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daremetoidareyo
2015-04-16, 01:34 PM
I'll start with my story and I'd like to hear some of yours.

My girlfriend never played and RPGs, despite hanging out with people who had hefty gaming experiences. She knows that women tended to get pigeon holed into healers and elves, generally speaking. At least that was the regional dynamic we witnessed routinely. I told her that if she were to be a D&D character, that she'd probably enjoy druid the most. In retrospect, I wasn't wrong, but not for the reasons that I thought.

I ran down the nature theme and ideas and mentioned the animal companion as part of the stuff associated with the druid. She immediately said, "I want a human animal companion." I tried to slow her down, explaining how it introduces a balance issue by virtue of speech alone. She responded with, "I'll keep a ball gag in his mouth." I tried to talk about how the levels and stats wouldn't be commensurate with an animal and she responds, "Humans are animals, can I want to treat my human pet as an animal. He'll crawl around the woods on his hands and feet, he won't talk unless he's commanded to. If I need him to fight or whatever, I'll unlock him from the chains. I'll be this badass nature priestess who is so good at what she does that she controls the human animal."

Now that I think about it, that sounds like an awesome pair of characters.

So what are your stories about non-gamer reactions to gaming concepts?

Kid Jake
2015-04-16, 01:39 PM
Did she name her companion The Gimp?

Geddy2112
2015-04-16, 02:38 PM
This...this is glorious. I think I would not mind being the gimp as a PC either...

I thought I got meta when I was a wizard and my arcane bond was the stone heart of another PC. This is some next level nonsense, and I love it.


Did she name her companion The Gimp?
You were referencing?
https://cinegoon.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/tumblr_mf9b0ckplc1r6w4cjo1_5003.gif

Eloel
2015-04-16, 03:03 PM
Call him Reek instead?

erikun
2015-04-16, 03:48 PM
You could give them a pirate hat, put an S on their shirt, and call them Chunk.

http://blog.truffleshuffle.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Chunk.jpg

supergoji18
2015-04-16, 04:30 PM
Call him Reek instead?
The way she described it, I think she has plans for her companion in mind. Plans that I don't think would be possible with reek because, well...
http://i.imgur.com/QDs7mEg.jpg

Anxe
2015-04-16, 05:24 PM
Of course there would be sausage on the grill in that photo. Of course there would...

Alikat
2015-04-16, 05:43 PM
I'm picturing that Jet Li film Unleashed.. Also your girlfriend might be a Domme, lol.

Kid Jake
2015-04-16, 06:41 PM
You were referencing?
https://cinegoon.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/tumblr_mf9b0ckplc1r6w4cjo1_5003.gif

Naturally.

A Tad Insane
2015-04-16, 06:57 PM
I don't know if I should envy you are say a prayer for you if you have a girlfriend who wants to show other real people her gimp

REVISIONIST
2015-04-16, 07:07 PM
Cry havoc and let loose the gimps of war!

oxybe
2015-04-16, 11:03 PM
They're Gimpy and the Sage
They're Gimpy and the Sage
One is a preistess, the other's enraged.
To prove her divine worth,
She'll naturalize the earth.
They're kinky, they're Gimpy and the Sage, Sage, Sage, Sage,
Sage!

Kane0
2015-04-16, 11:54 PM
They're Gimpy and the Sage
They're Gimpy and the Sage
One is a preistess, the other's enraged.
To prove her divine worth,
She'll naturalize the earth.
They're kinky, they're Gimpy and the Sage, Sage, Sage, Sage,
Sage!

Congratulations, you just made me do a spit-take. Someone sig this quote, or at least put it in the no context thread!

Ralanr
2015-04-17, 12:18 AM
I can only imagine how NPC's react.

This is just too awesome.

Jormengand
2015-04-17, 05:30 AM
I think she's just an RPer of a different sort.

Anonymouswizard
2015-04-17, 05:34 AM
I think she's just an RPer of a different sort.

To go with this, never mention to people who don't know of the hobby that you're a roleplayer. Especially don't mention your character's fetishes (as in the magic items).

About 5 times where I almost got into the 'dressing up as a maid and...' style of conversation, it's up there with whips and chains for in-jokes among my group.

Seto
2015-04-17, 06:22 AM
So what are your stories about non-gamer reactions to gaming concepts?

"Wow, that sounds like such hard work, I thought gaming was supposed to be fun or something ?"

MrZJunior
2015-04-17, 06:28 AM
The people in my office don't seem to understand the concept of open ended gameplay. They kept asking me "how do you win?"

Killer Angel
2015-04-17, 06:30 AM
"Wow, that sounds like such hard work, I thought gaming was supposed to be fun or something ?"

