All rp all the time

[Hussar]

Zelda says it better than me.

I guess it's whatever floats your boat. I game to do heroic deeds and whatnot. I have little or no interest in shopping in real life, so, shopping while gaming is just not my cup of tea.

 

[Shade]

I guess it's whatever floats your boat. I game to do heroic deeds and whatnot. I have little or no interest in shopping in real life, so, shopping while gaming is just not my cup of tea.

Ditto. I've intentionally avoided returning to town on numerous occasions in game simply to avoid the boredom. I consider "town sessions" terrible wastes of time, and the opportunity cost is too high...I've got plenty of PC games I'd like to play, books to read, movies to watch for which I could use the extra hours. If the other players want to do that, that's fine...I'll give 'em my shopping list, and they can just handle my character for me and call me when we get back to the heroics.

 

[el-remmen]

Funny, I play video games like their RPGs

I was playing the latest Resident Evil on GameCube and my friend kept saying "You need to search for hidden ammo to get past the next section" and I would reply, "That girl is a captive of mad cultists! I'm running out of time! I can't spend time searching crates and dusty huts!"

Him: "But the game will wait for you."

Me: "But I would rather play as if it didn't."

He was flabbergasted that I would go into difficult parts of the game with nothing but one clip's worth of pistol ammo, three shotgun shells and a knife - and that I would work out how to beat an area with nothing but the knife!

 

[der_kluge]

I think the point is that the player is assuming that nothing interesting will happen at the gem merchant when he goes to trade in his gold for a more portable stone. They're assuming that nothing interesting will happen when they go to upgrade their sword to a MW version.

It's the assumption of the mundane that's the difference. It's the DM's game - let him do the assuming.

 

[gizmo33]

Let's put it this way: we didn't get this tendency from video games, they got it from us. I've been in D&D parties since before personal computers existed that vaccuumed every inch of a dungeon, pulling out the furniture, the tapestries, anything at all that could be of value and then selling the location of this cleaned-out well-fortified underground complex to the local baron. The stuff in Nodwick is there for a reason.

QFT

Seems like the obvious thing to me is different gamer styles call for different details. You can't provide minute-by-minute details on everything, something must be skipped. I suppose what gets described and what gets handwaved is a matter of consensus between DM and players. If they feel it adds something to the game to describe camp fire scenes every time they camp out, more power to them.

The idea of a player carrying 10 crossbows is more of a rules adjudicator thing. Encumberance based on weight is a simplification, clearly the DM has to wake up his interpretation skills (I assume 3E DMs are still expected to have those) in areas where encumberance by weight defies common sense.

 

[buzz]

Seems like the obvious thing to me is different gamer styles call for different details. You can't provide minute-by-minute details on everything, something must be skipped. I suppose what gets described and what gets handwaved is a matter of consensus between DM and players. If they feel it adds something to the game to describe camp fire scenes every time they camp out, more power to them.

QFT.

To answer Hussar's original question: If it's not related to the adventure at hand, 98% of the time I have no interest in it. Color and immersion is great, but that's not my primary interest most of the time.

Of course, I have also played with people who literally told me about their fond memroies of speding six hours playing out shopping in town. If that shopping were critical to the adventure, I could sort of understand; i.e., shopping was the adventure. Otherwise, I'd be slitting my wrists in that situation.

As for consensus... yes, but it's not always easy to meet diverse needs. The player in my example above, and her husband, ended up leaving our group. They were the Sim contingent and the rest of the group (DM included) was pretty much Gamist, and ne'er the twain did meet. To some people, if you're not talking character every time you buy a mug of ale, you're not rolepalying.

 

[Arnwyn]

Which leads me to my main point.

How much time do you as a DM or a player want to spend away from the main point of the adventure?

A "reasonable" amount of time. What's "reasonable"? I don't know if I can define it. It's certainly not handwaving (like Olaf's player who just 'exchanged' gp into gems). But not a full conversation with the shopkeeper, either.

Just a quick: I go to X store. I'd like this. PHB price? Cool. Done. (Or: I go to the moneylenders/moneychangers. I'd like to exchange this much. What's the percentage cost? Cool. Done.)

Our group prefers a minor 'sim' aspect to the game.

Personally, I find this very boring. In real life, I don't have lengthy conversations at the store. I go in, I buy my whatsit, I pay my money and I leave. Other than a few polite words at the till, that's about the extent of my interaction with storekeepers. Or bartenders, or pretty much anyone else I deal with that I don't know.

How do you know that's not how Olaf does it? I never saw anything in that other thread that suggested otherwise. Or is this just the typical wacky ENWorld hyperbole?

I can understand simulationist play. But, even in sim play, do you really have to go into that intricate of detail? Does it matter if the parchment I use for scribing my scroll is three ply paper or four?

What am I missing?

Hyperbole. Definitely more hyperbole.

 

[Arnwyn]

Why should one way of gaming be seen as "better" and be rewarded?

Because a particular group's majority likes it that way? I think that's obvious.

 

[LostSoul]

I tend to look at the "shopping" aspects of the game the same way as I see things in a novel or a movie. You could have a no-action, no-plot-advancement scene, but if it serves to reveal the character, then it's okay.

I'm thinking about The Empire Strikes Back*. Han and Leia are fixing the ship. Wow, sounds pretty boring to role-play, right? Well, in this case, we're seeing the two characters develop their relationship and how they feel about each other. Now that could be interesting to play.

I think the same thing goes for a shopping scene. Maybe I want to show that my PC is a money-grubbing, frugal guy, or he loves to throw around the cash to feel important, or whatever. Then there is a point to that scene, and it's worth playing out.

It's important, I think, to tell the DM/other players just what you're trying to accomplish before the scene gets started; unless you have such a good vibe going that everyone just knows what you're trying to do.

Scenes like this are even better when there is a chance for character growth. Especially through some kind of conflict.

Another point is how often do you need to do stuff like this? If I'm playing a firebrand preacher of St. Cuthbert who wants to convert everyone over to the church of the cudgel, I really only have to roleplay that scene out once a game session (or even less) to get that point across. Doing it over and over again is just going to feel tedious, like it would in a novel or movie. "Yeah, we get it already!"

But anyway. Without that character development, or without moving the plot forward, or without some kill-loot fun, that kind of "shopping" stuff is boring and I don't want to play it out at all.


* Specifically, the scene where Leia's trying to move that lever and Han gives her a hand, but she doesn't want one, and they talk about how he's a scoundrel and she doesn't like scoundrels, and they're about to kiss but C3PO comes in an ruins it for the dashing space rogue.

 

[gizmo33]

* Specifically, the scene where Leia's trying to move that lever and Han gives her a hand, but she doesn't want one, and they talk about how he's a scoundrel and she doesn't like scoundrels, and they're about to kiss but C3PO comes in an ruins it for the dashing space rogue.

Different strokes for different folks I guess. If I'm Han I'm probably thinking "hey, I can get with Leia and maybe my next character will have the force!"