Players should play, and not be heard: Campaign Edition

ccs · May 21, 2018

lowkey13 said:
Me.

To no ones surprise (save maybe your own).... your wrong.

lowkey13 · May 21, 2018

*Deleted by user*

Sacrosanct · May 21, 2018

ccs said:
To no ones surprise (save maybe your own).... your wrong.

^no one's
^you're

Sorry, pet peeves.

Lanefan · May 21, 2018

lowkey13 said:
Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son.

If "EYE KAN HAZ KEG" is your requirement for a great party, you need to get yourself a higher class of party.

I do? Who sez?

Which almost circles around to my point; anyone can tap a keg of natty light and call it a party. But a truly awesome party requires more than red solo cups and a place to throw up.

You're right. It also needs dice, minis and character sheets.

lowkey13 · May 21, 2018

*Deleted by user*

MarkB · May 21, 2018

lowkey13 said:
To mix the streams a little, do we (the royal we? the colloquial we? the me we?) consider a TTRPG session a party?

As in, "Killer party last night, brah, I advanced a level!"

Or is it more ... entertainment? Like going to a movie or a restaurant or playing sports or going out on the boat with friends?

It's somewhere on a continuum between those concepts. Some of the games I've played have been very close to one end, others have been very close to the other.

Not even with different groups, or different campaigns, in all cases. Sometimes it's just a matter of the mood and tone on that particular night.

lowkey13 · May 21, 2018

*Deleted by user*

TwoSix · May 21, 2018

lowkey13 said:
To mix the streams a little, do we (the royal we? the colloquial we? the me we?) consider a TTRPG session a party?

As in, "Killer party last night, brah, I advanced a level!"

Or is it more ... entertainment? Like going to a movie or a restaurant or playing sports or going out on the boat with friends?

Nah...what separates a party from other get-togethers is having a reason to celebrate, even if that reason is as simple as "Let's have a party!" The only real exception I can think of is a wedding, which is a celebratory get-together, but the amount of ritual involved means it has its own nomenclature such that you don't call it simply "a party".

A RPG session can be festive, or fun, and you might possibly get riggity-riggity-wrecked, but since you're coming together to play, not to celebrate, I don't normally call it a "party". (Not that I believe naming conventions really matter, so if your game nights are parties, than more power to you!)

MarkB · May 21, 2018

lowkey13 said:
Interesting. I would say ... no.

If you get together on a regular (semi-regular?) basis with friends to do something social, you are doing that thing. Even if it involves drinking, and talking, and having fun. Because those other things are collateral to the "thing."

If you get together with a group of friends to play soccer, or golf, for example, even if you have a good time and you're drinking and talking, that's still not a party.

If you get together with a group of friends every week to have dinner and drinks and then watch a movie and discuss it afterwards, that's not a party either.

Heck, if you have a weekly bookclub where you get sloshed ... not a party.

I would say that the party cannot be incidental to the thing, because the party is that thing. Make sense? I would never view a D&D session as a "party"; it would be a category error for me.

Like I said, for me it's a scale, not separate neat little categories. I've played sessions that felt more like very narrative-focused group entertainment get-togethers, and others that felt like a bunch of friends partying, and also playing a game as part of that experience. And they didn't necessarily have to be sessions where we'd started out aiming for one or the other - sometimes, they just turned out that way.