"What kind of game is this? do you also bet money on it?" (:smallsigh:)

Milo v3
2015-04-17, 09:36 AM
"Wait, so a Dm is basically a playstation?"

A common one for me, after trying to explain Pathfinder with an elder scrolls analogy.

Irennan
2015-04-17, 10:24 AM
"Wait, so a Dm is basically a playstation?"

A common one for me, after trying to explain Pathfinder with an elder scrolls analogy.

LOL!

When asked about what D&D/whatever is, I answer that it can somewhat be compared to a theater, where the actors are the players, they impersonate a certain individual in a (generally) made up, detailed world, interacting with it and its people and crafting their own story (or changing the story/fate of said world -or parts of it-). The main difference is that the actions of the characters are simulated through a given set of rules, instead of being free form. The reactions I get are of curiosity and quite positive, sometimes a bit discouraged, because all of this can sound a difficult thing to put up.

MesiDoomstalker
2015-04-17, 11:13 AM
"So, wait. Why did you kill him? That doesn't sound very fun!"

After telling another gaming friend of how I killed one of my PC's for the first time and a coworker overheard. I tried in vain to explain that death does not mean loosing, nor does it mean un-fun.

Anonymouswizard
2015-04-17, 11:16 AM
"Wait, so a Dm is basically a playstation?"

A common one for me, after trying to explain Pathfinder with an elder scrolls analogy.

Considering I'm currently playing SMT3, that's not that far off.

goto124
2015-04-17, 11:20 AM
"So, wait. Why did you kill him? That doesn't sound very fun!"

After telling another gaming friend of how I killed one of my PC's for the first time and a coworker overheard. I tried in vain to explain that death does not mean loosing, nor does it mean un-fun.

To be fair, some of us RPGers still don't understand.

Kalmageddon
2015-04-17, 11:30 AM
I find it's surprisingly hard to explain that tabletop rpgs and Monopoly are not the same thing.

Perturbulent
2015-04-17, 01:46 PM
I find it's surprisingly hard to explain that tabletop rpgs and Monopoly are not the same thing.

I've had the misfortune of having to explain it in the opposite direction. I tend to explain the open world-ness as "endless possibility" sort of spectrum...This of course resulted in one non-rpger asking "so I could make a character with a dozen arms?" to which, although I told him, "well yes, there are character concepts that do that...but generally they fuse them later to hit things harder" he keeps trying to find the limit... which makes it sound less like a game and more like random shenanigans. He has yet to offer something that isn't actually useful to a build.

MesiDoomstalker
2015-04-17, 01:49 PM
To be fair, some of us RPGers still don't understand.

Not to belabor the point, the incident in question was enjoyed by all involved, including the now dead PC. Its a reality of the game, just like in any Video Game where losing is an option (read: nearly all of them). Just unlike Video Games, death does not mean Game Over or Respawn.

Cealocanth
2015-04-17, 08:35 PM
My grandfather of all people was actually quite innovative when I tried explaining to him what D&D was. After we got past the "how do you win?" and the "so the GM is an omnipotent opponent that tries to kill the players all the time?" he decided he would try to come up with a character. Inspired by LOtR, likely, he suggested a "hobbit" that is an expert wizard, and he rides around on a large shambling "zombie bear" as his mount and pet.

A new set of uninitiated eyes does seem to have some creativity that long-time RPGers lack sometimes.

Sith_Happens
2015-04-17, 08:55 PM
They're Gimpy and the Sage
They're Gimpy and the Sage
One is a preistess, the other's enraged.
To prove her divine worth,
She'll naturalize the earth.
They're kinky, they're Gimpy and the Sage, Sage, Sage, Sage,
Sage!

http://i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/884/127/009.gif

Seto
2015-04-18, 07:47 AM
A new set of uninitiated eyes does seem to have some creativity that long-time RPGers lack sometimes.

That's true. The very first time I played, we were in a swamp. Our Fighter poked inside with a stick and when he pulled it back up, there was some mud larva thing attached to it. Our DM was delighted because instead of having the "how much can we sell it ?" gamer-reflex, I said "Duh, we poked with a stick and got one out, it almost certainly has no value".

goto124
2015-04-18, 09:58 AM
'Hmm, bet it's poisonous. Maybe if we killed the shopkeeper with it, then looted the store...'

mikeejimbo
2015-04-18, 12:04 PM
My group's response to the mud larva would be "This is horrifying and we should burn this whole swamp."

SiuiS
2015-04-18, 02:36 PM
"Wait, so a Dm is basically a playstation?"

A common one for me, after trying to explain Pathfinder with an elder scrolls analogy.

Yes. A playstation Xy. Because a game referee will always be able to do decision points in a way a computer cannot.


