D&D 5E Come out and put yourself on the Gygax scale!

[hawkeyefan]

I’ll say G2. I was going to say G3, but after thinking about it a bit, I’m far more likely to change mechanics to fit story than I am to change story to fit mechanics.

 

[JonnyP71]

I vary between G0 and G2 as a player, depending on my mood, the group and the setting.

DMing D&D I'm G2, occasionally straying to G3, I enjoy a good story first and foremost, but having the mechanics working for me does help significantly.

Last night I ran a game of Paranoia though, and I was firmly DMing in the realm of D0!

I couldn't bear to be at the same table as a G5/G6 player, they irritate the hell out of me both during the game, and outside of it blethering on about balance this, and balance that...

 

[JonnyP71]

I think using the terms role-play and game-play as anything other than synonymous is highly problematic. If you are playing the game, you are by definition role-playing. To say otherwise is a synecdoche, by which I mean it's to confuse the whole of the game for one of its parts.

There are varying degrees and style of 'role-playing' though. Do you mean role as in getting into a personality, or role as in performing a function? Or a balance of the two? I consider it to be primarily the former, and the latter to be more 'game' playing.

 

[nexalis]

I'm a G2 who plays with a bunch of mooks that don't care about story or mechanics, but who just want to kill sh-t.

I often feel like Jane Goodall if she were trying to run a D&D game with a group of her Bonobo buddies. I've recently had to take a hardline stance against throwing feces between combats.

 

[Hriston]

There are varying degrees and style of 'role-playing' though. Do you mean role as in getting into a personality, or role as in performing a function? Or a balance of the two? I consider it to be primarily the former, and the latter to be more 'game' playing.

I consider role-playing to be playing your character, which is how you play a role-playing game. You decide what your character thinks, what actions your character attempts, and what your character says. Saying that one way of doing that is more "role-playing" than another is one-true-way-ism.

 

[LapBandit]

G3 with dashes of G2.

 

[JonnyP71]

So the former in my description. It's not 'one true wayism' at all, it's down to personal preference.... I've seen people define role-playing in terms of performing a function within a party, without considering personality. eg My function is party thief, that's my role. 4E seemed to push that a little with its combat function definitions (eg, controller, striker, etc)

 

[Hriston]

I've seen people define role-playing in terms of performing a function within a party, without considering personality. eg My function is party thief, that's my role.

If that's how you decide how your character acts, then that's role-playing. Call it anything else, and you might as well say they're playing the game wrong.

 

[JonnyP71]

Have I said anything about them 'playing it wrong'? Nope.

I've said I consider roleplaying to be about playing a personality rather than a function, if somebody thinks/does it differently it's up to them.

 

[Hriston]

I've said I consider roleplaying to be about playing a personality rather than a function, if somebody thinks/does it differently it's up to them.

It's about playing a character. A character has a personality, and a character has a function. As long as you're playing your character, you're role-playing.