What do you think your games look like?

[Knight_Of_Twilight]

Odd question, but I had an interesting thought. My friend and I have been taking our groups most recent campaigns, combining them into one world, which made me laugh a bit. You see, we ususally play 1-20, so we had a heck of a lot of Level 20 people running around, something you wouldn't see in a normal fantasy world.

As a Result, I joked that our games were much more like something you would see in Shonen Jump then Lord of the Rings; Powerful, highly quirky characters running around in a very colorful and diverse world. When these characters clash, the resulting battles are epic.

Because of this, I tend to see our games "drawn" in a style like anime. Also, in my head, the characters have japanese voice actors. My favorite character, Richter Bravesteel, sounds like Nobuyuki Hayama ( The voice actor for Gai in GaoGaiGar, or Balmung in Dot Hack).

This isn't to say that they all look like this- we played Shadowrun, which to me looked like an Indy comic, and our Super Hero games tend to look like Bruce Timm cartoons.

So what do your games look like and sound like in your head?

[Ranis]

To me, my game looks grainy and well-defined, much like the recent movie 300.

I also slow down combat for really cool things to make the PCs feel like they're doing something awesome, even if they're still only level 7.

Like the time the cleric one-shotted a Briarvex. Good times.

[Dhavaer]

Like a comic book. At the moment it's more Watchmen; the PCs are clearly superior to ordinary people, but they're still mortal and there are plenty of opponents who can give them a run for their money, or who can just crush them like bugs.

[Viscount Einstrauss]

Pure, unadulterated insanity. Things happen in my games that would make no sense anywhere else. It is, at once, serious and thought provoking, bizarre and otherworldly, and comically silly. There can be poop jokes one minute, a vicious unholy murder the next, and then a philisophical discussion to end the hour.

Partially because I ad lib a lot, partially because my players will very often ignore the plot and instead pursue whacky hijinks, and partially because we have fun that way.

Everyone tells me that my games play nothing like anyone else, ever.

[MethodicalMeat]

My games look psuedo-realistic with a splash of animted-ness.

[Lemur]

I suppose sort of like Tintin or Bone, if you've ever read those.

Mostly adventure, but humor is inevitable. Someone always has to make some kind of media reference, and if I'm in the group, horribly stupid one-liners are inevitable.

[Matthew]

In my head, they look like the Art of (A)D&D 2.x or else Conan the Barbarian / Lord of the Rings type offerings.

[Foeofthelance]

I would think they look like the regular world, around the medival to rennaisance periods. Only there is a trail of destruction that starts where ever we were when we hit third level (Flaming Sphere and Scorching Ray. If you can't shoot it, steam roll it!) and ends where ever we do.

[Fhaolan]

How I try to deceive myself into thinking they look like, or how they would actually look like if I stopped lying to myself?

To tell you the real truth, they don't look like anything. Because my games wouldn't make sense as a TV show or movie. There's too much yakity-yak and exposition. They'd make better books. I'm just weird that way, I guess.

We're going to be switching to a new game soon, though. Based on the 'Primetime Adventures' ruleset. Not entirely sure how it will go as we've never used that ruleset before. The group hasn't sat down and gone through in detail what we are going to do, but I'm already seeing a Sci-Fi adventure, in that Batman/Superman/Justice League animation style that's gotten popular. At least, I can see opening credits for it. I'm having trouble with theme music though. I'll have to work on that bit.

[GoufCustom]

Well, we're currently playing BESM d20, and with the crazy mixture of characters we have, it's like something you'd get in the greater Outlaw Star universe, drawn like this (as this is the DA of our friend who draws, and gave us all character portraits for Christmas).

When we do play D&D... mmm... I guess kinda like Slayers with more death. We can't keep things serious for the life of us.

Which is primarily my fault. ^_^

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Probably like a video game, sadly. Mostly hack 'n slash, a few stupid lines slung here and there, and virtually no talking while fighting and basically no synergy. It saddens me to realise this.

[ExHunterEmerald]

Fire Emblem-ish anime.
Alternatively, mecha anime. God, I love my DM.

[The_Werebear]

The one I DM (a campaign about a War) looks like LoTR lite

The one I play in looks like a Pratchett novel.

