D&D 5E What aspects of play do you most enjoy?

[Klataubarada]

I find I don't spend much of my time thinking up cool NPCs for them to talk to, so the social pillar of my game is a distinct last.

Same here. As a DM is tend to shy away from the pure role playing aspect and fill in the gaps with handouts or diaries and elaborate puzzles.

 

[Greg Benage]

Exploration is the reason I still play tabletop RPGs. It's the one play activity that no other game format or entertainment medium can really match.

* Computer games and board games can offer richer combat game-play with less complexity.
* Board games and MMOs can match the social interaction, though there will be differences from one format to the next.
* Nothing comes close to a GM who can literally resolve any interaction with the world I can imagine.

I joined an existing AD&D group in 1980. The adventure was Lost Shrine of Tamoachan. A buddy got me to join and I really had no idea what to expect. We find a ruined city in the jungle, there's a dark freaking hole in the ground, and the "game" is we're going to go down there and see what we can find. The other players start preparing ropes and lanterns and readying axes and swords. I probably sat there for a few minutes with my mouth hanging open. I was hooked.

In truth, though, that still sells RPGs short. The real magic is the unique way in which all of these elements can interact in infinite ways.

 

[S'mon]

As a GM I enjoy the PC-NPC social interaction most, especially in my online games where in-depth characterisation is much easier.

I think different editions & different campaigns have different strengths though - 4e for combat (if not too slow), Classic for exploration. The 5e games I've run & played the social interaction has been the best thing, with combat & exploration fairly well supported too - 5e exploration pillar suffers from lack of comprehensive encounter tables though, they could have easily made the 5e DMG far more useful. I don't want to have to create my own bloody tables for every area the PCs visit.
4e is abysmal at exploration, but does social interaction pretty well. 3e/PF does combat & exploration well at low level, but deteriorates rapidly as the levels go up.

 

[S'mon]

* Board games and MMOs can match the social interaction, though there will be differences from one format to the next.

I thought 'social interaction' meant PCs & NPCs interacting socially in-game?

 

[Ravenheart87]

I enjoy the part where the players fail, or when they face the consequences of their actions.

 

[Lanefan]

Combat - always good fun from either side of the screen until and unless it grinds on too long.

Exploration - exploring is fun until the party gets paralyzed by trying to gather too much information and-or gets distracted by something irrelevant. (as in, we know we're looking for a castle that's still in one piece so why are we wasting all this time exploring these abandoned ruins?)

Social interaction - the best social interactions often come from something nobody's mentioned yet: interacting with the other characters in the party, particularly when you've got a party whose members don't always get along that well. Interacting with NPCs more often falls under exploration-as-information-gathering than purely social.

That said, these three things can't be taken in isolation - there's a lot of overlap and sometimes all three can be happening at once!

Lan-"while we beat him up (combat), a villain's monologue (social interaction) gives useful information (exploration)"-efan

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

I like all of them, but I'd say exploration is probably my greatest love (though I may be over-emphasizing it due to the fact that it has been out of favor for decades).

I just *love* exploring a world, whether that's a city, or a wilderness, or a dungeon. I like making decisions about how to effectively accomplish my goals (without dying), as well as just wandering around town tasting the local cuisine. The biggest problem that I have is that few DMs spend as time making a world that I actually *can* explore in that manner.

This is basically why I play Spelljammer. I find the stereotypical D&D gameworld fairly uninteresting (though Planescape sounds interesting, and Darksun is interesting too), but I like coming up with answers to questions like "Why do the Arcane sell spelljamming helms?" and "Where do dragons get their gold?"

I'm not so good at making up cuisine though. If my players want to try varying levels of cuisine at an inn, I'd probably ask them to tell me what kind of succulent fair they expect to taste for their "aristocratic" 4 gp meal.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Only if there are no consequences.
Arguably, tracking hit points is just bookkeeping. If encounters never bring you to near death, than tracking hit points is just busywork.

If you're in a well civilized area then tracking food, ammunition, feed, and the like is unneeded. But if you're in a dungeon or the Underdark or the Isle of Dread or some ungodly swamp then tracking resources is basically hit points for the exploration pillar.
How much food determines how often the party might rest and if they travel that extra few hours or risk that extra encounter to avoid going hungry. How much water determines if the party might risk drinking from the forest pool or the underground spring. How much supplies determines if the party tries to parlay with the drow to trade for new stock or if they wait to see if they encounter less hostile races.

You can spawn some great stories and tension from tracking supplies. It's the difference between Voyager and Battlestar Galactica...

Great analogy! My players have had a lot of fun for the past month or so tracking cows to fuel their lifejammer. Last session, all the cows but one died to a fireball so they are basically stranded until they can find some new fuel. They were talking about capturing ropers by grappling them to pop them into the lifejammer. If they manage to get a roper in there alive, I look forward to their reaction when they discover that the ship goes twice as fast when it's fueled by a roper's life-force instead of a cow...

 

[Mishihari Lord]

I chose "exploration" but I enjoy all 3 aspects. When considering my own preferences I thought it was interesting that my top 3 favorite things about RPGs were all in different pillars.

Exploration: I just want to see what's around the next corner, what's over the hill, what kind of people live in that city. This is exactly how I act in real life too.

Combat: I enjoy difficult tactical puzzles, where the difference between life and death is having the right plan. Toe to toe melee slugmatches I find kind of dull.

Social interaction: I love method acting, trying to assume the mental state of my character and act and think as he would, not as I would myself.

 

[Rocksome]

I get a kick out of the social interaction, but maybe differently than you'd expect. The fun for me comes with interacting with the other players in character, whether it be exploration, social or even combat. I play with a great group and every "pillar" (though much less in combat) is usually filled with in-character discussions, jibes and arguments.

Whether the other PCs are discussing the change in my character since he acquired a certain sword, chiding the barbarian for his unusual caution or convincing the gnome wizard to keep his hands to himself as we wander through the haunted library.