"Roleplaying": Thank you, Mr. Baur

[seskis281]

Edit - Actually I think I should just let be what will be - I usually don't like to get involved in these sort of "style" wars, and I wish I hadn't here. I really don't begrudge any of this and sorry if some of you take it so personally... I just feel strongly about what I like and sometimes that probably comes across as saying what others should think... believe me it's not.

In the end my opinions really shouldn't make a bit of difference - I will stick with what I like and others should run their own styles... if you have fun it really doesn't matter what you call it and I really don't have any right to say what "is" or "isn't" RPGing. But I DO reserve the right to advocate for what I think, and that's the only thing that bums is that people seem to think it's personal...

So let's just call it "gaming" and have some fun!

 

[Hussar]

Player A: Ok, let's all hold actions until Player B (Wizard) can cast fireball. Then I (a Knight) and Grug (the Barbarian) will go after the Mage. Player D (Rogue) try to hang back, flank around them and use your bow.

Other players: Agreed.


So is it roleplaying? Absolutely - if the above is discussed in character as the group has spied this Ogre group and prepares to attack.

If, on the other hand, they have stumbled into this fight, combat and initiative have begun, and this discussion takes place between the players - then roleplaying is gone and it's just tactics. I run 10 second rounds.... and the monsters are attacking... so the group shouldn't be able, as characters, to stop and work out tactics. If this happens, I void all their initiatives and say "while you discuss the issue... the Ogre Mage casts chain lightning and his minions attack."

Hrm, speaking is by and large a free action.

Player A: Guys, hold back until Cookie Jarvis blasts with a fireball then jump the guy with horns!
Other Players: Right!

This is too long for combat? Sure, we couldn't have discussion, but, a simple statement of tactics?

In any case, I agree with Buzz.

 

[Glyfair]

But I don't like him for what he done with BIRTHRIGHT, I mean: Warlock of the Stonecrowns & Sword of Roele adventures.

I believe he's stated these are the works he was least satisfied with of his own works.

 

[BryonD]

gee, this sounds a bit familiar.


And I am completely with the OP.

 

[LostSoul]

There is nothing wrong with metagaming.

I totally agree.

 

[Nlogue]

Wolfgang's article, and this thread spawned by it, are awesome!

It's really interesting to see different groups/players/DMs take on roleplaying combat.

Being dramatically inclined myself, I tend to like to act out a lot of the battle and describe the action...for me that's the only way its fun. Though I played my first game with a battlemat earlier this year, and that had its own sort of fun to it as well.

I prefer fast-and-loose hokum theatrics to intense strategy play, but it's fun to try to marry the two sometimes. I find when I DM at cons, it's my duty to figure out how the random players who arrive at my table enjoy the game as quick as possible and adapt my DMing style to make sure everyone is having a great time. My lack of battlemat use frustrates some players to no end, so I kind of compromise with something badly drawn on a scrap paper (or use dice as "minis" to lay out the fight for people).

In most of my home groups though, we eyeball distance and let imagination take over, I also sometimes refuse to tell people how far away things are, because in the heat of a battle in an overgrown dark forest, with a bunch of bugbear monks trying to shatter your skull with adamantine nunchaku, you just don't have the time to figure out if the river bank is exactly 80 feet away. You just have to run for it and hope you make it.

 

[Nlogue]

Also the issue of every encounter being a "roleplaying" encounter because its a roleplaying game is purely semantic.

I "roleplay" when I play board games...is that still "boarding."

We played a Game of Thrones Board Game marathon last night for my B-day celebration (I am getting old, but that's another story), and I took great pleasure in roleplaying everyone from Cersei, Tywin, Tyrion and Jaime Lannister to the Queen of Thorns and Loras Tyrell and Stannis and Renly Baratheon. It was a truly awesome time!

Now I don't know if its fair to tell me we weren't roleplaying just because we were playing a board game, and I'm also not sure it isn't just a semantic song-and-dance to say everything you do when you are playing a "roleplaying" game is roleplaying. Is getting up to snag another mountain dew roleplaying...probably not. Is placing your mini on the battlemat roleplaying...I don't think it is really. Is moving your mini around as you calculate the best way to destroy the opposition roleplaying...not in my book, but it might be for some people I guess.

I think calling everything roleplaying because the word is in the descriptor for the game is one way of looking at it, but I think it's fair for others to create a distinction between playing the role of a character and shedding that role to get down on some dice and strategy (also a lot of fun!).

Just me two cents by the way, and I am totally digging this discussion, so if I am offending anyone I certainly don't mean to. I want to stress that the way I like to game ain't the right way - it's just a way.

 

[seskis281]

I want to stress that the way I like to game ain't the right way - it's just a way.

Thank you... you said what I was wanting to say and better than I did it... I get hung up in my own semantics sometimes and forget that I'm not reiterating that my views really are only meant to explain what I like and are NOT meant to try and tell others what they should think.

So with that it's back to our normal programming.... as I work up my adventure for my first game with a new group tomorrow. Who happen to all be theatre people lol (as was my old group - perhaps this is why our games see "roleplaying" as more heavily leaning towards "character" play).

So to all...

"If these shadows have offended, pray forgive, and all shall be mended...."

May your dice always come up Natural 20's and don't let the will 'o wisps bite.

John

 

[Hussar]

I think calling everything roleplaying because the word is in the descriptor for the game is one way of looking at it, but I think it's fair for others to create a distinction between playing the role of a character and shedding that role to get down on some dice and strategy (also a lot of fun!).

OTOH, I think it's a mistake to draw a line between the two. Dice and strategy can be every bit as much role playing as deep immersion play. It's artificial to make the distinction.

 

[Nlogue]

Dice and strategy can be every bit as much role playing as deep immersion play. It's artificial to make the distinction.

How so? Just curious, not trying to debunk.

How exactly is rolling dice and strategic planning related to the playing of a role?