D&D General What do you want to be able to DO as a player?

[Maxperson]

I'm pretty much on board with 1, 2, and 5 above.

My '3' would be almost the direct opposite: I want the game to potentially last forever, and rapid level gain is the sworn enemy of that desire.

It's not the opposite. It's just different. Where you play one 30 year campaign where heroes do lots of different adventures in the same setting, with PCs retiring or dying and players making new PCs, I see fifteen 2 year campaigns where heroes do lots of different adventures in the same setting, with PCs retiring or dying and players making new PCs.

Both of us are using the same setting, having lots of different adventures, having PCs retire or die, etc. The only real difference is what levels those PCs reach. Both games will potentially last forever.

My '4' would also be close to the opposite: I'd rather an easy-come easy-go approach to magic items, where you'll probably find a lot of 'em but - if unlucky - lose them just as fast.

If there's magic item turnover, sure. I still wouldn't want a ton of knick-knack items, though. Cooler items that have turnover are still better.

As for '6', I'm not a fan of outright certainty; in that it ignores the 1% (or less) chance of something unexpected happening. There's always a tiny chance that just about anything out of the ordinary can fail when it should succeed or succeed when it should fail (though 1-in-20 is often far too frequent).

There's a thing where you roll too much. If there are factors where the outcome is in doubt, then a roll is called for. But having a chance for anything to fail might match real life better, but it would bog the game down in rolling for everything. I mean, I've tripped over the crack in the sidewalk between two slabs(not even raised by a root or anything!). Sure normal walking is a shoo-in(hur hur), but there's that one in 100,000 chance that you misstep. I don't need to roll unless the uncertainty level is significant enough to note.

7. Let us players do what we want with our characters even if it means you-as-DM just get to sit back and put your feet up for the evening. If we decide to throw down and fight each other all session, let us. If we decide to spend the session playing in-character jokes on each other, let us. If we decide we're going to spend the session planning the mission before leaving town, let us. If we decide to split the party, let us.

This is a good one. I knew I would have more to add, but now I can scratch this one off the list.

8. And in the end what I really want to do is roleplay, roll dice, drink beer, and laugh - often but not always in that order.

 

[Incenjucar]

Experience and accomplish things that I can't in real life. This gets awkward because I already do stuff people only dream about these days.

 

[Maxperson]

Experience and accomplish things that I can't in real life. This gets awkward because I already do stuff people only dream about these days.

Sleep? I daydream about that one a lot.

 

[jgsugden]

As I DM more often than play these days, I want to give my players the best experience I can given their preferences.

As a player, I want to sink into a good story and get to play it out. I want to feel like my character can make any decision that makies sense to the character, and that the game will accomodate it. I want the world around my PC to respond in a way that makese sense - and I want to make sure everyone at the table is having fun.

I've said this many times, but I'll say it again: If you answer this question without talking about character or role playing as being important, you might want to ask if you're playing the right game for you. I'm not trying to kick you out - I'm suggesting that this game is not optimized for your preferences. There are other tactical / strategy war games that give you the chance to really fight the fight in a way that is entirely about the fight. D&D is designed to be about the fight, the talk, and the exploration. D&D is an RPG - a role playing game. You're only using a small portion of it, and they make sacrifices in combat rules to ensure that the other pillars of the game work well. If you really care about the fight only, play a game that doesn't make those sacrifices. [Examples of those sacrifices - we limit how effective enchantments can be because they can be too strong for social situations and too impactful to role playing options ... we limit how lethal combat can be for PCs to allow the game to continue ... in a tactical game without role playing/story, we can allow you to steal opponent forces and to obliterate enemies].

 

[Remathilis]

Sleep? I daydream about that one a lot.

D&D is a game of rich fantasy where my character can do many things I cannot: get 8 hours of rest, speak multiple languages, travel the world, and acquire wealth.

 

[Maxperson]

D&D is a game of rich fantasy where my character can do many things I cannot: get 8 hours of rest, speak multiple languages, travel the world, and acquire wealth.

Yeah. I get it. Sleep was just a bit of humor.

 

[Reynard]

One of the reasons I asked this question is because I kind of want to interrogate D&D in its myriad forms relative to the answers.

For the social stuff -- friends, pizza, beer -- the system really doesn't matter (with the possible exception of whether grid and minis reliant versions leave enough room on the table for aforementioned pizza and beer).

But for other aspects of the answers, system may (and I stress, MAY) facilitate or get in the way. So as it relates to the thing you want to do when you sit down, to what degree do you invoke or prefer system? That is, do you champion a particular version of D&D for your purposes, or do you think you can use any (or at least multiple) D&D framework to get what you need?

 

[Corinnguard]

As a player, I want to be able to:
1) Leave the mundane confines of everyday life and immerse myself in a world where for a few hours, I am someone else.
2) Socialize with people who start out as complete strangers to me, but later think of as friends as we get to know one another out-of-character.
3) Be caught up in a mystery that only me and my fellow party members can solve.

 

[Hriston]

I want to be able to describe and propose things my character is doing, saying, thinking, feeling, sensing, and remembering and for those things to have (at least) a chance to influence the situation in which my character finds him or herself.

 

[aco175]

There is an element in rolling dice and being able to greatly succeed or fail. I make a character that interacts with the other characters in a team that is capable of defeating bad guys and become legends of the land. As a player at the table, I want to feel a part of the game and have spotlight time and opportunity to do great things or fail greatly as well. I do not want to feel pushed over by the other players or the DM as I think the whole table needs to be free to have time to shine.