D&D General 8 kinds of fun & session zero

[robus]

I was just rereading this and it reminded me of the 8 kinds of fun and I wondered if anyone here has surveyed their players during session 0 to see what things the players find fun?

I was thinking a survey might be a way to discover if the group might have a predilection for a certain kind of game experience. Thinking of the exploration thread, if the players showed a lot of interesting in Fantasy and Discovery that would likely make a group that would enjoy an exploration heavy game in a fantastic world.

For those that want to read more about the 8 kinds of fun: Gaming for Fun (Part 1): Eight Kinds of Fun [necessary disclaimer: AngryGM is an unapologetic jerk who writes interesting articles].

Anyway, it might also be fun to see what folks here find fun. So here’s a poll:

 

[robus]

I got the ball rolling with what I think I look for when playing D&D at least.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Expression when I'm the GM.

I wouldn't have put Narrative earlier, but I'm in a sandbox game, and I find myself missing a background story. The world is cool, the GM is very inventive and fair. But unless she's being super subtle, I'm a bit at sea without a narrative to latch onto.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Dupe

 

[Asisreo]

Wish there was a multi-vote option since there's a couple I enjoy equally.

 

[Gradine]

For those that want to read more about the 8 kinds of fun: Gaming for Fun (Part 1): Eight Kinds of Fun [necessary disclaimer: AngryGM is an unapologetic jerk who writes interesting articles].

Fortunately I find that these articles (there's a Part 2 which is pretty solid as well) are where he drops the obnoxious shtick for the most part.

As a DM I don't think I'd ever poll my players directly on these. Mostly you learn to pick up signs early on in a campaign; what types of scenes and scenarios cause which players to perk up and become more engaged, and which parts frustrate them.

Tangentially, I find that, with just a little bit of work, HotDQ is a pretty great barometer in terms of how much it mixes up the gameplay experience, especially in the early chapters.

I've found, for instance, that my players are very focused on Expression and Fellowship. Discovery tends to turn them off, on the other hand; in both the physical sense (they really dislike dungeon crawling) and the metaphysical (they've tended not to engage much with moral dilemmas).

They also tend to disengage whenever there's any sort of intraparty tension; they're there to have a fun time with their friends, first and foremost.

Once you have the framework, it becomes pretty easy to read your players, which then makes it fairly simple to tailor your adventures to the things that most engage them.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

The only one I didn't pick is Narrative, because that's something I can take or leave in D&D.

 

[Li Shenron]

Voted all.

 

[Coroc]

I was just rereading this and it reminded me of the 8 kinds of fun and I wondered if anyone here has surveyed their players during session 0 to see what things the players find fun?

I was thinking a survey might be a way to discover if the group might have a predilection for a certain kind of game experience. Thinking of the exploration thread, if the players showed a lot of interesting in Fantasy and Discovery that would likely make a group that would enjoy an exploration heavy game in a fantastic world.

For those that want to read more about the 8 kinds of fun: Gaming for Fun (Part 1): Eight Kinds of Fun [necessary disclaimer: AngryGM is an unapologetic jerk who writes interesting articles].

Anyway, it might also be fun to see what folks here find fun. So here’s a poll:

Well I can predict the following mathematically: With Number of people participating in this survey (n -> big number) => ((all the bars) -> 100%) in an almost even manner, except 8. whereas I think the expression "submission" has a negative co-notation for some, so it is not selected that frequently.

 

[R_J_K75]

I picked fellowship. As much as I like playing D&D and everything that goes with it, its usually over a few beers, and someone would always bring a bottle of Jameson or American Honey to pass around for everyone to pull off while we played. I was just looking for a picture a few hours ago and came across another. There was 6 of us that played on 7/13/2018 which was a Friday. I went to fridge the next morning and found 5 pretty empty 18 packs of beer in the fridge and thought, "did we play D&D or just sit around and get drunk"? I've never played at a convention but I have joined a group at a local game store of people that I didnt know which turned out quite well for a few years but the best games I ever played in were with my friends where the game was adjacent to hanging out.