would you play your least fav edition if asked by friends

[Lwaxy]

I c
see the question was NOT "Hey if you could pick and choose and play any game any time... it was only game in town..


because we are so broken that it isn't even 'hanging out with friends' anymore. Some of us have become so entrenched we would rather do nothing then play the game, if it isn't the exact version of the game we want.

Well, not all the people I game with are friends. A lot, especially online, are acquaintances with the same hobby. Some of the other players I may not even get on that well, as such has always happens in gamer life. I don't have a close set of friends anymore after all the changes in my life, but if the few who I can count in would suddenly play an edition (or other game altogether) I don't like at all, I would wonder why they don't know me better. And if they want me in, why not play another edition?

It would be the same if in my current fav game (Pathfinder) someone would come up with a campaign setting I really dislike. There is no point in playing if the game doesn't sound like fun. I can hang out with people again any other time. Especially when it was the 40th anniversary of the game (and thus all RPGs) I do not want to have a less-than-fun memory of it. That being rules I hate or a setting I dislike or a playstyle I can't make do with. So no, it is not "broken" to not want to play something you know you can't have fun in and would probably spoil the fun for everyone else as well.

And no, I'd not do "nothing" rather than play the game. I have a whole lot of other activities to pick from - and yes watching a movie for a change is one of them - so I don't need to waste precious time on non-fun. There's LEGO building, other terrain building, glass painting, reading, browser games, sauna (and other wellness stuff) or just playing boardgames/cardgames (or another RPG) with family. I can play with the cats, clean the house and so on and on... things that are either fun or need to be done.

Beats thinking "why did I agree to this" any time.

 

[Lwaxy]

You may be unusual in your abundance of choice. Many of us find it hard to get enough people together regularly to play anything.

There is that. But even then... either you have friends you see outside of gaming anyway, so you don't feel like you left them hanging if you don't play, or they are not so close in which case you would want to hang out less with them for a game you rather avoid.

Nothing beats gaming around a real table, for sure. But nowadays online games, be it text or voice chat, comes close enough so I would rather pick an online game I like than a so-so game around a table.

 

[Storminator]

I recently played in my least favorite edition, because my friends were playing and I was in town that night. It was a one shot for me, in the midst of an ongoing campaign for them.

And interestingly for me, all the things I dislike about that edition came up in that single session. And even more interestingly, many of my friends grumbled about the problems. It was an interesting anthropology moment.

PS

 

[DMZ2112]

Ok, simple question. Lets say you had the time and money to go hang out with 4-6 of your good friends tomorrow for the 40th birthday of D&D, but one of them said "Hey I'm DMing X" where X is the version of D&D you most dislike or like the least.

Would you go to play the game you dislike? what if it was the only game you could go to, so it is literally that or nothing tomorrow?

Answering the spirit of the question: yes. There's never been a version of D&D that isn't fun.

Answering the letter of the question: a much more tentative yes, in that it seems like we're talking about a one-shot adventure. I do not /play/ in campaigns anymore -- in any edition of D&D.

 

[athos]

Would you go to play the game you dislike? what if it was the only game you could go to, so it is literally that or nothing tomorrow?

Friends don't make friends play 4th ed.

I would bring beer and pizza and bribe them into playing something fun.

Playing nothing would be better than playing a game I hate though.

 

[Hussar]

It never was. It's a hobby. The creative process and the product you create are part of the experience, not just the social aspect. Pretty much any hobbyist is very discriminating when it comes to their hobby.

Urg. Speak for yourself please. i'm a hobbyist and I find this attitude entirely off-putting. I play with people I consider friends and "the creative process" is so far in the back seat of what I get out of gaming that it's not really a consideration.

Thanks.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Urg. Speak for yourself please. i'm a hobbyist and I find this attitude entirely off-putting. I play with people I consider friends and "the creative process" is so far in the back seat of what I get out of gaming that it's not really a consideration.

Gee, that kind of goes against all that other stuff you like to post about system mattering and about all kinds of very minor process concerns (like say, balance between classes) having a profound and irrevocable effect on your experience.

 

[Hussar]

Gee, that kind of goes against all that other stuff you like to post about system mattering and about all kinds of very minor process concerns (like say, balance between classes) having a profound and irrevocable effect on your experience.

Umm, what? What do any of those things have to do with a "creative process"?

Yup, the rules have a pretty profound effect on my experience. Would I prefer to play, say, a 1e one shot with friends to a 4e one shot? No, I wouldn't. I don't care for the 1e ruleset. It is not to my taste.

But, OTOH, I would still play it with friends over not playing at all. The idea that somehow my "creative process" or "the product I create" is more important than the time I'm spending with people I enjoy spending time with is also quite not to my taste.

Thus, I could play all sorts of games, despite not particularly enjoying the games, because of the people. Heck, I just spent a couple of months playing in a Planescape game, despite being a pretty vocal critic of Planescape and having a good time. Precisely because I knew it was a short campaign (we were taking a bit of a break from our main campaign to give the DM some much needed recharge time).

So, going back to the OP, I can emphatically say that yup, I'll play a short game of pretty much anything with people I enjoy spending time with. I know that because I just did it.

To me, the people who claim that the system is just so important that it over rides spending time with friends and getting to play take the hobby far too seriously. The fact that you view playing an RPG as creating a product means that you and I should never, ever sit at the same table.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Umm, what? What do any of those things have to do with a "creative process"?

You're using them to create things. Rules are used to create characters. Rules are used to create a narrative of events.

To me, the people who claim that the system is just so important that it over rides spending time with friends and getting to play take the hobby far too seriously.

I suspect that anyone who has thousands of posts on an rpg message board could be said to be taking their gaming hobby too seriously.

In some imaginary bubble where I have nothing to do but choose between sitting on my hands or playing a bad rpg, maybe the answer would be different. Me, I never said that the system overrides everything, merely that there is a threshold where the game is simply not worthwhile relative to the other parts of life. In other words, I'm suggesting that for anyone that is not taking their gaming hobby too seriously, the week that people are playing the game you hate is the week to try going outside and doing something else.

 

[adamc]

Ok, simple question. Lets say you had the time and money to go hang out with 4-6 of your good friends tomorrow for the 40th birthday of D&D, but one of them said "Hey I'm DMing X" where X is the version of D&D you most dislike or like the least.

Would you go to play the game you dislike? what if it was the only game you could go to, so it is literally that or nothing tomorrow?

Sure, why not? If I'm not DMing and I don't have to learn too much arcana, and I like the people involved, I'll play anything.

I don't really feel strongly about most of these issues, however.