I've had the misfortune of having to explain it in the opposite direction. I tend to explain the open world-ness as "endless possibility" sort of spectrum...This of course resulted in one non-rpger asking "so I could make a character with a dozen arms?" to which, although I told him, "well yes, there are character concepts that do that...but generally they fuse them later to hit things harder".

The problem here isn't your friend's thoughts, it's Dungeons and Dragons. FATE, world of darkness, apocalypse world, blades in the dark, what I know of RoleMaster, STaRs, FO:E and a bevy of other systems let you have more arms because more arms are useful, not because they can be Vancian Magicked into improving your Thac0.

The important issue is that with a well engineered system, exta arms are additional fictional positioning tools and not simple numbers. Many systems can easily roll with you havig a dozen arms because they don't stretch or challenge the rules at all.



A new set of uninitiated eyes does seem to have some creativity that long-time RPGers lack sometimes.

Yes. See above. :smalltongue:

Like any programming language, learning a game ruleset teaches you to think in those parameters. People who are masters of JavaScript can't see the limits of the JavaScript language. People who play dungeons and dragons 3.P think strictly in terms of D&D 3.P, and that's where a large number of our eccentricities come from. From extrapolating the singular example to the abstract concept as a whole.

Beleriphon
2015-04-18, 03:05 PM
Yes. A playstation Xy. Because a game referee will always be able to do decision points in a way a computer cannot.

Its not a bad analogy, if you understand the understand the underlying assumptions about the GM basically parsing the players input it works.


The problem here isn't your friend's thoughts, it's Dungeons and Dragons. FATE, world of darkness, apocalypse world, blades in the dark, what I know of RoleMaster, STaRs, FO:E and a bevy of other systems let you have more arms because more arms are useful, not because they can be Vancian Magicked into improving your Thac0.

The important issue is that with a well engineered system, exta arms are additional fictional positioning tools and not simple numbers. Many systems can easily roll with you havig a dozen arms because they don't stretch or challenge the rules at all.

Or you know, having extra arms makes you a horrifying monster that needs to be curbstomped out of existance.


Yes. See above. :smalltongue:

Like any programming language, learning a game ruleset teaches you to think in those parameters. People who are masters of JavaScript can't see the limits of the JavaScript language. People who play dungeons and dragons 3.P think strictly in terms of D&D 3.P, and that's where a large number of our eccentricities come from. From extrapolating the singular example to the abstract concept as a whole.

Yeah, there's that too. Of course no RPG system is complete enough to actually model everything, so they tend to focus on the things the designers think are important enough to have rules, and leave the rest up to us the end user. That would actually be a rather amusing way to make video games... rather like Mount & Blade actually.

Eloel
2015-04-18, 03:05 PM
Yes. A playstation Xy. Because a game referee will always be able to do decision points in a way a computer cannot.

That's sexist. A DM can also be a playstation Xx just fine.

Keltest
2015-04-18, 03:16 PM
They're Gimpy and the Sage
They're Gimpy and the Sage
One is a preistess, the other's enraged.
To prove her divine worth,
She'll naturalize the earth.
They're kinky, they're Gimpy and the Sage, Sage, Sage, Sage,
Sage!

Ok, we can shut down the internet now. Nothing is going to top this.

Jormengand
2015-04-18, 06:59 PM
That's sexist. A DM can also be a playstation Xx just fine.

Not to forget Xxy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klinefelter_syndrome) or Xyy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XYY_syndrome) or Xxx (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_X_syndrome).

Sith_Happens
2015-04-18, 08:30 PM
Not to forget Xxy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klinefelter_syndrome) or Xyy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XYY_syndrome) or Xxx (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_X_syndrome).

I guess, those models are all plagued with production problems though.

SiuiS
2015-04-19, 01:50 AM
Or you know, having extra arms makes you a horrifying monster that needs to be curbstomped out of existance.


Tch. That's Racist.
And quite literally the point of the next world f darkness game-line, right on the money.


Yeah, there's that too. Of course no RPG system is complete enough to actually model everything, so they tend to focus on the things the designers think are important enough to have rules, and leave the rest up to us the end user. That would actually be a rather amusing way to make video games... rather like Mount & Blade actually.

Mm. Yup. Some games are good at the open ended 'this is a toolbox that is elegant enough to handle just about everything', some games are 'this is a focused experience optimized for this experience alone', and then there is D&D which is one but often masquerades as the other, and I haven't been able to nail down which is which yet. :smalltongue:


That's sexist. A DM can also be a playstation Xx just fine.

*waves*


I guess, those models are all plagued with production problems though.

Nah, sales and production are regular, there's just no appreciable difference at end-use most cases. Mundane users wouldn't be educated enough to appreciate what they've got most times.