10-27, 08:00 AM
I love the story building and story telling aspects of the role play. During a session I like talking in character, whatever the type of character, and after and between sessions I love the string of in character emails and story segments that get written to tie the action we get on a games night together.

Killing stuff and surviving gives me a thrill, but it is not because killing stuff per se is a thrilling thing for me, it is rather I suspect because you invest so much in your character emotionally, that when your character is truly at risk, but they survive, you feel joy and excitement. Games were we slay goblins by the score but are never at risk do not cause the same level of excitement.

Will

Dienekes
2010-10-27, 08:05 AM
I love character development, good plot, and acting. I'm also the designated GM so combat really just means lots of work and numbers with my side inevitably being torn to shreds. However, give me an interesting NPC that gives plot information, causes my players to question themselves or get the motivated, and has a different voice and acts completely different than me or other NPCs I've done? That is what I GM for.

Psyx
2010-10-27, 08:17 AM
Problem solving and overcoming obstacles effectively does it for me. Getting my character and the party through obstacles in our way, so that we might accomplish our goals. I'm enabler. Typically I'll lead a group, but if someone else is doing the job, I'll support them rather than harm the group's chances by causing an internal conflict.

I focus on solving the issue that I'm facing, rather than being someone who keeps vast notes on the overall story arc. Essentially I'm a tactics rather than strategy kind of person. I like my characters to use the resources they have at hand (material and mental) to succeed.

Character goals - aside from success - tend to be improvement focused: Where can I learn new skills, how can I improve my swordsmanship. They are internally focused (doing them for their own sake, in order to be 'better'), rather than normally directed at an external goal ('I want to be better at fencing to kill the guy who killed my father' or 'I want to be good enough to break into Fort Knox').

Funniest moment... Too many to list.

valadil
2010-10-27, 09:27 AM
RPGs satisfy me on a lot of levels. They require spontaneous creativity. There's plenty of math and tactics. I get to joke around with my friends. And I get to do some writing between sessions. Oh and lets not forget storytelling.

All of these are things that individually I can do elsewhere, but RPGs are the only activity that handle all these needs at once.

MightyTim
2010-10-27, 09:44 AM
As a DM I enjoy the worldbuilding aspects. I like to think up a world and let my imagination run wild in thinking of all the conflicts and fictional history that made it what it is. I also like to (but rarely succeed, unfortunately) in giving my characters interesting choices and seeing how they fare in complex situations.

As a player, I like being evil. Not the overt baby-eating kind of evil, but the person that finds themself on a slippery slope justifying their actions in increasingly convoluted ways until they eventually forget their initially noble intentions.

Noodles2375
2010-10-27, 10:28 AM
The shared act of telling an amazing story does it for me.

One of my favorite parts of playing is sending out session summaries over email where I can recap the story our intrepid heroes have woven thus far.

dsmiles
2010-10-27, 10:34 AM
As a player, I like being evil. Not the overt baby-eating kind of evil, but the person that finds themself on a slippery slope justifying their actions in increasingly convoluted ways until they eventually forget their initially noble intentions.

This makes EvilMe laugh. I like to play evil as well, but I generally start off without noble intentions, and having a strong desire to take over the world. (What are we going to do tonight, Brain? :smalltongue:)

Zen Master
2010-10-27, 11:38 AM
Hm - so far I agree with everyone. And good answers too =)

But I must confess, as stated, that I enjoy the sheer reducing-disagreements-to-dismemberments part of it. Something that can often annoy me is when the true enemy is unclear - is it this guy, or the other, is there some hidden grey eminence pulling the strings.

The best part about that, naturally, is when you find out who it was all along, and merrily proceed carve him into your initials (not the other way around - that's for sissies).

dsmiles
2010-10-27, 11:49 AM
The best part about that, naturally, is when you find out who it was all along, and merrily proceed carve him into your initials (not the other way around - that's for sissies).

Meh. I've always preferred beating them into beef (or chicken, or pork, or whatever) stroganoff.

oxybe
2010-10-27, 01:56 PM
the biggest thing for me is the chance to hang out with the guys. i don~t see or talk to them that often so it~s as much "game night" as it is "oxybe gets out of the house and socializes".

like most poeple here i love great rp but drama i don~t. i get enough of that at work and listening to a few guys i know. give me great character interaction, not a bad afternoon soap. as long as the plot is centered around the actions of the group, rather then the he-said-she-said of NPCs, i~m happy.

as for combat, i~m in the boat that if you~re gonna spill blood make it interesting. PCs vs random guardsin a 50x10 ft hallway? boring, please don~t make me go through the motions that we know we~re going to win.

give me a fight with teeth! interesting/interactable terrain, enemies that use tactics, a third unaccounted for party, ect... something!

be it a fight or rp, it is just like a scene in a movie. and much like in a movie, we only have so much time to spend on different things, so make it count.

Ormur
2010-10-27, 06:23 PM
I like meeting people, participating in a story and shaping it with them. I haven't focused a lot on character building but I still invest a bit in them emotionally. I like the fights too but mostly I'm invested in the character and the story. A close or interesting battle can be very fun.

Otherworld Odd
2010-10-27, 06:26 PM
I definitely like killing stuff. However, I'm not the type of guy who sits down for combat, then gets up and leaves or spends all his time on his computer or elsewhere when there's no combat going on (I'm sure everyone knows one.)

I enjoy roleplaying too, but our group doesn't get into the deep stuff very often. Not because we don't like it, of course. Just because we learned our lesson. . . In one game, we took six-seven hours to decide whether or not to kill the prisoners we had. Ugh. That was a headache.

