Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Alternate "Ability Scores"
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 8189078" data-attributes="member: 2629"><p>D&D is an RPG, and what you're actually challenging here is not the mechanics of D&D, it is a core component of the concept of role playing - that you are filling a role. </p><p></p><p>Filing a role means pretending to be something YOU are NOT. To fill that role, you must pretend, ideally to the best of your ability, to be that other thing. This means trying to find ways to be better at things than you might be, and also restricting yourself in areas where you competency exceeds that of your character. That placement of yourself in other shoes is one of the reasons why it is used in therapy.</p><p></p><p>The rules of the game, as well as your storytelling during character creation (and that of the DM) define the character that you are pretending to be. </p><p></p><p>There are a lot of games where you do not play a role, but you still hack and slash. Gloomhaven, for example, is not a role playing game, but it has a mechanical base with parallels to D&D. It is a place to really get into optimization and using your own wiles.</p><p></p><p>Is it wrong to ignore the limitations of a role and just "be yourself" in the game? Yes and no. If you're having fun, you're doing something right ... but it isn't playing your role, generally, and thus it is not role playing 'right'. If I make a great lasagna, and enjoy it, it may be a wonderful thing - but it isn't pizza. If I call it a wonderful pizza, I am wrong - but that doesn't mean it wasn't good. If I have fun in a hack and slash fest with no character development and everyone is just going hack and slashing with no regards to personality or goals of the characters - it may be fun, but it is not, by definition, role playing.</p><p></p><p>Ah, but what if the character I design is intended to be me in a fantasy setting? Well, if that is the character you built with the DM, yes, that is you role playing you in a fantasy setting. I still think it misses the beauty of role playing in a game like D&D, but on a technicality, that is still role playing. In other games, it is the goal of the role playing game - like when I run a game of Dread and weave the players into a ghost/horror story, it is perfectly the goal of that game. It just generally is not the goal of D&D to play ourselves in another world.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="jgsugden, post: 8189078, member: 2629"] D&D is an RPG, and what you're actually challenging here is not the mechanics of D&D, it is a core component of the concept of role playing - that you are filling a role. Filing a role means pretending to be something YOU are NOT. To fill that role, you must pretend, ideally to the best of your ability, to be that other thing. This means trying to find ways to be better at things than you might be, and also restricting yourself in areas where you competency exceeds that of your character. That placement of yourself in other shoes is one of the reasons why it is used in therapy. The rules of the game, as well as your storytelling during character creation (and that of the DM) define the character that you are pretending to be. There are a lot of games where you do not play a role, but you still hack and slash. Gloomhaven, for example, is not a role playing game, but it has a mechanical base with parallels to D&D. It is a place to really get into optimization and using your own wiles. Is it wrong to ignore the limitations of a role and just "be yourself" in the game? Yes and no. If you're having fun, you're doing something right ... but it isn't playing your role, generally, and thus it is not role playing 'right'. If I make a great lasagna, and enjoy it, it may be a wonderful thing - but it isn't pizza. If I call it a wonderful pizza, I am wrong - but that doesn't mean it wasn't good. If I have fun in a hack and slash fest with no character development and everyone is just going hack and slashing with no regards to personality or goals of the characters - it may be fun, but it is not, by definition, role playing. Ah, but what if the character I design is intended to be me in a fantasy setting? Well, if that is the character you built with the DM, yes, that is you role playing you in a fantasy setting. I still think it misses the beauty of role playing in a game like D&D, but on a technicality, that is still role playing. In other games, it is the goal of the role playing game - like when I run a game of Dread and weave the players into a ghost/horror story, it is perfectly the goal of that game. It just generally is not the goal of D&D to play ourselves in another world. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Alternate "Ability Scores"
Top