So that's why you like it

[Doug McCrae]

Why do you like Monster minis? I just don't understand why it's worth the cost, storage, and effort when a piece of paper or a little bead will do the same task of indicating where the monster is.

Yeah, why have a Rembrandt on the wall when an empty space would be a lot cheaper? Or a mix of blood, faeces and vomit. Hey, at least it's free.

 

[Lwaxy]

Riddles and other such puzzles. Especially the long tedious ones, like those logic ones you need a chart to figure out.

But those are the best Especially when you let the players RP to get the clues. Those types of puzzles can last a few sessions here. It adds something different.

We also use board games to add to the variety.

 

[chronoplasm]

When a PC dies it means the PC's player has failed.

When a PC player dies it means the PC has failed.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

I see the gaming experience 100% differently.

Most players that I've seen role play well, created a character and put alot of imagination and forethought into it, and had generated some attachment (familiarity) to it.

I'm a "develop in play" kind of person. I've not seen the game yet where whatever the players imagined their characters would be like by themselves before the game began "survived contact with the enemy" - no matter how much information you have about the world your GM has set the game in, you'll always run into something you invented which doesn't really fit. Even if it doesn't explicitly clash with something in the world, backstory elements you figured would come up often almost never rear their heads, NPCs you established a close relationship with turn out to be unimportant, whatever.

I start with a rough idea of the person I want to play, both in terms of personality and mechanics, and let the course of the game shape that rough character sketch into a full-blown portrait of this fictional person. For instance, I just joined a new D&D game last night - at the table, I discovered that the other three players were playing nonhuman PCs with strong prejudices against humans, which made my human invoker a rough fit with the group. In response to that, I established with the DM that my character was a traveller from an exotic land beyond the borders of the crumbling empire in which the game takes place. So I'm a human, and there's comedy prejudice directed towards me from the other PCs, but I'm also an outsider among the humans of the local setting. To get another angle on their anti-human prejudice, I established my character as a mildly patronising chauvinist about his own culture - he considers the idea of a monarchy "barbaric", for instance.

Right now, I don't exactly know which deity this guy worships or which religious philosophy he follows, except that his prayers's effects have visual elements of stars and moonlight and that "charity is one of the Nine Virtues" - a phrase I came up with on the spot as a deliberately clueless commentary on seeing the dwarf in our party exchange all the money he had on his person for a seemingly-worthless carved pipe (an ancient and priceless dwarven artifact) owned by a dying man.

It's fun to riff off things in play and establish things about the character on the spot - and the end result can be a really detailed, real-feeling character that started as just a character sheet and a name. The flipside of this is that, if my guy Yolamira here bites the dust in six sessions' time, I'm not the sort of person to get attached; it's fun while it lasts and as long as it continues to be fun to play him, but even if he dies through random happenstance, well, that's his story, right? Not every story has a neat, satisfying ending, and at least I now have the fun of creating a whole new character in play all over again.

Perhaps the key is that I find the process of developing a PC in play to be inherently enjoyable, and I don't get emotionally invested or immersed or anything like that. I don't care if my PCs succeed or fail, live or die, become heroes or villains, as long as their story is interesting to play out.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

It was answered before but since I use them in basically all my settings I figured to do it as well:

Firearms:

For myself I use firearms for a variety of reasons, mainly oriented around "Rule of Cool" and setting elements:

• I find I almost always combine genres, such as Steampunk and Cyberpunk. Well firearms being in the setting is just one of a variety of elements included. From basic firearms to advance ones.
• Rule of Cool, like with lots of the elements of my settings. Firearms can be a fun thing to mix in.
• It helps expand the options for the players and what their characters can be like.
• Part of Rule of Cool it is just fun to have.

I feel I should say, I don't care about modelling "realistic firearms", they are no more or less powerful then other weapons.

Settings written with conflict happening or about to happen:

For myself it is another part of the flavour of the setting. A setting is vastly different if for example a war is going on and not. You can run different plots, character concepts, etc. when conflict is going on. There are many personal and epic stories that happen with people in real-life during conflicts. You need not be known across the realms to have a great story.

Dark and/or post-apocalyptic settings:

Fits very similar to the above. It is a setting element and thus can bring across different character concepts, plots, etc. If everything is fine and dandy then tells of overcoming strife and overwhelming odds can't happen.

 

[billd91]

When a PC player dies it means the PC has failed.

I would say it means neither automatically. The PC might have succeeded at enough of his goals, as might the player, by dying and thus not have "failed". There are times when it is good for a PC to die in the trenches - particularly if he dies a hero or for a good cause.

 

[Bumbles]

But those are the best Especially when you let the players RP to get the clues. Those types of puzzles can last a few sessions here. It adds something different.

We also use board games to add to the variety.

Well, a little variety is one thing, but I'm not talking about puzzles that you can RP through, but rather ones that require you to take out a worksheet and go through a whole process to solve.

This is in contrast with say a mystery, where there are clues and investigations to go on.

Oh well, I guess I'll just have to ask the PC's "What have I got in my pocket?"

 

[Crothian]

Riddles and other such puzzles. Especially the long tedious ones, like those logic ones you need a chart to figure out.

I can get puzzles in real life, and I like mysteries in games, but do I want to do a crossword playing a game?

In addition to what others have said, different players enjoy different things. I can include a puzzle knowing that one of my players would dive into it and get it done and while he's doing that (something he is really enjoying) I can have the other players do something they really like. Or they can all work together but I know more then likely that one player is going to be the one to solve it.

And sure he can do puzzles on his own time, but in game he gets a more tangible reward then just the satisfaction of solving it.

 

[Crothian]

Oh well, I guess I'll just have to ask the PC's "What have I got in my pocket?"

Depends on the players. Ask that at my table and we would go off into some very not politically correct areas.

 

[Noumenon]

Haggling over the price of things.

Playing the game for years with fifteen-hour sessions on the weekends and never fighting anything but orcs. (This is based on two people, one with fifteen years' experience who had never fought an aranea, one who played in the Army till the sun came up every weekend and never fought a dragon.)

Copper pieces. Maybe this is because I have lived in two countries (Ukraine and America) where the 1-cent coin (kopek and penny) is completely worthless and might as well be thrown in the trash as saved.