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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 5638225" data-attributes="member: 59082">I'm not a particularly bloodthirsty guy - I've never gotten into a serious fight, never gone hunting or fishing, have been (mostly) a vegetarian for the last twenty years, dislike gore in movies, prefer violence to be moderate in movies and books, etc. But I take issue with the common perspective that combat taking center stage in an RPG is a bad thing, because I enjoy, no love, a good D&D (or other RPG) combat session, and generally find it to be one of the most fun aspects of the RPG experience.But what about role-playing, you say? Sure, there is room for that - but it is not the main reason I play RPGs. In fact, I am not all that interested in playing a role, or at least it is secondary to my enjoyment. My main interests in RPG are the imaginative experience, exploration and adventure, figuring out puzzles, the excitement of combat, developing a plot, etc. I do enjoy role-playing, but it isn't in my top tier of RPG interests. What I find, well, odd and maybe a tad irritating is the castigation of combat in RPGs, claiming that X-game or Y-edition is "too combat-focused." Well, why not? We can play ourselves in real life, we can play different roles in different situations, but we can't necessarily travel to exotic places, explore ruins of lost civilizations, delve into monster infested dungeons, and discover magical treasure. Sure, elements of that can be experienced, but not to the degree that we can role-play in real life.To put it another way, I get plenty of interpersonal relationships in life, I get to "act out" different aspects of myself in different situations, but what I don't get enough of is action and adventure, and the free play of the imagination. Hopefully I can work to bring more of that into life, but for the most part imaginative play is relegated to activities such as playing RPGs, reading, writing, doing art - stuff I don't have as much time for as I'd like, and that is unfortunately not as much a part of mainstream society as, say, playing and shifting roles in different contexts; wearing different "hats", you might say. To put it another way: RPG combat is good. And so there you have it.</blockquote>

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