[Ravyn]

Most of the ones I play in look animated, though there's one that makes me think of watercolors, and the one I run bears resemblence to... a modernized version of an illuminated text. Most everything ends up being in some way vivid--if it isn't Players Doing Epic, it's GM Doing Descriptions. (We do, however, switch actions every now and then. Keeps things interesting.)

[Starsinger]

When we're out of combat, I picture our game looking something like an anime, particularly, like something out of Lunar Silver Star Story Complete.

In combat? Shining force.

[Saph]

Our main campaign? Order of the Stick. Half the time it's in-jokes and comedy, the other half it's character drama and battle tactics.

- Saph

[Threeshades]

i imagine our games in real-movie qualities but i tend to have black spots in the landscape, if it wasnt described detailed enough.

My party however tends to imagine everything in my comic style, because i drew some of our adventures. And since they cannot help but imagine my comic characters.

[Darkxarth]

My games, like most of my creative thoughts, come through in high-quality non-anime style cartoons. Some things shine through, usually weapon details or clothing style, but faces are often overly simplistic or simply aren't included. Occasionally I can see it in live-action, but not very often.

[Folie]

In my mind, the campaign I'm currently in looks something like Pirates of the Caribbean meets A Song of Ice and Fire, but that is probably because the DM is a pretty big fanboy of both. Oh yeah, and there's an undead cult thrown into the mix.

[Sulecrist]

I always see my campaigns in rich but deep color, with a pretty modern style of video-game animation--think LoZ: Twilight Princess, or God of War, or to a lesser extent WarCraft III. There's a sense of the exotic everywhere, the heroes are slightly larger-than-life but still extremely vulnerable, and the locales alternate between warmly domestic and staggeringly sublime. There's plenty of roleplay, but it's more about speeches and cut-scene style exchanges than "how much for this pot?" "Twenty gold." "I will give you eighteen."

[Kultrum]

like if you some how mixed JTHM and Peanuts into one comic. Well defined characters with sketchy backgrounds and NPC that say wa wa wan wa. About half the time its light hearted and the other half its dark and morbid... good times

[Telonius]

Live action, mainly. Or if I had to pin it down to a drawing style, Sandman. (We're playing Age of Worms in Eberron).

[RandomNPC]

what do i think it looks like......

if i ever make a novel out of it ill find a way to post some cover art ideas....

im gonna go with the anime thing, thats the style of the person most likely to draw it for me.

[Knight_Of_Twilight]

Its funny- as a kid, I still saw my games in anime style, but it was grainy and pixalated- like I was playing it on an old game console. If someone has every played the first Ninja Gaiden or the original Ys games, they know what I mean...

[Stormcrow]

I imagine my games to be somewhere between Frank Miller's 300 and the King Arthur they did recently with Clive Owen. With a splash of Neil Gaiman.

[MellowMelon]

My games look like something cinematographically (actual word?) impressive. I imagine that it looks something like a blend between Pirates of the Carribean and some Tarantino film. (not that the game plays like these movies)

I just think that it may look like them.

[my_evil_twin]

My last campaign looked a lot like anime, probably. I pictured the combat playing out looking something like Escaflowne or X.

[Diggorian]

In the D&D I play in I'd definately say live action with Frank Miller's style movie translated with the gory details we get. Had our dwarven rogue brain-sucked by a Mindflayer recently. The words "... like a puckered rotten pumpkin covered in blood-soaked hair." were used. It's a very gritty dramatic game where we joke in character to stave off suicide pacts.

Our Mutants&Masterminds game I picture as Jim Lee's X-Men in the '90's.

I'm about to start a first century AD style D&D game soon, which I envision like HBO's Rome series. I pride myself on description so it helps to have a reference in mind.

My flavor text goes on for a while, even adding more while the PC's decide what to do. All action resolutions are described cinematically, like in a PbP but without misspellings.

BTW, great topic.

[Ivius]

I play with a pretty wacky group. I picture an 80's sitcom-style when out of combat, and later Final Fantasy style graphics in combat. LotR would just feel out of place with all the forest fires we set .

[BardicDuelist]

When I play in our "normal" world, it reminds me very much of Lloyd Alexander novels (The Black Cauldron, etc). In MY campaign setting (a later time period inspired by Alexander Dumas and Victorian fiction, creating a time period between the two, mixing several elements) things look very much like how I see the scenes in the books (makes sense, right?).