D&D General What are the "Fun Parts" for you?

[Guest 6801328]

I love exploration and combat. Roleplaying can be fun, depending on the group and DM. But I always enjoy a good dungeon crawl.

Same. I love roleplaying, but mostly as flavoring for the three pillars...of which combat > exploration > social...not as its own standalone activity.

And within that, the roleplaying that's most interesting to me is novel/surprising. In some ways it's the opposite of "what would your character do?" If your character is suspicious and paranoid, then roleplaying that the same way in every conversation with every NPC is boring (to me). It's when you think of a new way to express your suspicion or paranoia, or...even better...when you are suddenly not suspicious and paranoid of an NPC, that it gets interesting. I want to see you do things I don't expect, not the things I do expect. I want to see new facets to your character, whether because they haven't yet appeared, or because your character is evolving.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Since I always hear that character creation is the most fun part of D&D, I endeavor to kill the PCs on a regular basis to ensure that my players can spend the optimum amount of time in the "fun part" of the game.

 

[Li Shenron]

Urgh... it would be easier if you asked what are our favourite parts, but if you ask all which are "fun"... it's easier for me to say everything minus rules lawyering and PvP. And maybe using a battlegrid too, but I can tolerate it

 

[Reynard]

You can sustitute "favorite" if you want. I was intentionally riffing off the idea that we have been told since 3E came out that the goal was to Get To The Fun! I know for me some of the things certain designers have called out as aspects of play you should bypass on the way to the fun ARE the fun for me. I was just curious if put to it what people would call "the fun" aspects of D&D.

 

[Doug McCrae]

As a player:

Speaking in character.
A GM that can do voices.
Making significant decisions.
Sandbox play.
Combat, provided it's tactically interesting like 3e-5e.
Exploration. Not old school stuff like discovering a room is 30' by 40' or a hex is light forest or what happens when you rotate the moose head 74 degrees clockwise. More like seeing the City of Dreadful Night for the first time, finding out what it's like, who lives there and how it got its name.
Superhuman powers. Using them, unexpected interactions between them.
Mechanically differentiated characters.
Flavourful NPCs.
Monsters I've never seen before.
Mysteries.
Weirdness.

As a GM:

Running a good session, which depends mostly on responding to the players.

 

[Lanefan]

Since I always hear that player creation is the most fun part of D&D ...

Player creation is certainly the most-fun part, but I think you're talking about a different game than D&D at that point...

 

[Shiroiken]

For me, the best part is the story. As both a player and DM, I love seeing the plot unfold. As a DM, I know how things are "supposed" to go, but I know better. Always amused when the players turn the story direction, even if it means more work.

Since I always hear that character creation is the most fun part of D&D, I endeavor to kill the PCs on a regular basis to ensure that my players can spend the optimum amount of time in the "fun part" of the game.

My players accuse me of this all the time

 

[Stormdale]

To me the fun part of the game is hanging out with mates once a week and trying to keep them semi on track- herding cats is how I describe tryig to get them to work cohesively or buy into an adventure but they come back week after week. It's not the rules per se (5e is in many ways our edition of least complaints and we do all agree that desite the issues we have with aspects of it overalll it works and makes for an entertaning gaems so we stick with it). Each of my players enjoy different aspects of the game- some like rping, others the combat element, thankfully noone are into building uber characters, others the intellectual challenge of outwtting the dm and finding creative solitoons to problems. But when they come together as a group the magic that happens around the table is what brings me back each week for more- so I guess its the people not ther rules that make D&D fun for me.

As a DM my most rewarding conversations go something like this:
Player: Can I do this...?
DM: Yes
PlAYER: What about this?
DM: Yes
Player: So if I do this what is likely to happen to/what will x do if...?
DM: Well this is likely to be the result.

[A few more similar questions, the dm not sure where the player is leading but willing to play along, whilst trying to see the catch).
Player: [Once satisfied they have the DM where they want them]: Okay,so if I do this.... then this will happen... and then this...
DM: Now getting increasingly paranoid and knowing the player is up to something, frantically trying to see where this line of questioning is leading when...
Player: So if I tell X this, do this, then this will happen, correct?
DM: [now very, very worried...] Correct
Player: Satsfied he has the DM where he wants him the player puts his entire hand on the table]. Great I do X..Y..
DM: Arrgghhhh!

Outplayed by the players I bluff and bluster about abuse of the rules fully knowing I've been lead when they wanted me and despite my best efforts didn't see something in the set up coming and was blindsided (while inside I am going f$#ken A, that wa awesome) that's what l love about this game!

Being outwitted by my players is the fun part of the game for me, as I know then I've done my job. They've taken the mechanical aspects of the game + their own intellectual creativity to push the game (or a particular challenge) in ways I'd not dreamed of. D&D has always been a game of the imagination, love nothing more than seeing it being used.

Stormdale

 

[schneeland]

Exploration (I love finding and figuring out new places in my head) and interaction between characters (especially in the group). Combat is nice as a change of pace from time to time, and because it spices up the adventurers life, but otherwise not super important to me (I do appreciate a general presence of threats in the game world, though).

Coming up with new character concepts can be fun, too. Mapping them to the rules of the respective game engine is decidedly less fun for me (I do like some mechanical modeling of my character's attributes and skills, so it's something I'm willing to do from time to time).
In general mechanical optimization is not something I really enjoy (feels a bit like work, only that I'm not getting paid for it when I play RPGs).

 

[generic]

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