How ENWorld has tainted my love of D&D

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I want to prefix this by saying that I'm fully aware that I choose to come to this website and read the forums and post on the messageboards, devouring every small amount of info.

That being said, the multitudes of discussion here that breaks down races and classes, and their combinations makes my head spin and in reality, take away a lot of the magic of roleplaying. I've never put too much thought into bonuses, and comparison of Feats and Weapons and all that jazz. In other words, the raw mechanics don't appeal to me that much, aside from an understanding of the basic rules.

I feel like everytime I read these threads, I get to see the man-behind-the-curtain a little too well. Personally, I'd rather just believe that OZ is great and powerful.

Once again I know it's my fault. Anyone else have this experience?

Actually, no. I don't get that at all. The more plusses and minuses and characterop bouncing around the better, I find. The mechanics reminds me that there's a game to be played under all the storytelling and all the rest of the junk. The minmaxing and number crunching let the players do what they will free of the impositions of the DMs ego.

This is by no means a suggestion against the OP's method - but I find that a lot of the reaction against mechanics are a figleaf to cover dysfunctional games. Sure, there's plenty of games out there that have great stories and all the mystery and fantasy. But for every one of those, there's two struggling to be enjoyable for the group as a whole with the DM fighting to squeeze the fun out of the experience - and in the absence of ideas, the easiest thing to do is blame the game mechanics for being too obvious, and all those on the forums for spoiling the mystique.

 

[NewJeffCT]

ok, because of this thread title, I've had this song going through my head the past day or so...

thanks a lot!

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBWrLhgiX74]YouTube - Soft Cell :Tainted Love Music Video[/ame]

 

[Desdichado]

That being said, the multitudes of discussion here that breaks down races and classes, and their combinations makes my head spin and in reality, take away a lot of the magic of roleplaying. I've never put too much thought into bonuses, and comparison of Feats and Weapons and all that jazz. In other words, the raw mechanics don't appeal to me that much, aside from an understanding of the basic rules.

I feel like everytime I read these threads, I get to see the man-behind-the-curtain a little too well. Personally, I'd rather just believe that OZ is great and powerful.

PWNZ0RED by ENWorld!

Once again I know it's my fault. Anyone else have this experience?

Nope. Then again, I get bored to tears with those kinds of threads, so I rarely read them. There's so much material on ENWorld to consume, that if you don't like that particular brand of material, why not just avoid it altogether and read the other types of threads that keep the magic alive?

 

[Haltherrion]

Once again I know it's my fault. Anyone else have this experience?

I can't say I have that experience as I tend to avoid such discussions (except for one case where I started one but I was knew to a system and looking for an overview ).

I will agree that over analyzing classes and particular powers/effects is quite distasteful. IMO it's one of the main problems with current MMORGS where it all comes down to an analytical analysis of partcular character builts and spell sequences. Where's the fun in implementing an attack sequence that is rigid and the result of someone else's analysis for the sake of a few extra points of damage? But MMORGs get lots of things wrong

 

[vagabundo]

I can't say I feel tainted. To me, DND has many strands in it, it is a damn hydra.

There are many ways I enjoy being a part of the whole concept. I love DMing;thinking up campaigns, playing the game, the social side, rolling the dice, standing at the head of the table, thinking about rules and stories and all that jazz; I love reading old adventures and imaging them being played out; I love the story aspect of the game; I like the character creation mini-game; and I love the mechanical/rule analysis too.

I like nothing better than to sit down in work with a cupa tea and a ham sandwich and read one of the min/maxing threads - ahhhh worth waiting for...

 

[amerigoV]

PWNZ0RED by ENWorld!

Nope. Then again, I get bored to tears with those kinds of threads, so I rarely read them. There's so much material on ENWorld to consume, that if you don't like that particular brand of material, why not just avoid it altogether and read the other types of threads that keep the magic alive?

I know what the OP is talking about from it being "his own fault." I have an axiom that any post in thread on a discussion board past the second page of posts adds a de minimus (usually negative) amount information to the original purpose of the thread (more succinctly- "anything past page 2 is crap"). But even knowing this, I'll still check out a long thread just to see what it has degenerated into (people quoting definition of words, "try reading my post again, idiot!", the crying, the whining, the eventually lock, etc.). For me, its like a car wreck - I just cannot stop myself from rubbernecking.

I honestly wish ENWorld would put a cap on the number of posts in a thread to two pages to account for my weakness. Hmmm, perhaps if capping the number of pages visible in a thread was a Community Supporter feature I might pony up a few bucks....

 

[Desdichado]

Bulls**t. You're telling me that you can read all of the min/maxing information here and it doesn't, in any way, affect your play of the game? Even if you don't realize it, you are being affected. Besides, it's all fantasy.

Well, there's also the superpower that allows me to ignore threads I'm not interested in?

Not only that, but you come off as a condescending jerk.

Unless you're being sarcastic.

Just so I'm clear; are you calling "Bulls**t" on everyone who disagrees with you, or just Kzach because of his tone? Because you say that as if you literally can't believe that people aren't affected by this information being available, when 1) you asked (why'd you ask, if you already "knew" the answer anyway?, and 2) plenty of other people have claimed that too. Including me.

 

[Herschel]

I find Char-Op repulsive (in no small part because of my experience with Char-Op players) because of the nature of the beast: How do I make "my" character the solo/star of the at the expense/regardless of the other characters.

But I do enjoy conversations about how do "we" optimize a party to work together. So I can understand the feeling.

As an example: Those decrying that the Seeker is weak I see as lacking vision. It's not about "how do I make a seeker a star" but I do like discussing "will a Seeker work and how do I go about having him do well and help the party". A Seeker can make the defender a star while doing his job.

So yeah, discussing raw damage numbers taints my view of the game, but discussing how characters can work together to do cool things trips my trigger.

I have to take the good with the bad.

 

[Mallus]

I spent the majority of my time playing D&D as the man-behind-the-curtain --ie, the DM-- so the idea that engaging with the rules/system mechanics somehow taints the experience seems odd to me. Come to think of it, I'm sure my players would like me to even more tainted by the rules...

If you don't like threads full of statistical analysis and rules-minutia, don't read them.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

I want to prefix this by saying that I'm fully aware that I choose to come to this website and read the forums and post on the messageboards, devouring every small amount of info.

That being said, the multitudes of discussion here that breaks down races and classes, and their combinations makes my head spin and in reality, take away a lot of the magic of roleplaying. I've never put too much thought into bonuses, and comparison of Feats and Weapons and all that jazz. In other words, the raw mechanics don't appeal to me that much, aside from an understanding of the basic rules.

I feel like everytime I read these threads, I get to see the man-behind-the-curtain a little too well. Personally, I'd rather just believe that OZ is great and powerful.

Once again I know it's my fault. Anyone else have this experience?

I don't spend much time worrying over the tiny details in the rules or the optimization of builds, so I only occasionally jump to forums and threads where that is the focus.

EN World has only enhanced my love for D&D, reassured me that as long as everyone is having fun there is no "wrong" way to play, and provided me with huge amounts of inspiration.

The only real negative I can come up with for this place are the occasional bouts of jealously I get when I read about some amazing groups and games people here get to be part of.