True_Blue
First Post
I have always played in combat focused games, mostly ran by myself. The people I have played D&D with, and play D&D with now, all enjoy the rolling and combat way more than role playing. Since that is what we have preferred, we also make sure when adding new people that we mostly find like-minded people who also want to play that way, instead of trying to get a group together that would then be at odds with eachother because different people are expecting different things from the game.
What a lot of you describe as your role-playing game, and describe in detail how cool it is to do investigations and social interactions with NPC's, etc does not sound fun to me at all. I've seen several people post before in various threads how their party can go whole sessions without ever having a combat, and that's something that would not be fun for me, or the PC's in my campaign, at all. Combat focused groups can have some fun in a role playing situation, the same as role-playing groups can have some fun in a mostly combat situation, but all groups fundementally have to find what the best balance is for their group, and then work with the DM to hit that balance.
Its hard for my group and I to really find a lot of value in much role playing because none of us like acting, or anything even close to that effect. The idea of sitting there as a character and basically having conversations after conversations with the DM, where the DM just determines outcomes or how the NPC's act normally, with maybe a few rolls added in here and there, doesn't even sound like a game to me. I'm not even sure why you would need rules for this. It sounds more like you are creating a shared story, where one person says part of the story, then the next person, etc. I think you probably could just do this over a messageboard, which I believe some sites have where people talk in character.
For me, the combat *is* the game. There are rules defined, and you want to play the game within those rules that create a coherent and fun game. As a DM, I am tasked with creating NPC's, and determining how the world acts around the PC's, etc.. but thats all arbitrary. My PC's don't care overly much about that. Me sitting down saying "You are a princess, and you are part of this tribe, and you are trying to help your tribe because of this, etc" is good to add a little flavor around the PC and maybe help with some hooks, but ultimately my PC's don't really care all that much about it. Its just something I thought up, or they though up, and that's not even a game. I could create those kind of stories in my head without ever talking to someone, or if I did talk with someone about it, we don't need rules or anything. What my PC's *do* care about, is they want to fight in combat, overcome monsters in combat and through smart playing etc. While sometimes this can take the form of charming a person, or somehow convincing someone to do something else, etc.. that's not why they play. That just helps them get a little bit closer to defeating the BBEG, or helps them conserve resources to have them for him, etc.
I think there are many groups like mine. I have no clue how many there are, but I know its a valid playstyle because we do it, and I've seen others who do very similar. I am always amazed to see people who post talking about their heavy role-playing game and basically disparage the idea of combat focused groups. I would *hate* the kind of game they play, so I get that they don't like my kind of game, but I don't come on here posting how it should really focus on one aspect or the other.
I think the best thing a group can do is literally sit down and talk about what everyone is looking for from the game. That's what we did, and it turned out everyone basically wanted to play a long running board game, and its been fun ever since.
What a lot of you describe as your role-playing game, and describe in detail how cool it is to do investigations and social interactions with NPC's, etc does not sound fun to me at all. I've seen several people post before in various threads how their party can go whole sessions without ever having a combat, and that's something that would not be fun for me, or the PC's in my campaign, at all. Combat focused groups can have some fun in a role playing situation, the same as role-playing groups can have some fun in a mostly combat situation, but all groups fundementally have to find what the best balance is for their group, and then work with the DM to hit that balance.
Its hard for my group and I to really find a lot of value in much role playing because none of us like acting, or anything even close to that effect. The idea of sitting there as a character and basically having conversations after conversations with the DM, where the DM just determines outcomes or how the NPC's act normally, with maybe a few rolls added in here and there, doesn't even sound like a game to me. I'm not even sure why you would need rules for this. It sounds more like you are creating a shared story, where one person says part of the story, then the next person, etc. I think you probably could just do this over a messageboard, which I believe some sites have where people talk in character.
For me, the combat *is* the game. There are rules defined, and you want to play the game within those rules that create a coherent and fun game. As a DM, I am tasked with creating NPC's, and determining how the world acts around the PC's, etc.. but thats all arbitrary. My PC's don't care overly much about that. Me sitting down saying "You are a princess, and you are part of this tribe, and you are trying to help your tribe because of this, etc" is good to add a little flavor around the PC and maybe help with some hooks, but ultimately my PC's don't really care all that much about it. Its just something I thought up, or they though up, and that's not even a game. I could create those kind of stories in my head without ever talking to someone, or if I did talk with someone about it, we don't need rules or anything. What my PC's *do* care about, is they want to fight in combat, overcome monsters in combat and through smart playing etc. While sometimes this can take the form of charming a person, or somehow convincing someone to do something else, etc.. that's not why they play. That just helps them get a little bit closer to defeating the BBEG, or helps them conserve resources to have them for him, etc.
I think there are many groups like mine. I have no clue how many there are, but I know its a valid playstyle because we do it, and I've seen others who do very similar. I am always amazed to see people who post talking about their heavy role-playing game and basically disparage the idea of combat focused groups. I would *hate* the kind of game they play, so I get that they don't like my kind of game, but I don't come on here posting how it should really focus on one aspect or the other.
I think the best thing a group can do is literally sit down and talk about what everyone is looking for from the game. That's what we did, and it turned out everyone basically wanted to play a long running board game, and its been fun ever since.
