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<blockquote data-quote="innerdude" data-source="post: 5971044" data-attributes="member: 85870">So let me tell you a story. Around&nbsp; a month ago, I casually mentioned to a friend and his wife that I would&nbsp; really enjoy running a &quot;light&quot; roleplaying campaign with them. A little&nbsp; background about them--This is a couple that are SERIOUS WoW (and board&nbsp; game) players--both have multiple level 80 WoW characters--but the&nbsp; combined number of times either has tried pen-and-paper RPGs can be&nbsp; counted on one hand. So&nbsp; when I mentioned it to them, it was mostly on a whim. I thought they&nbsp; might enjoy it, and was kind of thinking it would be fun to run a short&nbsp; Savage Worlds game while our GURPS game was on hiatus, but I wasn't&nbsp; expecting anything.Well, wouldn't you know, the wife actually took me&nbsp; up on it. A couple of weeks later, my wife and I were sitting down to&nbsp; watch a movie with them, and my friend's wife turns to me and asks,&nbsp; &quot;Hey, did you bring that game book (Savage Worlds) you were talking&nbsp; about before?&quot; I&nbsp; usually keep my $10 Explorer's Edition in my laptop bag at all times,&nbsp; for those random moments of &quot;GM inspiration,&quot; so I handed it to her and&nbsp; said &quot;Sure!&quot; For&nbsp; the next 2 hours while watching the movie, she flipped through its&nbsp; pages, not really &quot;absorbing&quot; the rules, per se, but just daydreaming /&nbsp; brainstorming about a character she might want to play. So this past weekend, we got back together and they made their first Savage Worlds characters. And&nbsp; I wish to heaven I had a video camera set up to record the experience&nbsp; to send it to Wizards of the Coast, Paizo, Green Ronin, Pinnacle, and&nbsp; everyone else. After an hour of the wife struggling to &quot;make something&nbsp; interesting,&quot; her husband turns to her and says, &quot;Just think of a&nbsp; character you'd enjoy playing. Think of their personality, what they're&nbsp; like, their quirks and traits. Don't just think about what they're good at, but why they'd choose to be good at it. Don't worry about trying to find every little detail in the book.&quot; And&nbsp; this small light bulb goes off behind her eyes, as she realizes that&nbsp; she doesn't have to pick the &quot;perfect&quot; edge, or the perfect set of&nbsp; attributes, or maximize every last skill point to have fun with this character, and this game. About&nbsp; half an hour later (and now 90% of the way through the character&nbsp; generation process), she says, &quot;You know, in the two or three times I&nbsp; played D&amp;D, I never really felt comfortable doing it, and a lot of&nbsp; it was because of the way the other players talked about it. There was&nbsp; never any discussion of why I would want to play a character.&nbsp; It was always about why I would want to take this option, or that&nbsp; option, and how it would make my character 'better,' or more powerful or&nbsp; whatever. And maybe I was letting my World of Warcraft background get&nbsp; in the way, because your character build is everything in&nbsp; WoW. Don't get me wrong, I want a character that kicks butt. But having&nbsp; a character that fits the picture in my head is just as important as&nbsp; the butt-kicking.&quot; And somewhere in all of this, I think, is a commentary on rules mastery,&nbsp; the differences between rules &quot;lite&quot; and rules &quot;heavy,&quot; and the&nbsp; unconscious expectations we carry around with us from our experiences.&nbsp; Now having more experience with Savage Worlds and FATE-based systems, I&nbsp; appreciate D&amp;D for what it does, but am now keenly aware that&nbsp; D&amp;D is very much colored by a set of expectations of how an RPG&nbsp; &quot;should work.&quot; And that expectation of how an RPG &quot;works&quot; doesn't always&nbsp; jive with every player. (I&nbsp; also think this phenomenon is ultimately going to be problematic for&nbsp; D&amp;D Next . . . but that's a thread for another day.&nbsp; <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> )</blockquote>

[QUOTE="innerdude, post: 5971044, member: 85870"] So let me tell you a story. Around a month ago, I casually mentioned to a friend and his wife that I would really enjoy running a "light" roleplaying campaign with them. A little background about them--This is a couple that are SERIOUS WoW (and board game) players--both have multiple level 80 WoW characters--but the combined number of times either has tried pen-and-paper RPGs can be counted on one hand. So when I mentioned it to them, it was mostly on a whim. I thought they might enjoy it, and was kind of thinking it would be fun to run a short Savage Worlds game while our GURPS game was on hiatus, but I wasn't expecting anything. Well, wouldn't you know, the wife actually took me up on it. A couple of weeks later, my wife and I were sitting down to watch a movie with them, and my friend's wife turns to me and asks, "Hey, did you bring that game book (Savage Worlds) you were talking about before?" I usually keep my $10 Explorer's Edition in my laptop bag at all times, for those random moments of "GM inspiration," so I handed it to her and said "Sure!" For the next 2 hours while watching the movie, she flipped through its pages, not really "absorbing" the rules, per se, but just daydreaming / brainstorming about a character she might want to play. So this past weekend, we got back together and they made their first Savage Worlds characters. And I wish to heaven I had a video camera set up to record the experience to send it to Wizards of the Coast, Paizo, Green Ronin, Pinnacle, and everyone else. After an hour of the wife struggling to "make something interesting," her husband turns to her and says, "Just think of a character you'd enjoy playing. Think of their personality, what they're like, their quirks and traits. Don't just think about what they're good at, but [I]why they'd choose to be good at it[/I]. Don't worry about trying to find every little detail in the book." And this small light bulb goes off behind her eyes, as she realizes that she doesn't have to pick the "perfect" edge, or the perfect set of attributes, or maximize every last skill point to have fun with this character, and this game. About half an hour later (and now 90% of the way through the character generation process), she says, "You know, in the two or three times I played D&D, I never really felt comfortable doing it, and a lot of it was because of the way the other players talked about it. There was never any discussion of why I would want to play a character. It was always about why I would want to take this option, or that option, and how it would make my character 'better,' or more powerful or whatever. And maybe I was letting my World of Warcraft background get in the way, because your character build is everything in WoW. Don't get me wrong, I want a character that kicks butt. But having a character that fits the picture in my head is just as important as the butt-kicking." And somewhere in all of this, I think, is a commentary on rules mastery, the differences between rules "lite" and rules "heavy," and the unconscious expectations we carry around with us from our experiences. Now having more experience with Savage Worlds and FATE-based systems, I appreciate D&D for what it does, but am now keenly aware that D&D is very much colored by a set of expectations of how an RPG "should work." And that expectation of how an RPG "works" doesn't always jive with every player. (I also think this phenomenon is ultimately going to be problematic for D&D Next . . . but that's a thread for another day. :) ) [/QUOTE]

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