D&D General RP style Problem solver?

[Paul Farquhar]

“why DID that adventurer retire?"

He wanted a long vacation in a Welsh village?

 

[Yora]

I'll admit, this is a bit of a head-scratcher for me because I think of adventurers as, well, travelling problem-solvers. But perhaps this player is more motivated by discovery and exploration. Those are, after all, also part of adventure.

The problem of "What actually is an adventurer?" had been hounding me for probably 10 years. The typical image of an adventurer makes sense as a videogame character or a third-rate anime protagonist, but it very quickly starts falling apart if you try imagining a plausible work inhabited by plausible people that doesn't run on game mechanic logic. It can work perfectly as a game, but doesn't hold up as plausible fiction. Ultimately I gave up on the idea altogether. The Hero for Hire who goes from town to town asking if there's any monsters that need slaying or kittens to rescue doesn't work for me.

• Guardsmen who have a permanent job to be on standby to deal with dangers to the community work.
• Mercenaries who take high risk jobs for high pay from powerful people works. They do it for the money, and the people hiring don't try to ask for charity.
• Treasure hunters who go into dangerous places to loot riches work. If they happen to kill some beasts that have been bothering locals recently, that's a positive side effect, but not why they are doing it.
• Wasteland Wanderers who are searching for resources to stay alive and better protect themselves work.

 

[Oofta]

...why DID that adventurer retire...

He took an arrow to the knee?

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I will say 6 sessions with no issues is weird though. That game for us would most likely have had a few arguments for us to defuse and maybe some mystery to solve like “why DID that adventurer retire?” Or even “is that farmers daughter sleeping with the help?”

Last campaign we played in under her had us go months with out a real fight. All of our encounters were social or intrigue.

that does sound cool... but even that is 'problem solving' and 'discovery' as I see it

 

[UngainlyTitan]

The problem of "What actually is an adventurer?" had been hounding me for probably 10 years. The typical image of an adventurer makes sense as a videogame character or a third-rate anime protagonist, but it very quickly starts falling apart if you try imagining a plausible work inhabited by plausible people that doesn't run on game mechanic logic. It can work perfectly as a game, but doesn't hold up as plausible fiction. Ultimately I gave up on the idea altogether. The Hero for Hire who goes from town to town asking if there's any monsters that need slaying or kittens to rescue doesn't work for me.

The adventurer is an escapist construct. It is a vehicle for escapism. I do not there think there is anything wrong with escapism but it is not about any real world concerns.

• Guardsmen who have a permanent job to be on standby to deal with dangers to the community work.
• Mercenaries who take high risk jobs for high pay from powerful people works. They do it for the money, and the people hiring don't try to ask for charity.
• Treasure hunters who go into dangerous places to loot riches work. If they happen to kill some beasts that have been bothering locals recently, that's a positive side effect, but not why they are doing it.
• Wasteland Wanderers who are searching for resources to stay alive and better protect themselves work.

And realistically any of the above will retire to something safer is they make a big payoff.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

There are people in the real world (usually bored rich people) who do dangerous things just for the adrenalin rush.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

There are people in the real world (usually bored rich people) who do dangerous things just for the adrenalin rush.

But usually dangerous thing where they have a high degree of control of the level of danger.

Penetrating dangerous trap filled tombs populated by unspeakable horrors and foul soul destroying magic is pretty much certain death. At least at the typical unit size of the average adventuring party. As a world building exercise it makes little sense.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

But usually dangerous thing where they have a high degree of control of the level of danger.

I wouldn't say so. I mean look at Steve Irwin. Go back a hundred years and you have Robert Falcon Scott. A hundred years before that and you have a whole bunch of professional adventures. Some were in it for the money (Robert Clive), some are in it for God (David Livingstone), some for glory (Howard Carter) and some are in it because that's the job (Henry Stanley). All going into dangerous situations where death was a more than likely outcome.

The idea that people won't get off their backsides if there isn't money in it, and even then won't take risks is very 21st century.

 

[Grendel_Khan]

he also told us about (and no offensive to him, he is awesome this sounded boring) a campaign where they spend 6 sessions (it was monthly so 6 months out of game time) in a farming area where the family farm had a dozen workers and the DM had names personalities, even pictures for 20ish NPCs ranging from the 6year old to the old man who used to be an adventurer and now just wanted to pick vegies. they talked to them and no one attacked and no one had anything to hide and no one had a quest... but they got to RP interacting with them and getting to find out about each other (the characters the players had) by role playing dinner with different groups of them and games.
another player told him that sounded more like a session of down time to us, a few hours of rp, not multi sessions... and he agreed that was what he found weird we would spend months fighting or problem solving then 'skip' the real RP part of the role playing game calling it down time...

Sounds like he imprinted on a frankly pretty bizarre way to run a game. Nothing you can really do about that. Either he realizes there's value in different kinds of GMs and campaigns—and also just how unlikely he is to find that oddball approach again—or he's basically out of the hobby. Not sure even Yazeba's Bed and Breakfast would scratch the itch he's developed.

I do think there are some GMs who skip potentially interesting RP scenes/opportunities. But identifying when to fast forward, when to hard frame, how to balance straight RP and RP-with-rolls, that's all more of an art than a science, and varies across every game and table. And more importantly, it doesn't sound like you were rushing or depriving the players of fun RP. This one player just wants nothing but slice-of-life RP. Best of luck to him finding much of that.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

I wouldn't say so. I mean look at Steve Irwin. Go back a hundred years and you have Robert Falcon Scott. A hundred years before that and you have a whole bunch of professional adventures. Some were in it for the money (Robert Clive), some are in it for God (David Livingstone), some for glory (Howard Carter) and some are in it because that's the job (Henry Stanley). All going into dangerous situations where death was a more than likely outcome.

The idea that people won't get off their backsides if there isn't money in it, and even then won't take risks is very 21st century.

Well Irwin and Scott both went back to the river one time too many and died in action, so to speak. Clive was the guy hiring adventurers not the adventurer per se. Livingstone and Stanley I will grant you but how many others at the time, doing similar things died in unmarked graves.

Carter is another of the well funded expedition in a relatively safe area.