I think it's fun just getting out of life for a little bit and enjoying a little bit of fantasy with a character you create yourself. Much like a video game, but a lot more customizable with no invisible walls.

kyoryu
2010-10-27, 06:27 PM
Meh. I've always preferred beating them into beef (or chicken, or pork, or whatever) stroganoff.

Gratifying and delicious!

To answer the question, it's a combination of socialization, watching the story unfold, and interesting tactical combat.

Edit: I guess that's why I don't mind so much when bad things happen in games - it adds variety and unpredictability to the game, which is good. I don't like "Mary Sue" characters in RPGs, which unfortunately seems to be becoming more and more the norm.

Trundlebug
2010-10-27, 06:29 PM
I like it when a character grows mentally, spiritually, whatever. When the campaign throws events and villains at them that change the character and their friends.

Changing the campaign world meaningfully is neat as well.

Shademan
2010-10-27, 06:45 PM
lame puns and pervy jokes?

OrionFaarlane
2010-10-27, 06:55 PM
I just ran a game on Monday night where everyone played a Hobgoblin with inter-twisted motivators. I randomly created 8 characters with each a different ability from the different ability classes. Everyone who played picked a character randomly.

Everyone enjoyed it even though a few ended up killing each other. It was a great time and everyone got to play out a character they don't normally play.

I also got to watch people act like hobgoblins when they are normally paladins.

dsmiles
2010-10-27, 06:57 PM
lame puns and pervy jokes?

No, no, no. The reason roleplaying is fun. Not the reason getting up in the morning is fun!

TheThan
2010-10-27, 07:31 PM
I love enjoying the company of my friends. I get to hang out with them and laugh, tell jokes and generally have a good time. I’m perfectly happy not rolling a single die if it means I get to spend time with them. basically roll playing is an excuse to do that.

I love creating worlds, coming up with interesting and neat characters to play and populate my world with as well. but I it’s the stimulus of being around friends that drives me to do all that stuff.

JonestheSpy
2010-10-27, 11:11 PM
I love the story building and story telling aspects of the role play. During a session I like talking in character, whatever the type of character, and after and between sessions I love the string of in character emails and story segments that get written to tie the action we get on a games night together.

Killing stuff and surviving gives me a thrill, but it is not because killing stuff per se is a thrilling thing for me, it is rather I suspect because you invest so much in your character emotionally, that when your character is truly at risk, but they survive, you feel joy and excitement. Games were we slay goblins by the score but are never at risk do not cause the same level of excitement.

Will

Pretty much this.

Lord Raziere
2010-10-27, 11:17 PM
first I get make a character. I get to create an imaginary person, who might in some other universe, exist, I get to create a personality, a mindset, fill them with their own eccentricities and flaws and virtues and such.

then I get to have them interact with people, have their personalities play off one another, create funny, heart warming and even awesome moments.

I also get to create settings, worlds, cultures, histories, technologies, magics, landscapes, stories, buildings, armies, an entire universe, then I get to play out the various conflicts and issues and problems that happen within it.

I roleplay to see what I can create, and when it is created, see what happens when it is let loosed.

Eldariel
2010-10-27, 11:27 PM
Immersive, responsive world with attention to detail, lots of in-depth information and knowledge, extensive history and logical and consistent world with its own ecology to which everything in the world somehow fits. And epic quests, meeting bigger-than-life creatures, drinking mead with Gods, and experiencing a grand, living gameworld. And an excellent story with more layers than a spider's web has strands.

Another huge aspect is playing whatever I want to. From a saint to an absolute sadistic bastard I could write nothing of on this forum due to his actions, all sorts of character personalities have their own appeal and RPing is a safe way to try those different mindsets and ways of life on without actually, y'know, becoming a serial killer or forfeiting all your worldly possessions (such decisions tend to be kinda irreversible).


Oh yeah, and the completely separate side of fuzzing around with numbers and tactics and strategy and playing a strategic wargame with billions of options trying to pick all the best ones. Many RPGs work great for this; D&D 3.X for example is an absolutely stellar system far as mechanical customization and options go, and that's one of the huge reasons I actually play it still.

Gabe the Bard
2010-10-27, 11:29 PM
I like interacting with the other PCs and NPCs, and having a historic impact on the campaign world. It's one of the reasons I enjoy playing in our homebrewed campaign setting. The deities used to be the same PCs from our group 3 campaigns ago. Whenever we play in this setting, my character usually has some connection to a previous character that I played, such as a descendent or a follower.

On the other hand, if I'm playing a rogue or a beguiler, I enjoy doing things that are more bizarre or wacky. The funniest moment for me was several campaigns ago, when our party was in an arena filled with undead monsters, fighting for the pleasure of the denizens of the underdark. My rogue was disguised as one of the undead zombies, sneak attacking their vampire lieutenants, when suddenly all of the undead were called away. Being afraid of blowing my cover, I followed them into a chamber where a group of wizards were combining all of the undead (including my character) into a one colossal undead abomination. I ended up at the head of the new creature, being able to partially control its actions, and fought the rest of my party. We put on a spectacular show before the undead abomination was finally destroyed.

Jolly
2010-10-28, 12:43 AM
Well, lots of things. Killing stuff and accomplishing goals, gaining in power as a character aka also why I enjoyed MMO's. Telling stories. Doing crazy, improbable things and getting away with it ie creative problem solving. Getting to be something that doesn't exist, like crazy alien races in Star Wars or undead/plant/various mythic races in D&D. Getting to do impolite things to the laws of physics through casting. Sitting around hanging out with my friends.

Pretty much everything, really.